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Min's AAST355 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Where is the progression from The Cheat? Asians are still stereotyped to be obssessed with wealth and materialism unless they have been Americanized.
  - - - : There is a clear hierarchy within families, with the eldest members often holding significant authority. Younger family members are expected to obey and defer to their elders.
      - Respect for Elders: Younger generations are expected to obey and honor their parents' wishes and decisions. Rachel's dilemma regarding Nick's mother's disapproval of their relationship is a prime example of this.
      - Eleanor Young expect Rachel to prioritize the family's interests over her own happiness.
  - - - Discrepancies in response to Asian American representations result from differing views of "cultural citizenship"
      - Lopez suggests we turn to advertising as a generous site of analysis in critiquing Asian American representations
      - Rise of digital and social media forms enables Asian Americans to self-produce their own content and bypass barriers to access/entry that exist in traditional media forms (TV/film)
      - "Asian American media activists view cultural citizenship as a collective endeavor that cannot be accomplished at the level of the individual" (Lopez 5).
  - - - rests on belief that only way to liberate oneself from anti-Asian racism is to "climb the ranks of hierarchy"; falsely assumes that Asian liberation comes through vertical ascension within existing hierarchy
  - - - ETHNIC RACIAL IDENTITY (ERI) of Asian Americans affected by:
      - 1) perpetual foreigner stereotype: produces identity conflict by insinuating Asian Americans don’t belong
      - 2) acculturative stress: “psychological burden that stems from acquiring the cultural characteristics of the new country one immigrates to” (203) - compounded by cultural incompatibility and discrimination
      - 3) model minority myth: internalization of myth could lead to psychological distress and rejection from own ethnic/racial group
      - 4) media: inaccurate and negative representations of Asian Americans can affect identity development; a bit of a departure from Desai (“Film,” Keywords in AA Studies): “representation itself is neither positive nor negative, but is always produced through and in relation to power”
- - - - Lotus Flower meaning:
        Eastern: purity and enlightenment
        Western: can perpetuate exoticism
      - narrative of Eastern subordination to the West, with her sacrificial act of giving her child away to Elise serving the happiness of the Western characters in the story.
      - Eastern culture, represented by Lotus Flower, portrayed to highlight perceived Western norms, values, or superiority.
    - - Lotus Flower embodies multiple Orientalist stereotypes — she's submissive, tragic, and devoted to a Western man who ultimately abandons her.
      - Fetishization: to the Western male gaze, fulfilling stereotypes of submissive and sensual Asian women
    - - Interracial Relationships: Complexities of an interracial relationship between a Chinese woman and a white American man
        
        Lotus Flower's love for a white American man( who eventually leaves her)= tragic tropes of interracial relationships in early American cinema.
        
        Colonial undertones; where the man returns to his "roots"
- - - - aspirations for Ivy League school
      - Apart of diff academic clubs
    - - Academic Pressure: Other students think that Ben is one of the smartest students so they cheat off of him
      - Cheating scandal; Ben agrees to make cheat sheets and sell them with the help of Daric, Jesus, and eventually Virgil + Han (monetary)
      - Prep for Decathalon: taking shots, staying up to study
      - Future careers: wants to play pro basketball, narrative of smart (dont you want to be a doctor)
      - Asians are polite, law abiding people: Violence (fight, murder) , Shoplifting by Ben
  - - - Steve: cool detached, seduce any girl
      - outfits go against stereotypical represetnation of AA men and emphaszies his masculintiy
      - first AA male character seen to seduce a white woman
    - - Rivalry reveals complexity in the characters
        
        Sexual desire mor eevident thorughout the film; driving force for many of Ben's decision
        
        Compairson: AA lead is not putting feelkings aside, instead he is pursuing them
  - - - It's a downhill snowball
    - - plotting to double cross steve after asking for help to steal from his parents; control over steve eventually leads ben to kill him
      - within group, want for poewr and control-- han beats up virigl
  - - - Adolescent discconect from adult world : rebellious world
      - characters have agency
  - - - AA woman for being seen as a porn star, but movie never shows her in that way
      - Stephanie is left uncondemended; Debunks myth but also shows stereotypes do not matter
      - does not impact movie significantly
      - audience should not try to fit icharacters into stereotypes
    - - each inidivdual seems to have different perosnalities, stereotype loses its meaning
  - - - Hypersexualization of Asian Women: exotic, mysterious, submissive
      - Identity: loyalty for Asian parent vs. love for American partner
    - - Hypersexualization of Asian Women: exotic, objectified, submissive
      - Success: the couple’s careers vs. the students’ academics/power
- - - - Comparison between the Suzie and Kay accentuates/demonstrates the foundational sexual implications of Suzie’s character before we arrive at the blatant hypersexualization.
      - 1:21:28 - 1:22:13 Suzie threatens Robert’s removed frame of reference in his coloring of Suzie as a sexually available and submissive (less-than) human. She brings his associated ‘immorality’ to his world by reminding him of the ways in which he contributes to that prescription.
        So he calls her a “cheap European streetwalker” and assaults her. In his self-given claim to her sexual availability, he assaults her by removing her clothes that 1) embody that threatening familiarity 2) that assert Suzie’s sexualized power over her identity and 3) that serve as the barrier to be removed between Suzie’s open body and sexual availability and Robert.
        
