Category Archives: Week 5 readings

1. In her paper, “Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks” Rachel Rubin details the rise in popularity of “non-commercial amateur   publications” (1) so-called “cyberzines”amongst Asian Americans. The ease of access and free nature of the internet appealed to Asian Americans as a way for self-expression. This need for an outlet was especially important when Asian culture began appearing in mainstream media in ways that misrepresented the people they portrayed. Zines gave the Asian American community a way to combat false images and stereotypes as well as a space to be who they want to be.
2. Rubin describes the creation of the Internet and concludes one of its most beneficial outcomes was the “creation of a mass audience” (6). This accessibility was a large reason for the rise of ezine writers, providing them with essentially “unlimited readership”. Asian American zine writers began appearing because “they could not find publications that suited their needs” (8). The combination of an audience and creative freedom is the reason that Asian Americans found their passion in these online non-formal publications. However, the freedom and anonymity of the internet allowed the proliferation of negativity such as pornographic images and sex sites that tend to reiterate and perpetuate the Asian stereotypes of “the submissive woman” and the “desexed man” (11). Zines provide Asian Americans with tools to combat such stereotypes by creating their own posts which directly contradict and fight against the harmful circulated images. For example, Kristina Wong’s “Big Bad Chinese Mama” publishes images of Asian American women “all looking ugly on purpose…making absurd faces, picking their noses…” (11).
3. A key term that appears in this piece is “Asian America” which is given meaning in a poem by Amy Ling where she describes the “duality of experience, the divided heart, that Ling feels characterizes the lived lives of Americans with Asian ancestry” (2). The poem doesn’t provide a concrete definition, but the author agrees with it because the term is more like a feeling that is defined by both internal and external experiences that a person has been through rather than creating a definition based off of something like geography. Another term that is used is “sexual imperialism” (3). Beginning with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the immigration of people from Asia became increasingly restricted. Though the Act was repealed and laws like the McCarran-Walter Act were passed loosening tight immigration regulations, there began the development of so-called sexual imperialism where in a “power dynamic within Asian immigration acted out on a sexual and domestic plane” (3). This was apparent after the passing of the War Brides Act which allowed the wives and children of military members to immigrate to the U.S. regardless of nationality, putting power and lives into the hands of American military men.
4. Many topics that were brought up in this paper directly relate to Hillenbrand’s idea of a “hyphenated identity” in which Asian-Americans are believed to only be capable of being strictly Asian or strictly American. The paper provides examples of direct contradictions to the idea. There has never been a appropriate definition for the term Asian American and Rubin illustrates the struggle of defining it due to the large diversity of the nations that fall under its umbrella as well as the diversity of its application in the lives of individuals. The “unprecedented degree for…self expression” (14) has allowed Asian Americans to create their own definitions for themselves.

The article, “Apu’s Brown Voice: Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents” wrote by Shilpa Dave, he explains about “Brown Voice” which is differential aspects of racial and cultural identity of South Asian and South Asian accents. The “Brown Voice” is the key aspect that fortify stereotypes and different aspects of South Asians in American Society. In the article, he brings about a South Asian animation Character Apu in the well known TV Animation series The Simpson. Apu’s character clearly mocks the stereotypes of South American, who has disparate accent. This concrete image of South Asian accent and racial differences contains and forming own view from society. It causes not irrational or illogical expectations.

The article says “South Asian immigrants have been highly individualized as a group by their cultural behavior that separates them physically and psychologically from the term and group identity of Asian American even though their racial classification has been Asian American” (p.329). The famous TV animation series reinforces these images to people who have not really deal with South Asian americans. And also Dave says “Indian accents imply a model minority and in multicultural politics this is the type of minority the United States wants to promote because they fit the image of entrepreneurs, computer engineer, and successful immigrants in general” (p.318). they are getting different view from society and expectation. These leads different formation of expectation on hierarchy in society. The Apu’s accent, “Brown Voice” is not only because of their differences. There is also historical reason of this accent. British Colonization in India reinforces this reasons. Indian had to speak English for being more British Citizen.

The Key term of this article would be “Brown Voice”, as a minor fan of The Simpson series, when I reminds of Apu, I automatically think of the Accent. It reinforces South Asian to be more differential in American society. This discrimination is always come along with the South Asian in American society.

