Blog Post 4: Analysis of “Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks”
- In the article “Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks” author Rachel Rubin a professor of American Studies attests the development of the underground culture of zines and the explosion of the internet during the 90’s and early 2000’s to the social identity of Generation X Asian Americans. Rubin goes on to view zines as a forum in which underrepresented niches of the Asian American community find a voice to oppose the exoticized and model minority stereotypes. Rubin contrasts the zine and online movement by referencing the historical background of the term Asian American and Asian adversity in the US.
- Rubin goes on to discuss what the Asian American experience is. Rubin pulls an excerpt from poet Amy Ling “Asian American identity was originally conceived to allow one to ‘identify’ with the experiences and struggles of other subordinated people – not just with one’s own background” (Rubin 5). The popularity and community based following of zines like “Giant Robot” and “Bamboo Girl” are grounded in the shared experiences of Asian Americans in respects to the views opposite of model minority discussed in previous lectures. Giant Robot was one of the more popular zines, a quarterly zine about Asian American pop culture reaching up to 12000 readers by the ninth issue. Giant Robot walking the line of commercial and underground discussed topics that impacted the general public of the younger Asian American community. In contrast to Giant Robot, “Bamboo Girl” is a more definitive zine written with passion and purpose rather than for material or commercial gain. The creator of Bamboo Girl a Filipina centered publication, Sabrina Margarita attests starting the zine to not being able to find similar publications in relation to her community, feminism, and queers in the positive viewpoint of Asian Americans (Rubin 7). The two zines I identify are just a few of the examples Rubin discusses but they exemplify the reasoning as to why such publications print and online have had historical impacts regarding the identities and voice of the Asian American youth.
- The key terms in Rubin’s article follow the terms recently discussed in our previous readings to include: model minority, laws regarding Asian immigration, and Margaret Cho. But Rubin puts these ideas into terms of the turn of the century and the explosion of the internet and underground culture. Zines or e-zines are defined by the urban dictionary as some sort of publication, usually mass-produced by photocopying(in some cases, scanned, put on the ‘net, or copied via fax)on any range of topics, but usually filled with passion. a means of telling one’s story, sharing thoughts, and/or artwork/comics/doodles. Rubin identifies zines as a small portion of publications in the mid 90’s but of large ethnical, and subcultural importance in respects to voicing underrepresented opinions.
- While dated in terms of technology and media interactions the implications of such works and analysis of zine by Rubin are much alive today. While zines may no longer be of hot topics, stemming from similar ideals other forms of media have taken shape. Entire media companies have been produced to cater to young adult ideals like Buzzfeed, or Asian American youth like NextShark. The popularization of community-based forums like Reddit and Tumblr have become havens for underrepresented communities. Like the birth of e-zines with the first expansion of the internet, the potential of the current use of internet-sourced media has many implications regarding the Asian American community.
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