Category Archives: Extra Reporting

1. In article “Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks” by the author Rachel Rubin, the piece dives into the effects of zines and the influence it has had on Asian Americans and Asians. In order to see the effects Rachel ponders on four fundamental questions to get the answer. Questions such as “Who is Asian American on the Internet?”, “Where did cyberculture come from?”, “Where did zines come from?”, and “Why Asian Americans? Why zines? serve to bring light on the piece’s topic. On top of that Rachel’s ability to answer these questions brings forth the fact the Asian and Asian American communities and the social ability to define them has proven to be difficult. This is due to the plethora of different “Asians” and how each identify themselves with respect to their acceptance of being an immigrant of the U.S.

2. To get an idea of the composition of the Asian population in the U.S. and to answer her first question Rachel looks into the history of Asian immigrants to provide a basis on their identity. Laws like the Hart-Cellar Act, Chinese Exclusion Act, etc. had a vast impact of determine who came in and who didn’t. For the example Hart-Cellar Act “liberaliz[ed]…the quota system” (pg.3) that brought a new wave of Asian immigrants both low- and greatly-skilled. This mixed the Asian population greatly further. Going on to Rachel’s second question, her process of showing how the internet was create by the military and then later put on public hands foreshadows the intents of zines from Asian American communities. The idea that zines/ezines like the internet are free to portray anything or anyone shows that they are not subjected to any competition. “Everybody just sort to pitches in, and somehow the thing evolves on its own, and somehow turns out workable” (pg.7) Although Rachel shows how the internet has come to sexualize and take on Asian personas to reinforce Asian stereotypes, her conclusion that zines’ ability to work free from the marketplace allows Asian writes to set their own image and give way to defining what it is to be Asian American. Her third and last question restates how zines came to be. It shows how zines are a form of rebellion from the underground works and a movement further sped up by the punk D.I.Y. Why it had to be Asians was a fortunate timing where Americans began taking a huge interest in Asian products like Jackie Chan movies, Japanese animation and so on. The timing proved for the best as signs of Asians being able to tear down harming stereotypes were beginning to show up. Signs like “positive representations for Filipinas on the Internet” (Pg12) were seen and praised by Asian college students and many others. Rachel’s constant show of history and facts of zines and e-zines proved very influential and useful in helping the Asian population further define who they are and rebel, all while resisting the growing harm of others stereotyping them.

3. In an attempt to provide a basic definition of what it means to be Asian American Rachel quotes another that Asian American is defined as “Asian ancestry/American struggle”. (pg.2) Rachel recognizes that the definition is very broad, and it ought to be because federal census and other sources are constantly changing the ethnic groups by definition.
   “’New’ Asians’”: “came from South Korea, the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia.” (pg.4) Rachels choice to introduce this term was for the purpose to illustrate that Asians though a broad term was a one point very specific to only consist of Chinese and Japanese. This reiterates her problem that Asians lack power to identify themselves without the use zines.
   Zines the main topic of Rachel’s article originated from fanzines and not from magazines. That being beside the point zines are an uncheck power for Asian communities to rebel against stereotypes and give voice to those who wish to set their own image of themselves without any pressure of others like the marketplace and profits.

4. In modern day internet the zines of the past have evolved to a more worldwide platform. Social media platforms like Instagram and especially YouTube are the evolved versions of zines/ezines. On here there are endless of videos and pictures of Asians and Asian communities fighting for equality and pushing for reform of the stereotypes they are bounded to. But with great push for advancement there is also great resistant. There are also videos and pictures making fun of what is means to be Asian, such as makeup videos that force Asian women to look a certain way. Though an upset it is, these modern zines face the same challenges as zines in the past. But in equal or greater, zines make great progress in helping change the Asian image and definition.

