A Chinese guy who isn't me; a Jewish guy who isn't Hertsel

This is a podcast that I’d been hoping to do for a while. On this podcast, my good friend Hertsel and I discuss the Jews, the Chinese, and the humanities. It’s about fifty minutes, and it’s 46.2 MBs. Download it here, or listen to it here:

I’ve been thinking a lot about the humanities over the years.  As most of you know (and as I mention in the podcast), I had two big posts on the humanities: David Brooks’s The Big Shaggy and Michael Roth’s Why Liberal Arts Matter.  ChineseMom and I had a podcast that addressed much of the same issue.  In this highly informative podcast, Hertsel and I discuss the Jewish view of the humanities vs. the modern Chinese American view.  We talk about how (some) Jewish parents raise their kids with respect to the arts, and how the arts are important.

This topic/podcast is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.  I remember in college how lots of Chinese American students used to downplay the humanities, saying that humanities majors would someday get jobs serving fries, and how arts majors, if they didn’t go into fast food, would all someday find themselves working for engineers.  Years later, we realized this was all untrue; I was talking to a friend just a couple of weeks ago about how wrong we all were.  Humanities majors, in fact, often rise to the top.  I can’t even recall a U.S. President who majored in anything other than humanities (usually economics or history).  I believe this outward dismissal of the humanities hurts Asian Americans more than any other issue afflicting us.  The Jews, as we discuss on the podcast, shaped their own narratives.  We’ve done good work in getting our stories out there, but we can do better.

My favorite part was when Hertsel exhorts us to tell our stories.  I was talking to him after the podcast and said that we should do this again, maybe on the same topic, maybe on a different topic that could use some dissection by a Jewish guy and a Chinese guy.  Enjoy the podcast, and sound off below with any opinions.  If there are any topics you’d like us to discuss, please feel free to share ideas as well.

(pic from here)

Related posts:

1. Podcast with ChineseMom on American culture, education, and raising kids
2. Humanities and CEO Thought
3. Literature and Religion: Podcast with Kobukson

This was probably the scariest podcast I’ve had!  I honestly had very little idea of what goes on in China or what it’s like to raise a 12 year old and 14 year old, and I thought I’d choke (which I think I did!).  But that’s the fun part of blogging and podcasting, right?  I get to learn from people who have life experiences that I don’t have.

Here are some notable parts of the ‘cast:

9:30: Why ChineseMom decided to immigrate to the U.S.

14 minutes: Differences between cultures in the U.S. and China

20 minutes: Differences in teachers in the U.S. and China

24: Reasons Chairman Mao would LOVE the U.S.

29: The Chinese view of the humanities

30: Differences between men and women in the U.S. vs. men and women in China

45: Sports as a system of education

46: After experiencing two different systems, what gifts would ChineseMom give her kids?

I had a great time with this podcast, and I learned a lot.  It was interesting how the conversation kept moving to education–academic education and physical education.  I enjoyed talking about the difference between how Americans and the Chinese view the humanities.  In the U.S., smart people study both math and science, but in China, humanities are seen as a landing area for losers who can’t do math.  I don’t remember if it was Krugman or Friedman who pointed this out (and it doesn’t really matter since I’m sure they weren’t the first to realize this either), but if you look at the leaders in China, most of them have science or engineering backgrounds, while America’s leaders tend to be lawyers and history majors.  I liked how ChineseMom stressed the importance of the humanities, and I can understand a bit more of her context when we talk about affirmative action.  Steve Jobs, the CEO of the company that’s producing the hottest tech gadgets on the market, once spoke about how the most important college class he took was in calligraphy.  There’s definitely value in the thinking that the humanities teach.

My main takeaway from this podcast was that we Asian Americans are fortunate to be here, and we often don’t take advantage of what we have.  ChineseMom talks about sports and humanities, but how many of us actively pushed ourselves to achieve in these areas when we were growing up?  (Haha…the other side of the argument is: how many of us had a choice?)  Oftentimes, I think we Asian Americans measure ourselves by the old country standards that ChineseMom mentions–how good we are in math and science, and how we stack up against other kids.  When I went to college, it was also about how well you spoke Chinese.  Many Chinese Americans at my school looked down on humanities majors.  It was almost as if the group imported all their aspirations and values. Many aspired to the same kind of ideals that ChineseMom describes, which, if you think about it, is kinda boring.

