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AAST, AAST - Coggle Diagram

- - - - The Cheat
    - - "Daughter of the Dragon" The subservience of Asian individuals to Whiteness is brought to light when Ling Moy tells Robert, “If I stay, will my hair become golden curls and my skin ivory?” Furthermore, Robert embodies the role of a white savior throughout the film, protecting Ling Moy even though she turns out to be the villain.
      - "The World of Suzie Wong" Robert embodies the role of the white savior. He brings money, prestige, and "Whiteness" into her "world." Even though she is a poor prostitute, he takes her (and her baby!) in. At the end of the movie, he helps Suzie through the heavy rainfall (although her son has already died, which could also symbolize the death of her past as a prostitute). He even names Suzie's baby "Winston" after Winston Churchill. At the end of the film, Suzie's baby dies, signifying Suzie's transformation from a sex worker to Robert's wife, as she sheds her past and looks ahead to the future with her White lover
        
        Very similar to Toll of the Sea ~ Lotus Flower names her baby after Allen. Then, she gives her baby to Elsie (but instead of the baby dying, Lotus Flower dies). This just goes to show the idea of Asian bodies being disposable, even in the presence of a White savior
      - "Gran Torino" ~ Walt appears to embody the white savior complex as he retaliates against the Hmong gang, even though he also uses racial slurs against the poor Asian immigrants in his neighborhood. He is in direct contrast with Thao, who embodies the submissive Asian male stereotype
  - - - No longer able to hide Wil's sexuality
      - "I am not a bad mother. My daughter is not gay"
    - - secure relationship within interracial relationship but less secure in lesbian relationship
      - lesbian relationship is more seen as a comment on parenthood, interracial relationship is seen as a "mistake" by the parent
- - - - limiting Asian voices = during trial, Vincent's mother was forced to speak broken English, but the documentary allows her to speak her native tongue and is given English subtitles
      - argument that Ron and Michael are "the least prejudiced people" "daughter helped a Chinese student at school" opposition's main argument is that the action was not racially motivated
      - White privilege- Ron and Michael get away with a slap on the wrist
  - - - "Daughter of the Dragon" - Fu Manchu played by a White man
      - My Geisha- becoming a Geisha is like a game
        
        Lucy impersonates Japanese culture by posing as a geisha. She uses stereotypes (i.e. changes the way she speaks, wears traditional clothing + makeup, etc.) to play this role.
        
        Reminds me of modern examples of yellowface (e.g. Ghost in the Shell) where White women will gain fame/wealth by imitating Asian women, either through stereotypes linked to behavior (docility, hypersexuality, etc) or through physical attributes (in the case of My Geisha, Lucy achieves this through makeup). In doing so, this not only perpetuates Asian stereotypes, but it also rewards White individuals that engage in yellowface by elevating their social statuses
    - - Ron complains about the"alleged plight (of Asians) in the country"
      - Defense blames the case on media- ("make a tragic story more dramatic so it sells""
    - - Giving a voice to Vietnamese women
        
        Speaking in English
      - Part I: interviews of Vietnamese women about patriarchy; Part II: interviewees interviewed about themselves and their community
      - "Even documentary genre...is unreliable and fabricated" (Mimura)
        
        truth in acknowledgment of fiction
        
        revealed to us that the interviews are fabricated
      - "Surname Viet Given Name Nam" ~ women not necessarily connected by bloodline can still form community; passed down through patriarchal family line; women refer to Vietnam as their husband
      - "truth is not always found in what is visible": what is told to you or what you see is not always what you should believe
  - - - "because of you motherfuckers, we're out of work"
      - competing with Japanese economy in automobile trade ~ what prompts Ronald to kill Vincent
- - - - “East is East and West is West and never the Twain shall meet." This quote stuck out to me as representative of the theme of division between the Orient and the Occident through Mr. Hardy and Mr. Arakau. Mr. Hardy is revered as a "young stock broker" who works hard to provide for his extravagant wife. Mr. Arakau, on the other hand, is called a "Burmese ivory king" who appears to be a friend of Ms. Hardy in the beginning, but slowly reveals his intentions as a sexual deviant, resulting in his sexual assault against Ms. Hardy.
- - - - Scenes of manongs talking, playing billiards, holding a cat, doing mundane things, etc. --> humanizing them
      - traditional Filipino music in the background
        
