13 posts tagged “asians”

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.

Smooth with the ladies. Represent!

I'm a big fan of Youtube as I'm sure many of you must know by now. I don't check it as often as I'd like to, but when I do, there's always something interesting. I like looking at the featured videos to see if there are any Asians being represented. Currently, a Youtuber who goes by the name of Minouye is on the front page (check it now, because he won't be there for much longer). This brought me to ask... who else has been prominently featured? And by prominent, I mean, who I can actually remember.

-Minouye's "The Youtube User-Run Charity Group" -

-I also remember David Choi's "You Tube (A Love Song)" - -There was also that other guitarist - Funtwo.
-And a video of (I think is) Bboy Aichi's "Master of Headspin". (Which wasn't that impressive since I've seen Aichi do much crazier and longer headspins).
-Then there's the infamous Winekone's "Hotness Prevails/Worst Video Ever"
-And Ahree Lee's "Me"

Found a few South Korean commercials. This post is for the ladies...

This other one features Daniel Henney and Gwyneth Paltrow again:

Mmm... beautiful people in beautiful commercials.

There's a whole series of these Daniel and Gwyneth commercials for Bean Pole on Youtube. Check 'em out!

***

Representing!

Found a thought-provoking video:

Yul Kwon (Survivor winner) and Jeff Yang (Asian pop columnist) are speakers in this event. Awesome!

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.

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!)

Was watching TV the other day when a television commercial came on:

I'm not exactly sure whether this is positive or negative representation of Asians... but hey, at least it's representation. It's quite a random commercial, but probably not as random as the sudden product placement of Motorola phones in Jay Chou's music videos. Speaking of Jay Chou, here's a Motorola commercial with him:

Right... Jay still rocks!