        Recuperating Suzie Wong: "for tearing off her clothes does not make her look less like a prostitute, only less like a Western one. As long as Suzie is in her cheongsam or her lingerie, Robert is able to see her as Oriental first, prostitute second or not at all."
  - - - Gina Marchetti.; Romance and the Yellow Peril
        
        Salvation stories posit the white hero or heroine as an irresistible moral force that ‘saves’ the Asian lover from the evils or excesses of his or her decadent culture"
        
        “... the hero’s ability to define their lover’s identity is rationalized by the initial presentation of the heroines as confused, divided personalities…” (Marchetti)
        
        reflects the justification of American domination of Asia through its purported enlightenment and exceptionalism. It’s okay that Suzie goes from being defined by her difficult situation to being defined entirely by Robert because her situation demanded it, and she wanted it. This is reflected in her attempt to become more like Kay, to join in the Western morality.
        
        “ The white knight fantasy is a female fantasy. It represents the desire to … escape from poverty and despair through the agency of a male hero.” (Marchetti)
        
        "Asia tends to be a flirtation with the exotic rather than an attempt at genuine intercultural understanding" (1)
      - Narrative types reflect different aspects of public’s perception of the East
      - White savior tropes portray Asia, especially Asian women, as helpless, in need of saving
        
        Justifies intense, relentless US imperialism in the region
      - Robert
        
        1:01:09 - 1:02:06 - Robert avenges Suzie after she is beaten
        
        Couds the potential critique of the dangers of Western colonialism that could have been drawn from it by inserting an American hero, contradicting that very notion that Western imperialism is dangerous, but placing more of that negative onto the British.
        
        1:26:54 - 1:28:07 - “It just kills me. Let me take care of you.”
        
        Suzie as vulnerable, in need of saving; left behind by Ben, the British bum
        
        Robert’s contempt for her, her culture, and her forced immorality
        
        Suzie’s attempt to conform to his ideal morality
        
        1:50:45 - 1:50:50 - “Mister, will you take me with you please?”
        
        notion of Asian female fragility and submissiveness from Suzie to the rest of Hong Kong/Asia
        
        1:52:30 - 1:53:21 - “I could have changed that; that’s what I didn’t understand.”
        
        Suzie’s romantic appeal seems to be defined only by her physical beauty and her vulnerability, which makes her ripe for improvement. Robert wants to be the one to fix her, to be the one to change her into a good American woman. It’s similar to how the star male of the movie in My Geisha was far more attracted to Yokomori when he found out she was a virgin.
  - - - Surface Level :
        
        Almost seems progressive as interracial couple ends together, has baby
        
        Robert pushes back on the British
- - - - 1:17:30 (“The Western woman is no match for you…[she] can learn a lot form you)
      - • 1:14:40 (“They’re friendly…like puppies”)
      - • 1:05:30 (Bob attempts non- consensual sex; hari kiri)
      - • 1:54:11 (”No one before my husband, not even I”)
  - - - Frank Westmore used clay casts to “model her Caucasian eye shape into an Oriental shape. These rubber eye pieces would be glued with spirit gum onto Shirley's eyelids. An invisible flesh colored tab was glued to her temples that would be pulled back with rubber bands to give the eye a more slanted appearance. Brown contact lenses and a heavy black wig were used in the final makeup.”
- - - - Female characters: vulnerable and in need of protection, reflecting traditional gender roles of the time.
        
        women are cast in vulnerable positions: reliant on men for financial and emotional support
        
        Sexual objectification and contro: Edith tries to back out so there is branding scene marked as a piece of property by Tori
      - stereotypical depiction of Asian men as exotic, dangerous, and predatory.
        