How do you know about Ono Yoko? I think many students have just saw her name in the following these sentence;
“…..these jokes maintain the conflicting dynamic and expose the problematic script writing. In the pilot episode[Mom, Dad This is Kyle(1994)], the show features one scene where Mrs. Kim enters the kitchen and Margaret quips: “What’s with the [sun] glasses, Mom? You look like Yoko Ono!” (Cassinelli 133)
In “If we are asian, then are we funny?”, Cassinelli argues that comedian can draw a parson named Yoko Ono into the flow of comedy and laugh with just one sunglasses, so that sitcom might be sensitive.
I was born and raised in the same country as Yoko Ono, so this example was very easy to understand for me. However, I am not sure whether my classmates are familiar with her and that is why I want to write how she lives in US in this blog post.
Yoko Ono is 85 years-old artist who was born in the family of former nobility. As the author says, her marriage with John Lennon from Beatles made her famous. At that time, John Lennon was already married to a British woman and he broke up in order to marry Oriental artist who is older than him. In 1960s and 1970s, these was a bashing that “a woman of Orient attracted John and let the Beatles dissolve.” Among British fans, there was an idea that personality of John had changed by marriage in 1969, and it made conflict with other members resulting in the dissolution of 1970, the following year.
In fact, John took her to band meeting and she made suggestions about their songs despite she was not a member of Beatles. However, it was recorded that it was not only John who took the girlfriend to band’s session. She was particularly bashing because some of British people still had negative image of japan as well as image of Asian American women, such as “femme fatale.” In addition to these image as a villain to Japanese as a remnant of World War Ⅱ, highly economic development and following trade function, especially with US was not welcomed by western society in 1960s.
For example, Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan(MITI) was called as “Notorious MITI” by US. Ten years after the marriage between Yoko and Lennon, a book titled “Japan’s as Number One” became the best seller, and concerns for the astonishing success of the Japanese economy were rising in even among the general public.
And then, interestingly, according to the slang dictionary of the US posted by the reader, the girlfriend who come to band’s session is sometimes called as “You are like Ono Yoko!”
In Japan, she is sometimes treated as successful and independent woman who married to a famous band man and I was surprised that she became a part of slang.
However, for over 40 years since the dissolution of the Beatles, she asked the US weekly’s interviews “I am not involved in it.”
And then her art has been highly evaluated since the death of Lennon.
In June 2009, she was awarded the Golden Lion Award at the 53rd Venice Biennale as pioneer an and symbol of pop art. When I visited M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco on last Saturday, I realized her work book “Acorn(2013)” have been sold in the shop. I really respect her because she doesn’t stop her activity and keep fighting against society’s image of her.
Yoko Ono was born in a rich family and lives in art in times when women were harder to live freely than now, and she has selected and lived her life as she wants to do.
Despite her bad public image which related to Japanese and Asian women was created by media, she fought against it by continuing art activities.

Reference Yoko Ono: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me (I Prefer Doing the Dougie to Krumping!)

Yoko Ono: 25 Things You Don’t Know About Me

1.In the essay “A Letter to My Sister,” written by Lisa Park, she argues the Asian Women’s struggle to live in American society. Her sister struggled with assimilation into white community because she experienced racial discriminatiton because of her look as an Asian woman. She tried to make her look “white” to be accepted by white but she committed suicide. Look as an Asian sometimes have a major influence on how they are judged by others and can cause their mental suffering

2. As Park stated, “You tried to box yourself into a preconditioned, Euroamerican ideal and excised the parts that would not fit.” (65) It means that the only way f to be accepted by white and assimilate into America for her and her sister is to fit her look into white look because she had a lot of experiences that some white people judged her identity and discriminated by her look as an Asian woman. However, she could not be accepted by trying to fit her look into white woman. According to Park, “We permed our hair and could afford to buy trendy clothes. Money, at least, gave us some material status. But we knew we could never became ‘popular’, in other words, accepted.” (68) That is, even though they make efforts to be accepted, they never accepted and assimilate into white just because they are Asian.

3. The key term in this essay is “orientalness”. It means authority of Western people over the orient to strength western identity. It is one of the identities of Asians, but they cannot be accepted by white and they are forced to be foreign forever.

4. The ideas presented in this chapter connects to the ideas in If we are Asian, then are we funny?. Margaret Cho, who played an Asian American girl in All-American Girls was forced her to lose weight to express Asianness in the show by the director even though she plays a role of herself. She was afflicted both mentally and physically for a long time because of strict diet to be “Asian face”. In the case of If we are Asian, then are we funny?, Cho wanted to represent what she is as an Asian woman, but she could not represent her identity because of look she was expected by audience and director. On the other hand, in case of A Letter to My Sister, Park and her sister tried to be white to assimilate into white community, but they could not be accepted because of their unalterable look as Asian women essentially. These cases are contrasting, but common in that Asian women are struggle with living in the US with keeping their identity and being accepted an Asian woman because of their look.

