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AMST 328W - Asian Americans in Film, Discriminatory power, " '…

- - - - Necessary for transformation and enfranchisement
      - Representation in film shapes Asian American culture
    - - Women Make Movies, for example
    - - Stereotypes and negative representations
      - Hypersexualization
      - Fear (xenophobia)
  - - - 'Asian' is too broad to encompass cultures and sub-cultures
      - What is American culture?
      - The murder of Vincent Chin, yellow fever, internment camps
    - - Produced by an Asian American filmmaker?
      - Has Asian American actors?
        
        Asian American film festivals
      - Does Canadian count as American?
      - Asian American filmmakers have unique expressions and voices, but what if the topic of their movie isn't about America?
    - - There is no correct way to define Asian American film
        
        This can be seen as a positive though, we should be actively engaged and asking questions. This will help Asian American film persist.
  - - - At its core, fixity (permanence) is important in establishing say a racial or gender order. These 'fixed' concepts often lack proof.
      - Stereotypes persist because of repetition (think about current events and 'pattern recognition')
  - - - If movies simply showed us "real," we wouldn't be challenged or feel like the movie impacted us
      - Movies provide an opportunity to "cross borders" and experience a different life
      - Movies can take 'real' issues and present them in a way that builds the foundation for more complex discourse
    - - "willing suspension of disbelief" p.4 -> this will often impact us more than reading a lengthy and scientific study
    - - "The moment the signifier 'black' is torn from its historical, cultural, and political embedding and lodged in a biologically constituted racial category, we valorize, by inversion, the very ground of the racism we are trying to deconstruct." P.7
        
        "it was not so much the color of the person who made images that was crucial but the perspective, the standpoint, the politics." P.7
      - New representations should be enlightening - too often artists fear that being political will cause a diversion from 'visual purity.' I.e., don't shy away from being political because nearly everything is political
      - Additionally, movie critiques play a role in how viewers think of a film or formulate new opinions when doing a second watch
  - - - The skin tones are quite similar, but the outfits help emphasize the difference between Asian and Caucasian. "Her colourful costume literally washed away and replaced with a white sailor-suit: a symbolic transition from Chineseness to whiteness." p.299
      - "The entanglement of the ornamentalist yellow woman and the material-aesthetic history of early natural colour cinematography." P.289 ->Lotus Flower is one with nature, she is always shown in the garden or with colorful backgrounds
      - "The racial difference is not in the characters' different skin tones but in the bright yet 'naturalistic' colours of the exotic mise-en-scene, including the ornamental gardens, foliage, and costumes in which racialized bodies are enclosed." p.288
    - - Maybe caucasian flesh tones are recognized, but what about the representation of other races?
      - It is true that expressions are more easily understood, but color in it of itself is not enough
      - Color adds to 'sex appeal' -> femininity, specifically white femininity, is exploited by early films in color
  - - - Makeup, costumes, technology, 'Oriental' ideas, exotic, foreign (out of reach, too different, etc)
      - Helped perpetuate exclusion: 1862 -> Anti-Coolie Act 1882 -> Chinese Exclusion Act
        1940 -> effect of WWII
        
        Yellowface performances severely lacked Asian actors and ideas, leading to an 'imagined' version of Asia, one that was seen in a negative light.
      - Compared to blackface, but is different because it wasn't simply mimicry. Yellowface was an art form, a technological advancement that built the foundation for Asian exclusion and stereotypes.
      - Was an avenue for Europeans and African Americans to achieve citizenship -> playing Asian characters to get roles in plays and movies
      - Special effects artists would go out of their way and spend way more money than necessary to cast a white actor as an Asian character than to just cast an Asian actor...
  - - - 1968 film - Peter Sellers plays an Indian character in brownface. Indicates "the historical change of portrayals of South Asians in American films from colonialist narratives to model-minority American immigrants and citizens." P.20
      - Notion of Indian-represented characters as a "cultural thing" to be commented on rather than a real individual with a unique story. "Comedy tends to objectify difference." P.21
      - "A revised American Orientalist model that depicts Indians (as played by non-Indians) as a model minority who do not challenge racial hierarchies." P.26-27 Indians become a harmless, source of amusement
    - - Impoverished and wily (deceitful) villagers 2. Mystical wise men 3. Treacherous/noble natives rising up against the British P.23
      - India as a mystical place with religious cults 2. India as foreign landscape that highlights the differences between the rich and poor
        
        Primitive hordes and rebels P.24
    - - Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... This is very well said though, there is this 'desire' to play an exotic or different character despite having demeaning roots
  - - - Liu sees this as inherently lacking -> "To posit a generalized category of "damaged Asian American women," for example, is to overlook how three actual Asian American writers have actually responded to, and complicated, the idea that images of Anna May Wong can signify only one thing." P.27
        
