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I'll be frank - I had no idea what I was going to post about when I opened up the blog today. I don't feel like I've been getting into many of the articles and chapters we read lately, so I decided I should read the other posts and see if anything you guys had posted seemed like something I could explore as well. So, I think this post isn't really a response to Teresa's post, but maybe a bit inspired by the topics she brought up.

I grew up in a city that had a large population of Asian-Americans, and I think many non-Asian residents there at least had a basic familiarity with the Asian-American community that was thriving in the city. Types of food, acknowledgment that there were different ethnicities of "Asian", familiarity with hearing Asian languages spoken out-and-about, among other things, come to mind. However, after coming to college, apart from the much smaller population of Asian-Americans on campus that I'm used to, my non-Asian friends seem to have a lack of understanding and, at least in my mind, respect for Asian-American culture on campus. (Culture seems like the wrong word, but I can't figure out a good way to put it otherwise.) Conversations in which I mention that I'm studying Japanese at Pomona inevitably lead to someone talking about sushi; International Festival is exciting for my friends because they get to eat lots of tasty food, none of which they've heard of before; it's super cool that I'm in the taiko club here, but it's not super cool that any of my friends are doing it because they're Asian or Asian-American and it's more "normal" for them to be in a club like that. (Gosh this is such a disjointed train of thought, my bad. It's kind of like I'm just spewing words.)

So I guess I'm wondering, in conjunction with Teresa's thoughts about the Asian-American community itself at Scripps... what can I or others to do increase the dialogue and understanding between Asian-American and non-Asian-American students on campus? Is it something that others see as a problem?

"Strange Foods”

In the essay “Critical Visions: The Representations and Resistance of Asian Women” by Lynn Lu in our Dragon Ladies book, food from different ethnicities is related to the cultural and sexual differences of Asian women. Lynn uses bell hook’s essay to state that Asian cultures, or that of other ethnicities, are like spices; they act as “seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture”. I thought that Lynn’s comment about how using food for attention can backfire where, instead of challenging stereotypes and providing new perspectives, different cultures and thus people are seen as “objects to be consumed” was simple, yet insightful. Even though this idea seems quite obvious, I found myself beginning to remember and further understand some conversations I have had in high school and with friends today.

I grew up mainly in Henderson, a suburb of Las Vegas, which was an area largely made up of Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. My middle school and high school had roughly the same racial demographics, and as a result, whenever my classmates and I discussed foods we liked, I received many looks of disgust and/or surprise whenever I mentioned foods such as fish. Before my junior and senior year in high school, I knew very few people who ate fish; it was as if it was some sort of foreign food that only the brave or insane ate. Chinese food meant Panda Express, Indian food was invisible, and quite obviously, if no one ate cooked fish, the thought of raw fish in some types of sushi was disbelief. Most people hadn’t even heard of sushi, either with or without the raw fish.

Once junior/senior year in high school rolled around though, almost everyone in my classes could attest to having tried or liking Japanese food, by which I, and they, mean sushi. Going out to eat sushi had become the new, “in” thing to do on those Friday’s after school was out or weekend hang outs. Although I was quite slow on the uptake, I eventually realized that those I had spoken to years prior about foods I liked were finally eating some of said foods, but only because it had become socially acceptable to do so.

As I began to become aware of what was going on around me, I also began to observe a larger quantity of high-end restaurants at the Las Vegas Strip as places serving “Asian” foods. But, because these were supposed to be high-end, pricy restaurants, fusion foods became more and more popular with the simultaneous rise in Asian dishes. Waitresses and waiters increasingly could be assumed to be of an Asian background and the décor began taking on a more “Asian” feel, with pillowed seats, bamboo, waterfalls/wells, and red colored things. Granted, Las Vegas caters to many tourists, especially those from China, so perhaps the casinos and hotels were trying to draw in more customers in that regard, but I believe that these restaurants exemplify the quote above regarding cultures becoming a “seasoning”. Las Vegas is literally a place where people go to consume entertainment and different experiences that they would not otherwise be able to take part in. Yes, because some of the now offered foods are “new” and “exotic”, a larger group of people are drawn to and given the chance to understand that Asian food is indeed delicious. But because of the vacation and food fusion setting, the people, culture, and meals are twisted into objects that merely add excitement, and not thought, to the average mundane daily life.

