Author Archives: Lowen Lobaton

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.

1. The author Sarah Moon Cassinelli analyzes the early works of Margaret Cho in relation to the significance they play in the realm of Asian Americans in the Media. The main topic of the article includes the short-lived, first Asian American sitcom “All-American Girl” starring Cho, as well as her stand up performance referencing the sitcom “I’m the One that I Want”. Cassinelli takes excerpts from Cho and other Asian Americans in regards to how “All-American Girl” flopped due to lack of cohesiveness from trying to give the audience “Asian authenticity” and comedic sitcom. The show received harsh criticism from all points of view. In Cho’s standup performance she references her time on the show and how detrimental and underhandedly racist the industry was during the 1990’s. With Cho’s performances, Cassinelli’s argues that the sitcom had the potential of positive minority representation but fails to the lack of comedic identity and the primary focus of delivering ethnic authenticity.
2. Cassinelli specifically cites Cho’s memoir regarding the expected racism of the sitcom. Cho regards the viewer’s expectation of an “authentic” Asian American family as a racist aspect surrounding the show. The “authenticity” has little to do with the context of what viewers wanted, rather than supplying them with content that meets their expectation of a stereotypical Asian American (Cassinelli 132). Also cited in the article is the unsettling title of the show. Though an Asian American family is portrayed the title “All-American Girl” does nothing but make fun of Asian viewers and irritate non-Asian viewers by deeming the Asian aspect of the show unimportant. Parallels are made between the sitcom and Cho’s standup to discern between the unpalatable performances of the sitcom to the relatable and entertaining bits in her standup. While the performance in the sitcoms was criticized as both not Asian and not American unable to find a middle ground but also retroactive in regards to social activism. The example given in the article is an episode from the series in which Cho’s character pretends to be a traditional Korean girl to keep her boyfriend which is the opposite of what her character is supposed to represent, individualism, independence, and integration of Korean and American culture.
3. To understand Cassinelli’s argument it is essential to understand the difference between imposture and impersonation. Imposture revolves around the idea of truly convincing others that the performance is a reality by deceiving them, while impersonation is a frivolous act to entertain by demonstrating or acting as a public figure but understanding the actor is not actually that person. This difference is key in understanding how the use of being an imposture in All-American Girl led viewers to harshly criticize how the characters are portrayed, while Cho’s impersonations of people in her standup led to a better understanding of her point of view while connecting to the audience.
4. Cassinelli’s ideas are still prevalent in today’s climate in the industry. While the “All-American Girl” aired more than 20 years ago there have been little progress in the representation of Asian Americans on television. Only recently has there been progress. Fresh Off the Boat an Asian American tv show on ABC has grown in popularity and is one of the first to reach such success. While the show is successful there are still similarities to Cho’s sitcom relating to authenticity. Eddie Huang author of the book the show is based off is no longer directly connected to the show due to lack of fidelity to the source material. This begs the similar questions of is authenticity and watered down diversity to appease the general audience as seen in the 1990’s but is downplayed due Fresh Off the Boat’s success.