        wealthy, exotic figure who tries to take advantage of a white woman, reinforcing the stereotype of the "Yellow Peril."
    - - (simultaneous longing for/repulsion of Hayakawa’s characters in ways that reinforce dominant ideas about Asians/AAs )
  - - - Ambiguity & easy transferability of category (Asian American cinema); conflates/dilutes differences across groups, languages, origins (especially between Asian and Asian American films)
    - - Citizenship not just legally recognized (political citizenship) but also gauged through extent of “social belonging and cultural representation” (cultural citizenship) (92).
      - Film is a “significant institution for establishing and maintaining a racial order within the American nation and empire”
        
        Often, this notion of cultural citizenship is tested through appearance of negative, stereotypical representations
  - - - WHAT IS A STEREOTYPE?: “a form of knowledge and identification that vacillates between what is always ‘in place,’ already known, and something that must be anxiously repeated” (95) – can never be proven (as empirical truth)
- - - - redemptive work of Americanization and (white) masculinization of Hmong American youth (164-5) troubled by Hmong women in the film (grandmother, Sue)
      - in improvisational, unscripted and untranslated dialogue of Hmong actors where Hmong histories are recovered and U.S. complicity in Hmong violence and erasure is acknowledged (167) - Chee Thao’s own experience of loss, displacement and escape add “political/historical context for her unsubtitled lines” as the grandmother (169)
      - How did you end up in my neighborhood then? Why didn’t you stay there?” -- “cannot be answered without implicating the U.S. wars in Southeast Asia. Sue reminds Walt and the viewer that Hmong helped the U.S. and their undesired presence in this Midwestern neighborhood is intricately connected to U.S. actions in Southeast Asia” (170)
      - “Subtitles are insufficient for communicating silenced histories” (177)
        
        reinforces idea of Hmong people as backward, illegible and inscrutable
        
        underscores incompatibility of Hmong memory with U.S. state and public record“
- - - - 1:27:01 - "I'm a Black man in MS...the minute you get here you start acting white, treating us like we’re your doormats.”
      - 1:09:36 - "Well, Miss Masala, racism or as they say nowadays, racism, is passed down like recipes"
    - - Mina and Demetrius face opposition and discrimination from their respective communities due to their interracial relationship. The film doesn't shy away from depicting the complexities of prejudice within and between cultural groups.
  - - - Cchallenges the notion that foreign culture should be sidelined in Asian American representation: demonstrates that a deep exploration of cultural backgrounds can enhance the richness and authenticity of the narrative.
      - Foreign culture is not just a backdrop but an integral part of the characters' identities, influencing their actions, conflicts, and relationships.
        
        28:55 - "Even though we are 10,000 miles away from India, we should not forget our roots, our culture, our tradition, and our gods"
      - Addressing cultural complexity and prejudice,sheds light on the misguided practice of oversimplified portrayals in Hollywood and the need for more nuanced and accurate representations.
      - Delves into the complexities and challenges of interracial relationships, particularly in the context of the American South, where racial tensions are deeply rooted.
  - - - -- explains why Arab American experiences must be discussed in the context of a broader Asian American Studies; brown peril part of the “model minority-yellow peril spectrum” (248)
    - - discursive form or method of storytelling that plays into and plays up questions of national fidelity by activating extant post-9/11 anxieties about brown Muslim bodies (basically: suspicion/ incredibility of Brown people already discounts their testimonies and narratives)
- - - - Stereotyping
        
        Exoticization: Asian characters and settings as "exotic," perpetuating the idea of the East as a mysterious place.
        
        Fetishiziation of Asian women, as they are seen as seductive and mysterious/evil.
        
        Shimizu's quote, "a placeholder of ideology that references sexuality," aptly captures the essence of these portrayals. This film uses Asian women as vessels for Western fantasies, reducing them to mere objects of desire.
        
        Daughter of the Dragon," is a prime example of how Asian women have been depicted in Western cinema as exotic and mysterious figures. Ling Moy, the main character escalates fears of the "yellow peril" through her expressions and actions. In the opening scenes, she is seen practicing martial arts, wielding a dagger, and speaking in cryptic riddles, all of which perpetuate the stereotype of Asian women as conniving and dangerous. She then uses her martial arts skills to defeat a male antagonist, reinforcing the Western perception of Asian women as dangerous seductresses who can manipulate men.
        
