Category: Paper

Includes: class notes as well as observations on program readings and a synthesis of ideas across program texts

Exploring Humor/Television Through the Eyes of Margret Cho & Eddie Huang

Margret Cho, American Girl  (1994-1995)

“Korean American” cast, many of which were east asian but not particularly Korean.

  • 1st televised sitcom to star an Asian American family/lead + censorship
  •  The concept of “authenticity”/representation
  • Laugh at me vs. laugh with me
  • Humor relying on stereotypes/tropes and the distinction between when members of group laugh at own stereotypes  bc they know it is untrue while other non members my be viewing it as a reaffirmation/validation of the preexisting stereotypes they had of said group.
  • Q:Who’s the target audience??? What is being sacrificed to make show more palatable to “Americans”/ white ppl?
  • “not asian enough” – community property
  • transition to self deprecating humor/ ethnic humor

Fresh Off The Boat

  • Both set in the 90’s
  • Reinstates how Asian Americans are still fighting the stereotype of being seen as forever foreigners and how Asian Americans struggle to find identities in a binary America that is often only seen as (black/white)- this theme can also relate to Better Luck Tomorrow.  To be Asian and attempt to be white parallels with the model minority myth however when the opposite is invoked we are introduced to ppl who will probably identity with Eddie.
  • Q: Is the term FOB used for other minority groups as frequently as APIA?
  • Un adressed anti-blackness
  • American Dream
  • no laugh track
  • Taiwanese/Chinese (seen as interchangeable in the show)
  • Q: Can Asian Americans have there own successful TV show with out fulfilling the model minority narrative/positively reinforcing the American Dream?

The Last Dragon- Bruce Lee Roy  (cultural exchange vs. appropriation)

This article is addressing why Eddie left his show when he was confronted with the political motives of the producers, The Bamboo Ceiling – TV

http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/eddie-huang-fresh-off-the-boat-abc.html

“Eddie Huang’s Big Dick Asian Movement is legitimately grounded in the frustration of Asian men in America who have been emasculated, ridiculed, and mocked on movie screens, in classrooms, and on dating sites. But its framing and points of action are centered on a fundamentally misogynist notion of sexual entitlement, encapsulated in Huang’s oft-repeated statement of purpose that “Jet Li gets no pussy” in Romeo Must Die. That Huang grounds his project of Asian American manhood in the attempted subversion of stereotypes of Black male hyper-masculinity and the adoption of hip hop culture cements his project as one that reinscribes, rather than challenges, systems of racial and gendered oppression.”

Link to article above discusses Asian masculinity + anti-blackness:

When Asian Emasculation Meets Misogyny: On Eddie Huang’s Black Feminist Problem

Connections Week 2 Reading

Julie Otsuka-When the Emperor was Divine

Week 2, Friday Seminar Notes

Characters: mother, boy, girl, (father)

Narrators

  • 3rd person-distance/dissociation/”off center”
  • 1st person as “we”

Symbolism: horses/freedom/illusion, color white (used in a non traditional way),  dark stain(s), clock, birds/animals

Poetic, similar to haiku format minimalist style not simplistic.

*Note: Implications made when using the word simplistic alludes to the piece being unworthy of scholarly use or being considered as such.  These methods have been heavily utilized to minimize the experiences of various oppressed peoples narratives historically and currently as an artifact of evidence that there experiences of oppression are valid.

Themes: Internalized racism/ state violence/ assimilation/ dehumanization+re-humanization/ freedom+incarceration/ coping mechanisms/ erasure/ identity (individuality, renaming, #’s)

Q: When does _____________ group become “American”?

  • parallel practices between Japanese internment camps, enslavement of African people and the modern creation of the prison industrial complex

Fact & fiction/personal accounts of historical events create room for storytelling and re-imaging history from the perspectives of those whom are normally erased to benefit the mainstream narrative.  In addition representation in the most mundane ways should never be glossed over, these are the contributing factors that really humanize characters to disprove the myths of why they have been “othered”.

 

Wait Scarlett Johansson Isn’t Japanese ???? (°ロ°)

Ghost in the Shell Notes

Representation/Stereotypes:

  • Asian men played roles that enabled tokenization, as the “diverse” sidekick in assisting the two central white characters funneling into the model minority trope. Asian men also fulfilled the role of the villain which seemed to hint reference to the Yakuza, demonized as being criminals and violent yet were strategically placed to remind the viewers that (fem) white bodies are the most beautiful and desirable especially in the eyes of nonwhite men. And let’s not forget Major’s boss who only spoke Japanese the entire movie and was completely othered as a perpetual foreigner in the seemingly “Neo Tokyo” inspired environment decorated with oriental aesthetics but with a lack of human Asian representation.
  • As for Japanese women their lack of presence in the film was instead replaced by geisha robots that served to fulfill every fetishized personality and physical attribute white men adore about east Asian women, from their petite stature, lips so teensy and pursed they dare not move nor wiper an opinion or thought.  They are of coarse painted as  submissive and docile by “nature”- or in this cased programing, adorned in traditional/”exotic” apparel. They presence represents the following stereotypes, “Geisha Girl/Lotus Flower/Servant/China Doll: Submissive, docile, obedient, reverential; the Vixen/Sex Nymph: Sexy, coquettish, manipulative; tendency toward disloyalty or opportunism; the Prostitute/Victim of Sex Trade/War/Oppression: Helpless, in need of assistance or rescue; good-natured at heart.” But after being hacked, they take on a demonic, Grudge like appearance complete with pitch black eyes. They are never seen as people but as servants, decorations and disposable props only equipped to pour tea, satisfy the male gaze and to market products on holographic billboards.

Other Themes:

  • Consent
  • “Trans-racial”
  • Eugenics
  • Dehumanization/Re-humanization
  • Reincarnation
  • Science/Ethics???
  • Eurocentric Beauty Standers/ Plastic Surgery
  • Assimilation/(Forced Assimilation)
  • Internalized Racism
  • Whitewashing-film surrogate
  • PTSD
  • Orientalism

Prior to our in class viewing of the American re-make of Ghost in the Shell I remembered seeing this interview done by Yuta being weaponized as a tool to minimize the experiences of racism and oppression experienced by Asian Americans, (in this case Japanese Americans) specifically in the context  of America.  This method of divide and conquer is nothing new to white supremacy and in the realm of pop culture, especially weeaboo heaven (anime) nothing less can be expected, when you see white viewers trying to validate the whitewashing , by pinning misinformed native Japanese peoples opinions against the opinions of Japanese Americans who directly are effected by these fetishized, demonized and dehumanizing images in American media.  

What Japanese Think of Whitewashing (Ghost in the Shell, Death Note, Interview)

Note: Once Yuta gives them more context they are taken back and seemingly less sure how to feel about the directorial choices.