The Conversation
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
- Siegfried: If it was a Russian or any other white man who told blacks”to go back to Africa”, it would...
- Raguel: I saw that Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing” years ago but still can’t understand it.
- bigWOWO: Stele: “Care to qualify that statement? Even if that were true, you have to look at this case on its...
- Two podcasts that address racism in the military, and Danny Chen the person (9)
- Raguel: The origins of racism in the American military as described by loudestfuckingazns is accurate. Very recently,...
- bigWOWO: Sorry, Larry, just noticed that the spam robot junked your comment. Approved!
- bigWOWO: Agreed. It just has more weight if you include your name. Not that the ideas are any less valid, but it just...
- Facebook IPO (5)
- King: Actually WOWO, I bump into plenty of Asians up at the Art Center College of Design http://www.artcenter.edu/a...
- bigWOWO: Agree with King. This might not be a bad thing for Asian Americans to hear about. We can jump off the STEM...
- Raguel: People are too accustomed to thinking about value only in terms of money. Even artists are guilty of it. Some...
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (7)
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- Raguel: Following the temporary shelving of SOPA and PIPA in the long line of net neutrality battles, the feds and...
- Chr..: “Asian American men have to get more involved, not less. It’s a civic responsibility, and you have to...
- Activism is as activism does (10)
- trolldetector: Brooks also goes onto say ‘You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of...
- bigWOWO: By the way, speaking of activism, there was a great David Brooks column recently. He talks about how people...
- Raguel: I have no experience whatsoever with activism. I simply do not feel safe participating in it. There is always...
- How to Win a Streetfight (18)
- bigWOWO: No worries. I feel the same way. Nothing against her, but just doubtful.
- Raguel: Hi Byron! I’ve been occupied doing a lot of reading and thinking recently. I suppose its just another...
- bigWOWO: Hey Raguel, What about your comments on ASSK?
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
- What Cultures Value (19)
- UFC 117 Sonnen vs. Silva Recap (1)
- bigWOWO: I think Michael Bisping solved the Chael Sonnen puzzle today, even though he lost a controversial decision....
- 6 on 1 Beatdown of Asian Man (36)
- King: “I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima...
- SWR: Apparently the girl in the second video was not the girl who filmed the fight. It was probably unwise of her to...
- Raguel: I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima in...
- Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan (Review) (6)
- bigWOWO: Jeff, You called it! They were (if I recall correctly) 7 (twins) and 2. He’s still in the honeymoon...
- jeffat8asians: “Overpaying?” With the possible exception of college tuition (and even that is arguable),...
- Hitler: Kids suck lol.
- The Asian Rock Thread (16)
- ben: I’ve been getting into Asian rock music recently so thank you all very much for uploading all these videos.
- Simple Pickup on ABC News (132)
- Tommy: I think I’m coming here more for Moro’s comments than BigWoWO’s posts.
- Moroboshi: I didn’t say that. All I said was guys who believe in HBD are the same guys who probably also follow...
- Chr..: Moro, I don’t want to argue with you anymore! You seem to think that AMs are just as popular as other...
- “Lazy” Americans and the Decline of the American Middle Class (6)
- bigWOWO: But kobu, how can we have literature and art without money to support artists and writers? About...
- kobukson: I don’t know why everyone seems to think the notion of the decline of the middle class is such a bad...
- bigWOWO: There are a lot of veterans (supposedly) on that site. I can kind of understand it–military guys are...
- Aung Sung Suu Kyi Movie with Michelle Yeoh (45)
- bigWOWO: Eurasian, Lee Kuan Yew has always been upfront about Singapore’s hybrid system. To the best of my...
- Eurasian Sensation: @ BigWowo: New governments following independence or a major power struggle often have the sort...
- N: @bww And ironically, one of the rare democratic successes in the region that is Singapore behaves much closer to a...
- Paper Pushers by the Stunt People (4)
- Andre M. Smith: I divide my year annually between New York and Shanghai. One of my common visitations in the latter...