        Idea that the "real woman" can be found hidden beneath the layers of artistic fiction
      - Flaw-> "The tendency is to become entrapped in mimetic criticism's assumption that the primary task of filmic images - perhaps the sole task - is to reproduce the world faithfully." P.26
      - "The emphatic denunciation of gross stereotypes of Asians perpetuated in film is, unfortunately, still needed, and if gesturing toward positive stereotypes of Asian Americans on film counters the vulgarity of the negative images, then to a large extent these corrective polemics have political and interpretative value." P.26
    - - The character, or actor's meaning "increases through the attention of fans and critics." P.28 -> "cinema as an institution and as an enunciative form produces this position from which the star can speak and be spoken."
      - Wong had a large media presence -> complained about her repetitive and stereotypical roles through fan magazines and gossip columnists. She campaigned for the female lead in O-Lan only to lose it to a European in yellow face. She goes to China and talks to news outlets about the potential for new motion pictures.
      - "Wong's staging of her star persona in the Los Angeles and Chinese press, and even her encouragement of fans' speculation about her (hetero)sexuality for publicity's sake, can thus be seen as an attempt to expand the scope of her iconicity." P.30
    - - Connection to the Daughter of the Dragon: "The "dragon lady" provokes and titillates early film audiences because she cloaks an almost masculine racial pride and anti-white race hatred in the mutually reinforcing "duplicity" of being Asian and being a woman." P.24
      - "Lady of mystery." Fans were desperate to learn more about her, specifically about her sexuality. "The sexual scandal is the primal scene of all star discourse, the only scenario that offers the promise of a full and satisfying disclosure of the star's identity." P.30 She never married...
    - - Portrays Anna May Wong as more masculine. "Implied masculine scopophilia that has "queer" implications." P.31 [scopophilia is the sexual pleasure gained by looking at someone
      - Hays Code literally prevented actors from kissing Anna May Wong, perpetuating the trope of her heterosexual romance with white characters often ending in her own death.
  - - - Page Law (1870) - curbed population of Chinese prostitutes in America. "Picture brides" from Japan turning to "war brides" after WWII, mail-order brides as a way of achieving citizenship
        
        Asian women are inseparable from sexuality in the U.S. film industry, whether it be the dragon lady vs. butterfly trope, they are a result of representation being told from a patriarchal and racial lens ("we cannot get a full picture of these women’s performances unless we also study their own narrative commentary, for the intentions of the authors can themselves cloud the political power of pleasure in their performance") P.96
    - - "Such a limited framework of bad versus good applied to a more ambivalent process of representation often leads to the sight of sex as simply resulting from systemic racism that does not capture the dynamic and ever complicated specificity of history." P.18
    - - "When moral panic continues to inform our understanding of racialized sexuality in representation, informing theories that privilege ordinary normalcy, we lose the opportunity to reimagine what is missing, unaccounted for, and excluded in the normal - such as perverse practices that criticize the disciplining of women by sexuality. " P.19
        
        We must look beyond morality to truly understand how race, sex, and visual culture intermix to convey power, pleasure, trauma, etc.
    - - Idea of "unknowability" -> "remain open to change and the process of self-transformation in both social experience and our engagements with representations." P.21
        in film, representations are historically situated and often imperfect (alternative reality), representations are up for debate
    - - "expand racial agendas beyond the need to establish normalcy and standardization." P.21
        "the ability to work against and with these images, is part of the dynamic process of representation itself - especially as it binds the racial, sexual, and gendered experiences of Asian/American women." P.22
  - - - "The film we love to love and the film we love to hate." P.40 -> There is pleasure in the anti-racist or feminist scenes, but these are often cover ups or hide the deeper meaning at play.
      - " 'Pollyanna dialectics ' the banal observation that the text is racist, but that spectators do not have to give in to racist indoctrination."
    - - Only Chinese women we meet are prostitutes, all the Chinese men are asexual, Suzie's submissiveness (tells her friends Robert beats her despite it being a lie)
      - The Chinese as immoral -> by portraying Robert as a moral character, he contrasts that of the East.
      - They try and show that European racism towards Asians is worse than that of America's. I didn't pick up on this at first, but now all of Robert's positive features are really just meant to portray Americans as the most righteous people
    - - In one of my selected scenes, with Robert undressing Suzie, the emphasis on "European street walker" demonstrates that she looks less like a Western prostitute, not less like a prostitute.
      - "Suzie 'threatens the American by underlying the fact that their relation is the sordid one familiar to him from 'home,' and by imposing her desiring subjectivity on his ideal image of her.'" P.43 ->
      - The nature of pleasure as being "fleeting, contingent, and highly mediated." P.43 -> it's true... "I want to interrogate that pleasure, perhaps so I can break free of it, for as long as the movie gives me pleasure, it has a channel with which to speak its racist messages to me and potentially through me."
        
        I let the pleasure be my dominant reaction and thus I overlooked the blatant racism and sexism that was undergoing. It's clear to see that this movie had some ulterior motives, showing Americans in a better light, at the expense of showing Hong Kong as poor and immoral.
  - - - Whitewashing literally means "the whitening of a surface or the glossing over a transgression." P.3
      - From the perspective of white normativity, whitewashing would be seen as covering the polluting agent that is the racial "Other"
      - Primary form factors
        
        Yellowface (be(com)ing the other)
        
        Casting white actors to play Asian roles "is an erasure that asserts that the physical presence of whiteness is more worthy, desirable and sympathetic than Asian Americans." P.5
        
        White actors have "identity flexibility" that enable them to get away with 'exotic' roles while the opposite isn't true
        
        The replacement of Asian American stories and people with White characters
        
        In true stories based on historical events or figures, white characters will play the Asian character and consequently "deny Asian Americans' existence by plundering stories that might demonstrate that Asian Americans are interesting, with compelling, complex lives." P.6
        
        White characters being the center of Asian stories and worlds
        
        White exceptionalism; "Asian worlds exist for the sake of the White heroes to facilitate their growth" making Asianness the context of white subjectivity. P.7
        
