Category: Mixplate

identity

I’m still struggling with the idea of identity. It was a new word for me when I came here. And now, I’m getting it gradually.

In this article, Nazeera Dawood talked about her identity. She was asked “Are you more Indian or are you more American?” by a well-wisher. She was supposed to pick up one identity at that time. And then she was wondering “Am I more American or am I more Indian?”, “Does becoming more American make me less Indian?”. Through her experience, she figured out the answer to the first question. “I’m proudly becoming more of both.”

This article reminds me of the fluidity of identity. Indian identity is her identity. American identity is also herself. Cultural identity is not supposed to be only one. I’m glad that she’s proud of becoming both identities.

UW Night Market

I visited UW for their annual night market, which was Taiwanese culture, on Saturday, May 11. It was my first time to visit UW. I was surprised by how huge and beautiful the campus was. On the same time, I was surprised by a number of Asian-look students. It seemed that the majority of students on the campus was Asian and Asian American. Since I don’t often see Asian American students on this Evergreen campus and even in Olympia compared to Seattle, it made me more surprised. And, I felt that I still didn’t know how the Asian community outside of here was like.

The market runs for one night and offers entertainment such as live music and games as well as food from over 30 shops in the Seattle area, showcasing a diverse array of cuisine from Taiwan and other Asian countries.

The night market is held by The Taiwanese Student Association (TSA). There’s an Asian Community in UW. And now, that night market has become an annual Seattle tradition. Taiwanese American brought Taiwanese culture into Seattle. I thought that this is also one of the achievements of Asian American.

There are a lot of delicious and cheap foods! Also, I enjoyed the music and dance of Asian culture. Also, the smell of stinky tofu reminded me of the night market in Taiwan. If you have time next year, I highly recommend visiting there 🙂

 

Cultural Appropriation

I was not familiar with it. To be honest, I couldn’t understand what it means before I took this program.

I read one article in Japanese which is about cultural appropriation. And it was arguing Ariana Grande’s tattoo is cultural appropriation.

https://front-row.jp/_ct/17247342

I still remember when she posted this picture on her Instagram. At that time, I was sorry for her. As you may know, it doesn’t mean “7 rings”, that’s why I felt sorry for her. But also, I felt her love of Japan. Honestly, my thought was just these things. I think that my Japanese people who saw this picture also thought the same things.

However, I read the article in the United States that said it could be cultural appropriation. Even many Japanese people didn’t think like that, here was different. (I’d like to know what Japanese-American or Japanese in the United States felt). Since Japanese people are not comparatively familiar with the concept of cultural appropriation, they didn’t think it was the appropriation of Japanese culture.

In my opinion, I don’t say that her tattoo is cultural appropriation because I know how she likes Japan by her studying Japanese hard and a lot of her concerts in Japan, at least I think that she has respect to Japanese culture. As long as I learned about cultural appropriation before, respect for other culture is important and the key to figuring out if it is cultural appropriation.

Also, I can say from this topic how Japanese people are familiar with the concept of cultural appropriation. These days, society in Japan is getting more diverse. If they don’t know that concept, the problems will definitely happen. Actually, some cultural problems, such a black-painted face on TV-show, happened in Japan because of the lack of knowledge of culture and ethnicity. It’s for Japanese people to think about our culture and other culture, and diversity.

“Crazy Rich Asians” (2018)https://globe.asahi.com/article/11839306

The romantic comedy “Crazy Rich Asians” was released in 2018. To be honest, I’ve not seen this movie yet, I just read its outline. So, I can’t criticize it deeply. As the title says, this movie is about Asian American’s successful story. Actually, rich Asians have become the highest-earning group in the United States. However, this is not the whole image of Asian American.

Income Inequality in the U.S. Is Rising Most Rapidly Among Asians

Income growth among poor Asians has largely stagnated. From 1970 to 2016, the income inequality of Asian American has become the greatest among America’s major racial and ethnic groups.

 

The reasons of this gap are the level of education, skills and English ability. The income of Indian and Chinese is higher than South-east Asians. This is because the level of education of Indian and Chinese is higher than others.

 

The movie:

In that movie, the characters are living in New York City. Lee, who is Chinese American, works as a senior designer. He and his sister, Jessica, graduated from colleges. And their parents did not. When they came to the United States, they had hard time to make their living. I thought that many first generations are struggling to find jobs and earn. In this movie, second generation, Lee and his sister received their benefits.

They are living in New York City. However, Asian immigrants living in New York City are in the poorest immigrants group. The number of them is increasing rapidly. From 2000 to 2016, it increased from 170,000 to 245,000. I’m curious how poor Asian Americans are described in the movie, like Lee’s parents.

 

Transition of where Asians from:

In 1970, Asian Americans are mostly from East Asian countries. These days, people from South Asian countries immigrants here. And now, the number of Asian American from South or South-east Asian countries is bigger than from East Asian countries. The issue of this income gap is connected to their countries’ issue too. I’m interested in this topic because it’s connected to my major, developing economy in South-east Asia, in Japan.

Limited English:

In this article, according to Dr. Lee, 35% of Asians have limited English. Limited English affects income, education, and the access of health care.

 

Again, I’ve not seen this movie. I also had the image that Asian American is in the highest income group because I saw the data that the income of White and Asian is higher than other ethnic groups. This movie could emphasize that image and hide the reality of the other side of Asian American. Given this knowledge, I’d like to watch this movie.

Asian Americans Respond To Racist Comments

 

On this video, they are responding in a good way or kind of funny way to overcome racism. Racist comments are sorrowful, but racism still exists in the U.S., and all over the world. Some people do it unconsciously. Others do it consciously. This video shows us one of the ways how we can behave when we face to racist people. I’d like people who do racist things unconsciously to know how racist their comments were and how these comments hurt others. Also, as one of Asians, I’d like to overcome these racism by doing these responds.

Kamen rider series (仮面ライダーシリーズ)

Power rangers series (スーパー戦隊シリーズ)

Pretty cure series (プリキュアシリーズ)

These are Japanese childhood cartoons. I think that almost every child watch them, actually when i was kid, i used to do it too.Childhood cartoon has a big influence on children. It can foster sensitivity, values of culture and identity.

On the other hand, it naturally can make common senses in a good way and bad way. Japan is monocultural country not like the United States. In countryside, it’s much more.

One of these cartoons, “Pretty Cure” is popular especially among girls. These days, it’s focusing on “diversity” such race and gender and social issues in Japan such as childcare and bullying. Even these anime is produced for children, we can know diversity and social issues surrounding us. Sometime it may be difficult for children to understand everything, but definitely it has an influence on them.