Littlefoot237’s Weblog

This was quite an interesting movie.  The scene where Derrick was “finishing off” Steve was extremely disturbing to me.  It seemed to go on forever instead of being quick, but its obvious that the director did that for the dramatic effect.  I understand that Derrick killed Steve to truly save his own ass, but throughout the movie he made it seem like he was watching out for everyone else (Han, Virgin & Ben).  It shows through the following scenes/actions:

1) Derrick wrote the article for the school newspaper on Ben being a bench warmer & the token Asian of the basketball team.  He did it for his satisfaction, not to help Ben get more playing time. 

2) Derrick hired the prostitute when they were in Vegas for the decathlon.  It wasn’t so Ben and Virgil would lose their virginity, it was for him.

3) When Ben confronted the boys about quitting the scams and Derrick responded “I’ve been doing this just for you guys.”  When in reality he was doing it because he can do and get away with everything.  There’s no parental supervision as he has the house to himself, is smart and involved in extra curricular activities.  Like many of the characters have said throughout the movie “nobody expects us because our grades are so high” and you can get away with anything if you’re clever.  In this case I just think Derrick is a manipulative psychopath as he had no feeling before, during or after he murder Steve.  

I wonder what the movie would be like if Ben snapped and killed Derrick as he was the one who got Ben hooked on scams and drugs, wanting, craving more power.  Derrick also was the reason why Virgil tried to committ suicide and why Han was suspended from school.  He disrupted the group and their lives by coming into them.  Way to go Derrick!

Again we are brought back to the harsh reality of discrimination, racism, as well as identity and success struggles of Asian Americans.  The Asian American Cinema is trying to separate themselves from films that come from Asia (20).  But the question is are things improving for Asian American filmmakers to be successful and have their work distinguished from Asian movies?  David Henry Hwang’s film M. Butterfly was categorized as Asian cinema.  Hwang also wrote the play Yellow Face, that my group talked about during our Miss Saigon presentation.   

I find it odd and quite discriminatory that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Emma Thompson with an Oscar for Adapated Screenplay in Sense and Sensibility without recognizing director Ang Lee.  I just don’t understand that (20). 

“The most successful filmmakers have either submerged their Asian identities to make films about white Americans (Lee’s The Ice Storm) or have added Asian ‘flavor’ (21).  What does Fang mean by Asian ‘flavor’?  I wish he would have explained this section more because without an explain it’s up for endless interpretation and I don’t want to interpret it wrong. 

One other thing I didn’t understand was the film Sunsets (22).  It is about three teens: Gary who is a white male just realeased from jail, Dave who is Latino, and Mark who is collegebound, level headed mediator of the group.  “Sunsets does not fit easily into the category of Asian American film, yet very few non-Asian American film festivals screened the movie” (22).  However “Strawberry Fields is fairly overflowing with [Asian American content]” just because it has Asian American characters being forced into the Japanese internment camps during WWII?!  What are the requirements or ideals that would make a movie fit into the category of Asian American films?

Honestly I didn’t know anything about Margaret Cho or her show until Wednesday’s class.  I have to admit that I also didn’t know if the show was actually about her life or if the producers just tried to pass it off as that.  Obviously things became very apparent to me in class, so now I know I was wrong and feel a little bit more informed on Margaret Cho’s life.  Some of Cho’s comedy act was funny, no doubt about that, but I was a little disappointed.  I expected it to be better than it was.  I think she drags parts out too long and it just gets old and become not funny because of that.  I don’t know, it couldn’t also just be my sense of humor and taste. 

I think Cho’s parents were a major part of her show and are important to remember when analyzing their daughter.  It seems like Asians want to be recognized as what they are: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc. and get offended when someone doesn’t know the difference. I think that’s why her parents pointed out the painted dress as being Chinese and that’s wrong for Cho.  I expected her parents to play more of the typical Asian parents that we discuss.  (being strict, no sense of humor, short in conversations with children, etc.)  Did anyone else feel this way?

This obsession with language is evident throughout this book, starting with Henry’s father wanting him to speak perfect English to the customers in his store.  I think that the influence that language had on him as a young boy impacted his future and how he raised Mitt.  Henry and his father both contradict themselves.  Henry’s father when he wanted his son to perfect his English even though he (Henry’s father) never spoke good English himself.  On the other hand Henry spoke great English and was educated, but somehow thought he would impair his son’s future by reading to him.  “I feared I might handicap him, stunt the speech blooming in his brain, and that Lelia would provide the best example of how to speak” (239).  Even the title “Native Speaker” relates to language and culture.

I think we talked about the Korean “money clubs” (also known as ggeh) briefly in class earlier in the semester.  Everyone pools together their money to slowly start businesses and when each person gets their chunk of the money, part of it goes back into the group funds.  It’s like each person gets a turn to start a business and make it big for their family.  I think it’s interesting that a small group of Koreans came together to basically support and raise a small community.  I was surprised when I read page 51 as Lee writes how these Korean families gained economic and social status through their money clubs (bigger houses, nicer cars, making American friends at the pool, clubs, bars, etc). 