        Unlike the other two, Asianness is not portrayed in a negative light, but it constrains Asian representation to simply playing a support tole in white hypervisibility
    - - Goes back to colonialism -> "stories that erase racial others and replace them with White characters naturalize the racelessness that White people benefit from, and it centers White people in all parts of the world, despite their heritage ties to Europe, the second smallest continent by landmass." P.4
      - "White people have become increasingly anxious and Whiteness is increasingly visible as they perceive themselves victims of multiculturalism." P.8
      - Cultural appropriation is a way to "Spice up White lives or to exert agency against restrictive structures, which has the by-product of dominating Asian people." P.18-19
  - - - Individual and group identity (a good example is Ben outside of the group versus when he hangs out with them)
      - Rivalry between the eunuch and the womanizer. However, Ben (the eunuch) takes on a more aggressive approach than Steve, ultimately leading to Steph taking a liking for him (kisses him). At the same time, Steve benefits from Ben's hyper fixation on Steph.
      - Racism and gendered racism. The basketball team for example, Ben gets no playing time despite having an incredible work ethic (250 free throws a day).
      - "Ben fights the role of a castrated man." P.158 he's shorter and less cool than Steve who goes to private school
      - "To reach for phallic power to remedy the wound of asexuality and effeminacy will kill you as a consequence of hurting others." P.158 -> a critique on years of Asian American men being portrayed as asexual
      - "Within the context of Asian American male castration in the cinema, we have an artful rage in this film. It's a manhood that claims subjectivity outside available ones, commenting on the violence of the limited choices available to Asian American men with a device that's open-ended and promising." P.159
      - Lack and macho Asian American male characters or the Asian American woman with her own expectations and perceptions "Attempt to free Asian American men from the binary of competition for women as property and emblem of patriarchy so as to break out of the constraints of straitjacket sexuality." P.161
    - - The characters, despite their many flaws, still succeed in caring for others. Ben deeply cares about Steph despite constantly losing to and eventually killing Steve.
      - "For Asian American men deprived of the romantic hero role in representation, the forming of subjectivity that does more than keep in thrall to self becomes an important goal in terms of what kind of manhood they can form." ... "new objectives may form in the romantic relationship where Asian American men need affirmation and Asian American women share power." P.163
      - "Rather than simply escape their assignation of straitjacket sexuality, the characters portrayed acknowledge the impossibility of getting out of it entirely." P.164
  - - - A limiting approach -> believing that "we tolerate their practices from afar." P.52 this idea fails to recognize that our cultures are already overlapping in so many ways. if we 'practice our cultures' separately, we are only going to alienate ourselves from the other.
        
        Culture isn't really traceable because it has been evolved over hundreds of years from hundreds of ancestors. We are innately multi-ethnic and polycultural.
        
        Polyculturalism believes that culture is constantly changing, multiculturalism views it more as static and disparate. "Polyculturalism accepts the existence of differences in cultural practice, but it forbids us to see culture as static and antiracist critique as impossible." P.54
    - - Bruce Lee was born in San Francisco, moved to Hong Kong in his childhood, and returned to the U.S for college in Seattle. He was outwardly antiracist, "no matter if your color is black or white, red or blue, I can still make friends with you. P.55. He faced a lot of barriers in Hollywood though, specifically the fact that as an Asian American he would never be a hero for Caucasians. Thus, after being rejected for the show "Kung Fu" for being "too Chinese" he moved back to Hong Kong.
      - Jim Kelly, who played Williams in Enter the Dragon, understood Lee's struggle in America as it resembled that of the struggle of African Americans in America. The article then goes on to develop the unity of struggle -> the Black Panther Party, Brown Berets, Red Guard Party, I Wor Kuen, etc... Poor white citizens, women, there were so many groups of people that could unite over being oppressed and "recognize [themselves' as part of the Third World." P.59
    - - "The Red Guard was born out of the poverty and repression of the ghetto, which enabled them to make connections with the other antipoverty, anticapitalist organizations who struggled amongst the working class and working poor in their communities." P.62
        
        The Third World served as an 'omnibus' so that organizations could unite for their own struggles at home while drawing from struggles elsewhere.
      - Poverty, discrimination, misogyny, these problems are not different in other parts of the world (they may show up in different ways) but the problems remain the same. Consequently, when local organizations across the globe unite or work together, they are able to reach a larger audience when trying to bring about change.
    - - "conflict comes not from variety of skins, nor from variety of religion, but from variety of desires." P.68
  - - - Third Cinema "shares complex histories and relations with the Third World, that collectivity of nations unaligned with the United States-led capitalist First World or the Soviet-led Communist bloc Second World." P.29
      - The Third Cinema movement began in the late 1960s -> it is defined not by its geography, but its "commitment to socialist political struggle." P.29
      - First Cinema - the cinema of studio systems like Hollywood or Bollywood
        
        Second Cinema - independent or "art" cinema, like presenting art for the sake of art
        Third Cinema - is fundamentally a political project that "seeks to challenge and provoke the collective consciousness of its viewers toward the revolutionary transformation of society." (30)
        This is not to say that First or Second cinema can't be political, but third cinema is unique often in how the messages are presented.
      - Grainy images and poorer quality are more synonymous with Third Cinema while the perfect 'glossiness' would be more telling of a First Cinema project (P. 31)
      - Was an international movement -> Espinosa in Cuba, Solanas and Getino in Argentina...
      - "They would pursue, instead, democratic sharing and rotating of responsibilities among the production crew; and whenever possible, they would include the input of those whose lives were being represented on film, into editing and revising the storyline. According to this perspective, such a participatory approach would ensure, or at least improve, the historical accuracy and cultural credibility of the final work." P. 32
        This is what makes Third Cinema stand out -> whitewashing is political, but it is a made up representation. Third Cinema is an attempt at showing what's real and transforming it.
        