This can be controversial in media and audiences. For example, the movie Crazy Rich Asians, it implies the purpose of spreading Asian cultures and breaking the stereotypes of Asians in society. On the other hand, there is argument that those Rich Singaporean characters do not use any of Singaporean accents.

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. In Shilpa Dave’s “Apu’s Brown Voice Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents”, the author discusses the presence and performance of South Asian voices and accents in American culture and the meaning of the term “brown voice”. In order to demonstrate, Shilpa refers to the character Apu performed on the television show “The Simpsons”. Apu represents an Indian immigrant presence, and his brown-voice indicates the racial difference between Americans. The article states the importance of animated characters as an ideal case to study vocal accents with a deeper thinking of racial performance and stereotype, and shows how Indian Americans challenge and expand the privileged positions of South Asians.
2. “Apu’s flawed attempt to impersonate an American with a celebrity accent attaches him to an American cultural history and hence to an American citizenship. But to the audience this is a humorous scene because we know Apu is not culturally American”[315]. This is an example of ethnic assimilation and it represents the stereotype of South Asians’ voice and act. Because American audiences expect him to speak English with Indian accent, although Apu has a great American celebrity accent, which also help us understand racial and ethnic performance in the large realm of animated cartoons. “Many middle-class Indians are educated in English-speaking schools where all subjects are taught in English. However, there are a multitude of accent variations. So although it would be more appropriate to think of Indian English as an inflected version of English that more closely resembles British English or Black English, American culture perceives South Asians talking with the accent of a non-native speaker”[318]. This is another example of brown voice was understood as a cultural difference. It is obvious that Indians were trying to integrate into American society, and Indian accents imply a model minority. However, the main stream of American society just regarded them as successful foreigners. Thus, brown voice became a maker of cultural subjectivity.
3. A key term that the author introduces in the article is “Brown Voice”. Brown voice exposes the flaws of being cast as a privileged or model minority. For example, Hank Azaria’s vocal performance of brown voice becomes a syllable, so when people saw the accent emerging from Azaria’s mouth in an American serial, people would feel uncomfortable, because the face and the voice did not match. Thus, South Asians are not evolving in roles on American television. Meanwhile, the role of Apu and brown voice created a stereotype and ethnicity beyond the visual.
4. This article reminds me of the current situation of Hong Kong serials. Hong Kong serials all speak Cantonese, and Hong Kong serials were well received by Chinese audiences almost 20 years ago. However, due to the lack of originality, limited resources such as capital and talent resources, it is not difficult for Hong Kong to produce popular serials rescently. Through the cooperation between the directors of Hong Kong and the mainland film and television companies, more content creation styles in the Mainland are bound to be integrated into the production of Hong Kong serials. Many serials are dubbed into Mandarin, so many audiences find the experience jarring because the physical image do not match the voice.

1. In “Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks”, Rachel Rubin discusses how Asian Americans have used zines to redefine what it means to be an “Asian American”. Rubin uses the historical context of anti-immigration laws, mass immigration of Asians into the United States, and the growth of the Internet to describe the evolution of the term “Asian American”.
2. In the article, Rubin talks about how “zine writers bolster the symbolic nature of ‘Asian American’ ” (pg. 5). Rubin recognizes that using the term “Asian American” is just “lumping together the dozens of ethnicities of the huge continent” (pg. 4). However, she also points out that the “Asian” part of the term “Asian American” is gaining more relevance as it is entering the mainstream and that the term can be used to the advantage of Asians by uniting people through their “shared experience as Asians in America” (pg.5). By embracing Asian American identity as a way to identify with other people who have shared the same experiences and struggles, rather than just with one’s own racial background, Asians are able to facilitate their own cultural empowerment through the sharing of their experiences on zines.
3. A concept that Rubin introduces in her article is “new Asian immigration”. Rubin uses the idea of “new Asian immigration” to describe the return of mass Asian immigration into the United States following Hart Cellar Act, which liberalized the quota system. The “new immigration” was made up of two different groups of immigrants. The first group consisted of educated and skilled workers. They were the best of the best from countries such as India, China, Korea, and the Philippines. The second group consisted of low-skilled and poor immigrants. A majority of these immigrants were refugees from Northeast and Southeast Asia following the devastation of war. What sets the “new” immigrants apart from Asian immigrants who came a century earlier to work on the railroad is that they came to stay in the United States permanently. The “new” immigrants were being naturalized in large numbers bringing over extended family, forming new Asian communities and revitalizing the already existing ones.
4. The “indie” aesthetic of the distribution of printed zines closely resembles the grassroots distribution strategy of Asian American films, such as “The Debut”, as described in John Fong’s article “Beyond Finishing the Game: A Look at Asian American Grassroots Outreach”. In both the distribution of printed zines and Asian American films, the content producers (the filmmakers and authors) relied heavily on the Asian American community to be their audience and supporters. The zines and films were also produced in the same grassroots nature where they were driven by passion rather than profit.
5. What would be the present-day equivalent to a cyberzine?

