Category Archives: Week 4 readings

1. In “If we are Asian, then are we funny”: Margaret Cho’s “All-American Girl” as the First (and Last?) Asian American Sitcom”, Sarah Moon Cassenelli discusses Margaret’s career playing the lead role in the short lived sitcom “All-American Girl”. She uses Margret’s memoir and comedy routine, “ I’m the One that I Want”, to describe the reasons for why the show was unsuccessful. Cassenelli argues that because the show was too focused on “ethnic authenticity” of the characters, the show was unable to succeed as a sitcom.
2. “It is disturbing that others would ask Cho to try and alter her face, believing that the features she puts out in the world are not only undesirable but somehow fixable.” (pg.134). Before shooting the pilot of “All-American Asian”, Cho was asked to lose weight because her face was too full. It is not of unheard of for Hollywood to cast “thin leading ladies” so it is not surprising that Cho was asked to lose weight. What makes asking Cho to lose weight significant is the fact that it was to make her face slimmer so that her facial features would better match that of her character on the show. The producers of the show believed that because she was Asian her face could easily be altered to resemble the face of another Asian. This is an example of how producers of the sitcom put too much emphasis on the “ethnic authenticity” of the characters.
3. A concept that Cassenelli introduced in her article is that the jokes in the show were not “so much stereotypical as stale”. Using the example of Mrs. Kim being compared to Yoko Ono, Casenelli calls the joke “stale” because it ignores the significance behind Yoko Ono’s fame. Yoko Ono is an Asian female in the entertainment industry who is widely known for her work in performance art and filmmaking. Rather than focusing on the fact that she is well known for her work rather than her ethnicity, the show uses her simply because she is a well known, Asian public figure. Other than the fact that both women were asian and wearing sunglasses, Mrs. Kim and Yoko Ono bare no resemblance to each other.
4. Cho’s struggle with her physical appearance after being asked to lose weight reminded me of “Letter to my Sister” by Lisa Park from our first class. Both Park’s sister and Cho struggled to make themselves look like what society expected them to look like. Both their struggles with their physical appearance raises a question of racial representation in media and more specifically in Cho’s case on television.  

1.In Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”: Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl” as the First (and Last?) Asian American Sitcom”, the article states that Margaret Cho clearly vocalizes the complicated and contradictory nature of the show “All-American Girl” and demonstrate her own critiques about her whole experiences as an actor in the show in her memoir. Cassinelli argues that, the show focused on the ideas of ethnic authenticity, rather than a specific comedic form, and cause the failure of the show. Cassinellis also identifies problems within “All-American Girl” and appreciates Cho allows people to understand and analyze the misleading nature of televised, mediated presentations, and powerful authorities.

2.“In the pilot episode, the show features one scene where Mrs. Kim enters the kitchen and Margaret quips: What’s with the glasses, Mom? You look like Yoko Ono! While a certain level of obviousness may produce a stale affect, the reference that any Asian woman who wears large glasses resembles Yoko Ono is also stereotypical” [133]. This is an example of how racialized jokes are obvious in the show. The show unintentionally relies on prototypes and race, using stereotypes as the dominant source for the Kim family characterizations. Because there are not enough materials to explain the connection between the sitcom character and Yoko Ono, the American audiences may misunderstand this stereotypical scene. “Over the course of the season, Cho is pressured to lose a lot of weight through the unhealthy work of extreme exercise, starvation, and diet pills” [133]. “It’s made evident that show’s producers believe the American audience would prefer their entertainment devoid of racial specificity”[134]. This is another example demonstrates the show producers do not care about Cho’s self- loathing and masochism because of the extreme weight loss, attempting to create an authentic Asian body. This racial representation also shows that television and other medias are under control of powerful institutions and the fear of one Asian body with too much “fullness” carries the potential proliferation of many ethnic bodies.