        A good example of Third Cinema is "The Hour of the Furnaces," which comprised clandestine collection of footage during Argentina's authoritarian regime.
    - - "Powerfully shaped by Third Cinema at the international level, 1970s Asian American film also emerged out of, and in critical response to, early, pre-1960s Asian American involvement in the Hollywood studio industry." P. 33
        
        Discusses Hayakawas involvement, but specifically the fact that he had little to no decision-making power when working with Hollywood. He had to follow the strict governing laws of First Cinema.
      - Visual Communications (VC) -> conceived around 1969
        
        Media Urban Crisis Committee, 'Mother Muccers' was a program founded by students in the UCLA ethno-communications department dedicated to enabling "radical students of color to seize film as a tool for social justice and social change." (P. 37)
        They ran independently -> admissions, curriculum, hiring professors, etc... this ethno-communications department dissolved by 1973 but had a lasting impact from those who were involved
        
        VC "exemplified the efforts to apply the philosophical and political lessons of the 1960s toward the development of community-based media; nonhierarchical, democratic, collaborative relations, and participatory filmmaking of productions that worked intimately and sympathetically with the communities being documented." P. 38 Also sought out grassroots media centers, production workshops, etc.
        
        "Hito Hata: Raise the Banner" was VC's most ambitious project. They were able to involve the Little Tokyo community in downtown LA (put VC in substantial debt though). It was a melodramatic film that supposedly faced an "ideological limit" which paid too much attention to a specific region as opposed to the "broader political and social significance that characterizes Third Cinema."
      - The most "strict" Asian American example of Third Cinema is Fall of the I-Hotel, we will see this soon
      - History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige
        
        "Where no images exist in history or appear on the screen, words move up the blank screen-space, alternately meditating on the nature of images or verbally rendering a nonexistent image, exercising a creative license normally excluded from the rhetorical options available to documentary but found everywhere in fiction and poetry." (P.100)
        This was beautifully written and quite thought-provoking. It's very powerful to create an image where an image isn't readily available. It seems as though in the past, filmmakers may have tried to dramatize stories where details were lacking.
        
        "By imaginatively restoring the unspoken history her mouther sought to disavow, Tajiri releases them both by creating her image-gift, externalized and rendered visible in video." P. 103
        
        Reminds me of a discussion I had in my ethnomusicology course about Vietnamese music. People didn't want to be reminded of the war but the younger generation wanted answers and wanted to feel free. Through this discomfort, finally both parties ended up being more content by embracing and embodying the tough past.
  - - - Started in 1968 with first-generation Filipino immigrants resisting eviction from their homes -> later spread to radicalized Asian American youth
        
        Groups like KDP (Union of Democratic Filipinos) and SIPA (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA was a youth organization that formed in the '60s in search of Filipino identity
      - Bond between old and new (intergenerational bond) -> 'manongs,' which is a FIlipino term of endearment, is used to describe the older Filipino male tenants who were evicted from the hotel. "A family consciousness rooted in FIlipino values of respect for the elderly developed." P. 2 also gave young activists a new sense of identity and purpose
    - - The hotel, in addition to providing low-cost housing, was a place where activists organized themselves. Tha I-Hotel was located in Manilatown, which was only a block away from the financial district.
        
        "It was a fight for housing rights versus private-property rights; for a neighborhood's existence versus extinction and dispersal; and for the extension of democratic rights to the poor and working class." P.3
        
        Also a resistance to "Manhattanization," or the addition of high-rise office buildings in the financial district of downtown San Francisco
    - - A new I-Hotel opened in 2005 with the same address as the previous: 848 Kearny Street. On the ground floor of this hotel sits the MHF (Manilatown Heritage Foundation) dedicated to preserving their history.
  - - - "The reaction with the Detroit area's small, scattered Asian American population was immediate and visceral. Suddenly people who had endured a lifetime of degrading treatment were wondering if their capacity to suffer in silence might no longer be a virtue, when even in death, after such a brutal, uncontested killing, they could be so disrespected. Disconnected, informal networks of Asian Americans frantically worked the phones, trying to find some way to vent their frustrations and perhaps correct the injustice." P.39)
        