In the newly released rom-com, Crazy Rich Asians directed by Jon M. Chu featuring an all-Asians cast for the first time in 25 years, they take on the roles of mainstream Hollywood characters in a different kind of love story. The movie focuses on Rachel, an Asian American professor at NYU, and her love interest, Nick. Nick is due to attend his good friend’s wedding as a best man in Singapore and invites Rachel along to give her an opportunity to meet his parents and uncover the truth about his family. In an interview for the “Indiana Daily Student” online article titled ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ bring Asian American representation to the mainstream, lecturer Lisa Kwong says that “comedy can be a way to talk about topics and make them accessible to a wide audience” (Kwong). Since this movie does feature an all-Asian cast, the producers have to be aware of stereotypes and misrepresentation of a culture.

The movie highlighted the fact that traditional Asians and Asian American are immensely different. Starting from Rachel picking out a dress to meet the family. Her style was seen as too American and her mother was the one who ended up picking out a red dress which symbolizes good fertility and fortune. It wasn’t until Rachel showed up at her old college roommate’s house, who also happens to live in Singapore, that she was told to dress in a more fitting and fashionable way. At the dinner party hosted at Nick’s grandmother’s house, Rachel is introduced to his mom. She gives her a hug which she took as a surprise. Nick’s mother then proceeds to ask Rachel what her occupation is and why she chose to become a professor. Rachel defends that it was a passion of her’s and her mother had always told her to follow her dreams. Later in the movie, Nick’s mother attacks Rachel at the dining table telling her that parents raise their kids to become successful here in the Asian culture and pursuing a passion is an American custom.

Not only does the film talk about the differences in cultures, but it also brings light that not all men are “breadwinners” in this generation and women can be the more successful one in the relationship. It is not the women’s responsibility to make their man feel masculine. This is shown through the character of Astrid who is Nick’s cousin and is born into the wealthy family as well.Gemma Chan, the actress who plays Astrid, states in an interview that “at the beginning of the film, she’s hiding her light and taking a second seat in order to not make her husband feel emasculated or inadequate, and by the end, she is someone who is reclaiming her power as a woman”. Astrid’s husband is someone who did not come from a very wealthy background and they continue to go through obstacles that appear in front of them because of that fact. However, Astrid was never the one to show off her expensive jewelry because she didn’t want her husband to feel as if he can’t support the family with his earnings. Throughout the movie, Astrid resists the urge to expose her husband but eventually puts her foot down and takes charge showing that she has the power in the family.

A key word that defines this film is “Asian American”. To be Asian American is to be from Asian decent but born in the States. The film really tries to make obvious that Rachel is Asian American. For one thing, she is a professor at NYU. She speaks English more fluently than Chinese. She acts her mother for advice on how to talk to Nick’s traditional Asian family. I think the most Asian thing Rachel knows how to do is to play mahjong.

Crazy Rich Asians is similar to 1994 television series All American Girl in multiple ways. In the second episode of season one of All American Girl, Margaret Cho’s character had to go on a date set up by her mother. However, the boy she was going on a date with is very traditional, along with his family. The boy asked Margaret to eat dinner with his family and she had to ask her mother for advice. Her mother taught her how to say a few Korean words, similar to Rachel Chu in Crazy Rich Asians. Both the films displayed Asian American girls pretending to know how to act in their native culture.

Something I thought was interesting was that Crazy Rich Asians casted Lisa Lu. Lisa Lu is an icon for many of the rising Asian American actors because she starred in the Joy Luck Club, the first ever cinematic film to feature an all Asian-American cast.

References:

“Gemma Chan, of ‘Crazy Rich Asians,’ on Female Breadwinners and ‘True Equality’ in Film.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 17 Aug. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2018/08/17/gemma-chan-of-crazy-rich-asians-on-female-breadwinners-and-true-equality-in-film/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.437032a6b9a6.

Haskell, Lexi. “’Crazy Rich Asians,’ ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ Bring Asian American Representation to the Mainstream.” Indiana Daily Student, 30 Aug. 2018, www.idsnews.com/article/2018/08/entcrazylexi082918.

