Author Archives: Ingriss Savannah Ramirez

1. In Shilpa Dave’s essay, Apu’s Brown Voice Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents, Dave’s main focus is discussing the theory of “brown voice” and the significance of a South Asian accent in popular media and how that in turn acts as a representation for the South Asian American community. When it comes to brown voice. Dave argues that practicing brown voice will harvest different results when heard animated than when performed live-action. The success of having a white face, Hank Azaria, performing a brown voice (Apu Nahasapeemapetilon on The Simpsons) has invoked a lot of debate concerning proper representation and the perpetuation of stereotypes.
2. Although the writers of The Simpsons “thought about the consequences of brown voice” (pg 324), in the end they decided to go ahead and cast Hank Azaria as Apu Nahasapeemapetilon anyway. The reason this decision didn’t completely backfire and blow up in their faces is because, Dave argues, the character of Apu serves as “a vehicle to introduce current views and debates about minorities in the United States” (pg 323). On top of this, Dave further argues that because the show is animated, the practice of brown voice is unlike black face and avoids racist stereotyping exactly for that reason. In animation, the “sound and resonance” (pg 323) of a voice is what importance is placed on, not necessarily the face behind the voice. The writers have however revealed their lack of understanding of South Asian general and has portrayed the region as one huge lump. This representation has in turn “influenced other characterizations of South Asian Americans” (pg 324), and so we are left with the popular stereotypes of South Asian Americans that we see today.
3. Dave discussed in length not only the term “brown voice” but also what it means to speak “Indian English.” Brown voice is defined as a “specific radicalizing trait in South Asian…connoting foreignness and class and cultural privilege” (pg 314), whereas Indian English is actually a dialect of the English language but is commonly associated with the “accent of a non-native speaker” (pg 318). These two phrases are used interwoven discussion about the consequences of practicing brown voice in media and how this representation affects a whole nation that speaks with a variety of accented Indian English.
4. I would tie this discussion back into what Hari Kondabolu discussed in his documentary, The Problem with Apu (2017). His documentary revealed that a lot of accomplished Indian descent actors/actresses have often had to put on an accent when playing a role. Now if the role calls for it, that’s fine. But the problem that many had was that the accents had no variety. Producers and writers wanted a specific accent to be heard, this being one that resembled the accent Hank Azaria used to play his role of Apu.

1. In Sarah Moon Casinelli’s essay,”If we are Asian, then are we funny?,” Casinelli dissects actress Margaret Cho’s critique on her lead role in the first Asian American sitcom “All-American Girl.” Building upon Cho’s own critiques of the show, Casinelli delves deeper with a discussion on what many argue was not an “authentic” portrayal of an Asian American family which eventually lead to its cancellation. Casinelli argues that Cho’s outspoken take on her role as Margaret Kim can allow us to assess the successes and failures of the show and what that means for any possible future Asian American sitcoms.
2. One of the biggest criticisms discussed by critics of the show, was the show’s lack of “genuineness” (pg 136). This in turn lead to a failure to properly distinguish what it meant to be an impostor and what it meant to impersonate. Drawing on the content in an episode titled “Submission: Impossible,” audiences were lead to see Cho as an “Asian impostor”; with the flip side of her at risk of also being “regarded as an American impostor as well” (pg  136). Lacking a proper distinguishable line between the two, Cho’s “damaging attempts to impersonate a subservient, traditional Korean girl”  (pg 137) further skewed from an authentic attempt to understand the balance behind the  “constructed nature of Asian American identities” (pg 137).
3. The concept of “authenticity” is something Cassinelli discusses in great length in her essay.  She argues authenticity is what sells the show, however the problem arises when deciding who gets to define what is considered authentic in an Asian American household. Arguably, the studio failed in its portrayal of  both the Asian and American aspects of the show which Cho wholeheartedly agrees when writing in her memoir “I THOUGHT THEY ALL KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !” (pg 135).
4. At the time that this article was written,  ABC’s “Fresh Off the Boat” had not yet hit the TV stations. From the title of this essay, Cassinelli seems to believe “All-American Girl” may have been the only shot Asian Americans had at a prime time sitcom. Yet, here comes “Fresh Off the Boat” who is due for its fifth season this upcoming October. Although both shows play off the stereotypes of  what it means to be of Asian descent in the US, “Fresh Off the Boat” has succeeded in not only being self aware of their “foreignness,” but has also succeeded in mastering the art between impersonation and being an impostor.