3.A key term that the author introduces in the article is “authentic”. The show did not provide enough no-racial material to audience to create a relationship with the characters, attempting to create “ authentic Asianness”. Meanwhile, the show was also conflicted in terms of Amercianness. The show is mocking its Asian viewer and antagonizing its non-Asian audience by showing Margaret Kim and her mother’s generational conflicts of culture and assimilation. Margaret Kim is a rebellious daughter, and the idea that she could pass as a traditional Asian girl by using parody implies that Asianness is an act to be performed. All of those joke structures are severely lacking a punch line.

4.This article reminds me of a Chinese popular TV serial, the serial is talking about a ethnic minority called Hui in China, attracting a lot of attention. The TV serial of Hui have emerged in an endless stream. In order to increase the dramatic effect, it is inevitable that there are some plots ignore ethnic authenticity, creating stereotype characters. However, most Chinese audiences lack the knowledges of the minority’s culture. Therefore, the TV serial is often criticized for its suspicion of tamping history and reality.

1. In the memoir I’m The One That I Want, author Margaret Cho uncovers the true narrative of Hollywood film producers and executives regarding Asian American representation in the media (in this case, representation in comedy) and with Asian American actors. Although the television sitcom All-American Girl had good intentions being that it would be the first Asian-American family on television, Cho’s struggle to appeal to both the Hollywood industry for giving her the opportunity to star in this revolutionary sitcom and her own heritage being a Korean woman highlights how disingenuous the film industry can be when it to comes to making shows like these that are supposed to set a good example for even better and proper representations of Asian Americans on television in the future. By producing this memoir that narrates the abuse and misconduct Cho experienced during the early days of filming her sitcom, Cho exposes the true intentions of the media and Hollywood industry as being greedy and exploitive of Cho’s “Asian” background in order to appeal to a wider audience.

2. Cho’s first challenge was proper representation on Television. In her memoir she recounts the first time she realized that Television lacked proper representation of Asian Americans stating, “one of my earliest memoires is the day I realized that I was not white, and therefore not like the people I saw on TV” (103). Due to a lack of a role model, Cho believed she could become the role model she wanted to see on Television when she was younger. This memory inspired her to accept the deal of being the main star of the first Asian-American family sitcom stating, “The network deal made me think my life had been saved” (104). However, this realization of stardom quickly went downhill when Cho had to face her next obstacle, her appearance. The first major piece of abuse Cho experienced during her early days of planning the sitcom was when she received a phone call from Gail, the head of the production company, who said “the network has a problem with you. They are concerned about the fullness of your face” (107). This decision from the network executives for Cho to lose weight severely damaged both Cho’s self-esteem and her mental state which eventually led to her being hospitalized for kidney failure. The weight problem got so severe that Cho even said herself “I wanted to be thin more than I wanted to be alive” (114). Not only was weight severely affecting Cho’s lifestyle and health, the backlash she received from critics and her own community from her own sitcom also affected Cho’s mental state stating, “rejection from the Asian-American community was hard to take mostly because the show had been universally panned by critics, panned by every major publication” (129). Due to these experiences Cho felt like she lost her identity on who she really was, questioning “the show was not me, but I thought it was” (131).

3. A concept that Cho focused on throughout her memoir was the idea of authenticity. To be authentic was to be unique, one of its kind, and have an undisputed origin. When something or someone is authentic, they are perceived to genuine and true. This idea of being genuine was one of the backlash that Cho received from her Asian American community. Since Cho was playing a rebellious teenage daughter who conformed to the American society while her mother and brother were still heavily influenced by traditions and culture, the audience didn’t see Cho as being a proper representation of Asian Americans but rather a character that was formed from exaggerated ideas and the media rather than society itself. It got to the point where Cho was also questioning herself what authenticity means whether it would be her on stage doing stand-up comedy or her on set playing a character that she saw as similar to her life.