Asian American Women and the Hukou System in China

Close to the end of the semester, I am sad to say goodbye to my Asian American Women's class. As an Economics and Math student, who has not taken any core courses before (I am a transfer student), this class has inspired me a lot.

The Angel Island story made me think about the migration process in relation to the inequality and discrimination that seemed to be normal behavior at that time. I am sure that the authorities of that time could cite many examples to support their policy decisions. I started to ask myself the question: We see our society today as relatively advanced but is it really advanced in view of the fact that discrimination still exists? We are all immigrants, so why therefore are European immigrants, Asian immigrants, and Mexican immigrants treated differently? The debate on immigration in American society appears never to terminate.

Stereotype has been one of the keywords of our class: The idea that an Asian girl is seen as a prostitute came as a big surprise to me. Human beings are the only species in the world who know how to organize, but they also love to categorize themselves. Initially a common ground is found between things but then this categorization starts to promote extension. There may be historical reasons for Asian women being seen in the role of a prostitute, but why should this stereotype continue? In today's American society, Asian women have achieved success in education. But still influential politicians on various occasions seem to compare Asian woman with races that lack of influence.

In the course of the class, I found an interesting phenomenon: the Chinese Hukou System is very similar to the immigration system in America. The Chinese Hukou System refers to a household registration record which officially identifies a person as a resident of an area and includes identifying information such as name, parents, spouse, and date of birth. However, within this system there are a number of inequalities:
1. The role of women is seen to be that of reproduction.
2. Cultural differences, and differing rights attached to those cultural differences, highlight the inequality in the Chinese Hukou System.
3. Social benefits, education and employment opportunities are directly linked to household registration and are designed to keep people in rural areas. Citizens must make numerous applications to obtain urban household registration and also pay a high price for non-agricultural household registration. If someone lives where they are not registered, he will be treated as a foreigner and will not be able to enjoy a variety of benefits, including adequate schooling and employment opportunities.
4. Even the process of marriage registration is controlled, and weddings cannot be conducted if the Ministry of Civil Affairs denies the request for marriage registration.

The status of women in China has always been inferior, but the problem is related to the environment: Here is America we have courses for women, but in China the oppression of women occurs without their realizing it. They continue to function according to the traditional culture, and in many areas interpret the inequality as a manifestation of virtue.
This class is not about human nature, but I want to record some of these insights into humanity, because I know that to overcome the evil in society, we must dare to recognize what is happening and longer be fooled into accepting injustice.

Domestic violence and the burden of proof

Watching the domestic violence presentation raised the question for me of the burden of proof. Shengwei's section on VAWA pointed out that to self-petition for a green card or visa, survivors must provide documentation of the abuse, and that Asian immigrant patients often cannot communicate to their doctors that they need such documentation. But shouldn't doctors record suspicions of abuse anyway? Why wouldn't this be a standard? Social justice circles got significantly exercised over the Wasilla buy-your-own-rape-kit initiative, but this is a similar concern. Emergency rooms, which provide a huge amount of medical care to immigrant and low-income women, receive public funding. They are a public institution, like the police who provide the assault kits; they're held to government standards. If I'm not grossly misunderstanding the situation, this is a case of low standards. The trouble is that we don't think it's the responsibility of service providers to anticipate the needs of the communities they serve, even in such reasonably predictable cases as this.

Similarly, it should not be surprising to any government institution with access to statistical records that a survivor of domestic abuse would not always want to press charges against her abuser. This is exacerbated, not lessened, in situations such as those covered by VAWA. The survivor's abuser may hold their documents; the abuser might have power over the people who could provide the survivor with testimonials. The abuser might even still have custody of their children. It could be very much in the survivor's best interest not to press charges, so why is the burden of proof on them?

AA youtubers

While we were discussing about Asian Americans on Youtube and whether they should be entitled to certain responsibilities in representing the Asian Americans in general, I felt very conflicted in my views. On one side, I feel that they should be able to create videos however they feel like Caucasian people can without the burden of being a good representative of a certain group. For example, a popular youtuber, sxephil, is a Caucasian man who is widely viewed on Youtube and has a segment on his videos called "WTF White People" where he tells weird stories he comes across that involve white people. This segment has received many views and positive reviews for its humorous and creative aspect. However, whenever I try imagining an Asian American trying to do the same thing, I can only think of the criticism and 'thumbs down' for it. I believe that too much pressure is placed upon Asian Americans to use youtube as an outlet to portray a positive image of Asian Americans. At the same time, I understand how being of a minority group, we should all feel compelled to present an image that goes beyond the stereotypical asian and start a culture where race is just a characteristic of a person rather than a defining factor. Nevertheless, through writing this article I guess I lean more toward not expecting everyone to be a good representative for their respective racial group and hope for people to just simply accept peoples' videos for what it is because I never look at videos of Asian American youtubers and expect it to be a representative of Asian Americans. Overall, youtube has been a great outlet for Asian Americans to enter media culture unlike they've been able to do before, especially with nigahiga (an Asian American) being the number one most subscribed youtube channel, and that in itself should be a commendable feat.