        theme: striving to find happiness in a hateful environment
      - elderly are unaware of the systems and laws working against them --> they just know how it affects them
      - Manong = way of showing respect to elderly = what they call the elderly
    - - Accused of taking their jobs
    - - interracial relationships
      - emphasis on I hotel as sense of community and place for friendship
    - - ruling against "buy back plan"
      - "hotel" becomes their permanent residence= they don't have a true place in America
      - chaos and protests
      - police forcibly remove elderly residents
    - - what little community these people have was taken away from them
  - - - Reluctant fundamentalist- Asian man and White woman ~ very different dynamic; this relationship is less strigmatized
      - Black man and Asian woman ~ interesting that we see racial stereotypes on both sides; however, Black people in this film are more looked down upon.
        
        Parallel between Black Africans forcibly displacing Jay and his family + Jay alienating Black Americans by disproving of Mina's relationship with Demetrius
        
        Model minority myth- another representation of Asian individuals and Black individuals being compared with one another
        
        ~ 1:14:00 “Asians have milked the cow but not fed it. Africans are poor. Asians are rich…They have refused to allow their daughters to marry Africans. They have been here 70 years"
        
        Asians only came to Uganda to fix railway- again, a strictly economic relationship but refusal to mix communities
        
        Demetrius' business slogan: "Your dirt is our bread and butter"
        
        Black labor used to promote Asian immigrant success
        
        Callbacks to slavery
        
        Strictly economic relationship between the two racial groups
        
        References to skin color//colorism within the Asian community
        
        (Mina = dark skin is seen as less attractive)
        
        Demetrius points out to Jay that their skin tones are closer to one another, but Asians have less struggle due to their proximity to Whiteness
        
        Demetrius and Mina end up in voluntary exile
      - Interracial love and intimacy
      - Jay and Okelo's relationship- Okelo forces Jay to leave; Okelo's death - Jay's death as a Ugandan
    - - Where is home? After Jay is forced out of Uganda, he s unable to fully feel at home in America (with a constant goal in mind to get back to Uganda). However, when he returns to Uganda, he no longer feels as though he belongs there. This reminds me of how many Asian immigrants (including myself) feel like they don't truly belong to a certain nationality. In America, I will always feel like an outsider due to the racial hierarchy in place. But I also don't feel like I truly belong in the Philippines either, as I have grown up a Filipino American, and the cultural/language divide grows the longer I am in America
    - - In the arms of Demetrius singing happy birthday to her like her father does ~ interracial intimacy
      - past trauma- young Mina says a dead body; childhood marked by violence (memory and trauma)
  - - - "All Americans think about is their own happiness"
        
        Asian Americans being put down for pursuing their own dreams instead of putting family first. Oftentimes, the "family first" ideal in Asian culture can be detrimental to individual Asian American identity. Becoming "American" is blamed as the reason for loss of Asian ideals
        
        Rachel being "too Asian" in the US versus "not Asian enough" in Singapore
    - - Astrid and Michael
        
        Astrid leaves the relationship wearing Burmese pearl drop earring
        
        toxic masculinity
      - Rachel and Nick
    - - Asian vs. White, rich vs. poor
      - Proximity to Whiteness leads to social success (i.e. Capitalism)
    - - Reminds me of issues we see in lots of Asian films- Daughter of the Dragon, Jo Koy's "Easter Sunday" ~ representation is GOOD but we hold these films/media to a lower standard of quality/even allow them to perpetuate microagressions or stereotypes
- - - - "Destroy the enemy and break the illusion" Quote is referring to Lee's task of destroying Han. In the end, Lee and Han dance around a hall of mirrors until Han is defeated. Enemy = Oriental view of Asianness
      - Asian masculinity- "use emotion, not anger" = allowing Asian men a space to show emotion
- - - - cuts from one clip of Vincent's mother crying, and the next is Rin complaining about the jail cell conditions and how he would be missing father's day --> White privilege!
      - shows how the tragedies of people of color are equated to minor inconveniences for White people