4. This concept of Cho’s sitcom All-American Girl reminds me of the story of the film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), directed by Justin Lin. In this film, the main Asian American characters exhibit typical yet exaggerated western high school behaviors such as partying, drinking, drugs, and academic decathlons. The film later turns into a gangster-type style film involving violence, death, and guns. Although the story is quite different from Cho’s sitcom of being Americanized in a conservative Korean household, the idea of interacting with other Asian American characters in a western setting in a comedic fashion is what draws the two stories into being related to one another. Both films have Asian American casts performing comedic acts due to their ethnicity (the main character Ben from Better Luck Tomorrow being described as the “token Asian” on the basketball team and Kim from the sitcom All-American Girl dating a white man and trying to introduce him to her Korean mother). The film Better Luck Tomorrow personally did a better job at using the Asian stereotypes for comedy than the sitcom All-American Girl but both still had a way of portraying an Asian American cast for comedy.

1. In Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s article “If We Are Asians, Then Are We Funny?”, she details Margaret Cho’s experience as told through memoirs of her time as the star of All-American Girl. Cho’s memoirs tell a story relatable by many immigrants in show business as to how their lives are affected by the use of stereotypes, in Cho’s case especially ones related to body image. The show itself also over emphasized many stereotypes of Asian culture to spread cultural awareness as well as add comedic value, but became overused and eventually unattractive.
2. The producers of All-American Girl wanted Cho to be relatable to the average American watching the show, yet they wanted to stress the idea of Asian American culture which took a toll on Cho immensely. Cassinelli talks about how the “show’s demands [were] made visible on the body of Margaret Cho” (p.4), to the point where she wasn’t in a healthy state mentally or physically. They dressed her as an average American teenager, commented on her weight, and attempted to alter her in a way that was suitable for the American public, not what was a best representation of herself or her culture.
3. The key term which really stands out in this article is the use of ‘Asian American’. The TV producers were making a sitcom about an Asian family in America, however, what they filmed and put on television was what the American public wanted an Asian American family to be. There was so much altering to Cho that it was no longer an accurate representation to her and her family values. Between the image, clothes, and the weight issues, as well as the over exaggeration of Asian stereotypes to “promote” Asian cultural awareness, there wasn’t any room for authentic content in the final product. It ended up becoming a sitcom about an American family played by an Asian cast, which is what would sell best to an American audience.
4. This entire idea of promoting Asian culture in America has gone through most of the examples we have looked at in this class so far, and it all has similar flaws. The American media wants to promote Asian culture and attempt to spread it to the masses for consumption. However, in order to do so they feel the need to Americanize it in order to sell it and be successful. There is no mainstream interest for an unadulterated version of a media production promoting pure Asian culture.

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 article “If we are Asian, then are we funny?” by Sarah Moon Cassinelli, the paper goes in detail and depth about the experiences the TV show “All-American Girl”, where Cho herself starred in, brought. Cho’s experience during her time in “All-American Girl” was terrifying and unstable. It was so rocky that Cho was compelled to share her story about it in her memoir I’m the One that I want to describe the stereotypes and actions the show reinforced and pushed on her to follow. This was not originally the show’s intent—as Cho defended at one point— as the audience pressured the show to change to a more ‘authentic’ version. Margaret questioned who really was the racist one, the one who reinforced the Asian stereotypes or the audience who requested it. Her clear answer and argument were, “the real racism is wrapped up in the audience’s expectation of an ‘authentic’ Asian American family” and causes harm. (pg. 132) Sarah argues the same as she defends Cho’s side. She analyzes and pinpoints the examples and key ideas in Cho’s memoir to show and make us understand the dangerous effects and harm of stereotype aggression.
2. As Sarah backs up Cho, she, through her analysis, shines light on 3 of many effects from the audience demanding stereotypes shown. Previously quoted, the audience was not satisfied with the content of the “All-American Girl” show. It first led to a change in the show. Rather than broadcasting the “immature, overgrown, oversize”, and “stale” (pg. 131) jokes the show first started with, the show moved to a “more formulaic sitcom structure” (pg.131-132) that focused on the Asian family. This succeeded only on its emphasis on generation clashing—between the old Asian and new Asian. Sarah states that such clashing creates conflict in culture and assimilation. It forces Asians to choose whether to hold their original culture or move on to an Americanize one. The final result is a race left fragmented and limited in figuring out how to relate to the show’s characters as it only shows uncomfortable stereotypes.
   A second effect of the show changing took a toll on Cho and her appearance. Sarah highlights how producers of the show asked Cho to change her appearance by losing weight with no exception by saying, “I don’t care what you have to do. We have two weeks before we shoot the pilot”. (pg.134) This action besides its influence in racial representation makes a person’s Asian-ness “alienable” as a result make it seem “somehow fixable.” (pg.134) The idea that one’s looks can be manipulated only feeds into the fear in Asians regardless of culture differences or generational timing. It continues the action of treating Asians as shallow characters. Leaving the question, “How were we going to portray ourselves [authentic Asians]?” (pg.135)
   The last effect deals with a notion that seems to conflict with itself. Request for Cho to act as a traditional Korean girl ends in failure as people accuse her for being a fake American and Asian imposture. Cho acting a “rebellious, American persona” (pg.139) daughter proved controversial when the audience stepped in and proclaimed “She’s not Asian enough! She’s not Asian enough!” (pg.140) This obviously states Cho wasn’t acting Asian enough. This in a way portrays Cho as a fake imposture perpetuating the long history of adding more and more stereotypes to the race just to make Asians appear more Asian. But sooner or later being ‘more Asian’ will be normalized and defeat the goal of becoming more of a thing and thus hurting Asians’ image once again.

