16 posts tagged “asian”
So my girlfriend was watching this new series, "Cashmere Mafia" this week. Now I usually wouldn't bother posting about something as trivial as that, but something struck me as different - there was an Asian guy - and he wasn't depicted negatively. In fact, he was a good looking, sexual (and straight), intelligent Asian male (like most Asian men in real life). I almost cried tears of joy when I saw this, but I knew I had to pull myself together to analyse the whole situation.
Come on... this must be too good to be true. An Asian guy who isn't portrayed as a kung fu delivery man, without a bad accent and not getting killed? No way! In a Lucy Liu show? I couldn't believe it either, but it was true. I was about to cringe when both parties agreed that they didn't date "Chinese", but then the unthinkable happened. They kissed. I mean, they actually KISSED! TWO ASIAN AMERICANS KISSING ON SCREEN!
ABOUT DAMN TIME!
I know you probably think I'm being immature, but the fact that I am excited over something so seemingly small can only suggest that Hollywood really has to do some rethinking in its portrayal of Asian Americans.
Two Asian Americans kissing on screen: I've finally seen it, I can rest in peace now. But something tells me not to let my guard down for too long. The fact that Lucy Liu is in this show still makes me feel uneasy. I mean, it seems all smooth sailing for now... but who knows if the writers will do something stupidly predictable like throwing in some ninja crime lord who kidnaps Lucy Liu and makes the Asian guy look stupid. To be honest, I'm nervous - but happy for now.
More breakdance news (I'm behind as always):
Winner of 2007's Battle of the Year International goes to Korea's Extreme Crew and the winner of the Best Show goes to Japan's Turn Phrase Crew. The Battle of the Year is often referred to as the "World Cup" of breaking.
Check out the finals between Korea and Japan here:
Part 1
Part 2
This means that Korea has won the BOTY 4 times in the last 6 years. (And Japan's won Best Show 3 times in the last 5 years). CRAZY! Why are Asians so good at b-boying?
While we're on the topic of b-boying, Asian American Ronnie also won this year's Red Bull BC One. (After so many attempts, he finally got it!)
Just a quick post about some Asian representation on television.
-The latest Mitsubishi Lancer commercial features a cool Asian guy lounging and thinking.
-ANZ has a commercial with an Asian guy and his wife. (I'm cheering for some rare good ol' normal representation!)
-Anh Do is still representing in Dancing With the Stars!
-Asian guy on the show Cold Case. (Didn't really pay attention, since I was watching House. A good show, but where are the Asians? Why are there so many medical dramas without Asian guys? It doesn't make sense!)
Also found this funny commercial on one of my favourite blogs.
Once again it is time for... this week's THAT ASIAN GUY!
Today, the honour is bestowed to none other than Masi Oka. For those of you who don't know who he is, he's the main Asian guy on Heroes, aka... Hiro Nakamura! Oh yeah!
The character is awesome. He's the only one on the show who embraces his powers in a positive way. Don't get me wrong though, his friend Ando Masahashi is cool too. Interesting fact about Ando is that he's played by James Kyson Lee who is actually Korean American not Japanese.
Hiro has quickly become the fan favourite character on Heroes, appearing in every episode to date. I love his character, he makes nerds cool. Speaking of which, he was voted as "Coolest Geek" by Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards and was a Golden Globe nominee for Best Supporting Actor on a TV Series.
All the girls think he's cute, all the guys think he's funny, he's representing for the geeks and he's Asian... what's there not to like?
He has an IQ over 180
He works at Industrial Light and Magic, which is George Lucas' visual special effects company
You might have seen him on Scrubs
He was once featured on the cover of Time Magazine when he was only 12
He is fluent in Japanese, English and German. And proficient in Spanish.
Wow... one helluva guy.
Whilst looking at the photo of Hayden Panettiere (above), I'm actually reminded of how I actually came to know of her. I first heard of her whilst following the production of a film called Shanghai Kiss, starring Ken Leung and directed by Chinese American David Ren. I had no idea who she was at the time or even what she looked like. It was only until Heroes came on TV did I realise who she was. In any case, don't you think Hayden Panettiere and Masi Oka look so cute together? I DO!