In addition to the marvelous forms of thinking that a liberal arts education bestows on a student, humanities also teach expression, and I agree with ChineseMom that the ability to express oneself is underrated.

I’ll let you guys listen to the podcast and form your own decisions, but I’ll leave you with a personal closing note.  When I think about my late grandfather, the original Wong who immigrated here, I don’t remember him ever:

a) chastising me for not speaking Chinese well, even though he was fluent in three dialects;

b) expressing desire that I study only math and science to the exclusion of the humanities, even though he was an ship engineer who was proficient in math calculations;

c) dissuading me from sports.

In fact, my grandfather was a boxer who was well read in Chinese and great in math, but whenever I think of stuff that he taught me, it was always related to history, games (xianqi), cooking, or how to fix stuff (which was his personal interest).  It was mostly non-science, non-mathematical stuff.  Success for him was not narrowly defined.  The world is much bigger than that.

Thank you, ChineseMom, for an excellent podcast.  Check it out and sound off below.

Related posts:

1. Raising my Asian kids Jewish
2. Podcast: bigWOWO Interviews Dave Porter, Activist for Bilingual Education
3. Asian Education Foundation: Podcast

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Feminism/Maleism

Important Edit: See comment below.  The “James” commenter in the original post is NOT the same James as Alpha Asian.  Sorry for that!

My Gender Wars Emergency Podcast is done.  It’s 14.5 mbs and 31:40 long.  It’s me and me alone.  Download it here or listen to it here:

Thanks again to Mondega for letting me use his music.  Learn more about him here.

This podcast took forever to do. Holy s#$t.  You would think we would all be experts on this subject by now, but no, such is not the case.  This was my fourth or fifth attempt to record it, and even then, it’s not perfect…or even close to perfect.  Along the way, I had computer errors (all user generated), and my daughter deleted part of the track (maybe she disagreed with my conclusions?).  I think I went over it two or three times before finally converting.  One of these days, I WILL get paid for all this effort.

In the podcast, I talked about my review of Shiuan Butler’s book.  James’s comment, which was the big starting point for the talk (other than crazy mm’er and his Princess Amy comment), is here.  James, are you going to come out of blog retirement???    Props to TZ and RCR, who provided female input in the male-centric blogosphere.

I didn’t mention it, but this was something I should’ve quoted from Shiuan’s blog post to Asian men:

I am asking for my Asian brothers to step up to the plate regarding sexism and dare to be courageous and humble enough to listen to their Asian sisters talk about sexism.

Well, we stepped up to the plate, men and women, and even though the other party chose not to step up and take up the challenge that she herself laid down, I think we’re getting a good educational discussion out of this.

I hope you’ll listen to the whole thing, but if you don’t, here were my conclusions:

1. Men and women both always put gender before race.* (see note below)  I didn’t get a chance to say it, but going back to the whole concept of the default human being, I think men are more default-y than women, so I think that in itself gives us a bit of an edge in what is considered normative.  Even though Asian men are clearly at a disadvantage in the media and the arts where Kingston and Tan and their ideals dominate, and even though we’re lower on the social scale of desirability, being part of the default does provide an advantage and helps men avoid being otherized.

2. Men and women in groups act differently.  Because of the way men naturally come together in packs (either by upbringing or nature) and the way we fall into line behind one another, the blogosphere often favors men. I wanted to say more about this, but the podcast was already really long for just one guy talking.  Props to women like Reappropriate Jenn, TZ, and RCR for stepping up.

3. Unity is important.  Maybe we can just say, “Unity” from time to time when we want to give the other gender some time to vent, kinda like a “point taken and I heard it even if I don’t agree with everything” kind of remark.  So if a woman were to start talking about how bad the Asian men in her life are, I could just say, “Unity” to acknowledge that her experiences might be true and that I won’t defend myself in the interest of unity.  Similarly, Asian women could give the unity nod whenever the conversation becomes too male-ish.  I know this probably isn’t a place where people would abuse the word–some statements deserve to be challenged.  But we can still occasionally offer breathing room.

I was going to say more about Hillary Clinton and the confluence of traditional gender roles, but I never got around too it.  There were so many attempts at getting this podcast out that I was just happy I was able to show up with something in hand! The last thing I wanted to do was to drop a challenge and then not show up.  Like some people.  Um…unity.

Sound off like a WOWO below.