        The Hypersexuality of Race, Parreñas Shimizu
        
        “bondage of hypersexuality” or the “bind of representation” (15) → pleasurable, punitive, political; what racializes AA women is their “perverse interiority” and vulnerability to oppressive sexual representation
        
        “moral scopophilia” (18) through figures of dragon lady/lotus blossom - to simply shut down “bad” or “negative” images resists reading them for their political potential
        
        Fu Manchu:"Yellow Peril" stereotype, casting Asians as threats to Western people.
        
        Asian characters: villainous or sinister roles, harmful stereotypes about Asian people as cunning or evil
        
        Ling Moy's character is a manifestation of Edward Said's notion of Orientalism, where in the East is portrayed as exotic, irrational, and inherently different from the West. In "Daughter of the Dragon," the Asian woman is emptied of her own subjectivity to become a mere vessel for Western fantasies, specifically those related to sexuality and danger.
    - - Ling Moy is torn between her obligation to avenge her father's death and her own moral compass
        
        Familial Honor
        
        Ling Moy is a woman seeking revenge in a patriarchal society, in a world where her choices are often dictated by cultural norms and expectations.
      - taking another life will bring her the closure vs perpetuate a cycle of violence.
      - Dr. Fu Manchu is assassinated by a British officer, Sir Ronald Petrie.
        
        Ling Moy is ironically attracted to Sir Ronald Petrie but her love interest is Ah Kee
        
        Ah Kee: understanding, forgiveness, shares cultural background with Ling Moy
        
        his views are more tempered: personal choices can sometimes transcend cultural and familial obligations.
        
        he is torn between supporting her in her quest for vengeance and saving her from the cycle of revenge
        
        diasporic identity: cultural heritage and the broader society
        
        "When destiny waits in the dark, the strongest of men is helpless."
    - - Simultaneously both for Asian American representation and a film that perpetuated Orientalist stereotypes ("Yellow Peril").
  - - - objectifying them for the pleasure or fascination of a Western audience.
      - Princess Ling Moy's attire and appearance; stylized to fit the Western perception of Asian exoticism, with elaborate silk gowns, elaborate hairstyles, and makeuP
      - "Dragon Lady" stereotype: dangerous, exotic seductress, continuing the stereotype of Asian women.
      - set design to create an exoticized vision of Asian settings; Chinese-inspired elements, such as dragon motifs, lanterns
      - stilted English with accents or use broken English
  - - - yellowface more normalized and “less offensive” than blackface - intentional manipulation of physical features to resemble Asian physiognomy; emerges in Exclusion Era (1862-1940)
      - "theatrical technology" that operates as a "political and artistic tool" (4); helped establish ideas of whiteness and citizenship - those performing in yellowface filled the gaps created by legislated exclusion of Asians in U.S.
      - “Yellowface does not exist separately from its creators or the creative process; it is not merely a discrete image or sequence, but rather a practice manifest through ‘the technologies of performance,’ one that includes acting, staging, lighting, cameras, costumes, music, and makeup.” (Lee 13)
- - - - emasculation of Asian men in film
      - Asian women are exotified, and displayed as submssive o overly sexual
    - - it romanticizes and exoticizes Chinese culture for a Western audience
      - Asian culture is often appropriated for aesthetic or thematic purposes without genuine understanding or respect.
- - - - pearl harbor
- - - - ACJ collaborated with the local African American community, with Helen Zia and Liza Chan appearing on a prominent African American radio talk show to raise awareness. Organizations like the Detroit Area Black Organizations (DABO), the NAACP Detroit Branch, and influential African American churches pledged their support, with figures like Horace Sheffield, founder of DABO, actively supporting ACJ events.
      - immediate goals included developing effective legal strategies, increasing awareness about Asian Americans and Vincent Chin in the media and among the public, fundraising, and mobilizing supporters
      - combat other forms of anti-Asian discrimination and violence across the United States. This case marked a crucial turning point in civil rights engagement for Asian Americans, particularly in Michigan, as it brought them together to form multiethnic and multiracial alliances to fight for civil rights. Additionally, the case established pan-racial coalitions, receiving support from organizations representing various racial groups, including the NAACP.
  - - - Lily Chin: “...when people saw Chinese sitting there, they kicked us and cursed at us.”
      - In the 1970’s when Japanese Auto Manufacturers first began to take over the market for cars, American Auto Manufacturers such as Chrysler began to suffer, resulting in mass layoffs
        