1. State the author’s thesis and/or argument (in your own words, do NOT merely cite).

In Gene Luan Yang’s Cartoon, American Born Chinese, Yang portrays different types of Asians in America: American Born Chinese, Chinese, and stereotypical Asian figure. By portraying different types of Asians, Yang shows racial struggles and stereotypes.

2. Identify specific examples and forms of evidence they use to uphold their argument. (Indicate where you found this in the source text by including the page number.)

On excerpt A, Yang portrays identity struggles that second-generation Asian Americans face. When Jin first encounters Wei-Chen, he thinks, “Something made me want to bet him up” (p.36). Wei-Chen approaches to Jin since Jin shares the same ethnicity as him, but Jin refuses to be friend with him by saying ‘White’ students are his friends. Jin feels repulsion toward Wei-Chen because Jin wants to get along with Americans and do not like being the Asian. On excerpt B, Jin turns into a White boy which he wished to be. He even changes his name into more ‘white’ name and enjoys being White. I personally understand Jin’s behavior because I was like him. In high school, I chose to hang out with American friends instead of hanging out with the Korean group. I hated people thinking ‘Asians only hang out with Asians’ and expecting Asian stereotypes from me.

On excerpt B, a new character Chin-Kee is an aggregate form of negative Chinese stereotypes. Chin-Kee speaks loud, cannot pronounce L, has big tooth and slanted eyes, and does a martial art. The name Chin-Kee sounds like ‘chinky’. (P. 203). He shows the most common negative stereotypes that Asian Americans witness in America.

3. Define key terms and concepts the author either references or introduces.

Toy Robot: Wei-Chen has a toy robot that turns into a robot monkey. The toy is actually a gift from his father. Wei-Chen’s father hands the toy to Wei-Chen by saying “let it remind you of who you are”. With the toy, Jin and Wei-Chen start to talk and eventually become friends. Transformable toy portrays Asian Americans. Asian Americans are sometimes viewed as Americans and other times viewed Asians. Many Asian Americans struggle with identity because of this issue.

Mooshu Fist, Kung Pao Attack, Twice Cook Palm, Happy Family Head Honk: these are the names of attacks that Chin-Kee uses. Every punch and kick have a name with typical food or terms that represent Chinese in America. This portrays how America is stereotypically viewing Asian Americans.

4. Relate how this author’s idea(s) connects to other scholarly or cultural ideas. (Be sure to adequately identify what you are discussing as an external work or issue; do not presume the readers are familiar with your reference.)

When I was a child, Asian characters in cartoons were always martial artists. Always had bald, slanted eyed, long white bearded Asian master who will not stop mentioning the importance of yin and yang. As a child, I could not see anything wrong about it. Cartoons gave belief that each race has its own role and each role are not interchangeable.

