Asian American: Best of Both

I drew a comic on being Asian and American, click to full view.

Chinatown After Sunset

On a whim, I went on a walk around Chinatown last evening (with my camera being my only companion).


I started on California Street and walked along Grant Avenue.
Note: This photo was taken at the intersection on Clay, but this one has a better backdrop than the one I took on California, so I'm posting this one instead.


If you look carefully, you can see a man playing an 二胡 (erhu, aka Chinese violin) on the right. According to Stephanie, he's always there.


What.


A senior citizen chats with the man at the newsstand (who didn't seem to be interested in the conversation, if you ask me).


Unaffected by the darkness, a group of men watch on as two compete in a game of chess in Portsmouth Square.


As I walk along Grant, I notice that most of the shops—bazaars filled with a variety of Chinese gifts and stores selling items splattered with San Francisco motifs—cater mainly to tourists.


Waverly Place, an alley nicknamed “Street of the Painted Balconies,” hosts a number of temples. I would've tried to get a picture of one, but wandering around in a dark alley alone didn't seem like a good idea.


Up the hill, on Stockton, the streets are still busy with locals buying groceries for dinner.



I wonder if they have this many boxes to dispose of every night...or maybe I was just lucky.

CalliGRAFFitti

CalliGRAFFitti takes East Asian caliigraphy and twists it with urban American graffiti art to form a whole new type of art. It's a unique clash between being Asian and American, the old and the new, in a sort of a cultural hybrid art form.

In history, traditional Chinese and Japanese calligraphy was reserved only for the educated and is highly respected as an art form. Graffiti originated in Italy as inscriptions and drawings on walls, and writing on sidewalks and walls is still common in Rome today. The Romans consider graffiti to be an art form, but many westerners consider it as vandalism.

CalliGRAFFiti was an exhibition at ProArts gallery Oakland's Jack London Square. It is a collaboration between Minette Lee Mangahas and nine graffiti writers (Apex, Coby Kennedy, Zen One, Toons One, Amend, Desi W.O.M.E, Denz One, and Lucha) from different cities all over America. On Asian elements, like the parasols, they used an urban element, which was spray paint, and painted on calligraphy and graffiti words. The taggers had to learn calligraphy and the calligraphers had to learn how to tag, despite cultural barriers, so it was both an art form and a learning experience for the people involved. The cinder blocks were the opposite; on an urban element, they painted Asian symbols and words. There was also a basketball game, video, and of course other art in this exhibit.

Minette Mangahas was a student of calligraphy for eight years, and she spent the first four years practicing the character for "one". After graduating from one, she proceeded to the CalliGRAFFitti project. She assigned each of her artists a calligraphy character, like "eternity", "earth", or "healing", and together, they perfected writing the characters and created their own interpretations of them.

Frameless Windows, Squares of Light

The poem I chose to write about is "Humble Jar", from Cathy's second book of poetry titled "Frameless Windows, Squares of Light," published in 1988. This poem is about her mother, a seamstress, and how she's always resourceful.

She had a button for every emergency,
the way she just happened to have
a band-aid in her wallet
or some chewing gum in a back pocket
she'd bring these out as if by magic,
waving a tootsie roll like a wand.
(14-19)

Cathy's mother didn't have a cool job that she could brag about to her friends, but it didn't matter. She is proud to have a mother that saves the day when something goes wrong. She always has the things that are needed at exactly the right moment, even if it seems unlikely that anyone would have it. Cathy never thought of these small tasks as important when she was young, but now that she thinks back, she appreciates all that her mother has done for her.

The buttons that her mother kept in a jar were not only useful in emergencies, but also a trip into the past.

A dip into that humble jar
repaired a shirt,
but it also retrieved a moment
out of a cluttered life
(77-80)

The buttons were kept even though they were never needed for the original shirt it came with, and long after the shirt is donated, the buttons were still in the jar. Cathy shows that everything has a story behind it, no matter how insignificant they might seem at first. Anything can be a relic into the past, not only photographs.

Are YOU proud to be an Asian American?