        This resulted in a swelling of anti-Japanese rhetoric in the social and political landscape
      - Obtaining the support of other racial groups within America would be challenging in a complex racial climate
      - Some white citizens thought that Asian Americans were never discriminated against
      - Some African Americans thought that Asian Americans were not discriminated against enough to argue their civil rights were violated
      - "Underlying both concerns was the suggestion, a nagging doubt, that Asian Americans had no legitimate place in discussions of racism because we hadn’t really suffered any" (Zia, 45).
    - - Vincent’s mother on the case:
        “All through the courts, no one talked to me. They just listened to the defendant’s story. I said it’s because those two are white. If they were Chinese, it’d be so different” (39:30)
  - - - Michigan Senator Carl Levin: “We are being shot at and shot up by the Japanese who have the most protectionist economy in the world. [...] We are already in the middle of such a war, but only the Japanese are shooting” (33:53)
      - Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill: “If I was president for two months, I would fix the Japanese like they have never been fixed” (34:17)
      - Detroit Blues: “Lee Iacocca, chairman of the failing Chrysler Corporation and onetime presidential candidate, jokingly suggested dropping nuclear bombs on Japan, while U.S. Representative John Dingell of Michigan pointed his fury at ‘those little yellow men’” (37).
      - Lobbying by the auto industry
      - Pleasing constituents
- - - - Adaptation and Assimilation
        
        Multiple realities and dimensions: metaphor for the immigrant experience and the process of assimilation while retaining one's cultural identity. It reflects the challenges and adaptations that Asian Americans may undergo as they integrate into American society.
        
        reconciling different facets of one's identity.
      - The interconnectedness of different aspects of one's identity: Asian Americans being part of a larger social and cultural tapestry in the United States, contributing their unique perspectives and experiences.
      - clothing highlights the significance of cultural heritage in the Asian American community and how they maintain connections to their ancestral cultures.
      - Chinese background and the blending of different cultural elements
        
        highlight the importance of cultural roots and the ways in which Asian Americans navigate their connections to their ancestral cultures.
      - Gong gong is upset that Evelyn is born a girl
  - - - Evelyn's difficulty in unlearning and relearning how to love, Joy's imploding and explosive behaviour, and Waymond's graceful patience and quiet understanding through it all.
      - Evelyn fails to see how she passes down the same kind of generational trauma inflicted upon her by her father and in doing so has alienated her own daughter.
      - Joy is the movie classic ‘rebel daughter’, who is emotionally neglected by a critical mother that refuses to accept her queer identity
- - - - pressures and expectations placed on Asian-American individuals to conform to cultural norms and family traditions. Hwei-Lan's desire to arrange a marriage for Wil reflects the importance of upholding family and cultural values.
      - the Confucian value of respecting and honoring one's parents, is a central theme in the movie. Wil's struggle to balance her own desires with her responsibility to her mother highlights the complexity of this concept in modern Asian-American families.
- - - - The film examines the complexity of identity, particularly the dualistic nature of identity for Vietnamese women. It delves into how women are often associated with both the name they inherit from their family (surname) and the name they choose for themselves (given name).
      - emphasizes the role of women in Vietnamese society and their struggles to have their voices heard. It highlights how women have historically been silenced or marginalized and how they seek to assert themselves and challenge traditional gender roles.
    - - tool for both self-expression and cultural preservation.
- - - - choosing to engage with hypersexualized roles in a way that brings agency
        
        personally i dont agree with this, this will just continue to fuel the over sexualization of AA women.
      - productive perversity” (22) → “involves identifying with ‘bad’ images, or working to establish a different identity along with established sexual images;” enables “critique [of] normative scripts for sexually and racially marginalized subjects” (21)
      - "Because the Asian woman cannot be imagined outside of sex, her resistance is also found in sex” (97)
      - Rejecting hypersexuality as external to Asian/American women…seems as equally insufficient as accepting it as entirely essential and internal to us” (22)
- - - - Types of Cinema
        
        First Cinema: "cinema of studio systems", to maximize profit
        
        Second cinema: "independetn" or art cinema that aims to challenge major studies, constrained by existing system
        
        Third Cinema; deomcratic, participatory, scoialist cinema, to challenge and provoke collective conciousness of its viewers
        
        Visual Communications; inspired by Third Cinema and aims to reclaim stories about communities, VC leaders were vested in producing community-based media-- grassroots approach in obtaining resources and offering production skills training
        
        Third Cinema begins as radical, leftist movement in protest of authoritarian rule, racism, capitalism, and imperialism
        
        “nonhierarchical, democratic, collaborative relations and participatory filmmaking of productions that worked initmately and sympathetically with the communities being documented” (Mimura 38)