Category Archives: Week 5 readings

Rachel Rubin, the author, wrote this essay to show a way that Asian Americans try to break from the norms of what the American culture see them as. This way was through the publication of zines on paper and Internet to publicize their intents. By introducing the history of Asian American prejudice, she gives a good argument of how Asian Americans used the new technological advancement at that time which was the Internet as a tool of self-portrayal.

“While there are hundreds of paper zines being published, cyberzines are proliferating even faster, because they are even cheaper to produce, there is no need to worry about distribution at all, and the potential audience is practically limitless.”(p.15) Internet allowed Asian Americans to truly express themselves as who they are and not just passive and well-behaved foreigners. The Asian Americans that represented the model minority didn’t represent the Asian Americans who were struggling against “language barriers, poverty, racism”(p.19) With cyberzines, these Asian Americans can express and identify themselves by drawing pictures or copy and paste existing images from the Internet to create cheap zines to share with the public.

In Rubin’s essay, she repeatedly uses the word “cyberzines”. The compound of this word consist of “cyber” and “zine”. “Cyber” is used to represent the Internet and things that are related to it because they are very abstract such as virtual reality. “Zine” is related to the word “magazine” but more closely to “fanzine” because zines are more amateurishly made for self-purpose. A concept Rubin brought up was “model-minority” and it means when a society chooses a ethnic minority as an example to other minorities to behave like them. For example, Asian Americans were seen as hard-working, well-educated, and has a good job so they represented the model minority.

Today on the Internet, instead of zines being popular, memes are what people are creating as a way to spread cultural ideas and behaviors. Memes are short, usually one page or picture of a humorous image with some words and it usually have a deep meaning but sometimes it is just a joke to make fun of something like a satire. Memes are all created digitally and I think this idea came from the creation of zines.

In the chapter, Apu’s Brown Voice by Shilpa Davé, in the book, East Main Street: Asian American popular culture, the author’s main argument is that “brown voice” in media creates a perception of South Asians through accents rather than visuals.  With the main focus being on the character Apu Nahasapeemapetilon from the cartoon series The Simpsons, she introduces her theory of “brown voice,” which explains that through accents, South Asians are perceived as a privileged model minority, and groups all of South Asia as one racial and culture identity.

Apu is one of the only South Asian character on television, even though the person that voices his character is not South Asian.  Due to Apu becoming famous, he “emerges as a highly politicized representation of a Hindu from India who fulfills the ‘model minority’ stereotype of success through tolerance and hard work” (Davé, 323).  Since he is the only recognizable South Asian in American television, the audience assumes what he does and believes is “stereotypical” of the South Asian community.  He is pursuing his Ph.D. in computer science while also working, later running, a store called Kwik-E-Mart.  His success in the show causes a perception of South Asians as highly educated individuals.

Also, since Apu is the only recognizable South Asian on television, he becomes the “voice” of all South Asians on television.  This leads to an accent that is stereotyped to be South Asian throughout media.  The writers of The Simpsons and the voice actor of Apu all stated that they could not “distinguish between India (a democracy that has a largely Hindu population) and Pakistan (a military-based government that is primarily Mulsim), nor are they aware of the tensions that currently and historically have defined the two nations” (324).  This lack of knowledge of South Asia emphasizes the point that South Asians are lumped together regardless of linguistics, religions, politics, or cultural histories.  Since they are unaware of the differences, the creation of Apu is a culmination of what writers, who are not South Asian, believe a person from India would act and sound like.  There are no other recognizable South Asian character on television, making it difficult to illustrate the differences between South Asian cultures.

A key concept Davé refers to is the South Asians disconnecting themselves with the Asian American community and the Caucasian community.  Davé explains that South Asians and Asian Americans tend to differentiate from one another due to the physical and historical differences.  Many South Asian countries where colonized by the British, leading to the British educating the countries to “transform the natives into perfect British citizens” (327).  This colonization led to South Asian countries with English tastes, morals, and intelligence, meaning that their believes are closer to the Caucasians rather than the Asian American community.  However, many South Asians reject being “Caucasian” and refer to themselves as their respective countries because being “Caucasian” emphasizes the racial hierarchy.  Learning English from the British created a class of English Indians, which reinforced the British identity.  English Indians were seen as just mimics of the British, meaning that they could never truly be a British citizen.  The British saw themselves as greater beings than the Indians due to educating them in the British language and their beliefs.  Therefore, by accepting the title “Caucasian,” they are accepting their place in the British racial hierarchy as below white people and forever foreigners.

