Asians rockin out on TV

I watch wayyy too much television, but that is what inspired this blog.

I recall reading an article in the Road Trip issue of Hyphen Magazine that talked about Asians and Asian Americans being more prevalent in television and media. Which is true, but there are still not very many Asian actors and actresses out there and they are not really represented anywhere.

From the shows I watch i do see a few Asians here and there, but they are still predominantly non Asians.

SHOWS:
Grey’s Anatomy:
Sandra Oh plays Dr. Chritina Yang (Korean)

One Tree Hill:
Kelsey Chow plays Gigi Silveri (Chinese)
Michael Copon played Felix Taggaro (half Filipino)
Daniella Alonso played Anna Taggaro (part Japanese)

Gossip Girl:
Yin Chang plays Nelly Yuki (Taiwanese, Chinese, and Malaysian)
Nan Zhang played Kati Farkas (Chinese)
Purva Bedi played Clare (Indian American)

Gilmore Girls:
Emily Kuroda played Mrs. Kim (Japanese American)
Keiko Agena played Lane Kim (Japanese American)
Susane Lee played Kyon (Chinese American)
Eddie Shin played Henry Cho (Korean American)
Denice Kumagai played Aunt Jun (Japanese American)
Samson Yi played Young Chui
Also Kim Kim, Jae Woo Lee, and Alexis Rhee played Korean relatives on the show.

Lipstick Jungle:
Lindsey Price plays Victory Ford (half Korean)
Cashmere Mafia:
Lucy Liu played Mia Mason (Chinese American)
Jack Yang played Jason Chung
Purva Bedi played Juliet’s Assistant (Indian American)

Knight Rider:
Smith Cho plays Zoe Chae (Korean American)
Jack Yang played Cross
Suite Life of Zack and Cody:
Brenda Song plays London Tipton (Korean American)

REALITY TV SHOWS:
Dancing With The Stars:
Carrie Ann Inaba – Judge (part Japanese and Chinese)

Top Chef:
Padma Lakshmi – Judge and host (Indian)
Hung Hyunh - chef – Season 3 winner (Vietnamese American)

Project Runway:
Chloe Dao - fashion designer– Season 2 winner (Vietnamese American)

Survivor:
Yau-Man Chan – contestant on Survivor: Fiji and Survivor: Micronesia (Chinese)

Big Brother:
Jun Song – Season 4 winner (Korean)

(Mostly thanks to imdb.com for actor/actress biographies, where i was able to find the Asian ethnicities of these actors/ actresses. Also i got my photos from various websites from a yahoo images search.)

Poem Response

The Mah-Jong Players

under the halo
of a hanging lamp

Yellow ivories
clacking in the night

Tobacco fingers
build walls of China

Circles birds flowers
swirling through the game

The poem I chose to write about is titled “The Mah-Jong Players” from the book Crazy Melon and Chinese Apple – The Poems of Frances Chung. In this poem she is writing about people playing a game of Mah-Jong, which is like the Chinese version of the card game “Jin Rummy”. The poem paints a picture of a group of smoking men playing MJ at a table under a dim light one Friday night. They are probably playing to de-stress from all the work from the day and sit down to a good time. All the jade colored tiles clacking around while they build their walls and then, while the game plays out the different tiles come out – the circles, birds, and flowers. As they are playing I can just hear them talking in Chinese about their lives and also yelling about the cards that are out and what tiles they should’ve kept or not.

I chose it because the game Mah-Jong touches close to home with me. My family and I play weekly after our Friday night dinners. We also play on holidays and any other time we are either at my grandparents’ house or all get together on a Sunday. Although, it is usually just the women in the family who play, every now and then my grandpa, dad, cousins, or uncles will join in. I always look forward to good old family bonding time at the MJ table, but nowadays work and school has not allowed me to go to many of the Friday dinners so I don’t get to play as much – which makes me a little sad.

I can recall many funny memories from games that were played throughout the years. Like this one that involves my Pau Pau (grandma), who really only knows Cantonese, but she has picked up a little English with time. So, one night, we were playing and when she dropped out the bird tile, she said “birdie-ah, cheep cheep.” That made us all laugh and now she always says birdie. Also, it’s funny how my grandpa can play without organizing any of his cards and still win. One time, he was playing and I was standing behind him mid game and noticed all his cards were jumbled, but then all of a sudden he just peeked over at my aunt’s cards and said “oh, nice.” Everyone was saying “hey! No cheating Gong Gong,” but then he plops his cards down with the win. Now I like to peek over at the person next to me’s cards when I pick my own tile and win. Oh how I love the hilarious things my grandparents do!