1. In “Apu’s Brown Voice: Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents”, Dave argues that accent is a reinforcing vehicle of cultural image that ultimately limits South Asians and their status within American society as merely cultural citizens. With India’s history of British rule, the author argues that learning the English language as a result of that influence, although accented, has granted South Asian people a privileged position within the English-speaking world when compared to other minorities’ more commonly limited English. However, this fluent, accented English also keeps South Asians from being true British citizens due to its potential to be understood as mimicry. As the only popular South Asian representation in the U.S., Dave argues that The Simpsons’ character, Apu, and “brown voice” muddles the racial as well as cultural diversity of South Asian people into a singular voice and unclear background.
2. As “the growth of radio stations and the public practice of listening to the radio emerged during the national debates over naturalization and immigration laws in the 1920s”, Dave explains the historical context that made voice become influential in determining how different voices were received by the public especially when associated with ethnic identities (Dave 319). By broadcasting one kind of voice over the national radio, the radio began to establish what voices sounded American and what didn’t, setting the foreground for different accents being distinguished as “foreign”: “…the linguistic unity fostered by national American radio influenced the perception and judgment value of voices that deviated from what was considered the national norm” (Dave 319). As South Asian accents sound considerably similar to British English, Dave claims that accent denotes a privileged position of South Asians when compared to the more commonly limited English of model minorities. Yet, South Asian’s British English can be considered a form of mimicry through which their fluency in a western language did not grant them full, tangible citizenship: “…mimicry also exposes the flaws in the British imperial project because the Indian can never truly be a British citizen. If he or she were, the empire could not maintain the hierarchies on which it was built” (Dave 328). Despite Apu’s success as a South Asian on and off-screen, “…the Indian American community debates vacillate between whether Apu’s popularity and presence in the show is a sign of Indians making it in the United States or whether Apu’s success reinforce Indian immigrant stereotypes and limits all future Indian characters to Apu-like roles” (Dave 323). By including the Indian American community’s own perception of Apu, Dave illustrates how their ambivalence of Apu resembles their own uncertain position in the U.S. Through the show’s creators’ own ignorance of South Asian diversity including the voice of Apu himself: “…like Azaria cannot distinguish between India…and Pakistan…”, Dave points out that the voice that Apu gives to South Asians is limited in representation (Dave 324). Just as South Asians’ acquisition of British English maintained an included yet excluded position within the British Empire, “brown voice” is another example of language and speech as a means of enforcing power relations within the U.S.: “Simultaneously, the practice of brown voice ensures that although Indians are striving for cultural citizenship, the nature of the accent will always be read as foreign and the racial hierarchies of the United States will remain intact” (Dave 327).
3. In the reading, Dave introduces the term “brown voice” that: “…identifies a specific racializing trait among South Asians which simultaneously connotes foreignness and class and cultural privilege” (Dave 314). Another definition of “brown voice” is simply speaking in the accents known to be native to South Asian people. Dave speaks of “brown voice” as a performative experience that involves performer and receiver (Dave 317). Dave also references the term cultural incompetence: “Hilmes writes: ‘One signification of cultural incompetence involves language use and ‘funny accents’…” through which racial difference is expressed and signified (Dave 320). Often associated with non-whites, cultural incompetence reflects a person’s inability not only to speak English fluently but to not have full access to a culture that thorough language proficiency can provide.  The concept of mimicry: “…Bhabha explains, employs both ‘resemblance and menace’”, a term Dave references to illustrate the tensions for English-speaking South Asians (Dave 328). Dave mentions British colonial mimicry specifically as a way for the British to spread their influence while also maintaining their position of power over South Asians: “British colonial mimicry is about the native adopting the habits and mannerisms of the colonizer or in this case the Indian becoming the perfect British citizen” (Dave 328).
4. The connecting ideas of assimilation and the model minority are both referenced in Dave’s writing. Dave talks about how accented speech is a “…satire of ethnic assimilation” (Dave 315). The idea of assimilation as well as the hybridized identity of Asian-American finds resemblance in the identity of English Indians who were believed to be “…the hybrid of the best in Indian and British culture” (Dave 328). However, despite embodying and revering British values, becoming a full-fledged British citizen was a never fully reachable position, a struggle reminiscent of Asian Americans’ trying to find their own accepted identity within the U.S. (Dave 328). In The Simpsons’: “As a result of the fame and singularity of his character, Apu emerges as a highly politicized representation of a Hindu from India who fulfills the ‘model minority’ stereotype of success through tolerance and hard work” (Dave 323). Although Apu is considered as “making it” as an individual, his accent reduces him to his ethnic identity in spite of his accomplishments.