Another concept Davé refers to is accent.  The authors talks about how the accent is what indicates a person to be South Asian due to the way syllables are stressed in certain words.  Due to this unique mannerism, this way of speaking is heard as an “Indian accent,” leading to assumptions of the person speaking being foreign.  The accent causes a distraction to the audience because they focus more one how one is saying something rather than what one is saying.  The Indian accent is also an indication of the model minority.  Due to many South Asian countries developing English habits and mannerisms during their colonization, they are seen as “privileged” and highly successful.  Due to them being recognized by an accent, South Asians are seen as perpetual foreigners because they are heard to have accented English.

This chapter’s argument on accents of South Asians similar to an excerpt from the graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang in that both show how a community’s differences causes them to never fully be accepted into American society.  In the excerpt, Danny’s cousin, Chin-kee comes to visit him, which Danny is embarrassed about.  This leads to Danny and his cousin getting into a physical fight; however, Danny punches his cousin’s head, leading to the Monkey King revealing himself to being in disguise.  The Monkey King explains how his son was sent to Earth for a test, but his son later rejected the test and stayed on Earth for his pleasure.  Instead of visiting his son, the Monkey King visits Danny to serve as his conscience.  This is similar to this chapter in the fact that Danny is Asian American and wants to fit in, but believes his Asian culture is holding him back.  Danny wanted to be seen as a normal white teenager, but in reality, he’s an Asian American.  Chin-kee represents all the Asian stereotypes Danny is trying to avoid from the stereotypical accent to the way Asians are depicted as in media.  Danny wants to be accepted by his fellow white classmates instead of being seen as “Asian.”  Just like Danny, Indian Americans are trying to break the concept of the “brown voice.”  Apu perpetuates a stereotype of all the South Asian community.  Due to him being a popular character, all of South Asia is depicted as one group and seen as a privileged model minority. M. Night Shyamalan’s movies tries to fight off this stereotype by showing South Asian actors doing normal “American” activities.  South Asians are stuck seen as foreigners even though many have lived their whole life in America.  Just like Danny, they want to be seen as normal American citizens.

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In the graphic novel, American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang depicts the struggle of a Chinese American boy, Jin Wang, to fit into American society. Through this struggle Yang illustrates the struggle many Asian Americans face with finding their identity as being American with an Asian background.

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In excerpt B at the very beginning on page 194 we see Jin Wang transform from being Asian American to being European American.

This scene represents Jin Wang assimilating into American culture. Not only does his looks change, but he also becomes ashamed of Asian background and beats up his cousin Chin-Kee later on in the graphic novel. This shows his rejection of his Asian identity and the want to just be American. Through this Yang depicts the struggle of early Asian Americans discovering what it means to be Asian American and fit into American culture.

Later on in excerpt B Chin-Kee beats up Jin Wang using various martial arts moves on him such as: “Kung Pao Attack” (208) ; “General Tsao Rooster Punch” (210) ; “Peking Strike” (211) ; and “Hot and Sour Wet Willy” (211).

These attacks are variations of Chinese American dishes that is widely spread in the US. Although, not authentic Chinese food, it represents Jin Wang inner struggle with his Asian American identity. It shows him wanting to fit in, but his Asian background comes back and reminds of who he really is. This scene of him getting beaten up by Chin-Kee portrays the struggle that many Asian Americans go through to find their identity. Like the Chinese American dishes they have an Asian background, but they are American. It shows that there is a weird happy middle area of being both that Asian Americans need to find in order to create their own identity.

3.

A keyword that helps us better understand this graphic novel is assimilation. In Lisa Sun-Hee Park’s “Assimilation” she talks about the different definitions of assimilation and if it is even needed in the first place. One quote she uses to describe assimilation is “a state-imposed normative program aimed at eradicating minority cultures” (15). This is depicted in the beginning of excerpt B of American Born Chinese when Jin Wang transforms completely from Chinese American to European American. He reaches this state of eradicating and ridding himself of his minority, Chinese, background. Yang includes this struggle of assimilation to reveal to the reader the struggle that Asian Americans face in American society.

4.