*James astutely mentioned in the comments that race may have come above gender when Marcia Clark made the mistake of stacking the OJ jury with black women.  He’s right about the dynamics.  One might argue, however, that perhaps these women were saving a single black man for black women.  So they weren’t doing it to protect a black man (race over gender), but rather subconsciously to reward someone for eliminating the white woman competitor (race and gender over everything else).  This is presumptuous, and I wasn’t at the trial, but yes, even at the time I thought the jury was highly biased against the overwhelming evidence.

Related posts:

1. Podcast: Interracial Relationships and the Gender Divide, Asian American Female Perspective
2. Gender Divide Podcast
3. Asian American Female Suicide

Given the state of the economy, I thought it might fun to showcase some entrepreneurial spirit, and so I decided to talk with 141, which Kyle and Shu-Chu started last year.  It takes guts to start a business in the middle of a recession, and yet their business is exploding.  The concept is simple–you buy a pair of eyeglasses, and they give another pair away to a person in need.  One for one, 141.  You can see the concept in action in the video below, where they held an eyewear clinic in Taiwan, giving away 200 pairs of glasses to poor children:

Listen to the podcast and hear their story, along with advice that they would give to prospective entrepreneurs.

Notes on the podcast itself:

1. Shu-Chu is Dave Camarillo’s sister-in-law.  Dave is the head grappling coach at American Kickboxing Academy, which now has it’s first UFC champion in Cain Velasquez.  The first five minutes or so of the podcast is a discussion of Velasquez’s upset of Brock Lesnar this past weekend.

2. Part 2 starts at around 8 minutes, and is a discussion of 141.

3. Part 3 starts at around 25 minutes  and focuses on Kyle and Shu-Chu themselves and the advice that they would give prospective entrepreneurs.

4. Thank you to Mondega who allowed us to use music from his track “Living in America.”  Learn more about Mondega and buy his album here.  See my review of his work here.

5. I used a new high-end USB microphone which picks up a lot more sound than I’m accustomed to.  I’m still learning how to work with volume and how to position people around the room when using one mic for three people.  You may have to adjust the volume on the Velasquez part.  Thanks for your patience.  Note to self: when using a high end microphone, don’t have it facing the refrigerator!

6. I forgot to mention that I met Kyle and Shu-Chu through Vu on bicoastalbitchin.  Vu knows everyone.  Thank you Vu!

Related posts:

1. Podcast with AOR, King, and Alpha on Eugenics, HBD, and Racism
2. Asian Education Foundation: Podcast
3. Podcast: bigWOWO and the Asian American Movement Blog

Our latest podcast features Ben from Conceived and Composed and James from Alpha-Asian.  In this latest installment, we talk about what it’s like to be a dad.  You’ll hear how new dads Ben and James live today, what they were thinking before they had kids, and what life lessons they hope to impart to their kids.  Download it here, or listen to it below. It’s 36 minutes and 33 MBs (yes, GarageBand f#$ed up again and I had to do the circular route which expanded the size. Apple is taking it out on the Asian male).

Let me begin by saying that this was one of my favorite podcasts to date.  I have to apologize because I had been out the night before with friends we met through the Gun’s activities, and I had just woken up a short while before.  (Yes, fatherhood is a hard job.)  I messed up the date–we recorded on the 25th, not the 24th–I think my voice cracked several times, and I had more uhs and ohs than the Balloon Boy’s parents. That being said, it IS one of my favorite podcasts.  Tune in to hear the one piece of advice that Alpha-Asian would give to prospective dads.  Hear how Ben manages culture in with his half-Korean/half-Chinese son.

We talked briefly after the recorded section, and I think there’s lots of potential in the idea of dads talking about stuff in general.  If you have any advice, questions, or remarks, sound off like a WOWO.

Related posts:

1. Literature and Religion: Podcast with Kobukson
2. Podcast: Empowered Mentality / Medicine Dilemma
3. Pageant Podcast

It’s a long one–an hour and seven minutes, and 31 MBs.

I don’t have much to say about this, other than that it was a rather unusual conversation, possibly the most unusual conversation I’ve ever had.  I thank King and Asian of Reason for being part of this, and I thank Alpha-Asian for hosting it.  I think we all agree that the podcast format was fair, so I hope our newest anonymous internet tough guy doesn’t go ballistic on me.  (And if he does, I guess that’s okay too.  There isn’t much ammo in that cannon.)  Though I disagree strongly with what AOR stands for, I do thank him for having the courage to stand up and speak his mind.