3. “Old Asian culture” and “New Asian American Culture” (Pg. 132): Sarah realizes that the new requested stereotypes for the show hindered the goal for Asian representation to improve. One factor that hurt the Asian image is the use of simultaneous presentation of Old Asian Culture and New Asian American Culture, where old Asian culture “maintains traditional Asian mannerisms” (pg.132) and the latter, is assimilated into Americanized attitudes. These generation gaps clash and hurts the Asian image.
   Authentic is a word explored in great detailed by Sarah. Authentic is used to distinguish the false stereotypes attributed to and expected from Asians. It is used to show the real Asians and not the made-up views of ‘everyone looks like Yoko Ono’, beauty maintenance, and other views other races believe to be authentic or true to Asian people.  (pg.134)
   Impersonation and imposture: These words are closely tied to being authentic. In a way, they also help calm the waters and navigate through the terrain where Asian personalities and Asian stereotypes clash and mix. Sarah clearly defines these two words. She states, “Imposture strives to effect a seamless and convincing counterfeit for the purposes of deceptions, [whereas] impersonation…[is]… adopted by a performer in question to articulate an identity comprehensible to the public.” (pg. 137)
4. This article very much relates to another article written by Ballve and others called “Asian English-language publications” Ch4. Readers of newspaper and magazines, especially readers from Asia, requested news in their own language. But most importantly, they requested news from their homeland which helped bridge together the Asian community and inter- and intranational issues. Examples like the Wen Ho Lee case— an Asian accused of espionage— and the Soon Jan Du case, where Du accused and shot an African American for stealing orange juice, gave way to a change in Asian representation. This resulted in riots and chaos, setting the new stereotype that Asians are “cold-hearted, even racist, entrepreneurs” (pg.50) One can see that a request for ‘real Asian news’ from Asian homelands got the ball rolling to display a wider range of news leading to stereotype aggression. The same thing can be seen during the 9/11 event, where authentic Asian news was perceived to not include people from Pakistan. This internationally broadcasted event struck fear into Muslims, casting them as extreme foreigners and viewed as dangerous people. “Why are you washing the community’s dirty linen in public?” is one of many questions asked by Pakistanis whom were insulted by such a publicized event. (pg.52) The event distorted their authentic way of being to become an Asian race of bad reputation, if at all recognized as Asians. One can see that requesting anything authentic whether its tv content or news in this case can being harmful. It brings harm due to the fact the such life events or entertainment sources are naïve or obsessed with a generally accepted ‘authentic’, stereotypes rather than acknowledging the true, real and authentic representations of Asians.

1. Sarah Moon Cassinelli in her article, ” “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”: Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl as the First (and Last?) Asian American Sitcom,” discusses Margaret Cho’s experience in her show “All American Girl”, while also arguing how the first sitcom featuring an all Asian family failed because it was unable to correctly portray the “true” or “real” life of an Asian family.

