Author Archives: Brittanie Chu

Chapter 16’s “Apu’s Brown Voice” in the book East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture is written by Shilpa Dave, who talks about accents and it’s representation in media. She specifically focuses on The Simpsons’ character, Apu, who speaks in a “brown voice” or more commonly known as an Indian accent.

Throughout the chapter, Dave dives into detail of how accents (brown voice) affects racial identity. She states that “ultimately the theory of brown voice causes us to rethink how we see and hear racial identity beyond the visual and how process the cultural meaning of accents” (Dave, 330). Accents that are used in radio and animation are not connected with visuals so there is more freedom with the way the accent is presented for the character. Brown voice is not just the accent, but contains both senses of speaking and receiving the intent of the accent which marks someone as South Asian (Dave, 317). Accents allow people to understand where a person is from geographically and represents vocalization of the model minority. It can be easily impersonated but it lacks the cultural meaning behind it; a South Asian speaking in brown voice is very different from a white actor playing a brown voice. Another aspect of the brown voice that Dave integrates is the aspect of the model minority. South Asians are categorized as Asian Americans but they are still divided due to their historical and physical differences. However, Indians are portrayed as the privileged minority due to the fact that they “are understood to speak more culturally receptive English” (Dave, 318). Their main language is Indian English which is a combination of English and Hindi with their accents arriving from the different areas of word stress. Indians are also portrayed as the model minority because they often fit the image of entrepreneurs and computer engineers which is promoted in America.

The key term that is heavily defined in this chapter is the brown voice. Dave defines the brown voice as an identifier of “a specific racializing trait among South Asians which simultaneously connotes foreignness and class and cultural privilege” (Dave, 314). This means that the brown voice isn’t just an accent that is different from the American accent, but that it contains a history behind it and defines the person speaking it. The accent classifies the race and shows the culture of the person speaking it.

In the Asian American show Fresh Off the Boat, Eddie’s mom, Jessica Huang played by Constance Wu, is shown to have a Chinese accent since she is from Taiwan. She is played by Constance Wu who actually does not have a Chinese accent in real life. With the Chinese accent, the audience is able to feel the cultural meaning behind her words and understand that many of her actions is because of her culture and background. This shows that an accent can really affect the audience’s understanding of the character. If Jessica Huang did not have an accent, she would have just be seen like a typical Asian American and not an Asian in America.

References:

Shilpa Dave “Apu’s Brown Voice.” East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture. edited by Shilpa Dave, LeiLani Nishime, and Tasha G. Oren. New York: New York University Press, c2005. (313-331).

Margaret Cho is an Asian American stand up comedian and actress who has been in the entertainment industry since 1992. In her book, “I’m the One That I Want”, she talks about her struggles with being happy about herself and her self image. All she wanted was to enter into the entertainment business and become famous which ultimately led her to neglect her own health and image of herself.

Throughout her life, she has grown up watching American television which depicted women as skinny and thin. Due to this image engraved in her brain and her parent’s constant comments on her weight and image, Margaret began to diet and work out, unhealthily.  Her obsession with losing weight ultimately affected her health, getting so sick to the point her kidneys collapsed. She didn’t care because she was too focused on becoming famous and “thought [her] life depended on [her] willingness to lose weight” (Cho, 112). In order to stay in the entertainment business and to be accepted by society, she had to stay “skeletal” so she looked into drugs and pills to quicken the process. It wasn’t just American television that affected her image but also in her own Korean culture. Koreans also have an ideal image of being thin and viewed Margaret as “too large for them to be comfortable [and] too large to be one of them” (Cho, 117). The entertainment industry focused immensely on image which causes many celebrities like Margaret Cho to go under serious weight loss plans to satisfy the audience. However this is not how they should approach their image, but rather to find a way to love themselves for who they are no matter what they look like.

In her book, Margaret describes what was “in” in the entertainment industry which was for women to be skeletal. Skeletal was exactly what the word meant: being so skinny and thin that you were basically skin and bones. Many American shows like Friends, composed of Hollywood actresses who were thin and that was considered hot and in. Margaret also defines what approval meant. Approval wasn’t defined by what you thought was right but what others and society defined was right. Instead of loving herself, she sought the approval and definition of her image from others. Only when society loves and approves of you then you can love yourself.

The Korean entertainment industry focuses heavily on looks and appearances. Similarly to Margaret’s intense diet and training to be thin, Korean celebrities have to go through vigorous training and boot camps to be able to look presentable in the business. Korean pop idols have to train for long periods of time in order to be able to sing and dance well and lose enough weight to be able to be on screen. Idols have to reach the ideal Korean body standards in order to be on camera and many lose about 17 to 20 pounds for promotions (Billboard). In order to lose weight fast, idols have to stay on extreme diets which may consist of only an apples and vegetables each day leading to health and psychological risks. Fans’ comments, critiques, and comparison only encourage these actions which is detrimental to the body. Entertainment business focuses primarily on image which has caused many celebrities to emphasize on their appearance.