1. In the Center for Asian American Media CAAM article “Beyond Finishing The Game: A Look At Asian American Grassroots Outreach” by John Fong discusses the topic of accessibility of Asian American cinema. Compared to other cinematic projects, Asian American cinema lacks the funds to launch large-scale marketing campaigns to entice viewers into theaters due to the lack of large investors. The lack of resources for ordinary marketing and outreach techniques has led to the Asian American cinema community’s use of other out of the box methods to get build an audience. Fong goes into depth on how the use of grass root outreach methods and community involvement have become the primary methods of promoting Asian American projects. Fong then articulates the success of these methods by describing the success of 3 Asian American movies from the mid-2000’s.
2. Fong presents popular Asian American Films that were successful in theaters due to the use of grass root and community involvement. Included in these examples are 2001’s “The Debut” and 2002’s “Better Luck Tomorrow”. The Debut a Fil-Am independent movie drew crowds due to the clever timing of presentations, community outreach and the release of the film. While “using an almost exclusively grassroots, self-distribution strategy, it grossed over $1 million in the box office” (Fong). The film also attributes its success to the work of the producers and director spending weeks before the release conducting meetings and presentations in the Filipino community and other on the street strategies to inform the community. This lead to the team using this strategy from city to city allowing the film to become a success. The Debut’s success allowed for an increased demand for Asian American cinema which was filled by the 2002 film “Better Luck Tomorrow”. Better Luck Tomorrow took the strategies of The Debut and applied an additional aspect, the connection factor in which Asian American youth supported the film to develop a sense of identity and community through the viewing and understanding of the film. These films have become the launching point in which Asian American Films reach their audiences and profit through low budget nontraditional marketing campaigns.
3. To understand the problem Fong discusses access to Asian American cinema the concept of the industries reluctance to invest in these films is a critical barrier that must be overcome. The lack of support from studios stems from the uncertainty and unknown outcome synonymous with the Asian American Film community, the lack of absolute popularity leads the industry to stay with previously viable film genres than gambling on jumpstarting the Asian American Film scene. The lack of studio support leads to the use of other strategies to market these films leading to the key term “Grassroot”. Grassroot is defined as the basic level of an activity or organizations, or the ordinary people regarded as the main body of an organization or group. Grassroot in terms of the article pertains to the use of outreach strategies that use a low budget, high involvement of the production team to conduct low-level tasks that reach the primary audience.
4. In terms of the current climate of Asian American cinema, the ideas brought forward by Fong are still prevalent. In the second photo of the article depicted is Dante Basco a prominent Asian American actor known for his roles in Hook as “Rufio” and from Avatar the Last Airbender as “Zuko”. Dante also employs similar grass root strategies to fund his film projects as well as support other Asian American films. An example of this is the support for the film “Crazy Rich Asians” many prominent Asian actors including Dante have taken to the streets and social media to persuade the community and their followers to support studio produced Asian American films.

In the Robert Lee’s work “Cold War Origins of Model Minority Myth” Lee divulges the reasoning behind the federal government perpetuating Asian Americans as the perfect minority. In response to debates of racial equality in the 1960’s the Government used “Asian Americans as the model of successful ‘ethnic assimilation’ ” (Lee 150) leading to the myth and stereotypes that are still known today. The use of these Asian American myths followed multiple policies of the 1960 regarding foreign relations, Anticommunism, racial equality and homosexuality. The portrayal of Asian and Asian Americans and white counterparts in the pieces of “Sayonara” and “Flower Drum Song” define the use views of America and the idea of using ethnic assimilation to strengthen American ideals through the naturalization of Asian women.

“The construction of the model minority was based on the political silence of Asian American. An often cited example of Asian American self-reliance was the underutilization of welfare programs in 1970. Despite the fact that 15 percent of Chinese families in New York city had incomes below the federal poverty level, only 3.4 percent had enrolled to receive public assistance.”

This statistical example of Asian self-reliance was one of many examples that the Asian American population had mistrust in the government and rather than take advantage of the resources they relied on each other. Also during this time many Asian Americans were recovering from events form the recent past to include the Japanese internment camps during WWII.

“As in the legend of Pocahontas…. Hana Ogi saves Gruver from himself, from his own exhaustion, self-doubt, and “Southern” racism, and from dis crisis of masculinity” (Lee 171)

In this depiction form “Sayonara” a 1956 film drama about interracial romance the exotic woman Hana Ogi has become a Pocahontas like character in which she saves the white southern man Gruver from his internal strife and ill intent ideals on race. The portrayal also refers to Ogi like Pocahontas when assimilating to the ideals of the American culture, giving up her cultural ties to become a model 1950’s American wife.

Key Terms

1. Ethnic Assimilation – the process in which an ethnic group or minority lose cultural ties and characteristics of their origins to become aligned with the ideals and characteristic of the majority of the population or another group.
2. Model Minority – a minority group viewed by the majority of a society as having desirable traits like lawful, hardworking and intelligent
3. Communism – economic system characterized by collective ownership. In particular the ideals of communism clashed with the ideals of America which resulted in the Anticommunism movements during the cold war. This was particularly important in terms of viewing the Chinese Americans since the republic of china is a communist nation in the 1960s.

In regards to Lee’s idea’s about the Model Minority myths it clearly correlates to the prevailing stereotypes and myths of Asian Americans. Lee’s analysis of the mid 1900’s and how Asian American’s were used or affected by the political climate becoming the origin of many Asian stereotypes and tropes and fetishizing of Asians in America. Growing up you never question why the Asian men in American movies are portrayed the way they are, or where the fetishizing of Asian women originated from but with the insight of Lee you develop an understanding of the origins of the perception of Asian culture in America by others.