References

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

1. In the Article, “Cyberspace, Y2K: Giant Robots, Asian Punks” the author of Rachel Rubin states that Asian American zines try to break Asian American stereotype such as submissive Asian female, making Asian male helpless, and small physique by printable zines and cyberzines. Zines effect on many new concepts of Asian American culture and society on America society, and the concepts could change the Asian American stereotype.
2. For some Asian American zinesters, bodies are an obsession because sex and sexuality have been so central in the process of marginalizing and commodifying Asian Americans. On the Internet, pornographic images abound that hawk the stereotype of the physically small, submissive Asian woman, or the emasculated Asian man. (P.11) The most daring and oppositional aspect of Kristina Wong’s Big Bad Chinese Mama might be the fact that she publishes photographs of Asian women—all looking ugly on purpose, The captions accompanying the photos of young women making absurd faces, picking their noises, sitting on the toilet, or sticking out their tongues refer to the cultural expectations they are working to thwart: “Not quite a lotus blossom, but the next best thing,” one reads. (P.11) Many zines by and about Asian American women use zine “attitude” to confront dominant images in popular culture of Asian women: the submissive geisha-girl, the China- doll, the Indian princess. (P17)
3. The key concept is a zine. The zine is the simply can imagine by magazine. The word of magazine is made combining maga and zine. It means simply that magazine is group of zines. In additional, zines can express print zines and cyber zines. The zines introduce and establish the new culture to audience.
4. A screening of “Fresh off the Boat” is the Asian American family sitcom. In the screening mother was worried about children gradually losing Chinese ethnicity as they growing up in America. Then, she realized that simply rejecting and keeping ethnicity are not the answer. The sitcom shows American that Asian American think about how they try and get along with American. In this time, the Asian American zine is processing that reducing the gap of ideal between Asian American and American by media.

(1) In Gene Luan Yang’s graphic novel, “American Born Chinese,” Yang compares and contrasts 3 types of basic Asian stereotypes while also emphasizing the importance of staying true to oneself. The three stereotypes we see presented are the “American-Born Chinese”, the “mainland Chinese” student, and the exaggerated (and often televised) stereotypical “Asian”.

(3) An “American-Born Chinese” (ABC for short) is someone of Chinese descent, born in the United States; nowadays, a majority of Asian-Americans are American-born and the “C” can be changed to any letter to represent other Asian ethnic groups. The ABC is represented by Jin (or “Danny” as he is referred to in most of the story). A “mainland Chinese” is often a student, who comes to the U.S. to study; they typically don’t have as much knowledge as an ABC would on American cultural or social norms, as they did not grow up in the U.S. This trope can be seen in Wei-Chen. Finally, we have the most stereotypical image of all, as demonstrated by Chin-Kee; his character has slanted eyes and buckteeth, dons traditional Chinese clothing, speaks with an accent, and is proficient in martial arts.

(2) Each stereotype differs in terms of how they act; each has defining traits, such as Jin (“Danny”) his initial resentment for Wei-Chen and Chin-Kee. Before becoming best friends with Wei-Chen, Jin was skeptical of getting to know him. He made up excuses to avoid talking to Wei-Chen, telling him to speak English because “[they’re] in America” and claiming that he already “[had] enough friends” (Yang, A:37-38). Over time, however, Jin was able to overcome their differences and bond over a toy that we later discover was significant to Wei-Chen’s true identity. When faced with a similar (albeit more exaggerated) situation later in life, Jin berates Chin-Kee for his obnoxious behavior. As a result, the two get into a rather physical and comedic fight, and Chin-Kee’s true identity as the Monkey King is revealed. They proceed to have a long talk about the Monkey King’s role in Jin’s life, and when he finally leaves, his parting words mention “how good it is to be a monkey” (Yang, B:223). In doing so, he drops a business card for a Chinese Bakery/Restaurant, which Jin subsequently picks up and pays a visit to later that night (and every night following that).

The conversations between the Monkey King and Jin, as well as the ones he had with his son, show an internal struggle within the characters. Jin and Wei-Chen both had trouble coming to terms with their true selves and their “destinies”, respectively, and the Monkey King was there to shine a light on that issue. However, in the excerpt provided, only Jin seems to have come to terms with it, as he is seen at the restaurant until closing, most likely in search of something important. Despite the initial contrast between the two boys, they are revealed to be more alike in the end, and their perceptions seemed to have switched over time.

(4) We are now moving further away from the more exaggerated portrayal of Asians in the media, but the stereotypes seen in Jin’s and Wei-Chen’s characters still exist today. Youtuber Leenda D has done a comedic mini-series of her own in regards to the ABC vs. Mainland Chinese in an attempt to point out and poke fun at the apparent differences between these two specific stereotypes. As the two videos were uploaded earlier this year, they show fairly recent portrayals of the two sub-groups.

(5) Although they may have been done in good fun (referring to the videos), will these stereotypes affect how people view the Asian-American community? Can these types of videos potentially do more harm than good? Or do we accept these generalizations?