The article, “Cyberspace Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks” written by Rachel Rubin, indicates how Asian American make their identity with the function of “zine” in Asian American community and its growth through developing of internet. It is not easy to identify the term of “Asian American” because the definition of Asia is so broad, and it is further complicated by the fact they are immigrants, also their identity is very experiential thing. However, since the appearance of the internet, print zines and cyberzines were used for self-expression and self-definition, which leads to be able to share cultural experience and contains various culture from all sorts of places.

In this article, the author mentioned “The process of importing and exporting cultural bits from all around the globe can lead to a web zine which contains content that originated almost anywhere.” (p.8) This sentence indicates that the advent of internet affects the content of cyberzine which could have cultural contents from everywhere. In addition, unlike the published zine, cyberzine is able to contain images, videos, word and so on, these powerful ways can flow across borders quickly. Also, author pointed out “zine writers can look around the Internet and find a seemingly endless supply of elements they can add to their zines”. (p.7) Therefore, zine writers would be capable of expressing their thought and idea with using elements you find on the Internet.

The key term of this article is “zine”. Zine is non- commercial “amateur” publications. Especially, zine has worked well for Asian American youth. Because “it is uniquely successful at providing a means of expression that flies directly in the face of the “polite Asian” stereotype.” (p.16) Although, Asian American tends to be mocked under the label of model minority, the ridicule representation like slaphappy world of zine culture gives them opportunity for opposition.

When I actually read Giant Robot, there are many popular culture contents that came into fashion at that era. What I realized from this publication is that to focusing only Asian popular culture make us understands their intention what Asian American wants to do through comic, music, movie and so on. Now, the mainstream of zine for us is SNS like YouTube, Instagram, Twitter. These devices have great impact for us to make new cultural idea and also, sometimes generates stereotype. We have to think more about the relationship between media and ethic existences.

1. In the article Chapter 5: Utilizing Skills and Passion to Spread Online Activism, author Lori Kido Lopez argues that internet platforms such as Twitter for social media or blogs and websites like LiveJournal are effective tools for communication for the Asian American community to voice their dissatisfaction for their misrepresentation in the media however, although these platforms are more widely used now than ever in this age of technology, there is a sense of caution that must be exhibited when starting to propagate an online movement. As Lopez discusses in this chapter, there have been a multitude of online outrage in the Asian American community over comedians like Stephen Colbert and his “Orientalism” joke to TV shows like How I Met Your Mother using racial insensitive depictions of Asians in a particular episode to even movies like Avatar the Last Airbender and their casting of Caucasian actors to play “Asian” roles however, that notion has been debated on whether the TV series that the movie is adapted from is supposed to be a representation of Asian culture and ideas or rather an amalgamation of supposed Asian themes from the perspective of a white audience.

2. Lopez in his article mainly uses examples from Twitter to exemplify the response of the Asian American community to misrepresentation in the media. Twitter has become a more popular social media platform to express ideas, thoughts, opinions, and even news. Twitter has seen an increasing operation of the hashtag in users in order to spread certain topics or as Lopez explains, “as with all participation on Twitter, hashtags tend to emerge in a largely organic and unpredictable fashion, evidencing the multiple ways that people use them, rather than providing a linear or organized for of discourse” (187). Having said this, the use of the hashtag #HowIMetYourRacism from the Asian American community in order to protest an episode of the hit TV show How I Met Your Mother where the cast members were in blatant yellowface trended on Twitter and has gained audiences across the entire platform. Due to the unexpected popularity of the hashtag on Twitter the show’s creator, Carter Bays, also took to Twitter to issue an apology stating, “We’re deeply sorry, and we’re grateful to everyone who spoke up to make us aware of it” (187). This immediate response within a twenty-four hour time frame of the hashtag trending highlights the power of Twitter and their ability to elicit immediate action from those who are being criticized (especially within the Television media). Another instance of Twitter trending hashtags from the Asian American Community was the hashtag #NotYourAsianSidekick which brought up the debate of secondary characters of Caucasian leads being Asian. This hashtag wasn’t targeted at anyone specifically unlike #HowIMetYourRacism but was rather used to “form guided conversations rather than working toward achieving a desirable outcome from a media target” (188). However, this particular event also highlighted the problematic flaws of opening up discussions on such a public social media platform like Twitter as Lopez stated, “this understanding of Twitter as a conversation that cannot be controlled by any one entity coincides with the use of Twitter in leaderless movements” (191). As a result of the “NotYourAsianSidekick on Twitter, many users derailed the conversation from its original intent on Asian American feminism to a “simply catch-all conversation about the various forms of Asian American outrage” (190). A final Twitter outrage moment Lopez discusses in his article is the #CancelColbert which protested the joke of “The Ching-Chong Ding-Dong Foundation for Sensitivity to Orientals” in response to Dan Snyder’s creation of the Redskins for the name of his football team. However, unlike the other hashtags previously mentioned, this one in particular fell flat in terms of collectively sparking outrage and discussion within the Asian American Community as Lopez states, “much discourse surrounding the hashtag focused on alleviating confusion surrounding even the most basic inquiries – Did anyone really want to cancel The Colbert Report?” (195). Lopez then examines the movie industry and their misrepresentations of Asians in films. Particularly, he focused on the outrage from the casting of the live action Last Airbender movie adaption of the popular animated TV series. Fans were upset about how “the problem was that the three white stars were heroes and the nonwhite actor and his people were the villains” (201). This then stirred up the debate of the animated TV series Avatar the Last Airbender being not authentically Asian since it was created by two white individuals. However, the outrage from the Asian American community wasn’t able to change the casting nor the production of the movie as it still was released in Theatres but did not receive any praise or recognition.