I didn’t understand how Henry’s father “had a joy that he never seemed ro regain once the money started coming in” (51).  Lee makes a point to say how proud he was of his store, his accomplishments and how he was determined not to fail, especially for his family.  Yet how can be all those things but not enjoy his accomplishments, his money?  On page 54 it seems like he wanted to give off this American persona to his customers, family, friends, and race as he encouraged Henry to speak perfect English in the store.  “My father like all successful immigrants before him gently and not so gently exploited his own” (54).  The other men that worked with Henry were new immigrants, spoke little English and had families to support.  Both had college degrees, but were still limited on what they could and could not do within the store.  Henry’s father tried to keep them busy with tasks where they didn’t have to speak, so that the customers didn’t hear them.  However I can tell he didn’t speak perfect English from these short quotes: “This is way I learn business, this is way they learn business” (54) and “What you know?  It’s good for selling!” (55).

It seems weird to me that we’re done reading Helen Zia and analyzing her work.  Now we’re off to take apart another whole book and find the connections.  I just keep thinking about the first few pages, especially where Leila gives him the list.  “She was drawing up idioms in the list, visions of me in the whitest raw light, instant snapshots of the difficult truths native to out relationship” (1).  I think it’s interesting that the color white was brought up.  I’m curious if it has to do with race or being transparent where everyone and anyone can see who he has become.  There’s a big feeling of disconnection between the author and his wife.  Leila’s actions illustrate frustration, angery and the need to get away.  Taking all the trips, (to NYC, Montreal, Rome, etc) and not packing anything her husband gave her really starts us on this troublesome path that the two of them go on.  “She said her savings would take care of her.  I thought they were our savings, but the motion didn’t see mto matter at the moment.  Her answer was also, of course, a means of renunciation, itself a denail of everything else I wasn’t offering” (4).  It is chrystal clear that Leila isn’t happy with Henry and substitutes her relationship within her marriage with traveling and destinations.  The gap between husband and wife can even be felt through Chang-Rae Lee’s writing.  There doesn’t seem to be any position emotions in the beginning.

I think the story that Helen Zia opened Chapter 10 with was a great way to pull readers in.  Her family made it a game to yell “Asian sighting” whenever they saw an Asian American on TV because it didn’t happen very often (a “rare event” as Zia calls it.   I picked this section to write about because it reminded me/tied into my wiki topic: Miss Saigon and the struggle that Asian actors endured to play characters of their own race. ”They liked to assess for us kids the looks, ethnicity, demeanor, intelligence, and other vital signs of the real Asian, which they doncuted in a manner as succinctly anbd passionately as a sports announcer.  Most irksome was their habit of comparing us to the TV Asian” (253).  What is the TV Asian?  What characteristics does the TV Asian have that Zia’s parents admire?  I think the answer lies in the example she provides where her father asks why she doesn’t try out for Miss World.  I think the TV Asians represented success because they have made it through obstacles to get to where they are.  Success as individuals as well as for a whole culture.  It may seem like a baby step, but I think it’s a big step and change from all the racism and discrimination.  Zia’s parents show that they just want their children to succeed and experience/become anything they want while representing Asians in a positive way.

I was surprised of all the information that the groups came up with for the Wiki Projects.  Obviously reading Helen Zia’s chapters only gets us so far within a specific topic, that doing this further research I think opened all of our eyes up to the whole picture.  I enjoyed researching and learning new facts of “Miss Saigon” and especially finding David Henry Hwang’s play “Yellow Face.”  It’s encouraging to know that people still care about the issues that “Miss Saigon” displayed in the early 1990’s.  Obviously Hwang is one of those people who still thinks of the protests he was involved in and that’s why “Yellow Face” was born in 2007.  I think it educates other generations that may not have been aware of the controversy that surrounded “Miss Saigon.” 

I really enjoyed the presentation on the L.A. Riots because there was a TON of information they had.  I never knew that so many artists were inspired by events that occurred during the riots.  It was interesting to hear some of the lyrics and even the artists who wrote them. 

Even though we didn’t get to hear from the Red Apple Boycott group and the Vincent Chin Case group, I did look over their pages.  I like how they organized their information making it easy to navigate through their page.  I look forward to hearing from them on Monday.

technological (what are you learning how to do on the wiki?  why is this significant?); research (what kinds of research have you done, and how does it add to the project?  what do the other kinds of research from your group members add?); collaboration (what are you learning about how groups work/don’t work?  What role are YOU playing in producing the best possible wiki project?)

I know there wasn’t much on our Wiki site for Miss. Siagon by class on Wednesday.  I think my group and I had our ideas and each of us found really good sources to use, we just need to sit down and talk about it all.  We got back on track and figured out our main points, who is doing which point(s), and our next meeting time.  Overall I think we’re in good shape.  I think my group works well together and all of us are working hard to get this project done successfully. 

The information given to us by the guy from the library (sorry I can’t remember his name!) has been extremely helpful.  I using the newspaper articles for my research and have found some interesting facts from the databases he suggested.  Specifically I found the long lasting effects of the play Miss Saigon and the controversy over it.  Each of us in the group had very different ideas to bring to the table and we just compiled them all into one, our Wiki project.  Here is our outline for the Wiki:

1. Play Synopsis (Nick)

2. Controversy/Stereotypes/Statistics (Brian)

3. Protests (Me)

4. The History of Yellow Face (Nick)

5. “Yellow Face” the play/Long Lasting Effects of Miss Saigon (Me)