2. Cassinelli first explains the importance of the show and how this show could have been a milestone for many minorities as it was an advancement for them in television, however instead of focusing on comedy it “focused on the ideas they had regarding ethnic authenticity,” which unfortunately led to show being canceled (131). She goes on to explain how the show focused too much on Asian qualities can gives several examples. The first example she gives is how the show was meant to be and what end up being the result. The sitcom was going for a family that shows two different generations and cultures, an “original” Asian culture, and the new Asian American culture. The hard part came was how to show the “real” Asian American culture. The producers ended up focusing too much on “a rendition of an Asian American family that meets stereotypical expectation” and ended up having “a one-dimensional portrayal of characters” (132). Even Margaret Cho argues how this ended up not showing the true diversity that Asian Americans are. Another example is in the title itself. A show about an all Asian family and leading Asian female role led critics and the audience assume that it is mocking it’s Asian viewers by the “implication of the title is not worthy enough to be included” (135).

3. A key term discussed by Cassinelli is the model minority. She defines model minority as “characterized by obedience, self-control, individualism, and “loyalty to the needs of the nuclear family”” (140). In “All-American Girl” the one who portrayed the model minority was the brother of Margaret Kim, Stuart. While Margaret was the “rebellious, American Persona,” Stuart was the “inverse” of her (139). This contrast can be seen in the first episode Cassinelli describes, where Margaret is arguing how everyone in the family is American, and emphasizing how “EVEN Stuart is American” (139).

4. Most of what Cassinelli is talking about has been seen through many other other forms of media. Many stereotypes have been portrayed through the course of time. Examples can be the very famous Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu’s in cinema. One film that reminds of this sitcom is “Flower Drum Song”. Wang Ta can be portrayed as the Margaret of the film, and as well as other characters in the show. Either way, it was not an uncommon thing, the unfortunate part of this show as how recent it was, and how much of step it could have taken if show was successful.

1. In Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s article, “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”: Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl as the First (and Last?) Asian American Sitcom, the author explains Margaret Cho’s role in the Asian American sitcom called All-American Girl. She explains that the show had the potential to accurately represent any minority figures, but due to the criticism that came from audiences about authenticity, they moved their focus more on ethnic authenticity rather than comedy. This show was focused on an Asian American family, and they weren’t capable of expressing that aspect so they focused more on the Asian aspect and that led to audiences seeing the show as “racist”. This portrayal lacked the aspect of an Asian American family as one single culture, instead showing it as two separate ones and that led the audience being uninterested and the showing being canceled.

2. The author mentions how the failure of the show even comes through while reading the title of it. “In this way, the show is mocking its Asian viewers and antagonizing its non-Asian audience by making it glaringly obvious that the Asian implication of the title is not worthy enough to be included” (135). With the balance of Asian culture and American culture, there were problems from the beginning which we can see from the title of the show. They weren’t capable of presenting an accurate depiction of this type of family in the context of the show as well as the title by only implementing American culture into it.

“The show seemed to overemphasize the characters’ Asianness marking the Asian face, body, and family structure as decidedly uncanny” (131). The depiction of this show was based on what they thought Asian’s should look like and followed the stereotypes that many people believe in.

3. The term Kim consistently uses throughout her article is authentic. The way she describes this term is being genuine and we can see in her article that the reason for the sitcom not being authentic is that they were constantly using stereotypes to describe and portray the characters.

4.  This article reminded me of the film we watched in class, Slaying the Dragon. Cassinelli explains how many stereotypes were used in this sitcom and in Slaying the Dragon, it gives us a look at Asian American actresses in Hollywood and the ways audiences stereotyped them. Audiences saw these Asian American actresses as something that they may not have always been and that is a close representation of this article.