3. A prominent concept featured throughout this article was the use of Twitter as a social media platform. With the falling out of the other social media platform Facebook, Twitter has risen in terms of popularity amongst social media users. Its appeal is that anyone can use it to share news stories, tweet thoughts, jokes, funny memes, or even open up discussions to important issues and topics and receive responses from a certain community. With anonymity not being a factor in an open discussion board, users tend to identify themselves on this platform to certain organizations (be it political or ideological). Unlike it’s other popular competitors like Instagram or Snapchat, Twitter doesn’t necessarily revolve around the users appearance but rather reflects on their experiences in the world (although you could use it gain a following in such mediums). Twitter’s unique trending homepage highlights trending news stories and events that other Twitter users are participating in currently, even on a global scale. This function makes it a popular site to read news stories or open campaigns on certain topics.

4. A more recent controversy regarding casting issues in an Asian film, like with what happened in Avatar the Last Airbender, would be the controversy surrounding the Japanese Manga live action remake of Ghost in the Shell and their casting of Scarlett Johansson as the lead character Motoko Kusanagi. Since the original film was set in Japan and the major cast members were Japanese, audiences of the film were left confused as to why the lead role to the movie was a white actress. However, Paramount and Dreamworks tried to diminish this outrage by using visual effects to make Johansson appear more Asian in the films which just added more fuel to the fire. Outspoken critics like Constance Wu detested this action and stated that they just exacerbated the problem rather than correct it. The Twitter hashtag #WhiteWashedOut was created in response to this films production which opened up discussion on the stereotypes and limited portrayals of Asian Americans in the Hollywood Industry.

“In Between” is a short film created by the YouTube channel Wong Fu Productions. This Asian American filmmaking group focuses on creating short films of various genres and many specifically target the struggles or relatable content of Asian Americans. The short film, “In Between”, focuses on Leo who is a college student originally from Ohio, a primarily white community, moving to UC San Gabriel (made up school) for college, which was made up of a majority of Asians. In the film, Leo struggles with finding his identity, whether he was more Asian like his ethnicity or American like the environment he grew up in.

The film starts with him in Ohio talking to his white friends and they make some Asian jokes which he laughed along to. His friends look at him questioningly since they just made a racist joke, yet he laughed along with them. That is when he realized he was Asian. He never noticed before that “[he] was seen as Asian, which confused [him] because [he] felt like [he] was the same as them.” As the only Asian in school, he was stereotyped, expecting him to be good at math, watching anime, etc. Being Asian made him different from everyone else even though they all grew up in the same community. Once he entered college, he joins an Asian fraternity hoping to find his identity with his people, only to find that he was not as Asian as he seems. He comes into the house without taking off his shoes like typical Asians and realizes that at this Asian fraternity, he was white. Back at home, “[he] was different because [he] was too Asian,” but here he was too white compared to the Asians here. He thought that the things that made him Asian back home would make him fit in here, but this thinking is making him “reduce people to their race.” He eventually finds some other friends without thinking about race and where he fits in. He didn’t limit himself to one community he belonged to, but instead realized that he belonged to many.