This is a pic of three "Fat Choy" tiles (and two 4 of circles), where this character is for good luck. You can also see the tile walls in the background and a couple playing hands.

Overall Class Reflection

I can't believe it, the semester together went by so fast. I was re-reading my past posts and I am shocked at how much i've learned in the past four months. I remember (and read) how i was so lost at what asian american culture was, and now i can be sure of myself when i answer, WHAT DOES ASIAN AMERICAN MEAN TO YOU? in the very beginning of class, we introduced some basic facts on some of the types of asians out there. i can now inform people about the genocide of the cambodian race, the traditional holidays of the vietnamese, and that the chinese food we eat, isn't even really chinese at all! and of course there is more i can say, everyones presentation was awesome! Asian american culture is intricate. next, hyphen magazines opened the many different mediums asian americans are trying to get recognized into. asians in the music scene, the movie scene, and the comedy scene. the many different stories opened me up to their life stories, further helping me understand what asian american culture is. asian american culture is hard work. The fall of the I-Hotel, impacted me on such a level i can't even describe. Introducing me into the racial inequality that was experienced by filipinos. Asian American culture is about community. APATURE actually got me going out there into the world in search of asian american culture and ANALYZING IT. what?! i was exposed to art that reflected the asian achievements in the united states, and of course, the cultural struggle. asian american culture is being recognized. the book Dim sum of all things, was another fun way of experiencing asian american culture through another person's eyes. Share their experiences and thoughts, and yet seem like their your own. asian american culture is comedic. the food portion had to have been my favorite. fusing the two worlds together is all about what asians had to do once they migrated. asian american culture is inevitably creative. cultural invasion gave us a chance to share what we learned so far in the semester with everyone else. reliving the strike was just ineffable. recognizing and thanking our forefathers for handling their business and standing up for what they believed in - THEIR RIGHTS. asian american culture is inspirational. the next project of learning asian american culture through poetry helped me even more absorb the meaning of what it was to be asian - american. it exposed me to those who are MIXED, and what it feels like to have even a little asian in them and how it impacted their life. asian american culture is versatile. our last project, POP was just a final bang! our video incorporated our class from start to finish. from listing the different stereotypes we experienced to the TWLF strike. it gave us a chance to gather all our knowledge and share it with who ever wanted it. finally, ASIAN AMERICAN CULTURE IS MY CULTURE!

Miyazaki's Spirited Away

i love this movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! well, spirited away is about a young girl named Chihiro. On their way to a new home, Chihiro and her parents take a wrong turn and end up at a tunnel which seemed untouched for decades. Curiously, chihiro's parents wander off into the tunnel, leaving chihiro no choice but to follow. A mysterious town filled with delicious food on display awaited the other side, and without hesitation chihiro's parents eat the food while she wanders around. Darkness falls and strange things start to happen. The town begins to fill with the ghosts of japan's mythology and chihiro tries to leave the town only to find that her parents have turned into pigs and that the tunnel has vanished into a vast ocean. A young boy named haku finds Chihiro and offers to help her find her way back home.

the movie touches upon the major themes we covered in class; identity and the struggle of adapting to a new environment and culture. The movie shows how important identity is to a person by establishing that chihiros name is the key to getting Chihiro home. When chihiro starts to work for ubaba to try and earn her ticket home, ubaba strips chihiros name from her, and now has to answer to sen. by the middle of the movie she almosts forgets her original name completely. this can allude to our discussion in class about how hard it was for asian-americans to remember and keep their original roots once they arrived in this forgein place called united states. this asian identity, because everyone just wanted to fit in and not be so noticeable like chihiro. we see this struggle root from the struggle of adapting to a new environment and culture. chihiro's work isn't easy in the new spiritual world, she works as a servant and has a hard time with getting comfortable with all the different spirits that are around her. She deals with money issues around her, love, establishing friendship and avoiding possible dangers. She quickly grows from this young, very impatient, and cowardly girl into a mature soul.. for she has no other choice but to. The changes in chihiro and her experiences i see reflect those who we learned about in class. the many changes asians had to go through as a whole. stereotypes - chihiro was pictured as weak and useless because she was human. threats from "superior powers" - chihiro was threatened many times by ubaba to leave the bath house. money issues - chihiro dealt with greed in the movie. ETC. overall, this is an excellent film that not only teaches people about the many themes i mentioned up there, but Miyazaki being an asian, decided to allude the movie to the asian struggle in being american.