1. In her book “I’m the One That I Want”, Margaret Cho chronicles the process of getting, starring, and ending her show ‘All-American Girl’ and how these events tie into her personal journey of finding herself, coming to grips with race’s role in media, and maturing into a woman who won’t be as easily influenced as in the past. She admits that she was trying to find her identity from opinions of those around her. Cho also mentions the combo of media expectations and her own Korean culture that drove her to nearly starve herself to death in order to live a life in which she wouldn’t be forced to go back to auditioning and touring.
2. Cho specifically tells readers that before the pilot of her show, she “lost thirty pounds in two weeks” (pg 111). She felt deeply hurt by her parents’ constant phone greeting of “‘How is your weight?'” and her producer/friend Gail’s demanding of her to lose weight as well as her public denial of that fact in a later press conference (pg 117, pg 125). Cho tried everything (laxatives, unhealthy diets, excessive exercise, illegal diet pills), driven by her desire to hold onto this life of having ‘made it’ which she believed she could only do by being thin (pg 114-115). Cho also provides examples of her immaturity in the past – one being that her firing her agent Karen (who was very vocal about dropping All-American Girl after the weight loss request) because it was “the only thing I knew to do” (pg 109).
3. While describing a conflict she once had with a Korean female journalist who had been spreading rumors about her, Cho mentions the term “internalized racism” (pg 127). This is racism in which the culprit and the victim are of the same ethnic group (it could also mean racism towards oneself). Cho introduces this term in her observation that “people of color making strides in a field run by the dominant culture tend to persecute others of their own background, because anyone else’s success makes their own achievement seem unspectacular” (pg 127).
4. Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s article ‘”If we are Asian, then are we funny?”‘ describes the factors that contributed to the show’s lack of success and received criticism. She calls the show “a site of conflation between the troubling issues of ethnic marking and the ownership over the female body” (pg 133). Cassinelli acknowledges that Hollywood has a long habit of putting unrealistically thin leading ladies on screen, but she argues that the detail of the network having a problem with Cho’s face makes this issue about more than just weight. She also says “the show focused on the ideas they had regarding ethnic authenticity” and “seemed to overemphasize the characters’ Asianness”, resulting in criticism from both those who couldn’t connect with these flat characters making stale jokes and those who were outraged by the misinterpretation of their own kind (pg 131). Evidently, from “I’m the One That I Want”, this was criticism that Cho was not ready for at the time – however in hindsight she can understand where it came from.

1.In Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”, the author talked about Margaret Cho and her short-lived television show, All-American Girl. Through Margaret Cho’s memoir, the author pointed out that All-American Girl overemphasized the ethnic authenticity in the Asian American family and strengthened a stereotypical portray about Asian American people. The author also argued that it was unreasonable that the show just presented the Asian Americans’ lives but with the title All-American Girl, and this caused the fears regarding Asian Americans.

2.In Cho’s memoir, she talked about the show’s demands influenced her life. [Sarah 133] The show’s producers wanted to present the particular Asian look, so Cho was asked to lose a lot of weight through the unhealthy work in order to be in accord with her ethnicity. I think this is a typical example to prove that the show’s producers didn’t try to eliminate the stereotypical impression by showing the real Asian Americans’ lives. The show’s producers still described Asian American as what American thought. In addition, “When the TV character Margaret performs for her boyfriend, she enacts the behavior and mannerisms of one’s stereotyped idea of an Asian.” [Sarah 136] This example also shows that All-American Girl didn’t tell the real situation that what Asian American families were like. This could make Asian Americans have more discrimination and misunderstandings in the United States.

3.In the article, the author mentioned a term “a commonly thematized topos” to describe “the disruption and distortion of traditional cultural practices”. [Sarah 132] In my opinion, this term describes the cultural conflict between different generations in Asian American families. As in Flower Drum Song, the young people accepted American life style, while the old people still kept Chinese life style. Another term is “authentic”. [Sarah 132] I think this term means Asian American had changed and lived in a new life in the United States. The show’s producers should present the real Asian American families and Asian Americans should be considered as American as well.

4.Media plays a really important role in describing our society and culture. The Kung Fu Panda franchise has been hugely successful and many American think Chinese people are all Kung Fu masters. This is a good example that shows how huge impact medias have. Therefore, I think this is the media producers’ responsibilities to show the real situation to audience, and this is also what “authentic” means in Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”.