1. In the article “Apu’s Brown Voice: Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents” the author, Shilpa Dave, sets a keen focus on the influence of a special kind of accent. Going in more detail, Dave accentuates the importance and mixed repercussions of using a “brown voice”. Such a unique accented voice, commonly associated with South Asians, Indians to be exact, was popularized by the animated TV show The Simpsons. Dave goes on to show and argue that though “brown voice” does not hold any significant weight of negative connotations, the accent categorizes Indians and those alike as foreign and places them under an unfair hierarchal pyramid. Dave’s main argument is that “brown voice”/accents bring a new perspective on how race is perceived, one that has the potential to immobilize people like Indians from fighting back the damaging model minority ideology.
2. Dave states that The Simpsons show, due to the fact that it is animated, is subjected to different standards when it comes to racial grouping or ridiculing races like South Asians. Dave suggests that Apu is a great example of this. Apu’s appearance is fictional and a concept conceived by the producers. The audience is then left to focus solely on Apu’s voice. It is therefore evident that the force connecting the “brown voice” and South Asians is the “anonymity that allows Hank Azaria to voice the character of Apu” without ever being known or identified. (pg.322) By not being known one can use the “brown voice” as a playful joke rather than appearing racist if someone famous were to mimic the same accent. And because Apu’s “brown voice” is the main star of the audience’s attention it leads to the preconceived notions and image of what it is means to be South Asian. The “Indian accents imply a model minority…” that promotes “the image of entrepreneurs, computer engineers, and successful immigrants in general” (pg.318) Such actions can hinder the South Asian population from being anything other than these concepts. They like our study is other Asian communities are prevented from advancing in society or tormented by the standards placed for them to fulfill. For Dave’s continuing argument of unfair hierarchal placement, this idea comes from the understanding that the accent is a mix of “perfect English” and the unnatural stresses Indians put on English words. In is not so much that South Asian’s don’t know how to speak English but more rather how it is received. And how it is received and understood plays a major role on how it “will always be read as foreign and the racial hierarchies of the United States will remain intact” (pg.327) Being perceived as foreign and yet also intellectually advanced creates the strain and tear that clumps all South Asians into one group. This results in what Dave claims the uncertainty of what South Asians identify as and lack of movement to diversify the population from a single representational voice like Apu’s.
3. The main topic Dave explores is the use of “Brown Voice” to show a phenomenon on how accents serve as a bridge to connect race and the perception of a race. Dave describes the term as “the act of speaking in the Indian English accent associated with South Asian nationals and immigrants.” (pg.317)
   When Dave claims that “brown voice” has a way of installing a singular image that applies to all South Asians, he realizes that the accent is only attributes to South Asians and not their colonizer, the English, or their counterparts other Asians. This raises the question, what are South Asians? Dave defines South Asians as a group who identify as “Indian or Pakistani or Sri Lankan” who hold a “Caucasian and…Asian American…” inclusion status. (pg.327)
4. In Dave’s article, the author sees that animated shows like The Simpsons give way to a new tolerance of racialization. Animations are less likely to be deemed racists as people who voice characters go unknown. In “How Good It Is to Be a Monkey: Comics, Racial Formation, and American Born Chinese” by Min Hyoung Song carries a similar idea. Song sees that comics, a subgenre and relative of animation, uses its image-based medium to portray and stress certain aspects of race. Song unlike Dave has found that the image itself in comics rather than voice can influence the perceptions of different races. Examples like Gordon Yamamoto and American Born Chineseshow how comics reinforce and illustrate the image of Asian Americans. Comics as Song states also provides a new tolerance of racialization as graphic artists use the “tension between realism and genre fiction” to create a mix feeling about the work of stereotyping (pg.76)  American Born Chinese does just that, where Chin-Kee embodies the set stereotypes of Asians and Jin Wang provides a window to self-reflection. The comic was about a Monkey King coming down to earth to meet Wei-Chen and his son’s friend Jin after Chen failed to resist the evils of human behavior. The monkey is used to describe Asians as a way to say that Asians are so low in class they are not considers humans but rather dirty animals. And Jin is used to reflect one’s self-hatred of Asians. These ideas can only be portrayed through comics and its mode of graphics. Such a unique form of media provides a graphic narrative as Apu’s “brown voice” does through anonymity.