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EN326: Arts of Gender, Asian Narratives, Western Narratives, The…

- - - - The students’ frustration with the Asian American’s experiences of repression reflect the harm of the ‘model minority’ stereotype and the perceived ‘benefit’ of being associated with this trope. So strong is this perception that white society, the one which has perpetuated these very ideas, feels more entitled to focus on its own discomfort than the burden placed on Asian Americans. In this way, ‘white tears’ reassign victimhood away from Asian Americans and onto themselves.
      - Yamada accurately depicts the lived experience of many Asian Americans (and especially Asian American women). The lack of autonomy in one’s actual decision making cannot truly exist if one can only opt for choices preselected for them, and such is the experience of Asian Americans like Yamada. Under the guise of having lived freely, she unintentionally relaxes her defenses, allowing casual racism and micro-aggressions to pervade her life half undetected until she realizes she is expected to accept these realities without a fight.
      - The use of Spanish in the preface (amidst a paragraph written otherwise in English) without translation stands out as a defiant act of establishing oneself, planting down one’s mother tongue unapologetically within the English language which constricts even the most intersectional and radical ideas of the writers. The preface conveys this feeling of being mired in the overarching structures of colonialism and stresses the importance of actively unlearning its messages in order to achieve true ‘freedom.’
- - - - Sui Sin Far
        
        Its Wavering Image
        
        Mark Carson insists that Pan, of Chinese and white descent, be only a white woman—what he calls "her real self" (63). It is of particular significance that despite Pan welcoming him into her life and introducing him to Chinese culture (something that he admittedly enjoys), Carson only tolerates the East from a distance, much like how the West subscribes to their own narrative of 'Orientalism' but refuses to actually engage with the realities of the East itself. The East, in spite of all its objectifiable beauty and allure, remains inferior and primitive in comparison with the West.
        
        In Carson's eyes, a Eurasian is simply a white person hosting a Chinese parasite, one which is necessarily shed to become their 'true' selves. To be Eurasian is to have to make a choice, with choosing whiteness as the correct one.
        
        Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian
        
        "China is a heathen country being civilized by England" (218). Sui internalizes this concept at a young age, even recoiling at Chinese men she perceives as 'uncouth' in her youth. Her father, a white man, generally chooses ignorance over the realities of Sui and her sibling's lives as they navigate being half white and half Chinese in a world unwilling to accept this binary. Even with her mother, who is more understanding of their predicament, Sui says "I am different to both of them—a stranger, though their own child" (222).
        
        The conversation at the dinner table between Sui's employer and the other guests on page 224 discusses the perceived alienness of the Chinese body and soul from the West. Sui finds herself in earshot of such comments regularly, a mark of how comfortable people are in confiding such racist sentiments when they believe her to be white. To be of mixed race then, in most Eurasians' experience, is to fail to fit either racial category and the associated stereotypes of each category, resulting in much discomfort throughout their lives. Many cope instead by passing as half-Japanese, the more likable Asian alternative.
    - - Asian/American
        
        What does it mean to be Asian American? The term, most commonly used in its hyphenated form, is one which creates a subset of Americans, a fact that serves both to unify and divide. Asian Americans find unity among themselves within this subset, indulging in certain shared cultural characteristics or experience—yet the term also divides those within the group and isolates the group as a whole from other Americans. The term Asian American, in attempting to encompass the many diverse countries of Asia under one moniker, inevitably fails to represent all Asian identities. For instance, what it means and how it is perceived to be East Asian American varies in distinct ways from the South Asian American experience, revealing facets of the 'Asian American' identity that are far from adequately captured in the term.
        
        Palumbo-Liu notes the mutual impact Asia and America have had on each other both physically and ideologically; what it means to be Asian/American, in particular, is shaped by this mutual impact (7-8). He argues for the '/' rather than the hyphenated form of Asian American, suggesting that it presents a more seamless way of "sliding over" these two terms (1). Aditionally, he discusses the Asian American identity through three forms: body, psyche, space. These three forms represent the ways the Asian American identity can, in his opinion, be considered on the physical and cultural levels.
        
        In some ways, the '/' does offer more choices in how an Asian American may choose to identify and label themselves. At the very least it seems to avoid the constraints of the hyphen, which suggests the two identities as almost inextricably linked (and the Asian as an afterthought and adjective to describe the primary identity of being American). However, for any changes to the term to hold real weight, they must be accompanied by America's frank recognition and reexamination of the Asian American identity in the forms that Palumbo-Liu outlines—the Asian American body, psyche, and space.
  - - - Shimizu argues that the identity of the Asian American woman is inextricably linked with the hypersexual nature ascribed to it. As such, discussions of the Asian female identity must also address and reclaim this hypersexuality rather than rejecting it as a racist sexuality because the sexual nature of the Asian female is so ingrained that it would "never be allowed to actually disappear" without erasing her identity altogether (97, 100). Only through reclaiming and rewriting the historical sexual stereotypes attributed to the Asian female can there be a future exploration of the Asian female identity without these historical constraints.
        