This graphic novel connects to the in class screening of the Fresh off the Boat episode, So Chineez. In this episode Jessica Huang struggles with being American, but still maintaining her Chinese background, similar to Jin Wang’s experience when he is getting beaten up and reminded of his Chinese background. They both go through a process of assimilation. For Jessica it is to get into the country club which she ultimately decides not to join. For Jin Wang it was literally becoming European American. These two characters from different sources of media deal with the identity struggle of Asian Americans and the search of defining themselves.

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Asian American- is “symbolic, because of its rhetorical and deliberative nature, but, nonetheless possessed of real-world implications” (11)

Viral media- An image or video that is circulated rapidly and widely from one Internet user to another

In chapter sixteen of the book, “East Main Street: Asian American popular culture” edited by Shilpa Dave, she argues that South Asians are the model minority and stereotyping goes beyond physical appearances. Using Apu from the television series The Simpsons as an example, she brings light that the voice behind this character is a White man who is using the practice of brown voice.

Out of all the different Asian races, South Asians are seen as the privileged minority due to the fact that their English is “an accessible dose of foreignness rather than an irritating form of speaking that resembles American English.” (p.317) South Asians do not speak in broken English like most other Asian cultures. Their way of speaking the dominant American language is through the use of a unique phonetic technique. They put stress on certain syllables in words that differ from American English. Dave also mentions that “sociolinguists such as Rosina Lippi-Green have chronicled how language and accent stereotyping influence social identity formation and how these stereotypes are reinforced by educational institutions and media outlets.” (p.316) She questions why people associate an accent with a stereotypic view on a race. Dave believes that anyone can imitate an accent. However, an imitation is far from sounding like the authentic one. Taking Apu as an example, people who have never heard a real South Asian accent, they would believe that the man behind Apu’s voice is a native or descent from the South Asian culture.

A key term in this chapter is “model minority”. Being the model minority means to be well adapted to American culture but not fully. As stated previously, South Asians are seen as the model minority because their English is extremely similar to American English. The words are mostly the same with the exception of stressing different syllables. South Asians are usually categorized as Asian America. However, they believe they should have their own category as South Asians due to their major differences in the rest of the Asian cultures.

The Canadian sitcom, Kim’s Convenience, a story that centers around a Korean Immigrant family who tries to make a living in the city of Toronto, is similar to this chapter in a way.  Paul Sun-Hyung Lee plays Appa (the father) in the series and was interviewed about his character. He revealed that when you are Asian American in the film industry, they automatically ask about the different types of accents you can imitate. In this father role, he needed to imitate a Korean accent which he admitted was difficult due to the fact that he had been living in Canada ever since he was three months old. This goes to show that stereotyping goes beyond the physical aspect.

1. In the article “How Good It Is to Be a Monkey”: Comics, Racial Formation, and American Born Chinese that written by Min Hyoung Song argue that Asian Americans still think that they are different to the nation. Asian Born Chinese represent the difficulty of Asian Americans who try to adapt to American culture. The authors also mention that techno-scientifically play in a role of saving the world. The character name Chin-Kee in the comic represents the 19th-century stereotype about Chinese coolie and 20th-century ideas about Asian Americans youth as stellar students. In addition, Asian Americans do not realize their transformation throughout the century.
2. Song mentions that “Chin-Kee follows Danny to each of his classes and raises his hands immediately whenever a teacher poses a question” (Song 81). This scene shows that Chin-Kee represents 20th-century Asian American youths as stellar students because Chin-Kee knew the answer to everything questions that Danny’s teacher ask. And other students immediately express stereotype reactions to Chin-Kee such as whispering and casting glances.
3. on page 85, Song introduces a word “microaggression”. According to Wikipedia, these words use for brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward any marginalized group. In the article, this represents the image of the monkey in a way to consider Asian as subhuman or beyond the realm of the human.
4. after reading this article, it reminds me of Ethnic Notion movie that shows how white Americans during 1986 create comedy shows and cartoon about racial caricature. White Americans pain themselves black and leave their lips big and white. They highlighted the characteristics of African Americans that have black skin, big lip, and curly hair. This also created stereotype and racism.