Just a couple of highlights:

1. Alpha’s first question to AOR takes place at around 5 minutes, when he asks AOR to tell us about his blog.

2. My first question/statement takes place at around 8:30, when we begin talking about eugenics.

3. King starts with a statement about eugenics around 16 minutes.  Hitler’s name does get invoked as Godwin said it would, but in this case it may be relevant.  You be the judge.

4. The podcast turns around to HBD and genetic limitations around 30 minutes.

5. We talk mostly about IQ after that.

6. At around 54 minutes, AOR says that poor white kids outperform wealthy black kids.  We asked him to provide proof.  AOR linked a site over here.  I challenge the legitimacy and trustworthiness of the site he linked, and I found a link that actually showed that poor black boys in Britain  outperform poor white boys.  Y’all be the judge.

Thank you again for all stepping up and making your voices heard.  If you’re all not tired out from the original challenge post, sound off like a WOWO below.

Related posts:

1. Podcast: bigWOWO interviews the Alpha Asian
2. Podcast: bigWOWO and the Asian American Movement Blog
3. Literature and Religion: Podcast with Kobukson

It’s been a LONG time since I’ve podcasted.  Nearly a year.  So I was happy to have been able to record a podcast with Kobukson.  It was a great time, and I hope you’ll all give it a listen and hear what he has to say about literary sensibility and the values that come from religion.  The podcast is 27.3 mb and runs for about an hour.  Download it here, or play it here:

I was fascinated by what Kobukson had to say about Free Food For Millionaires (at around 30 min) and the relationships between men and women (“Min Jin, you broke my heart!”).  Kobukson also spoke about history and made some insightful commentary on literature and how it’s important for us as people.  I think that for me personally, this is a topic that I would love to learn more about.  I feel that literature is the vanguard of activism as it applies to us, and the more we talk about it, the better we’ll be able to articulate it.

In terms of length, it may have been good to talk just about literature and to save religion for another day–I felt as if there was much we didn’t get to cover.  The podcast was much longer than the usual target of 45 minutes.  I do think that it was a good topic to discuss however.  I remember a recent conversation with a coworker about being Jewish, and how his Jewish upbringing encouraged him to debate and fight with God.  He spoke about that culture of debate and how it contributed to how Jewish people felt about authority.  Religion is a fascinating concept, and perhaps the religious/cultural issue is one that we should soon revisit.

Anyway, give it a listen and sound of like a WOWO!

Related posts:

1. THX's Frank Chin Podcast
2. Podcast: Interview with Jimmy Aquino
3. Pageant Podcast

It is 22.8 mB, 49:55 long.  I was able to do a direct transfer to mp3 from GarageBand, so this time I won the battle of Mac Powerbook vs. Byron.  The pageant is just two days away, and we wanted to get this up fast, so I didn’t get a chance to edit much.  It’s almost raw footage.  As always, thanks to Instant Conference for use of their recording platform.

I’ll let the podcast speak for itself, but I do have a few comments (as usual!):

1. I’m obviously biased, and so we didn’t get an unbiased moderator.  (I tried to be unbiased, but…well, you’ll hear it.)  Plus, we planned this whole thing only a few days ago.  Thanks to Christina for dealing with our quick production, biased moderator, and amateur setup!

2. In the course of the podcast, Christina mentioned that it was unclear whether Frank Chin supported our pageant.  It occurred to me afterwards that she wasn’t copied on all of the correspondence, and after going back and reading his e-mails, he was even more pro-pageant than I originally remembered.  It was Frank’s idea to create two events on two different days, so with Frank Chin’s permission, here is an excerpt from that e-mail:

Please don’t mount opposing beauty pageants. Combine the pageant and  Curtis’s film casting a critical Chinese-American eye on the American concept of feminine beauty.

A series 9th century opera beauties painted on the insides of glass to make their skin glow with the light of life. Posters of similar beautiful women posing with soap, or a pack of cigarettes, or a cigarette show there were talented and beautifulwomen in China aware of their  short time with beauty just like women here.

