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- - - - "representation itself is neither positive nor negative, but is always produced through an in relation to power."
    - - cultural nationalism
      - restrict creativity
      - can imply a single correct Asian American story
  - - - "we must be represented and we must
        represent ourselves"
    - - Visual Communications
      - self representation
      - activism tools
      - community empowerment
  - - - tied to power relations
  - - - Often revealed through harmful or stereotypical depictions
        
        These show who is inside and outside this national belonging
    - - a group can have legal citizenship yet remain culturally excluded
  - - - Foreign, threatening, hypersexual, submissive, or invisible
- - - - impacts the cultural citizenship of Asians and Asian Americans, Araku is rich yet is never fully included
  - - - reinforces a racial hierarchy
  - - - sexual aggression and violence
      - refusal to accept white social codes
    - - esp. white females
    - - the East aims to own the West
  - - - shadows
  - - - Husband shooting Arakau is almost racially moralized and justified
- - - - helps colonial power justify domination
  - - - "a form of knowledge and identification that vacillates between what is always 'in place,' already known, and something that must be anxiously repeated"
    - - they require repetition because they are always unstable.
  - - - allows stereotypes to mutate across time and context
      - Produces the illusion of truth even with no support
      - keeps people trapped between contradictory roles
    - - ex. Asians are seen as submissive but also hypersexual or threatening
- - - - can reinforce oppression or create awareness
      - a space for "critical intervention"
  - - - "providing a sense of movement, of pulling away from the familiar and journeying into and beyond the world of the other" (2)
    - - cinema expands the viewer’s knowledge base, allowing new understandings to emerge
  - - - "yet it is this very notion of visual purity that is a distortion" (8)
      - masks the ways films reproduce racial, gendered, and classed ideologies.
  - - - more than just reimagining the culture we know
  - - - “The introduction of contemporary discourses of race, sex, and class into films has created a space for critical intervention in mainstream media.” (3)
  - - - "The fact that some folks may attend films as "resisting spectators" does not really change the reality that most of us, no matter how sophisticated our strategies of critique and intervention, are usually seduced, at last for a time, by the images we see on the screen. They have power over us and we have no power over them." (3)
- - - - the idealized asian womanhood
  - - - "Surely you don't believe you're in love with her?" (13:10)
      - "Why not? She's sweet and charming - and different"
    - - when Carver's wife arrives, it breaks the illusion
      - paints cross cultural romance of something as a spectacle, not something that is socially viable
  - - - Ex. (27:17)
      - always framed near flowers, gardens etc.
    - - clothing
      - colors
      - ornaments
      - technicolor
  - - - never lets the romance reach a proper conclusion
  - - - "Let me see him in nest of kindly arms, so little Chinese nurse know he's safe for always."
    - - doesn't treat Lotus Flower as a rival
  - - - the barrier between Lotus Flower and Carver?
- - - - We see the scene shrouded in darkness. Incense candles. (16:48)
      - Oriental dress
      - exaggerated makeup
  - - - This leads to her not being able to kill Petrie
        
        Asian femininity is torn between loyalty to the East and attraction to the West
      - "The Chinese heart is very constant, Ronnie. It might be sadly wounded in one of your Western affairs." (25:47)
    - - "Forget the hate. I'm a woman. what is your hate against our love, against our eternal day together?" (56:01)
    - - Petrie
        
        Western desire
        
        West vs East
      - Ah Kee
        
        safety within her culture
  - - - Anna May Wong
        
        typecasting
    - - positions Asian women as a threat
      - positive/negative binary
        
        allure mixed with danger
  - - - the concept of Fu Manchu being a force against the west
        
        plot driver
    - - after Fu Manchu dies, his daughter takes up his motive
  - - - Ling Moy is forced into the masculine duty
- - - - Throughout the film we see how Robert is in a savior/hero position compared to Suzie
      - Suzie needs Roberts protection
      - structure
        
        white males exist to save asian females
        
        Reproduces colonial logics
    - - Robert rips dress off her (1:22:01)
      - Suzie gets assaulted by guy in stairwell (1:00:23)
        