References:

Benjamin, Jeff. “It Is Time to Cut K-Pop Idols Some Slack When It Comes to Body Image.” Billboard, Billboard, 17 Nov. 2017, www.billboard.com/articles/columns/k-town/8030059/kpop-body-image-diets-eating-disorders-essay.

Margaret Cho. I’m the One That I Want. Chapters 11 & 12. Ballantine Books, 2001. (102-131).

John Fong’s blog on “Beyond Finishing the Game: A Look at Asian American Grassroots Outreach” briefly describes Asian American filmmakers’ usage of the grassroots outreach in order to increase the exposure of Asian American films to a wider audience. Because of the foreignness of Asian Americans, big companies refuse to invest in their films since they do not know much about Asian Americans, therefore leading filmmakers to look into the grassroots outreach.

The first successful film using the grassroots outreach method was the film The Debut. The Debut “[used] almost exclusively grassroots, self-distribution strategy [and] grossed over $1 million in the box office” (Fong, 5). With massive amount of emails sent all over Daly City and meet-and-greets with the stars, many people became interested and helped advertise the film, leading to it’s success. After the success of the film The Debut, another film, Better Luck Tomorrow, used a similar strategy and grossed over $3.5 million and “[created] an awareness among more Asian Americans of community and the importance of voting…to support Asian American cinema” (Fong, 7). Not only did filmmakers advertise their film, but they also campaigned the desire of young Asian Americans of belonging and defining their identity. Because of this campaign, it created more success and awareness in the Asian American community. 

This blog focuses on the grassroots outreach which is using the community for marketing and outreach. This type of outreach refers to targeting small groups and hoping the group will send the message to a larger audience. In order to expose their films to a wider audience, Asian American filmmakers rely on the community as a marketing approach. This process begins with massive emails and connections to teenagers and young adults to advertise their film. These advertising methods encourage audiences to watch during the first week of the release of the film which will generate enough box office numbers for the following weeks. This domino effect will ensure the success of the film.

As referenced in the blog, grassroots outreach was first utilized by African Americans and through their success, Asian Americans applied this method in their films. Grassroots outreach was not only used by African Americans but by many neglected groups. These movements have impacted our civil rights, women’s advances, and rights of gender-based categories (Van Til). The method of using grassroots outreach have united many groups together in order to reach a common goal and this method has been used throughout history for many minorities.

References:

John Fong. “Beyond Finishing The Game: A Look at Asian American Grassroots Outreach.” 31 October 2007. Center for Asian American Media, http://caamedia.org/blog/2007/10/31/beyond-finishing-the-game/.

Van Til J., Hegyesi G., Eschweiler J. (2008) Grassroots Social Movements and the Shaping of History. In: Cnaan R.A., Milofsky C. (eds) Handbook of Community Movements and Local Organizations. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Boston, MA

William Wei’s book The Asian American Movement depicts Asian Americans’ struggle in identifying themselves in an American society. Many Asian Americans felt lost in their identity since society forced a dominant culture on them but also prevented them from forming an identity. Students felt a sense of alienation, not being able to identify as Asians or Americans.

American born Asians were accustomed to the American culture and felt a cultural domination throughout their development. These Asian Americans “felt estranged from things Asian because they have seen Asian life through the prism of a Eurocentric culture… [with] an emphasis on the tyranny of the group over the individual, polygamy, and the oppression of women” (Wei, 46-47). Due to the stereotypes of Asians, Asian Americans avoided their Asian culture to prevent being identified with the negative stereotypes. They would rather be identified with the American culture which was “esteemed for its emphasis on individual freedom” (Wei 47). However, since they were not purely white, they could not be identified as Americans leaving them in their confusion about their identity because their identity was divided into abstract Asian and American halves.

Throughout this chapter, the main question that was addressed was: what was Asian America? This question refers to the concepts of stereotypes, background, and culture. The stereotypes given to Asians portrayed them as a special species but not human which gave a psychic impact on them. In order to protect their identity, these stereotypes must be refuted and proved wrong. Asian American heritage can be understood through studies, documentaries, museums, etc. These sources help Asian Americans to understand more about their culture and to be able to reconstruct their culture. By refuting stereotypes, reclaiming their history, and reconstructing culture, Asian Americans are able to form their identity and understand who they really are.

Asian Americans struggle with identity while trying to assimilate into American culture and society. This chapter on the identity of Asian Americans connect with Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s article on assimilation. In Park’s article “Assimilation”, she states how Asian Americans try to assimilate into American culture but in order to fit in the United States, they must be foreign as Asians.  This creates conflict for Asian Americans as they try to identify themselves in society which is further explained in Wei’s book.

References:

Park, Lisa Sun-Hee. “Assimilation.” Keywords, keywords.nyupress.org/asian-american-studies/essay/assimilation/.

Wei, William. The Asian American Movement. Temple University Press, 1994.