I found Vivian Loyola Dames' article, "Chamorro Women, Self-Determination, and the Politics of Abortion in Guam" to be very interesting, particularly because I had never heard about the abortion debate in Guam until reading this article. In high school, I knew a Guamanian girl who expressed her frustrations that so many students had no idea what Guam was, despite it being a U.S. territory. It seems crazy to me that the U.S. prides itself on being the land of the free, bringing democracy around the world when people haven't even heard of the countries we're supposedly saving. It wasn't until U.S. rule that matrilineage was outlawed in Guam and "patriarchical marriage laws were imposed," which is also interesting in the sense that most Americans think women have the most freedom here in the states. It seems to me that Western feminists look at child-bearing as being a source of female subordination because of this, yet they fail to understand that child-bearing was once a source of power and authority in Chamorro culture. But back to the abortion issue...honestly I've always been confused as to why abortion is such a hot debate when there are so many other pressing issues in the world. Why do people seem to get more wrapped up in saving fetuses, which aren't even real people yet, when no one seems to make much of a fuss when our grown men and women are sent to war? I don't mean to say that I think abortion shouldn't be taken seriously, but I just don't understand why it is one of the most controversial issues of our time. And on that note, without hoping to offend anyone, I don't think men should have a say in the issue at all. How could a man say that abortion should be illegal in all cases when he doesn't have the capability to know what it would be like to be raped by someone and be forced to give birth to and take care of that child for the rest of his life? And since it is a womens' issue, it is even more interesting to me that there is such a variety of opinions amongst those who share the same culture/other beliefs, as exemplified by the debate between mother and daughter on the issue in Guam. I'm starting to doubt that there will ever be consensus on the issue.

The Big Bad Representation Wolf

I have been reflecting more on whether it was important to have Asian-American representation within a variety of media. Specifically, I wanted to explore the issue of whether any visibility is better than no visibility. I think there is a general consensus that positive, rounded, complex depictions of Asian-Americans in the media are, if not desirable, than at least not overly detrimental. However, I would like to explore the ways in which even negative and/or stereotypical depictions of Asian-Americans (while not ideal, and obviously very harmful in a variety of ways) have positive value.

From our discussions in class on representations, there seems to be two criteria that are usually listed when evaluating the various roles Asian-Americans play in the media: whether the depiction was positive or negative in the sense that the role portrayed a "good" or "bad" character and whether the depiction was stereotypical or not. Moreover, these two criteria seem to be operate independently but are not exclusive. For instance, in class we were talking about Sandra Oh's character in Grey's Anatomy and how she was depicted positively but stereotypically. We also talked briefly in another class about KTown and one of the criticisms I repeatedly hear about KTown is that it may not be a stereotypical depiction of Asian-Americans, but it is not a positive depiction either. Finally, there are those roles like those that Anna May Wong often portrayed that were stereotypical as well as negative.

I would like to posit that all of these depictions, while not being "ideal" whatever that word means, have benefits in the long run despite their failings. At the very least, having any Asian-American actors at all means that there are Asian-Americans working in the film industries. Even when those depictions are questionable, such as in the case of Anna May Wong, having access to the film industry means gaining experience in those industries. With this experience, Anna May Wong, later in life, made her own films with what she believed were positive depictions of Chinese-identified individuals. As such, participation in the film industry allowed Anna May Wong to gain the skills and the connections to allow her to self-represent.

Nonetheless, my argument hinges on the belief that self-representation is ultimately good or at least better. Instinctively, I believe that the presence of self-representation, while not the ultimate good, benefits the overall collection of representations of Asian-Americans. As with any other group comprised of such a large variety of individuals and experiences, I think that adding more voices, covering a wider range of the representation possibilities will ultimately make the overall picture created by the media truer and do actual experiences more justice.