1. In John Fong’s “Beyond Finishing the Game: A Look at Asian American Grassroots Outreach,” Fong clearly argues that a lack of support for traditional marketing of Asian cinema has pushed Asian American film makers to turn to the community for help. Fong discusses not only why it is more difficult to market an Asian film but also the many inventive ways Asian film makers have worked around the challenge of having the public see their movies at their local movie theater.
2. One of the problem lies with the fact that studios are not willing to invest “in a market they don’t know much about” (pg 3). The other challenge is getting people to go see the movie at all. Fong thereby describes one of the first successful grassroots tactics used in 2000. When members of the Asian American community gathered at CAAM to discuss promotion of Asian cinema, the “APA First Weekend Club” was born (pg 5). Adopted from the African American community, this “club” consisted of receiving emails alerting you when the next Asian American movie was going to be showing at your local theater. A simple method of spreading word to the community, this was not the only tactic employed. Building campaigns to promote the release of films ranged from visiting college campuses to asking their own cast and crew to promote the films on their private time (pg 8).
3. The main concept that Fong discusses in this article is the idea of a grassroots movement in Asian American cinema. I believe when most of us hear the term “grassroots” we would tend to associate that word with a politics and government. It was a refreshing change to discuss grassroots tactics in the entertainment industry and how big a role a community can play in the success of indie Asian American films.
4. With the release of Crazy Rich Asians, I myself first heard word of this movie not by some billboard or fifteen second ad on YouTube. One of the minor actors in the film promoted his up and coming film on Instagram, encouraging his followers to go see it the opening weekend of its release. I’d like to say I only really started seeing marketing for the film two weeks before its release in theaters. In this way, the whole concept of reaching out to the community yourself and not waiting around for the studios to step in and promote your film is a key example of how Asian American film makers to this day still need to go out of their way to ensure their films can still be marketed through grassroots tactics.

In Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s “Assimilation,” Park boldly claims the problem she finds with the assimilation of Asian culture into American culture is not in its “definition, but in its intention” (pg 15). That being said, she further explains through a series of studies how narratives are hidden or manipulated in order to suit this nation’s “imperial tendencies” (pg 17).

Using studies by both Park and Park 2005 and Hing 1993, Park explains that the assimilation of Asian Americans today is not the same as it was 100 years prior. Instead, factors such as access to Western education determine someone’s supposed success in assimilating to American culture (pg 16). Even then, Park argues that the narrative today on a successful Asian American “focuses on six of the largest and wealthiest subgroups” (pg 16), which would include the Chinese, Korean, Filipino among others. She argues media will rarely cover poverty and racism that most Asian Americans face, as is the case in a crime wherein six Sikhs were murdered in Milwaukee (pg 16). Rewriting the narrative has arisen in past years as a result of phrases such as “model minority.”

When talking about what the term “model minority” has meant to the Asian American community, Park argues that this term has further allowed the media to further shift the narrative to propose that perhaps assimilating completely has a direct correlation to success and wealth, despite discussing the consequence of always playing the foreigner who by determination and wit carved out a life for themselves in the US. This in turn, creates the concept that in order to belong you must not only “‘behave’ appropriately” but must also accept your lot in life without complaint (pg 17).  Quite obviously, this concept did not appeal to Park, nor should it for anyone else.

Park wasn’t the first to challenge the idea of assimilation. Park mentions early on other scholars, such as W.E.B. De Bois, who didn’t believe assimilation was the correct process to benefit the African American culture either. Both deemed outsiders by American norm, de Bois wrote a document titled “Conservation of Races” in which he also questioned the motives behind assimilation (pg 14). Fearing assimilation was a term used only to justify “negating the black experience” and “centering whiteness as the national identity”(pg 14), it is quite obvious other minority cultures have also challenged what it means to be assimilated into American culture and what said cultures would have to give up in order to do so successfully.