- Raguel: Smiley tests 8 )
8( - Raguel: ROFL! Thank you for thoroughly destroying Amy Chua, Andre. WELL SAID ^_^ You know the destruction is so...
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (245)
- Andre M. Smith: I believe some useful purpose will be served by offering here, what the lawyers might like to call,...
- N: What’s your opinion on Yundi Li and Yoyo Ma.
- Andre M. Smith: Amy Chua has never lived in China. Her understanding of its culture, that is, the culture as it’s...
- How to Finish Life With No Regrets (9)
- trolldetector: ^ i’d agree with that. but i wouldnt call them ‘idiots’, just misguided. crazy media...
- N: Agree with Jeff that not one regret is unlikely, the key is learn from it. Another way to look at it is that...
- American Jobs and India (14)
- lingyai: I am not sure what happen there with my name, that is not my email, so just ignore.
- lingyai@hotmail.com: @bigwowo Just because the average income in India is $2 a day doesn’t make a person...
- AM/AF couple: Nottyboy, Yes, just like every place of employment, upper management needs to do a better job in terms...
- Literary Fiction vs. Realistic Fiction and the Literary Hierarchy (6)
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
I wouldn’t say...
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
- National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 (32)
- Raguel: http://www.occupydream.org/ ^ I heard about this from Russell Simmons. I hope that things develop well to...
- Raguel: So is that the reasoning for why you don’t need the right to due process? Are you some kind of fucking...
- N: @King The constitution gave power to the states to benefit white america or the constitution gave benefitial power...
- When Your Fan Base is Full of Crazy People (24)
- N: @American girl Too be honest, I don’t really see why this video that ‘disgusting’ –...
- Mitt Romney and the Problem of Wealth (6)
- Raguel: Where do people get their information and knowledge from, though? Media, and education, word of mouth only...
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
Tag Archives: media
The Shanghai Hotel (Review of Trailer)
I love the beginning of this trailer. They start talking about human trafficking and how bad it is, like they’re performing some kind of public service or something. Then all of a sudden, they cut to some half-nekkid Asian women and good ol’ Asian thugs! They’ve got an oily White dude getting all horny with handcuffs in front of Eugenia Yuan, and some mean and violent yakuza (oh wait…is that Japanese?). They’ve also got some Black guys in it, although I’m not sure how they’re related to the rest of the movie. (You can guess this movie is written and produced by a Black guy (Jerry Allen Davis) because most White Orientalist writers seem to forget Black people exist when it comes to half-dressed Asian prostitutes and violent Asian thugs.)
The Flowers of War is the Most Expensive Chinese Film Ever
"Looking sexy, Mr. White Man."
The Flowers of War is the most expensive Chinese film ever. The NY Times reports:
“Made at a cost of more than $90 million, part of which came from Chinese government sources, “The Flowers of War” is the most expensive Chinese film ever made.”
After experiencing the nationalistic ridiculousness that is Ip Man, and now seeing this ridiculous history-justified-by-the-presence-of-a-White-man film, I think I can safely say that Beijing needs to get out of the movie-approval and movie-promotion business. Sorry, Chinese propaganda doesn’t have the same appeal here that it might over there. It’s not the Chinese government’s forte.
The Hoodwinking of Asian America
"“I had read nothing like this before, so it almost feels like I’ve lived my life to this point in preparation for this role.” --Actress Jennifer Lim
I saw this yesterday. It’s about David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and it was one of the most e-mailed articles. Thank goodness it was Thanksgiving, and I knew better than to let the orientalists ruin my day. Even after all these years, I’m always surprised at the propaganda that certain Asian American playwrights and film producers throw at us.
Screen Time and Education
I saw these two seemingly contradictory articles in the NY Times recently.