This the first ChineseAmerican Beauty Pageant in Oregon.  You know there were others before 2009. Irene Tsu was declared Miss Chinatown USA of 1960(?) The 60′s of Nancy Kwan, Nobu McCarthy, and Jerry Lewis in GASHA BOY,  Miyoshi Umecki the SAYONARA girl with Marlon Brando.  France Nuyen in SOUTH PACIFIC, Lisa Lu with James Stewart in THE MOUNTAIN ROAD

The use of beauty is an animal thing.  The last lines of the BALLAD OF MULAN:  Two rabbits hop side by side/Who can tell who the he and who the she?”The move against a natural, and instinctive behavior is  a religious question.  There is nothing immoral about a beauty pageant.  Oregon knows that their beauty driving the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker to go beyond licking the chops is beauty beyond the law.

Please! It’s in nobody’s interest to shut down the pageant.

3. The point that I wanted to make (and I think I did say it somewhat) is that we’re not all the same.  Some people like to be visible; some don’t.  It goes back to that whole geeks/jocks dichotomy that we discussed before.  People take on different roles in society, and this pageant just happens to focus on intelligent women who have presentation skills.  It doesn’t imply that women without presentation skills are less important or intelligent; it just happens to focus on those who have it.

I for one could never do politics.  I’m not jockish enough, and my own presentation skills are so-so.  But does that mean that jockish politicians are bad?  If politicians speak while writers write, does that mean that politicians are somehow superficial or lacking or inferior?  Essay writing contests, spelling bees, music competitions are great, and they help create a platform for people who write essays, know how to spell, or know how to make music.  This is a competition for young women who know how to speak, walk, create a presence, and stand behind issues that they feel strongly about, skills that are necessary in virtually any career that requires visibility.

Anyway, enjoy the podcast, and as usual, sound off like a WOWO below.

Related posts:

1. Miss Asian Oregon
2. Podcast: Empowered Mentality / Medicine Dilemma
3. Podcast: Anti-Racist Education

The podcast is 20:46 long, 19.0 mB of me, me, me, and me talking mostly about the last week’s rally planning and the Medicine Dilemma (I made up this term because I don’t know what it’s really called)–if your wife were sick and a rich man down the street had medicine in his house, would you be justified in breaking into his house and stealing it?  Is it okay to promote an event based on a narrative that you know is not true?  (As for the real-life event, this talk doesn’t apply to most people at the rally–only I and a few other leaders knew that the hate crime didn’t occur, and one leader was undecided on what to think until just a few hours before the rally.)  This talk mostly revolves around a statement that I’ve heard quite a few times: “Who cares if a hate crime occurred?  We got people together.”

It’s the same old question about whether the ends justifies the means.  I’ve had lots of feedback from people on bigWOWO and people in Portland, and I think I understand the issues better than I understood them last week. 

I used a new mic that I’m borrowing from Curtis.  GarageBand ’08 let me down, so I converted it with another program, thereby creating a very large file.  Oh well.

I also stated that we’re empowered because we live in America.  I realize that not all of us do.  I’m assuming though that most of us live in industrialized countries.

0-1:35: Announcements and small talk.  Be sure to check out my Sam Yoon post.  Support Sam Yoon.  Even $5 helps.

1:50-16:05: Featured talk on the Empowered Mentality and the Medicine Dilemma.

16:20-end: Bonus theory on sports education and the Empowered Mentality.

As always, feel free to agree or disagree below.

Related posts:

1. Podcast: Anti-Racist Education
2. Asian Education Foundation: Podcast
3. Bicoastal Bitchin Podcast

In addition to the written word, we’re going to be using the web to capture a piece of our lives in 2009.  So while you are waiting for the book to come out, please enjoy an awesome 6 minute podcast that I recorded with friend (and one of five Thymos co-founders) Hoang Nguyen this past weekend. I’m not on the podcast; I was just the sound engineer (which consisted of hitting the start button when it started and the pause button when it ended).  See the Thymos page here, download it here, or listen to it here:

Hoang is a refugee from Vietnam who became a U.S. Marine, spent time in the Gulf, and is now a successful businessman.  He talks about how he came to this country, why he joined the Marines, and the advice he would give young Asian Americans.  Check it out, and tell all your friends about the Thymos Book Project.  If you’ve got a connection to Oregon and are an active member of society of Asian American descent, you are eligible to be a part of the Thymos Book Project.  Let us know!

Related posts:

1. Podcast and Other Upcoming Stuff
2. Thymos Book Project 2009
3. Activist Summer Months are Starting