Tuesday, April 23
Frank Chin is one of the god father of Asian American writer
Novel vs Poetry
-Precision (正確性)
-Concision (簡潔さ)
-Writer can leave readers to expand their own idea
“Seventeen Syllables and Other Stories”
Tension between issei and nisei- Every story touches
俳句(Haiku)- Privileged art
Film: “Come See the Paradise” by Alan Parker (1990)
I was surprised the laws that Japanese couldn’t own their own theater during that time and Japanese couldn’t marry non-Japanese in the area of California.
The scene when Lili said “break them (Japanese records)” , it was really sad. When they moved to the camp, they had to leave anything related to Japan. It’s a part of their culture, and their lives.
One thing about casting, I felt uncomfortable a little bit. Mr. Kawamura who was born in Wakayama, Japan, and moved to America was played by Sab Simono, who’s Japanese American actor. When he was talking to other Japanese business men in the beginning of the film, i thought that his Japanese was kind of awkward a little bit compared to his wife’s Japanese. I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not and also the detail of Mr. Kawamura’s background. If the film didn’t care about the fluency of speaking other language, it could be an issue in term of respect of other culture. The fluency of language is also important to express culture in the film.
Wednesday, April 24
Fumiko Hayashida
-Bainbridge Island
-Manzanar Concentration Camp
1990 Gulf War
1988 Amerasian (Person who is born in Asia and have American military father and Asian mother) Homecoming Act
1988 Civil Liberties Act (reparations)
Alan Parker (British director): Mississippi burning (1988)
“Mississippi summer of 1964”
-Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney
Friday, April 26
Japanese American Presentation “Studio Ghibli”