        The first occurrence of activism was at the Golden Star restaurant where lawyers were taking questions from a group of individuals from the Detroit Chinese Welfare Council. (P.42)
        Liza Chan, the only Asian-American woman studying law in Michigan volunteered to fight the judge's sentence and began investigating the case more thoroughly.
        The first official meeting following this would be at the Welfare Council building and this is where the ACJ was established
    - - This led to fears from the ACJ about pursuing a Civil Rights suit, but ultimately when Asian American citizens continued voicing their pain and struggles over the years, they decided to go for it. It unlocked a lot of hidden oppression and made Anti-Asian American hate a lot more obvious.
      - Also the notion that Asian Americans were considered White individuals (model minority myth). They risked ostracizing themselves even more.
      - Regarding the Cincinnati Jury: " 'Do you have any contact with Asians? What is the nature of your contact?' they were asked, as though they had been exposed to a deadly virus." (P.53)
        "A white woman who said she had Asian American friends was dismissed as though the friendship tainted her." (P.53)
        Consequently, the jury ended up looking a lot like Ebens and had little to no knowledge of what Asian Americans went through, let alone in Detroit.
- - - - "East is East and West is West and never the Twain shall meet." 43:27
      - Arakau - distinct 'oriental' culture: robe, ivory branding symbol, bowing, broken English
      - Arakau is very handsy and for lack of a better word, 'rapey'. He kisses Edith when she is unconscious and always seeks some sort of physical contact. This leaves a sour taste for him and in a larger sense, the culture that he represents,
    - - Great use of shadows: depicts the jail cell, characters speaking behind walls, body language
      - Music helps build suspense, slows for some scenes and speeds up when there is more action
    - - No women in stocks; Men hold positions of authority; more male actors but Edith receives most of the attention
  - - - The 'oriental' theme helps amplify the use of red and green colors. The garden, the outfits, and features in Lotus Flower's home like the dragon
      - Body language and expressions are much easier to understand. It's unfortunate that the main plot is Lotus Flower being crushed.
    - - Allen talking to his friends. "That's just it, Allen; she IS different --" 13:06
      - Also the fact that Allen has to travel a great distance to see Lotus Flower. It feels intentional that they are so far - almost to say that it should be that way.
    - - Sexualized and submissive: Allen is very touchy and quite frankly imposing
      - Older Asian women particularly - suggesting they like to gossip (still see that labeling today)
      - Delusional: Lotus Flower writing letters to herself and believing that her husband won't desert her
  - - - "My flower daughter, the knife would wither your petal fingers." 19:00
      - "If only thou had granted me another son." 19:12
      - "It is wisely written, a stupid son is better than a crafty daughter." 39:20
      - "The master provided it for the weak half of her, which is woman." 40:01
      - "Flower Ling Moy, a flower need not love but only feel loved as Ah Kee loved you." 1:09:15 Heavy objectification here...
      - Seduction as a means of getting what was desired. Example, Ling Moy separating Ah Kee from Ronald via a phone call.
    - - Fu Man Chu is played by Warner Oland, a Swedish-American actor. It was quite funny (but also a bit sad) when Ling Moy was talking to her 'Asian' father
      - Many Asian characters were played in roles of servitude. Culturally, contrasted the white butlers who did not bow. More on this, the white butler was quite incompetent. We also see lots of kissing of Ling Moy's hand.
      - "Dr. Fu Manchu terrorized London." 1:13 the film starts with a quote that promotes yellow peril...
      - Perceptions of Asian religion being a bit farfetched. The calling of the spirits, the gong, the dragons... contrasts what one would expect with something like Christianity. Also, the whole 'freeing their name' trope.
      - "I wish I could find a word to describe her. Exotic! That's the word." 6:00 Promoting the 'foreign other' stereotype
      - Overall, Asians were portrayed as violent and animalistic. They tied up the Petrie's, they hit characters very hard (to the point of them passing out), they were cruel in their teasing of death... (Ah Kee is the exception, he was played as an honorable character who put his duty first).
      - Lu Chung is played by E. Alyn Warren
    - - Ronald catching feelings for Ling Moy despite being engaged to Joan
      - Ling Moy lying about her feelings to Ah Kee as well as her unsuccess in trying to kill Ronald.
      - Morloff playing as a double agent
  - - - A bit confused. There were a lot of things I liked about Robert, the way he saw Suzie (it was authentic and not superficial). However, he was embarrassed by her, especially around the wealthy white folk. I didn't like how aggressive he was with dragging Suzie around. Overall, he definitely portrayed a more liberal character though and was pretty respectful for the most part. He also wouldn't accept charity, which was another important trait of his.
      - I'm glad to see a different representation of Asians in film though, this one didn't fall under the typical dragon lady or butterfly trope. Suzie was a complex character, growing up very poor (didn't know how to read or write) but complemented Robert well.
      - It was nice to see white on white romance fail for once. Kay was manipulating her father, telling him that if he wants her off his payroll he better support Robert because he's the only man that she's ever loved before. Robert, however, stays loyal to Suzie and even defends her in front of Kay and her father.
      - I was a bit disheartened to see such young girls ready to give their bodies up for sailors (see 1:50:36). Similarly, how these girls were treated (beat up by drunk sailors). The age difference between Robert and Suzie didn't bother me actually, I admired their love for one another. Suzie said "you make me feel like rich girl," which was such a heart wrenching comment for someone who has never felt like that before (in other words, her lies were coming to life).
    - - Honestly, the first 10 seconds. The 'oriental' music and font definitely contrasted what we would see later in the movie. I was expecting even more racism than what was presented.
      - 35:08 -> we think Robert is calling to have sex with Suzie but instead he wants her to pose for a painting. This is very important because it sets the stage for their complicated relationship. It's clear Robert had always had a thing for Suzie, but it took quite some time for it to evolve romantically.
      - 52:40 -> "I'm completely fascinated by the wonderful oriental faces" to which a response "best to keep your nose clean out here that's if you want to be accepted by your own people." Unfortunately, Robert has to play a xenophobic act around the wealthy white folk (we see this later). We want to think that Robert is different, but by surrounding himself with people who think like that and working for them even, only worsens the representation of Asians in the end.
      - 1:01:00 -> Suzie getting slapped by a sailor and Robert getting his vengeance. It builds the impression of Robert as protective and ultimately a positive influence on Suzie.
      - 1:21:30 -> Robert taking the flowery, 'expensive' dress off of Suzie. Robert has his own 'sense of beauty.' Maybe he could have gone about it differently (without committing assault), but I really liked that he just wants her to exist more naturally. This contrasts his purchase of the ornamental gift he gets her later.
      - 1:37:00 -> We meet Suzie's baby. Surprisingly, Robert remains calm and even holds Winston.
  - - - Asian men are not portrayed as asexual! Despite being virgins at the beginning of the film, (not so surprising for a high school student), the film did not hold back in showing sexual scenes involving Asian men and/or women.
      - Deviation from the 'model minority' myth -> straight A students (model minority) turning into hoodlums (possessing weapons, selling and doing drugs, having sex with prostitutes, etc.).
      - Ben is quite awkward around people of the opposite sex, as is Virgil. It's interesting to see the mix of asexuality with constant fantasy.
      - Competing over a woman -> still hypersexualization of women, but Steph is portrayed as desirable beyond her outward appearance (bright, cheerleader, wants to study the right way, aspires to be a cop, is also adopted which is interesting).
    - - The use of SAT vocabulary words as a transition into the next scenes
      - The rapid camera flashes when introducing people or going back in time
      - Flipping between scenes, almost as if we experience what it is like to be on drugs
    - - 16:54 - Interview with Daric. This becomes the rising action, we find out that Ben is super involved and is doing 'all the right things,' minus the misdemeanor with the stickers. (11:56 "I guess it just felt good to do things that I couldn't put on my college application")
      - 23:10 "You know this is all bullshit right, it's just a game. People like you and me, we don't have to play by the rules. We can make our own."
      - 33:50 - Steve caught with other girls (cheating on Steph). Virgil making racist jokes towards Asians.
      - 50:46 - "Breaking the cycle." You have all this money and popularity, but then what? How does it get better? "You can't settle for happiness."
      - 1:05:00 - The prostitute.
      - 1:21:00 - Ben almost kills steve with a baseball bat. We didn't expect this from him, given his unique relationship with Steve. This caught me by surprise.
      - 1:28:15 - Virgil shoots himself. Han seems visibly upset despite being the one that beats him up all the time. Tough love... sometimes you never get the chance to show someone real love
  - - - Asian men are still seen as asexual, especially in comparison to the hypersexuality of Williams and Roper. Han is viewed as a pimp, but we don't see him sexually interact with any of the women.
      - Due to the film being based around martial arts, there is a bitter sweet representation of Asian fighters. Bitter because they are seen as immoral and animalistic (especially Bolo). Sweet because it could be seen as heroic and macho.
      - Sense of brotherhood among the martial artists -> Roper and Lee seemed to have an internal respect for one another despite not having met before. They bonded over their hatred for Han in the end.
      - There was a hierarchy among the men based on how well they could fight. The guards were often the weakest and thus were viewed as expendable.
    - - First example we see is at 16:00 with Lee's sister being eyed by O'Harra and crew
      - The remainder occurred on the island. First, at 34:30 when Roper says "Would you look at that? A woman like that could teach you a lot about yourself).
        Women being presented as gifts to the fighters (starts at 42:00)
    - - 3:00 -> Bruce Lee talking about what makes a good fight or martial artist
        