        but she is happy to say it was Robert
        
        what are they trying to imply?
    - - his protection is almost seen as a form of possession
    - - Asian women are depicted as
  - - - an image that represents Asian femininity
  - - - sexually available
      - emotionally needy
    - - more than gender, it pertains to race
  - - - Initially lies to Robert that she is rich girl
  - - - Robert pushes her away when he finds out
        
        discomfort with reality and and personal responsibility
    - - allows Robert to accept Suzie without inheriting her past
- - - - Race realism was built on the orientalist spectacle as colors like yellow were absent in the filmmaking
      - Orientalist spectacle
        
        Race difference becomes “realistic” not through bodies but through the visual environment that codes the East.
        
        Orientalist decor (gardens, silks, lanterns, flowers) provides the racial meaning technology cannot.
    - - "she becomes an ornament herself: a ‘body ornament’" (301)
    - - The film is called realistic because it aligns with Western fantasies of the East
- - - - "Oriental slant"
    - - yellowface is a performative system involving acting, lighting, camera work, music, and staging that collectively produce Asianness for white audiences
  - - - has deep rooted impacts
  - - - Naturalization act of 1870
      - 1862 anti coolie act
      - Chinese Exclusion Act
- - - - primative hordes and rebels
      - Snake charmer
  - - - "Comedy tends to objectify difference" (21)
  - - - "Azaria admits that his vocal accent for Apu is loosely based on Peter Sellers's Bakshi" (19)
  - - - Reframes South Asians as model minority techies or elevated villans
      - Ties them to intellect and futurity, but still marginalized
- - - - puts asian women at the two extreme ends of the spectrum
  - - - but leads to this idea of positive/negative image thinking
        
        they must condemn one and support another, but it is not reflective of the AA experience
  - - - change how people interact and interpret the media they consume
- - - - "Rather than resist projections of hyper-sexuality, I am interested in accepting how hypersexual ascription is part of what forms our very self-recognition every day and every minute." (22)
  - - - the experience of viewing, performing, and criticizing hypersexual images as “both punitive and pleasurable, as well as political” (16)
  - - - self
        
        their own beliefs, desires, politics
      - actress
        
        their career, labor, professional choices
      - role
        
        the scripted character they perform
      - these parts often conflict
    - - Anna May Wong
      - allows an actor to reshape how their role is understood
  - - - uses hypersexuality as a vehicle to reframe Asian women in representation
      - "Because the Asian woman cannot be imagined outside of sex, her resistance is also found in sex" (97)
- - - - "The camera invites us to appreciate Suzie's form through conventional cinematic syntax, then asks us to reject her allure"
    - - while Suzie wears oriental clothes Robert is able to see her as a prostitute second
      - his anger at her wearing a western dress acknowledges that the West also has prostitutes
  - - - female prostitutes
      - sexual men
      - beating of Suzie
      - there are moments where Suzie threaten/attempts to break out of this world
  - - - the film is totally controlling
      - the viewer is totally free
- - - - "the plundering of natural
        resource"
    - - the domination of marginalized, racially
        marked others
    - - a combination of external and
        internal colonialism
  - - - implies that Asian Americans are not good enough to play themselves on screen
    - - displaces Asian characters
      - whitewashing produces images of
        
        white benevolence
        
        white moral purity
        
        white saviorism
        
        white leadership
    - - erasure of subjectivity
      - displaces Asian stories
- - - - the ideas of "honor", "shame", and "discipline"
      - Lee often speaks and acts from a moral code rather than purely self interest
  - - - Lee & Willams
      - Mutual admiration
      - When Lee sneaks out and Williams is questioned, he takes the punishment rather than exposing Lee
  - - - Han is seen as the bad asian, depicting common negative stereotypes
        
        cunning
        
        evil
        
        mysitical
        
        rich
      - Lee is seen as a "good" asian, working with the west
      - Ex. Mirror room fight, self vs other
  - - - The prostitute scene, where Lee has no interest in the women
    - - What is the film trying to say? About gender or Asian culture
  - - - exotic backdrop
- - - - the downfall of them is evidenced by this
    - - a mask that hides the non acceptance by white peers
  - - - a way of regaining masculinity in a world that emasculates them
  - - - ex. pulling guns etc.
      - way to regain control
    - - a way to reclaim power in a society that emasculates them
    - - is not good for them, and leads to someones death
      - a response to their alienation
  - - - Ben competes with Steve for Stephanie
        