In the film, they define the term “in-between”. “In-between” refers to those who are born Asian but in a primarily white society. They are raised as Americans but are Asians by nature. These people are known as “in-betweens” since they do not entirely fit in one side. They are not completely Asians like the Asians growing up in Asian households and they are not completely American since they still have that Asian background. Therefore they are termed “in-between”, being right in the middle.

This film on the topic of identity is similar to William Wei’s book The Asian American Movement. In this book, Wei talks about how many Asian Americans struggle in identifying themselves in an American society, struggling between the dominant culture society forced onto them and the prevention of them from forming an identity. Leo is a perfect example of an Asian American struggling in identifying himself as Asian or American.

1. In the article Letter to My Sister, that written by Lisa Park argues that it is hard for Asian American female to fit in the Americans beauty. In the letter, a sister wrote to her older sister who commits suicide because she did so many plastic surgeries until it destroys her face. The author includes emotional distress that her sister had and describe the action when her sister dies. The older sister tried to fit into the American beauty and education. she got pressure from her friend and family to look good and to be a good student in school. Her younger sister was so mad at the society that causes her older sister to commit suicide.
2. she said that “it is making me mad knowing the truth of this culture, which is obvious and yet so strategically dissimulated in every day that it becomes invisible, and nothing is left but the violence that results from its disappearance” (Park 67). This means that the truth behind all of the beautiful culture of American is crucial to other people from different ethnic group to adapt. No one notices it, but the damage is still there. it still harms those who try to fit in.
3. throughout the article, she mentions the word “violence” so many time. she uses this word as a verb to describe the damage that the society has on Asian Americans both physically and emotionally. Sooner or later, it becomes the norms that Asian Americans have to go through.
4. I think that doing plastic surgery to try to fit in American look is not only occur in America. Plastic surgery is very famous today especially in Korean and Chinese. They do plastic surgery to look like their model or to get into an actress. Some people who have a lot of money would spend a good amount of money on surgery, but for those who don’t will go to cheap plastic surgery clinic. This effect their health and body later on.

The Canadian sitcom Kim’s Convenience produced by Ivan Fecan features a mostly all-Asian cast and has been gaining popularity on the platform of Netflix. It is based off of the play by Ins Choi which has the same name. The series focuses on a Korean immigrant family trying to make a living in the big city of Toronto. Like any other sitcom, the family struggles with issues within themselves, the World, and the customers of their store. The family consists of Mr. Kim, Mrs. Kim, Janet (the daughter who attends an art school), and Jung (the son who is employed at a car rental shop). They are seen as the perfect “model minority” through the acts of going to church, volunteering, and attending college.

Unlike previous on-screen Asian American families we have seen, there is conflict between the son and the father. Jung is the eldest child of the family and the eldest are usually the most obedient because they have to be role models for their younger siblings. He was forced to move out after he was found stealing and now works at a car rental shop with his friend, Kimchee, who is also his roommate. Mr. Kim and Jung continue to avoid each other throughout all of season one. However, it isn’t until Mr. Kim goes over to Kimchee’s apartment to help him fix their toilet that he discovers his son has also been living there. Through this episode, the audience can really see the rawness of receiving tough love in an Asian household. Both men have too much pride to admit their faults and their love for each other so it is shown through small acts like helping around the store, singing as a family in church, and even changing a screensaver photo.

Bryan Washington, a writer for the online entertainment news website, Vulture expresses that “insofar as anything approximating a pure sitcom exists anymore, Kim’s Convenience is the ideal” (Washington). He goes on to say that the concept of this show is simple and tackles realistic conflicts that are not forced upon them. The series actually shows the audience what life is really like for an immigrant family. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, the actor who plays Appa (the father) said ‘what struck him was that the characters were so authentic and so truthful’ (Lee). Lee is very proud to have the opportunity to play this character but at the same time disappointed because it took the so long for Americans to create a genuine TV series about an Asian American family. He also mentions that as an Asian actor, he is always asked to showcase an accent whether it be Japanese, Korean, or Chinese etc. Lee actually admitted that it was hard for him to portray a father with a Korean accent because he had been living in Canada since he was three months old. As a young child, he didn’t want to  stand out in a crown and desired to fit into the Canadian culture which he was successful in doing.