        16:00 -> Lee's sister's fight scene, sadly ending in her own suicide
        
        44:45 -> when offered women, Lee instead talks to the other recruit (this was important because it reintroduced her to the viewer and increased our respect for Lee given the troubling circumstances)
      - Representation of men varied with origin. Roper (American) was a gambling addict (a somewhat moral figure as seen in the cat scene), Williams (American I'm assuming based on his interaction with the racist White police), was portrayed as a womanizer and perhaps an outcast (his technique was 'unorthodox' (1:05:39)), and then Bruce Lee in comparison was seen as having the highest of morality and being the best fighter.
      - White men interjecting themselves into the story -> Braithwaite comes in as this 'important' and mysterious intelligence worker. We wonder if Lee would have attended this tournament otherwise. On the other hand, Roper's fighting may be viewed as assimilation but he's better than the majority of the fighters there. Thus, the cultural intermingling isn't seen as too offensive.
    - - Roper playing golf (shocker), Williams at the karate studio with a Pan Africa flag, he gets racially profiled by White police officers, and the music changes when we see him wearing headphones. For Lee, my guess is the sound effects. They were quite ridiculous... However, it made his fighting style unique (rebellion against authority based in skill)
        
        However, martial arts brings these people from all walks of life together. Martial arts itself doesn't discriminate, right?
  - - - First, this brings up the issue of generational trauma. This was something sparked by the internment camps and even affects the grandchildren of those who were in the camp.
      - The topic of water is crucial because it represents the fact that displaced Asian families did not give up, they brought water to a dry land. They created gardens, schools, and a sense of community in an environment surrounded by barbed wire and guards.
    - - Shows clips from movies and news streams. Example, 16:47 "Yankee Doodle Dandee" -> "Office of War Information claimed Japanese Americans "willingly" left their homes when going to the internment camp
      - Erasure. Comparison to Blackrock, the outsider makes the town remember something they want to forget. This is how the narrator felt when going to Poston.
    - - Her father was drafted to the U.S. army pre-Pearl Harbor. Upon his return, his house was literally removed from its foundation and was taken to an undisclosed location (forced displacement)
        