In Shilpa Dave’s article, Apus’s Brown Voice: Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents he introduces the his theory “brown voice” through the analyzation of Apu Nahasapeemapetilon’s character on the popular television show “The Simpsons” to argue how American stereotypes of South Asians inaccurately give us an understanding of South Asians through speech, history and identity surrounding perceptions on south Asians accents and ultimately hinder South Asian Americans ability to move away from these generalizations. Throughout the article Dave’s reveals how speech, accent, history play a big role in the understanding of South Asian Americans and the misconceptions of the stereotypes and how media and other factors influence how these stereotypes occur.

Dave introduces the term “brown voice” a term used to identify a specific racializing trait among South Asians which simultaneously connotes foreignness, class and cultural privileges to explain the character of Apu in relation to the ambiguity surrounding South Asian “ethnic and racial classification” and the differences of the south Asians (314). Due to the British colonization of India, some South Asians have adapted some aspects of British colonialism and assimilation and therefore have “ambiguous racial identity” of not fitting in the Caucasian category because “the common man saw them as colored” while also not identifying with the “Asian American” because of their “historical and physical differences”  being a model minority and further differences are explained through Dave’s concept of accents to that of “ the concept of cultural citizenship” South Asians accent in the English language(316). Dave further explains that the word stress plays an important factor in determining that South Asian English is different than the stereotypical Asian American English in which the word stress structure is completely different because Indians tend to stress syllables but is just an adaption of the English language and that with brown voice it is associated “not only with the model minority… but the privileged minority” and the type of minority that “the united states wants to promote”(318). Dave argues that these kinds of generalizations hinder the perception of south Asians and prevent their presence in America outside of character such as Apu. Dave also uses the analyzation of Apu’s character and “brown voice” to explain the concept behind animations disconnect from race and body to explain that when it comes to entertainment in the process of animation “race transitions from physical performance to voice performance” highlighting that in the terms of the Simpsons character Apu media has just focused on “how cultural categorizations of religion and marriage emphasize the foreignness nature of South Asians” through the fact that the voice actor for Apu is not South Indian and had learned his accent through “Indian and Pakistani clerks” which shows the writers lack of understanding of South Asians and their categorization into one group despite their differences in “linguistic, religious, cultural and political histories”(324). Dave concludes that the move from physical and vocal will be a benefitting factor in the growing the “privileged positions of South Asians in pop culture” and that this move is already beginning (331).

The main cultural ideas that were mentioned in this article were assimilation, cultural identity and the main one being the model minority. This reading connects a lot with a pervious article by Sun Hee Park called “Assimilation” in that they both show how assimilation relates to the “model minority” in the case of Parks essay she relates that the model minority is a myth because it doesn’t apply to all types of Asians and is a byproduct of perceptions and stereotypes od Asian Americans which relates to this article in that the vernalization sand stereotypes of South Asians through the representation of Apu are in fact incorrect and hinder the growth of South Asians since it keeps them boxed in that “model minority myth” and image.

Chapter 16’s “Apu’s Brown Voice” in the book East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture is written by Shilpa Dave, who talks about accents and it’s representation in media. She specifically focuses on The Simpsons’ character, Apu, who speaks in a “brown voice” or more commonly known as an Indian accent.

Throughout the chapter, Dave dives into detail of how accents (brown voice) affects racial identity. She states that “ultimately the theory of brown voice causes us to rethink how we see and hear racial identity beyond the visual and how process the cultural meaning of accents” (Dave, 330). Accents that are used in radio and animation are not connected with visuals so there is more freedom with the way the accent is presented for the character. Brown voice is not just the accent, but contains both senses of speaking and receiving the intent of the accent which marks someone as South Asian (Dave, 317). Accents allow people to understand where a person is from geographically and represents vocalization of the model minority. It can be easily impersonated but it lacks the cultural meaning behind it; a South Asian speaking in brown voice is very different from a white actor playing a brown voice. Another aspect of the brown voice that Dave integrates is the aspect of the model minority. South Asians are categorized as Asian Americans but they are still divided due to their historical and physical differences. However, Indians are portrayed as the privileged minority due to the fact that they “are understood to speak more culturally receptive English” (Dave, 318). Their main language is Indian English which is a combination of English and Hindi with their accents arriving from the different areas of word stress. Indians are also portrayed as the model minority because they often fit the image of entrepreneurs and computer engineers which is promoted in America.