        Interesting note: Stephanie has a white last name
        
        what does this say about Asian American women and their desirability? Do they still need some root in whiteness?
  - - - smart
      - hardworking
- - - - extends this to how stories and memories get passed down within generations
  - - - second generation tries to recover suppressed memories
      - symbolize unspoken pain and dislocation
      - mother and relatives rarely speak about internment
  - - - archives don't tell the full story
      - can erase suffering
    - - truth can lie within memory and that its important they are passed down
  - - - confusion
      - responsibility
      - emotions
  - - - acknowledges generational pains
      - validates experiences
- - - - low wages
      - long hours
    - - despite the struggles it was a strong community for many
  - - - echos yellow peril idea
  - - - can be traded for money. the immigrant communities don't matter
    - - disposable
    - - an erasure of community and history
  - - - how can we fight back
  - - - what can immigrants really call home?
  - - - location?
      - people?
- - - - "Ben, the model minority gone awry, the eunuch turned hyper-phallus who emerges damaged" (158)
      - "Ben fights the role of the castrated man" (158)
    - - Ben vs Steve
  - - - “High school age Asian American boys manage to get excellent grades while pursuing… criminal activities.” (156)
  - - - "women are
        the prize" (158)
- - - - shows struggles
      - delinquent
      - bad grades
        
        doesn't care about academics
      - an anti-model minority story
  - - - sacrifices the dad had to make
    - - not wanting to confront the people that broke their window
    - - they stick bad together
  - - - not a good area at all
  - - - going to court for little brother instead of graduation
    - - dosn't really talk to the family
      - white wife
        
        almost feels like he's moved on or is too good for the others
    - - shows how important this can be esp. in Asian American communities
  - - - needs english credit
    - - echos pressures that many Asian Americans feel to succeed academically
- - - - 1:09:45 racisim being passed down
    - - "i'm 24 and stuck here" (1:19:42)
    - - Mina's parents constantly control who she can date
    - - who Mina dates
  - - - gossip
      - judgment
      - social standing
      - economic reprocussions
        
        loss of business
        
        no more loans
      - shame
    - - willing to work together in business but not in relationships
    - - Mina and Demetrius’s relationship becomes an act of defiance against inherited prejudice.
  - - - what makes something home?
        
        and what makes you truly belong in that home?
- - - - a comon display of how the asian american becomes this model minority
  - - - "south asian american body transforms into a site of racial anxiety that manifests in acts of prejudice and violence" (233)
    - - airport scene
        
        how civil liberties are traded in the name of homeland security
  - - - "the novel revels the complicated dynamics of religion and racial formation" (233)
    - - Changez goes from model minority to brown peril figure almost overnight
  - - - yellow peril conections?
  - - - the white man is unseen and unnamed
    - - he is a significant part of the film, almost like a secodnary main character
        
        why does Nair choose this instead of the film
    - - novel: Changez escorts the America to his hotel
      - film: Bobby shoots his friend & TA, Bobby is also shot
        
        ends with Bobby in the military hospital listening back to the recording of their convo
  - - - amplifiers the contextual and thematic issues
  - - - dives into how he must have felt in those moments? or reflects how white people felt of him...?
- - - - very robotic voice
      - works hard and fast
      - "hey you turn around" - getting bossed around (47:50)
      - the coder?
  - - - calling him a freak is repeated across the film - what does this mean?
  - - - chooses work
  - - - weird meeting with the girl
      - shared experiences
        