        Some things remind me of concentration camps in Europe -> only allowed what you could carry, cameras were forbidden, and the barracks were cheap and overcrowded
        
        Native Americans suffered too - their land was forcibly taken for the purpose of building barracks
  - - - They would often gather at the poolhall (the first senior center), "they had nowhere else to go." Other Asian American communities would gather there too.
      - The old-timers were neglected -> led to support from younger generation like a soup kitchen
    - - Perspective from tenants in the hotel, a White wife of one of the tenants, a sheriff. Lots of footage from small businesses and establishments and interviews. They showed the conditions how they truly were, that's what made it so impactful. Respecting Third Cinema, it definitely demonstrated the need for support and activism to ensure poor people have affordable housing.
  - - - Living in the projects -> in Sunnydale Don had a 45 min/1 hour commute to school (2 buses or so) which meant he didn't have much contingency time to get to class
        Experienced robbery and vandalism (broken windows, gun shots) leading to his family feeling unsafe
      - Wavering family dynamic -> in T.L. there were like 10 people living in a small studio.
        More importantly, Don really lacked a father figure growing up. He looked up to his older brother but once he got married and had kids, he didn't spend much time with Don. (See 29:00 where Don is crying in the car and explaining how he feels a bit neglected and misses his brother)
        Interestingly, when Touch, the younger brother gets arrested, Don says his family got closer together. His mom was more involved and his older brother came around a bit more too. Sad that it took something so drastic to bring about that change.
      - Education, or lack thereof -> Don had trouble paying attention and had to retake several classes and exams. His English teacher called him a "vegetable," because he just looked out the window.
        When learning about his upbringing and homelife, it makes sense that he had a lot of trouble in school. He didn't have a support system because he said his "teachers just lecture you" and his family wasn't much help.
        I'm very impressed he didn't give up, his graduation, despite the fact that he said he "didn't deserve" his diploma and may have cheated on his composition exam, he still showed up.
    - - Definitely some similarities to Better Luck Tomorrow, but now we're looking at the projects instead of the suburbs.
        Lots of cursing, racist remarks even towards their own kind (calling each other "Chinaman"), playing basketball, gun violence.
        Don has a complex masculinity because he has desires to be violent but at the same time all he really wants is a good family dynamic. He's not afraid to cry or speak his mind, which is refreshing to see for a high school senior going through all these hardships.
      - It's interesting to see how the environment affected each sibling.
        Touch was likely hanging around gangs and got involved in things he shouldn't have gotten involved with.
        The other brother blames the system "it's not anybody's fault, it's the whole stupid system of the world." (37:50) He feels as though there isn't much they can do, very closed minded.
        Don is vocal about hating living in the projects but he remains open-minded ("I can't wait to get out of here," while negative in connotation, enables him to at least look to a more positive future).
- - - - Anyone who looked Japanese in Detroit became a threat...
        
        It's funny to think that even today we put Japanese cars on a pedestal and consider them the most reliable, Toyota for example.
  - - - The judge adjusted the punishment according to the individuals as opposed to matching the punishment with the crime... manslaughter means there wasn't an attempt to kill. how does beating someone with a baseball bat IN THE HEAD not having a clear intent to kill? One cop reported that parts of Chin's brain were on the street. It doesn't matter that Ebens didn't have a criminal record or didn't match the expectations of someone who would do something like this, he did it and really should have faced more severe consequences. The son, we learn had problems with alcohol, definitely was an enabler in the killing by holding Vincent back.
    - - There's also the interview with another Asian American man in the automotive industry who claimed, "I'm surprised there hasn't been more than one Vincent Chin incident." (35:29) There was so much hatred toward Asian Americans.
- - - - Amin stated early on that Indians refused their daughters to marry Africans, that remained true in the case of Mina and Demetrius...
        Jay preached that "people should stick to their own kind." Why is love different?
    - - "To participate in the American dream, whether in personal relationships or in the capitalist business world, is to be excluded from home if one is a minority. Assimilation into one world produces exile from another." (P.190)
- - - - After 9/11, Changez faced very blatant discrimination: (51:52), the airport scene. (1:01:00) the white trucker who said "fuck you, osama" and spit on the ground. (1:18:15) interrogation scene. Even the CIA was unsuccessful in their hunch that Changez was affiliated in the disappearance of Professor Rainier. What the film did a great job of us was creating this internal hatred and frustration that Changez felt, leading us to think that he would be guilty in the end. All to find out that he was on the right side after all.
        