I'm going to end this post with a quote from Masi that really weirds me out in a good way:
"You know, I've actually been very good about not going on the Internet, I only look at things that my publicist and my friends send me, although I did see this one thing that my publicist sent me, I went online and it said, "oh my god, Hiro Nakamura, I love him so much. I want to make him my pet. I want to lock him up, talk to him, kiss him, I want to make him literally my pet." You know what, as long as they feed me, I'm all for it."
Found a thought-provoking video:
In any case, it addresses a few of the concerns I have with media (it's far from exhaustive, but it's something worth watching). And for those of you who are interested about my acting/modelling/extras/anything experiment... I still haven't gotten a call - from anybody. And you know what? I'm not even surprised. I somehow already guessed that I wouldn't get any roles in media. It probably doesn't help when I actually stated I won't take on any stereotypical roles. God, please give me a gig!
Jeff Yang makes an exceptional point in that Asians are using the internet to not only find more realistic representations of themselves, but also to finally represent themselves in ways that we ourselves can truly relate to.
I guess this was one of the reasons why I started this blog. On the one hand I have a deep interest in all things Asian, on the other hand, I want to be able to depict us in a way that we understand, the way we see ourselves - in a positive realistic light.
Keep representing!
I sat, staring out of the train window as we pulled into the station. A group of senior high school girls looked at me from the platform before they boarded. Coincidentally, they walked down into my carriage and sat opposite to me. I turned around... all the seats behind me were empty.
The pretty brunette spoke loudly to her friend, "Hey, do you have money? I wanna get some of those yummy Asian noodles at the store." She suddenly turned to look at me and smiled with a cheeky grin, "I love the Asian flavour."
I smiled back.
***
The revolution has begun.
There's an awesome South Korean guitarist on Youtube called Jeong-Hyun Lim, but he is probably better known by his alias "Funtwo". He is famous for playing a cover of Canon Rock:
This guy rocks! However, the person who uploaded the video is not Funtwo himself, just a fan who was very impressed by his skills. At the time of writing, this video is part of "Youtube's Greatest Hits" and has well over 20 million views.
Now, this begs the question, "Who composed Canon rock?" Yes, this person is skilled... but isn't the person who wrote this song even better? So I did a little research and found that the composer is actually a Taiwanese rocker called Jerry Chang, who goes by the alias of JerryC. Here's his official website: http://jerryc.tw/. Here you can download the original JerryC Canon Rock. AWESOME!
I've been "kicked out" of my house for a variety of reasons (and for an unspecified amount of time), so for the meantime, I've been staying over at a good friend's place. This also explains my lack of posts recently. I'll do my best to bring up more interesting Asian goodies to satisfy the wandering minds of my readers (whether they're procrastinators, people who accidentally stumble onto this page, those who are seriously interested in Asian issues or all three).
***
There's an excellent blog out there that I enjoy reading. You might have heard of a new wave of mommy bloggers who blog about their experience as new mothers, but have you heard of daddy bloggers? Well, I guess there's a new "wave" (or is it puddle) of fathers out there who want to share their excitement and joy of fatherhood for the first time. This is where MetroDad comes in. He's a new-age, "hip", Asian-American dad who loves his wife, daughter and pet dog to pieces, but his blog isn't something that brings up the gag reflexes. It's edgy, funny, intelligent, yet amusingly stupid, but always interesting. It's about family life, being a husband, a father and an Asian American man.
"Meanwhile, I'm completely annoying the crap out of everyone I meet in China. In fact, I’m starting to recognize a pattern. First, I ask people whether they’re married. Then, I ask if they have children. And then I sit back and wait patiently until they ask me whether I have a kid. ME? YES, I DO! THANKS FOR ASKING! DO YOU WANT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT HER? GRAB A CHAIR AND POUR SOME TEA!
Before they even know what hit them, I’m telling them all about the Peanut. Today, I even told a few people about Peanut pooping in the potty. The ironic thing? Most of them have no idea what the hell I'm babbling about. Story of my life, right?
Anyway, it's official. My gushing about my daughter is now annoying the crap out of people on TWO continents!"