        shared experiences breed connection
  - - - What does this imply?
- - - - "unable to act in a self-determined fashion" (5)
      - "automating thus mean stripping the organic parts of something until it is bereft of authenticity" (6)
      - used to dehumanize Asians
    - - how Asians are imputed robotic characteristics
  - - - yellow peril?
      - was originally centered around the economic
        growth of Japan... and its economic threat against
        the West
  - - - "This myth justifies the real exclusion, exploitation, or extermination" (9)
- - - - "both trees are important" (21:20)
      - supplanting ones culture into another
      - combining cultures
    - - daughters name is Mika
      - father's name is Jake
    - - Mono-Asians Japanese ramen, Chinese guy
  - - - yang's refurbished?
      - techno-sapian
      - Yang wishes he had more a connection to tea besides facts
      - "are you happy Yang?"
        
        I don't know if that's the question for me
      - caretaker robot
  - - - calls yang older brother in Chinese? (10:20)
    - - later, daughter crashes out after a while of not being with Yang
      - father goes around trying to get him fixed
  - - - guy think foreign bots have spyware (23:40)
        
        father trys to see whats in the "spyware" chip
        
        isn't spyware, it's a memory bank
        
        techno-orientalism?
  - - - who's the white girl that keeps reappearing in the memeories
        
        shes a clone
        
        name is Ada
        
        He raised an Ada that dies?
      - sees forest
        
        later scene Jake is walking through the forest
  - - - "there is no something, without nothing? (1:12:40)
  - - - What makes someone Asian? (1:14:10)
        
        Yang questioned if he was Chinese
- - - - traditional groups
        
        MANAA
      - digital media
        
        Twitter
        
        Youtube
  - - - "Asian American media activists view
        cultural citizenship as a collective endeavor that cannot be accomplished
        at the level of the individual" (5)
  - - - "even when images of minority communities succeed in gaining visibility there can be disagreement about what political gains have really been achieved" (3)
  - - - Media activism as performing citizenship
        
        "Through media activism, Asian Americans demonstrate their ability to perform cultural citizenship while working to achieve a broader movement toward cultural citizenship for others" (15)
      - Collective, not individual
- - - - ex. Changez
    - - Changez never truely feels belonged
        
        called out into action during the art exhibit
  - - - goes from model minority to being stripsearched at the airport
  - - - "the only place i felt safe was with her" (57:30)
    - - Changez's ties to America and it's dreams are tied with this girl
  - - - "David struck Goliath" (43:00) - relates to class?
  - - - Changez has a good job good school...
      - doesn't want to sing those traditional songs now (14:50)
    - - "accents great..." (17:30)
  - - - even though both Bobby and Changez true identities are both murky, only Changez is extremely critiqued
  - - - or personal identity?
        
        Changez's struggle with this in Turkey
    - - Nair critiques this notion
  - - - Changez goes to Princeton, gets a good job
    - - when asked where he sees himself in 10 years, Changez responds with "managing director"
  - - - driven "I am going to win" (18:00)
- - - - class full of anti american rehtoric
        
        how has he changed, he used to love American the opportunity etc, but now he dosn't why?
    - - misses class because they went into his home. Went to meeting as a teacher. shows the arguments against them in his lectures.
      - bobby helped randsack his office
- - - - "david struck goliath" (43:00) - relates to class?
    - - stripserached at airport
        
        glass fades into 911 smoke
- - - - Gets with her later
        
        "pretend i'm him" wtf...
        
        "the only place i felt safe was with her" (57:30)
        
        does this relate to class now, the "suits and boots" no longer matter?
    - - boyfriend died
        
        turn the page... "I wish it was that easy" (32:00)
    - - you are just another man("1:06:30")
      - still now really over Chris (ex)
        
        she killed him drunk driving
- - - - implies that Changez is taking over where he came from is devoted to the empire (1:31:32)
        
        "when you determine where you stand, color will return to your world" (1:3202)
        
        compares Changez to the ___ boys
- - - - languages
      - national origins
      - histories