Throughout this Asian American Culture class, I have learned how to gain a deeper, more meaningful understanding about my culture and ethnicity. At the beginning of the class, I had an idea of what my Chinese American heritage was about from my family, visits to Chinatown, and the media. Now I know even more about my roots and culture today because this class has introduced me so many other aspects and components of Asian American culture. When thinking about Asian Americans, I sometimes ponder about being an Asian American myself. I embrace the values that are unique to my culture and learn the traditions that date back centuries to China. However, I ask myself, am I proud to be an Asian American? There are arguments to both sides of this issue. I am sure that this question has hit every single Asian American at least once. We Asian Americans live in a very diverse society in San Francisco and we often interact with people from other races and ethnicities. In some situations and events, we feel like we want to be of another race instead of being Asian Americans. We cannot change our identity and roots though. Our identity and roots are in our blood and will always be a part of us.

I grew up in San Francisco where I was always surrounded by a large Asian American presence. Wherever I went, whether or not it was school or the grocery store, I would find Asian Americans there. Rarely did I ever feel left out because I was the only Asian American. My high school is about 70% Asian (DANG yep, it is really that ASIAN). For the entire four years that I spent there, I have always spent time with Asian Americans. My classes were full of Asian Americans, a majority of my friends were Asian Americans, and I did volunteer work for my school and participated in clubs involving Asian Americans. Basically the point is that my high school was an Asian American domination. Not to say that it is bad or anything, but I never got exposed to other races and ethnicities. Probably the only outlet that I got to have into another culture was Spanish culture during my three years of Spanish class. In that class I got to learn how to speak another language and learn about its culture. Other than that, the other courses I took during high school did not involve learning about other cultures. So when I get into a situation where I am with people of a different race and ethnicity, I admit, I sometimes get slightly nervous and a bit edgy because I am afraid that I might make a fool of myself by doing something embarrassing of Asian American culture. Sounds weird, but it is true. That is how I feel.

So one day I was talking to my Russian friend while walking down the hill from school and we both saw an elderly Asian man spit (rather loudly and forcefully) onto the sidewalk. As an Asian American, I found that normal because I have seen numerous Asians do that countless times but my friend was taken aback by what she saw. At that very moment I felt like I did not want to be Asian. What the old man did was very embarrassing and pretty disgusting and I felt bad that my friend had to see that. From what she saw, she probably asserted that Asian Americans are bad mannered because they do such inappropriate acts (she might not assert that but most likely she probably did). I was ashamed that Asian Americans did that and wish they did not. Inappropriate acts like those degrade the status of Asian Americans in society.

You may wonder if I am proud to be an Asian American. Even though I have gone through many experiences where I felt like Asian Americans have bad manners and could do way better to improve their self-image, I am proud to be an Asian American. Why? Well, I appreciate who I am and what my roots are. No matter how much bad representation Asian Americans get, I am still thankful for the culture, values, and beliefs that I have learned and embraced throughout my entire life thus far. I like Chinese food, Chinese New Year, moon cakes, dim sum, buns, etc. I like a majority of the stuff that makes up Chinese culture, the minor, bad stuff that I do not like includes bad manners and uncleanliness. The good outweighs the bad, so being an Asian American is something that I will always be proud of, despite the bad aspects that appear within Chinese culture.

Free? Don't Mind If I Do!

Freebees, who doesn’t love free things? I remember on the first week of my Asian American Culture class, we were asked to list out stereotypes of Asian Americans. One of the stereotypes listed is Asians being cheap or another thing I hear people say when they are refering to cheap is "being Asian". For example, "I'm going to be Asian and take a lot of napkins." Many come to conclusion that Asians are cheap because like i said asians like to take a lot. For instanst, at fast food restaurants liek i said they take more napkins than they need or any free thing they can get their hands on they take more than one. I confess I am guilty of this act myself, but in a way I think it’s a smart thing to do. Napkins alway come in handy! You never know when you're going to need one. and if they don't want you to take them then why put things out there for people to take? And if they are free why just limit yourself to one?