Kim’s Convenience also brings light to movements such as the Toronto pride week in the very first episode. As an Asian immigrant family, Mr. Kim had no idea how to handle such thing and is even accused of being homophobic. He gets threatened to be reported for committing a hate crime and eventually learns how to adjust to the ever changing Canadian society. 

A key term that defines this sitcom is “culture”. Culture by definition means “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.” The series explores both the Korean culture and the Canadian culture. An episode features hapkido which is a Korean martial art form used for the purpose of self defense. They incorporated Canadian culture by “tackling racial profiling, privilege, and queer stereotypes at a breakneck pace” (Washington).

I found that this series is similar to All American Girl by Gary Jacobs starring Margaret Cho in the sense that they are both a sitcom and center around a Korean immigrant family. However, in All American Girl, Stewart (the oldest son) was the obedient, ideal child. Margaret was the one more assimilating into the dominant culture. In addition, I feel that Kim’s Convenience is more authentic when going about everyday life. The humor in All American Girl felt a bit forced which made it quite uncomfortable to watch.

References:

“Culture.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture.

“In ‘Kim’s Convenience,’ Canada’s First Asian Sitcom Family Finds Voice.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/kim-s-convenience-canada-s-first-asian-sitcom-family-finds-n684466.

Washington, Bryan. “If You Love Family Sitcoms, Watch Kim’s Convenience.” Vulture, 14 Aug. 2018, www.vulture.com/2018/08/kims-convenience-netflix-family-sitcom.html.

Crazy Rich Asians has been the talk of the week so far with its estimated $25 million in the domestic box office this week. They have collected a total of about $76.8 million within two weeks, attracting a 44% Asian American audience (Journal). This romantic comedy film is about native New Yorker, Rachel Chu, going to Singapore to meet her boyfriend, Nick Young’s extremely wealthy family. There she faces many obstacles of jealous socialites and specifically the disapproval of Nick’s mother.

Throughout this film, there are many Asian representations: music, traditions, culture, etc. The soundtrack is comprised of mainly old famous Chinese music, some in Mandarin and some in Cantonese. These songs were famous Chinese music that Westerners liked during the time with the jazzy swing music of the 50’s. Film director, Jon M. Chu, stated that he wanted to “take hit American songs and make them Chinese to give audiences a sense of how we feel as Asian Americans” (Emmanuele). The breakout song of the movie was Katherine Ho’s cover of Coldplay’s “Yellow.” This song was translated into Chinese in the movie and almost didn’t make the movie due to the “criticism for cultural appropriation” (Emmanuele). Asian traditions and culture was also a large aspect of the film. During the film, some of the things characters say or the actions they do reflect Asian culture. For example, wearing red represents good luck, happiness, and fortune. Other things such as showing respect to elders was widely depicted throughout the film. This incorporation allows audiences to be able to be exposed to Asian culture.

One thing that is defined in the film is the term “Asian American.” Rachel Chu has grown up in New York her whole life and she is the definition of Asian American. Her friend Peik Lin compares her to a banana “white in the inside and yellow on the outside.” The only thing that made Rachel Asian was the fact that her ethnicity is Chinese. Other than that, Rachel was basically American which made Nick’s mother disapprove of her even more.

The storyline of Crazy Rich Asians is similar to that of other Asian dramas and movies such as those created in Korea or China. Many Asian plots involve a rich man and his family’s disapproval of his girlfriend who is less wealthy and of lower status. This type of plot has revolved around many Asian films although the way this movie resolves this problem is different from these films.

References:

Emmanuele, Julia. “You’ll Want To Listen To All Of These Amazing Songs From ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ On Repeat.” Bustle, Bustle, 25 Aug. 2018, www.bustle.com/p/all-the-songs-in-crazy-rich-asians-that-youll-want-to-listen-to-over-over-again-10239631.

Journal, Wall Street. “’Crazy Rich Asians’ Has Strong Second Weekend.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 26 Aug. 2018, www.wsj.com/articles/crazy-rich-asians-has-strong-second-weekend-1535311460.