The key term that is heavily defined in this chapter is the brown voice. Dave defines the brown voice as an identifier of “a specific racializing trait among South Asians which simultaneously connotes foreignness and class and cultural privilege” (Dave, 314). This means that the brown voice isn’t just an accent that is different from the American accent, but that it contains a history behind it and defines the person speaking it. The accent classifies the race and shows the culture of the person speaking it.

In the Asian American show Fresh Off the Boat, Eddie’s mom, Jessica Huang played by Constance Wu, is shown to have a Chinese accent since she is from Taiwan. She is played by Constance Wu who actually does not have a Chinese accent in real life. With the Chinese accent, the audience is able to feel the cultural meaning behind her words and understand that many of her actions is because of her culture and background. This shows that an accent can really affect the audience’s understanding of the character. If Jessica Huang did not have an accent, she would have just be seen like a typical Asian American and not an Asian in America.

References:

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

The main thesis of this article is that Asian Americans are considered to achieve many economic successes than any other racial minority but are still fighting for the alien perceptions in the U.S. This not only happens in the communities but also at workplaces.

“Racial Formation” is a term used to look at race as a socially constructed identity, where the content and importance of racial categories are determined by social economic, and political forces. And the concept of race is mentioned in this article as “a central and even desirable factor in American life” (page 74). Comics are both visual and textual, important for expressing concerns with race and racism; also render the experience of time, which can be used to explore the problem of change over time.

Many Asian American graphic writers have created racial characters in their works but Yang’s “American Born Chinese” was the best amongst all in terms of difficulty of understanding, mix of genres, and presentation of racial problems in the U.S. as the author mentioned “Yang’s work stands out for his willingness to bend the conventions of genre storytelling to contribute to his realist aspirations” (page 76). “American Born Chinese” is composed of three parts, all of which are related in terms of racial presentations. In the third part of ABC, the Asian character is depicted with small eyes with a queue, buckteeth and accented English, who is very intelligent and liked by teachers. He is not welcomed in his school just as the Monkey King in the first part is not welcomed by the immortals. This symbolizes the position of the Asian American community in the U.S.: not being accepted as part of the nation. And the portray of Danny and Jin symbolizes the Asian Americans who pretend to be who they aren’t to be socially accepted and lose their own identity in the end. Wei-Chen on the other hand is portraited as the other side of Asian American with the terms “organic Asian American pop-cultural innovation” (83) and “Asian American masculinity” (84) with the import car scene. Along with some ideas fighting against the cultural stereotypes in the U.S. and some representations of the stereotypes, the author suggests that as Asian American community continues existing and growing in the U.S., one shall not forget his identity or lose his conscience and one should keep fighting to represent his culture and change people’s perceptions as well as the social situations not only in daily life but also at workplaces.

– Xiangtian Rey Luo

1. In Sarah Moon Cassinelli’s article, “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”, She explains about Margaret Cho. And shows the aspects of how the drama “All- American Girl”depicted inaccurately. “All-American Girl” is fun TV sitcom. However, it delivers the aspects of Asians in weird way. Moreover, the main characters are mostly Asians, but there were no Asian on production crew. It is because the purpose of this drama was to be fun. This TV shows also make expectation on Asians. What Margaret Cho did not like was about being locked up on her image.
2. Cho strongly explains about this unfair aspects of expectations from others. For example, she had to lose weights. She says “lost thirty pounds in two weeks” (pg 111). The producers told her to lose weights, so she did almost everything she could do and her health became very bad. It is not only about Asian authentic, it also delivers a meaning that only thin can be a main character. And moreover, the contents of the show give aspect of Asian image. “The show seemed to overemphasize the characters’ Asianness marking the Asian face, body, and family structure as decidedly uncanny” (pg131). it shows that what Asianness for everyone has to be like that in media.

3. In the article. She uses the word “Authentic” and says “authentic Asinanness means the audience is not given enough non-racial material to create a relationship with the characters.” ( pg132) it talks about different aspects of other races. However, it create a relationship and expectations. And also Cho claims about the word “Internalized racism” (pg 127), which is discrimination that is caused by same race to devalue other’s fame or success. This is very scary.
4. the show focuses about ethic authenticity, and Sarah Moon Cassinelli recognize about the history of Hollywood that they really want thin actress. This is problematic for audiences. It is because thin represents as a model and a goal. It creates desires. As Lisa Park’s letter to her sister. Someone is going to be locked on these images.