Over Thanksgiving break I went with my grandparents to the 2008 Auto Show in downtown, and at the auto show place there were free bags for people to take a fill up with brochures and other knick knacks. My grandmother tells me to go get a bag for her so she can hold her jacket. After returning with one bag, she tells me to go back and get her a few more so she can bring them home and use them to hold groceries. The whole time I was thinking, this is where I learned it from! I learned how to take advantage of free stuff from grandma! Everytime I go to a big event I always go for the free stuff and not only do I take one of everything, but I take a handful more!

Like I said, if you leave it out in the open that means you want people to take it. And if it doesn’t have a take only one sign then that just means take as much as you please and believe me I will. I see this as not being cheap, but taking advantage of what they offer. My favorite freebees are t-shirts, bags, and pens! I love free t-shirts. They’re good for workout close, pajama shirts, or just shirts that I don’t mind getting dirty. Bags are always useful for anything; groceries, book bags, or whatever else needs to be carried. And pens! I could honestly say that I have enough free pens to last me couple semester of school. I may sound cheap because these are all free stuff, but I just think of it as being smart and taking advantage of what is being offered in front of me.(haha)

Wong Fu Productions

Left to Right: Ted Fu, Philip (Phil) Wang, Wesley (Wes) Chan

Wong Fu Productions is a production company composed of three UCSD post-grad students: Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Philip Wang. They all produce videos and a movie together on a wide variety of topics, some including aspects of Asian American culture. With their videos and movies, the trio have debuted their works on YouTube and on their company website: wongfuproductions.com. They became well-known for their wonderful works and have toured a couple of college campuses in the United States. The trio has traveled to places outside the United States including France and Hong Kong, talking to audiences and attending film festivals.

How did this all begin? It all started back in 2003 at the University of California, San Diego. Phil was a freshman who started making videos at around the same time that Wes and Ted were making their own videos and animations. Phil and Wes met in spring ’04 in a class and both met Ted in another class later that fall. They found out that they all shared the common interest of the love for making videos and animations and soon became the best of friends who started working together to produce videos. Starting off with home video cameras and moving up to using more advanced video cameras, the trio has put out a number of short videos and music videos and has even risen to the challenge of making a long-feature movie “A Moment with You.” Their works have grown in popularity amongst many people from across all cultures and ethnicities, not just Asian Americans. This shows that these Asian Americans are not only reaching out to people of Asian American culture but are also crossing borders and expanding to places where Asian American culture might not be present or strongly represented. Wes, Ted, and Phil have been very successful at producing videos and because they are successful as Asian Americans, I am proud that they are successful at something that Asian Americans are usually not really seen as successful at. There is the stereotype that Asian Americans are encouraged by their parents to take up careers either in law, medicine, business, or engineering, and they usually do. However, video and media production is a different area that most Asian Americans do not consider that highly since Asian Americans tend to care more about living and making money more than following their dreams and pursuing their passions. The trio has shown that living the dream and doing what you love is really important and fun too.

Wong Fu Productions produces the funniest and coolest videos that I have ever seen. As I was watching the videos, I found myself laughing really hard with the funny videos, sad with the sad videos, etc. I was empathetic with the main character in the videos. For the videos where the trio each directly voice their own opinions and views and act as themselves, I thought that they were all cool. I could relate to their opinions on certain issues because they were around the same age as I was, a bit older since they’re in their twenties and I’m not but I could understand what they were saying. Their videos represent another way that Asian Americans can get involved in the media and have a widespread effect on their audience. They incorporate Asian American culture by talking about Asian American culture from their point of view, using some Chinese music, and filming in China where Chinese roots originate from.

Random fact: They own a cute, gigantic teddy bear named Spencer. Wes bought the teddy bear shortly after the trio moved to LA to live together so that they could do their work for Wong Fu Productions.

Check out Wes, Ted, and Phil of Wong Fu Productions and their videos at wongfuproductions.com
Enjoy their videos because they’re just AWESOME. Wes, Ted, and Phil are BEYOND EXTRAORDINARY. One thing is for sure: Watching one or more of these videos will definitely make your day. :)

http://www.wongfuproductions.com/