Very funny guy.
So my argument against media is that they don't feature Asian guys, or when they do - it's often negative. However, a counter-argument has arisen by others who state that maybe... just maybe... there could be the possibility that there just aren't enough Asian male actors and models.
Hmm, interesting... well then, I guess there's only one way to settle this.
And that is by actually becoming an actor/model myself (as an extra, for commercials or shows) to prove who is right. (Unless someone else is willing to do it for me). See, I'm not the type to complain about something and then not do anything about it. I'm a proactive person... I like to make a difference. But it's damn expensive to get a professional photoshoot. It also doesn't help that I've got other career aspirations and the fact that I'm setting up my own online business with a few friends.
In any case, I sent an application to this media agency and they called me the next day (which surprised me since I specifically wrote on my resume that I refuse to take on any roles that are negative representations or stereotypes of Asians and Asian Australians). So now the next step is... do I really want to sacrifice myself to go for something that has the possibility of putting me into the poor house? What if I'm right about media and they never call me and I become jobless for months - even years? Or maybe I'll be proven wrong and I get all these token Asian guy roles.
What should I do? Could someone pass me some advice?
(Maybe I could make a documentary out of this.)
For those of you who don't know, McDonald's pretty much owns the term "I am Asian" now. To be honest, it's always weirded me out, the site is sorta trippy I guess... it's got a pig and a dog that shout "Year of the pig!" when you go over them with your mouse... >_>
There's nothing like a multinational corporation reminding me that I am indeed Asian. I know I probably shouldn't be too cynical, at least marketers are starting to notice our demographic. This means that media would become more sensitive to us (or at least I hope so). You can check out the TV commercials too. It's nice representation, but as always, they left out the Asian guy (which is quite annoying).
Speaking of Asian Americans, Yahoo! News recently had an article on "Ten Things Every Brand Should Know About Asian-American Youth".
1. Many Asian-American youth feel excluded and misunderstood by most
brands. It's made worse by the fact that they see advertisers actively
wooing the African-American and Hispanic markets.
2. Mixed race kids are proudly identifying as Hapa, a once derogatory word
in Hawaiian to mean "half." Hapa is also slang for marijuana in
Japanese (spelled Happa). Hapa is supplanting terms like Amerasian,
biracial, and blasian.
3. Asian-American youth are secret fans of "easy listening" adult
contemporary music. Lite FM is a hidden passion.
4. There's a "hero gap" among Asian-American kids, which is being filled
for many by activists from other cultures. Martin Luther King is a role
model and hero to many young Asian-Americans.
5. Most Asian-American kids refer to white people as "white people" the
same way African-Americans do.
6. Underage gambling is huge. The "new" American poker obsession is
nothing new to Asian-American kids. Gambling has a long history in
Asian culture. Many students Rigg spoke with are avid online gamblers
and card players. Some organize private online poker tournaments.
7. Asian-American kids want an end to the hyper-nerdy images of themselves
on TV and want to see more punked-out skater and graffiti DJ images
which reflect a different energy. The feeling is: Enough with the math
geeks, future doctors and violinists. Asian-American kids crave street
credibility -- not just academic accolades.
8. Asian-American kids universally hate the question: Where are you from
-- especially since the answers are usually something like
"Westchester" or "Boston."
9. All things Korean are hot and getting hotter. Fashion. Foods. DJs.
Online communities. Korea is the new Japan.
10. The 15 minutes of seemingly benign American Idol fame for William Hung
had a surprisingly negative effect on Asian-American students. There's
a feeling that Hung perpetuated the worst stereotypes about Asian
people and gave non-Asians permission to indulge in two years of
racial stereotyping and mocking.
I defintely agree with the "hero gap" thing. Kids look up to role models, but media has not been portraying Asians in a positive light. That's why I thank God for Bruce Lee, he was my childhood hero... but after 30 years, isn't about time we had another role model? *Kicks Hollywood's butt!*
I can't disagree with much of it, it seems quite right in most aspects. I was a bit surprised by the underage gambling at first, but then after a second of thought, I remembered playing mahjong as a kid. Haha!
(Lol at number 5!)
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