        Importance of facial hair. Despite being in a suit and having "top, prvileged" white counterparts, the beard and skin color were what made him a target. When he was clean shaven, there was less of a hunch. He looked assimilated, but as he mentioned, "the beard reminds me of home."
  - - - It was interesting to see a relationship between a Pakistani man and a white woman, contrasting what we saw in Mississippi Masala with an Indian woman and a Black man. The relationship didn't feel wrong, but when they were shown together walking the streets there was this eerie vibe that made it seem like they couldn't be together. It was almost as if she were a safety net for Changez, like the American flag for the immigrant taxi drivers. However, it was clear that he really did love her and was mostly patient with her feelings.
  - - - However, when he goes back home, his Pakistani nationalism is confused with vengeance or revenge. He didn't want to fight with violence, but he wanted there to be a "Pakistani dream" too. He wanted the country to be more respected and self-governed. When meeting with one of the leaders of a terrorist organization, he too mentioned the fundamentals from the Quran which immediately brought flashbacks to Underwood Sampson and turned him off to the idea of being part of the resistance.
- - - - Changez's role as a tour guide: What's interesting is that Changez is well-versed in Pakistani culture as well as white elite American culture. Changez is the driver of the conversation and gets to craft the narrative himself. He picks up on cues about the journalist's constant surveillance of his surroundings and is suspicious of his intentions. However, being innocent, he walks the journalist through a complex story of self-realization and how his race became a weapon against him.
        
        Also, worth noting that we didn't really question why the American was in Pakistan. Tourism was pretty rampant from 2000 to 2006, but following 2006 to 2010 there was only a 1.02% increase in Pakistan. Foreigners likely felt like targets, no different than Pakistan individuals feeling like targets in America. With American military presence in the region, there was inevitably hostility between Americans and the natives, as shown by the protests and demonstrations.
- - - - Does the fact that the robots are Asian add to this "fear of the unknown?"
- - - - When I think about China, the first thing that comes to mind is how technologically advanced they are. However, instead of treating this as a positive, we often look down upon their "superhuman abilities" as something that is unhumanlike or more robotic like. The stereotype of being locked in a room with a bowl of rice adds to this idea of Asians as machines.
  - - - "If it contains a brain, that working brain is never divorced from the natural calculations of the animal body." P.7
        I just like this quote - I think it discusses how people choose to interpret their own stereotypes. Being a hard worker is a positive but being a machine is not, why does it really matter if social skills are less developed if the work is being done well? How can Asians escape from being viewed as machines so long they remain technologically advanced or good at STEM fields? There's a lot to think about here
- - - - Ethics: The film is complex, especially with regards to ethics, because the foundation of the movie is a "crime." Technos are not allowed to be "tampered with [in the core interior'." (12:26). Jake goes around this by taking him to Russ, a recommendation from his neighbor, who does end up tampering with the core. Then, it unlocks the memory bank and that's when the family begins to grieve and learn more about the past they never knew existed.
        
        This is an important consideration when thinking about the role of technology in today's society and the future. We must hold ourselves to a high ethical and moral standard because if we don't, who knows how technology may be exploited.
- - - - We learn that her dad let her go off with Waymond easily, without putting up a fight. Also, like other films, there is an importance of reputation - why be proud of someone who owns a laundromat and has a lesbian daughter? This trauma is passed down to her daughter, where her relationship with Becky causes tension between her and her mom. The mom says she approves but she would have to sacrifice her relationship with her father.
  - - - 1:33:06 "I know the joy and the pain of having you as my mother. "Right" is a tiny box invented by people who are afraid. And I know what it feels like to be trapped inside that box."
        This has a connection to straitjacket sexualities or the model minority myth, where we believe that people are confined to a certain box and when they don't adhere to what we consider the norm, everything falls apart.
      - 1:59:30 "Do not call me father! You are not my daughter." 2:00:12 "I am no longer willing to do to my daughter what you did to me. It's okay if you can't be proud of me because I finally am."
        Breaking the cycle, that's what it's all about. Love prevails, why rid yourself of love for a reason that really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Your granddaughter doesn't speak Chinese, so teach her? There is always another solution.
      - 1:52:20 "Dumb bitches like us make the world go round. There is always something to love. Even in a stupid stupid universe where we have hot dogs for fingers we get very good with our feet."
        This was a lived out example of "kill them with kindness." When life throws us a curveball, we must adjust even if it hurts. We can't let the darkness win.
- - - - "What is Asian American about EEAAO? Everything. The Asian American experience is a multiverse of cultural influences and mashups, and EEAAO gets that, with the ever-present contradictions and embrace of family central to the mix."
        Just because it may be unfamiliar to you doesn't make the film bad or stupid. There are a lot of people that can relate to the struggle that Joy and her mom face. Even with Better Luck Tomorrow, the anxiety that comes with the SAT is a feeling familiar to a lot of the younger generation, making the film something they can relate to. Just because it makes you uncomfortable, doesn't mean that it is wrong. (Example with the Sundance Q&A guy)
  - - - "Asian American characters have the right to be whoever the hell they want to be." It's not until we challenge our beliefs that we begin to grow.
- - - - Changing media representation is a way of remedying oppression of Asian Americans ->
        
        Asian Americans fall into problematic and limiting categories in our visual imagination (lack of respect, subordinate social status) P.25
        
        Asian Americans are often distanced from the ability to control, direct, or participate in telling their own stories (P.25)
        
        In the early films we see a lot of these examples, it goes to show how small steps and a consistent fight can actually go a long way (look at EEAAO)
  - - - "Cultural citizenship stands in opposition to normative assumptions about the necessity of assimilation" (P.12)
        Pop culture and media are pretty powerful tools when it comes to making people feel connected and/or changing people's perceptions. I liked this quote because we always think that people should adapt to the country that they settle in, and while this is true to an extent, you shouldn't have to give up traditional practices/cultures. Just because you're different doesn't mean you don't have a place in society...