        Representation, Shimizu says, tries to visualize the subconscious for its producers and audience, thus reinforcing the cultural/social fantasies and realities of Asian American women (99). Through representation, the idea of the hypersexual Asian woman gained a sort of tangibility and permanence in the Western conscious.
        
        Shimizu's focus is the hypersexuality of the East Asian woman specifically because the sexuality of the Asian man is considered on the opposite side of this spectrum, drawing distinct gendered lines for the perceived sexuality of Asian people. Asians that identify as other genders are considered as a whole other category, 'othered' twice for both their race and their lack of conformity to heteronormative standards, the latter of which is explored in Foucault's work.
        
        Speaking on gender as a whole, there is a kind of eroticism that producers and audiences enjoy engaging in wherein our expectations are subverted with something not traditionally expected in sexual narratives, such as the woman dominating the man. Asian women are considered even more submissive than other women, so the role of the dragon lady is especially interesting in representation as it ostensibly represents a ‘subversion’ of the docile, submissive Asian woman when it still remains within the limits of the Asian woman’s hypersexuality—it is simply a tangential branch of Orientalism where Asian women are allowed a ‘dominating’ side, but stay true to the mysterious, sexual objects of desire trope as is expected from Orientalism.
  - - - In M. Butterfly, the men of the story regard women as sexual, disposable, and objectified beings; in particular, Oriental women are hypersexual, more disposable, and more objectified than their white counterparts. In fact, every line of the play reminds the audience of this, the inescapable presence of hypersexuality as a defining characteristic of Asian women. Besides Butterfly, women are referred to as, among other things: bargains, "quick leap up the career ladder," divas, lotus blossoms, little flower, little treasure, vessel etc. Animal behaviors are also attributed to Oriental women, such as them "eating out of [Pinkerton's] hand" or "caught [like] a butterfly who would writhe on a needle."
      - The dichotomy between the Western and Oriental woman is personified in the characters of Song and Renee. Both women are described as beautiful and sexual with Gallimard, but the ways these characteristics manifest in them are very different. Gallimard actively pursues, degrades, and manipulates the 'delicate' and 'modest' Song, the butterfly who is trained to 'writhe on a needle.' Following her loaded remarks on the white-pandering nature of M. Butterfly, she is necessarily put in her place of submission at his feet before he deigns to grace her with his presence. "Picture perfect" and promiscuous Renee all but throws herself at Gallimard on their first encounter, but her overeagerness is perceived as "too masculine" by Gallimard, who bristles at her casual talk of men's penises and the dick measuring contest that is war.
      - The Asian female main character, Song Liling, is referred to as Butterfly rather than her real name by the male main character, Rene Gallimard, who is so enamored by the fantasy presented in the Western opera Madame Butterfly that he projects the story onto his own life. In this way, he can justify his own parallel reality of being an entirely lackluster white man who asserts his power over the delicate, modest, and submissive Oriental woman. Female fragility is especially reinforced by the contrast of Oriental women to Gallimard and Pinkerton, who are aware that they are far from the Western 'masculine ideal,' and yet so fragile is the Oriental woman that "even [they] could protect [Butterfly], take her home, pamper her until she smiled."
      - Puccini's Madame Butterfly sells a fantasy for the average Western man, who is led to believe that their chances with the perfect, docile, eager to please Asian wife are not only possible, but preordained. Hwang underscores this point through Marc's character, Gallimard's brash friend who he blames as the bad influence on his life. In their conversations, Marc encourages Gallimard to pursue his chance with Song, who Marc claims "cannot help" but feel desire towards Gallimard, since such is the relationship between the Oriental woman and the white man. Other phrases Marc uses, such as it being "in his blood" and his destiny, reinforce the idea that Gallimard's acquisition of 'Butterfly' is somehow inevitable and fully deserved.
      - Act 2, Scene 7: "All he wants is for her to submit. Once a woman submits, a man is always ready to become generous." The participation in the subjugation of the self in order to be considered as a subject, as though to be degraded is to at least be recognized.
      - The subservient position of the Oriental woman is best depicted in Gallimard's dialogue near the end of Act 2, Scene 6. After facing work troubles, he decides whether to visit Renee or Song and chooses Song because he wanted a vessel to contain [his] humiliation. This follows after weeks of him relishing the silent obedience and distress of Song as he maintains his affair with Renee, basking in Song's unwillingness to confront him--as was expected from her. That his return to her is premised on the same expectation of obedience, of her ability to carry his humiliation, reveals her disposability to him.
      - Through Song’s testimony in Act 3, Hwang delivers a stark commentary on Orientalism and what he calls the “rape mentality” of Western men towards Eastern women. It is by weaponizing these very expectations through behavior learned from his Chinese prostitute mother that Song so successfully manipulates Gallimard. So successful is this manipulation that Gallimard chooses to die in order to live within the realms of his imagination, where the core themes of Oriental submissiveness and white dominance in Madame Butterfly opera ring true. Unable to face the complex racial and societal implications of his sexuality, Gallimard is blissful in delusion instead.