The first article was about a rich, private school in Silicon Valley which discourages the use of technology as a learning tool: At Waldorf School in Silicon Valley, Technology Can Wait. Parents, many of whom work at Apple, Google, EBay, and Yahoo, pay thousands of dollars to send their kids to this school, and yet there isn’t a single computer on campus. Instead they learn with pens, paper, and bright colored chalk. One father who is a Google employee says:
The Heineken Ad and the Power of Money
A friend reminded me of the ad above, created by Heineken, shot in an exotic location with lots of fluffy Asian-esque theatrics going on, and starring our favorite combo: a super cool White guy and an attractive Asian woman. He wanted to know what I thought of it. Eurasian Sensation posted on this a while ago (see here), and I pretty much agreed with everything he wrote. I think this kind of racial coupling is way overdone, and I think the media have typed themselves into a corner. People have stopped wanting to learn more about how cool Asian chicks think White guys are, don’t want to know how much they’re meant for each other, and don’t want to hear about how loving and caring East and West can be when there’s a White man and an Asian woman involved. People just accept it without being interested in hearing more.
The Asian Guy in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
Check out Jeff Yang’s latest column here. Some of you Asian American blogosphere experts probably heard about the protest against the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservatory’s screening of Breakfast at Tiffany’s. As you Bruce Lee fans know, Breakfast has a scene with Mickey Rooney portraying Mr. Yunioshi and acting like a stereotype (there was that scene in Dragon where Bruce and Linda go to see the movie together). With the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservatory’s screening, some Asian Americans have opted to protest.
“Akira” Looking for White Guys to Play Asian Guys
I was asked to publicize this post by Racebending.com: Akira adaptation courts white actors. Hollywood is turning the Japanese graphic novel Akira into a movie, and they’re turning the Japanese main characters into White main characters. From racebending.com:
For the role of Tetsuo: Robert Pattinson, Andrew Garfield and James McAvoy.
For the role of Kaneda: Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Chris Pine, Justin Timberlake and Joaquin Phoenix.
Hollywood is once again playing its old games. First 21, then the Last Airbender, and now Akira. (That’s oversimplifying it, of course. Racebending happens all the time when the originals happen to be Asian.)
Gatekeepers and Phantom Players
This post comes from a combination of three web-based writings that I’ve seen on the web. The first was this hilarious post by Abagond, about the six blind men touching an elephant.
In the post, he talks about how each blind man has an opinion on what an elephant is: the guy who touches the tusks thinks it’s like a spear, the guy who touches the side thinks it’s like a wall, the one who touches the trunk thinks it’s a snake, and so on. In Abagond’s example, however, the guy who touches the trunk and believes he’s touching a snake is the only English speaking white man, and because he owns CNN, the NY Times, the top universities, and all the other media channels, the world comes to believe that elephants are snakes.
Posted in Asian American, Features, Knowledge, media
Tagged 21, Ben Mezrich, Gatekeepers, media, publishing
72 Comments
David Blackwell, First Black Tenured Professor at Berkeley, Dies at 91
David Blackwell
I caught this obituary in the NY Times: David Blackwell, Scholar of Probability, Dies at 91. He was the first black tenured professor at Berkeley as well as the first black scholar admitted to the National Academy of Sciences. He was an expert on game theory and probability. If you read his bio, it’s fascinating how he succeeded despite the racial obstacles that society presented.
Teaching Apple to Really "Think Different"
Congratulations, King: 1st EVER Winner of the bigWOWO award! In doing so, he invented the category of “creative interference.” (Check the sidebar for my new page for award winners.)
It’s not often that someone sends me something so funny that I cry! I literally had tears in my eyes when I saw this one. Here’s King’s winning entry to the unplanned contest (see text below for explanation). Click the image to see the full size version:
In an earlier post, Robert clued us on to Apple’s new advertising campaign. If you check out the new iPhone video, as King mentions, you have not one…but TWO Asian Female/White Male pairings in a ROW. What are the chances of that?
Posted in Activism, Asian American, media, Strategy
Tagged advertising, Asian American, interracial relationships, media
91 Comments