      - In Song’s testimony, he remarks that Gallimard’s refusal to recognize Song’s true gender is steeped, in part, on Gallimard’s steadfast beliefs in Western-constructed Orientalism. As dictated by the feminine, sexual nature of Orientalism, an Oriental man is never truly a man, and this sentiment no doubt influenced Gallimard’s ability to ignore the obvious. His blindness at having acquired the “Perfect Woman” was accompanied by the sense that he was fulfilling a kind of destiny guaranteed by his position as a white man, so Song’s self-Orientalizing and self-subjugating behavior simply fed into what Gallimard considered a necessarily true dynamic between them.
      - Gallimard is so convinced of his destiny with Madame Butterfly that when he is confronted with Song’s masculinity in Act 3, he chooses death to maintain his fantasies. After literally throwing Song out of his imagination in Act 3 Scene 2, Gallimard realizes he himself must take upon the role of Madame Butterfly to keep his fantasy alive (and then commits sepukku, as is the final act of Madame Butterfly in the opera); this choice may also represent his unwillingness to stray from the societal heteronormative standards—if Song is a man, then he, Gallimard, must be a woman.
- - - - Orientalism can be considered as (a) an academic discipline, (b) a style of thought, and (c) a form of Western power over the East. In all its definitions, Said notes that the concept of Orientalism is one born of the Western conscious with no input or resistance from those of 'The Orient' (8). As history is man-made by those with the power to choose what to include in history, such is the case with Orientalism's relationship with the actual 'Orient.'
- - - - Edith Hardy - the innocent wife. Frequently goes behind her doting husband's back and is characterized as materialistic yet naive. Dressed in light colors indicative of her femininity/purity, which is corrupted by the evil foreigner Haka Arakau; the only scenes when she is dressed in dark clothing are the ones where she stands up to Arakau. To the very end she is portrayed as the victim to Arakau’s manipulations—the classic white damsel in distress.
      - Haka Arakau - the Cheat, the 'exotic,' mysterious Asian man that serves a mostly ornamental purpose, appearing at Edith's side in different social events, before he fully steps into his role as the film's villain. At the beginning of the film, he is specifically introduced as a foreigner, and within the film's scenes, is constantly surrounded by cultural objects that remind the viewer of his inherent 'alienness' to the West. His role is reminiscent of xenophobic, propagandic narratives of the cruel, cunning foreigner that cheats the honest white man and corrupts the innocent white woman.
      - Richard Hardy - the hardworking white family man established through his desire to provide for his wife. Characterized as the dependable, logical, husband. He tries to take the fall for his wife and even forbids her from taking accountability for shooting Arakau.
- - - - What specifically motivates the public interest in sex, Foucault argues, is the complex relationship between power and pleasure that had developed in the 19th century through the societal urge to "manage" sexuality (41). This form of management, which had evolved from the "simple prohibition" of the earlier centuries, had four major implications: (1) the ever-expanding power that sought to regulate sexuality while simultaneously allowing it to exist and even thrive, (2) the personification of sexual sin, suggesting that the nature of those who committed certain sins (such as sodomy) could be innately defined by those sins (a homosexual "species"), (3) the power and pleasure experienced by both the regulators of sexuality and the 'perverts,' and (4) modern society's own "blatant" but regulated perversity.
      - Foucault seems to suggest that modern society's focus is not on repressing sexuality but on maintaining a firm foothold on directing the circumstances in which sexuality could take place--the regulated spheres wherein it is allowed, under society’s heteronormative terms, to exist. Yet Foucault doesn’t seem to acknowledge that this regulation also serves to repress, that the two can coexist and the recognition of different sexualities does not equate to what is necessary in the discourse on different sexualities—genuine acceptance without policing.
- - - - To adopt an oppositional gaze is to be able to watch and critique movies for what they really are. Black women, in Hooks’ experience, either watch movies while trying to ignore the racism on screen or don’t watch movies at all. An oppositional gaze—choosing not to look away, but also looking clearly without delusion—allows Hooks to delve deeper in films and examine their themes critically.
      - Bell Hooks distinguishes between femininity as a whole and black femininity, a concept which is weaponized in film and largely overlooked in feminist film literature. Black femininity, she argues, is in many ways conceived and perceived by the film industry and its audiences. It often serves the role of upholding the white woman’s ‘pure’ femininity by providing a ‘less desirable’ contrast. Feminist film literature that attempts to explore such concepts of femininity often conflate black femininity in their talks of women on the screen as a whole, ignoring the fact that these discussions really only describe the white woman in movies.
      - Such an issue also exists in Asian representation. The Asian woman serves as an exotic, sexualized plaything that distracts and misleads its white male protagonists from their beautiful white female soulmates. The white woman’s innocence and purity as a woman is reaffirmed through the Asian woman’s ‘temptress’ presence. Like Hooks, Asian women must adopt an oppositional gaze in enjoying such film or media—aware of both the film’s stereotyped, white supremacist agendas as well as the other themes or messages it is attempting to convey.