Poem Response

Here is an excerpt i chose from the poem, Talking to his Reflection in a Shallow Pond by Ai.

Last night, I dreamed of America.
It was prom night.
She lay down under the spinning globes
at the makeshift bandstand
in her worn-out dress
and too-high heels,
the gardenia
pinned at her waist was brown and crumbling into itself.
what's it worth, she cried,
this land of pilgrims' pride?
As much as love, i answered. More.

Ai pictured a young asian-american girl on her prom night. she feels sad and alone, for when she looks around at everyone around her, she feels different and ugly. everyone around her has nice, elegant dresses while she is left with her mother's old dress because their family cannot afford ones like her classmates. Her high heels much too big and outdated for her generation because they are her mother's also. Like the brown little gardenia, she is crumbling. readers can see and feel her struggle with trying to fit into her new culture and environment. but when it all comes down to it, she has to realize that it is for her best, and her family's best to be living where they are, the united states; the land of opportunities.

I chose this poem because i can relate to how this young girl feels and the poem is somehow comforting. In the rest of the poem Ai writes about how much the country has to offer such as "waves of grain" and "purple mountains", and yet she still feels empty inside. Like this awful heaviness is integrated deep within her soul and she wants it to go away. I can see how this can relate to how Asians who migrated here to the United States first felt. Especially for teenagers it must be hard adapting. From the very beginning we see the struggle it is trying to be "American." trying to fit the part with appearance. and after all this work to try and look the part, she still doesnt feel right and the empty feeling leaves her questioning is it all worth it. don't you think this is how they possibly could've felt. Later into the poem, Ai writes about the day dreamers who are reaching out to her as she floats by, and how she just wants to get away from them. this can allude to the many asians who are trying to establish and get the "american dream" but the young girl wants to run away from this because it is a darkening reality trying to achieve the "dream." in this race, it leaves you with an empty feeling as you deal with racism, hardships, money issues, and identity crisis.

You Speak Chinese?

“My attention turns to the young white man with blue eyes and short-cropped hair
in the ubiquitous blue jeans and sweatshirt. I say, "You speak Cantonese
beautifully. Where did you learn it?" –Nellie Wong, Wintry Interlude

The other day, on my way home from school, I overheard a conversation. This conversation was like any other conversation except it was spoken all in Cantonese. I look around the bus quickly glancing over to see who was talking and to my surprise the conversation was between a Chinese woman and a Caucasian man. Being born and growing up in an Asian neighborhood when it comes to languages I forget that the world is not black and white. There is no rule saying if you’re this race you should speak this language and if you’re that race you should speak that language. We’re in America now and in this culture we are a mix of different ethnic cultures. We like to learn and experience different cultures and there is nothing wrong with that. We should be opening minded and we are. We are open to learning about different ethnic groups. I guess what surprised me was not the fact that he was a Caucasian man speaking Cantonese, but the fact that his Cantonese was a lot better than mine! I’m not saying that it shouldn’t be better than mine, but I guess I was kind of jealous (haha). It turned out that this man was actually a Chinese teacher and the woman he was talking to was one of his students. This incident reminded me of a quote from the poem Wintry Interlude by Nellie Wong because she also encountered a white man speaking Cantonese. It makes me wonder where he learned his Chinese from and how he speaks so perfectly because I know my Cantonese is not good at all and going to Chinese school did not help.

Thinking back on this situation this shouldn’t be foreign to me because a number of people speak different languages. I myself took German and Spanish for a foreign language class and I’m neither of them. For a couple summers now I go down to Mexico and try to speak Spanish. The Mexicans there probably have the same reactions I had when they hear and see a Chinese girl speak Spanish. So this shouldn’t be a surprised to me at all. I think it just caught me off guard as it would to anyone when they see or hear someone of another race speak their native tongue.

Emergence of Asian Americans in the Fashion Scene

As I flip through fashion magazines from the past few years, I notice that the names of Asian American designers are popping up more and more often. Although not as well known as fashion giants like Chanel, Dior, Prada, etc., they are very successful and will still be relevant in years to come, so familiarize yourself with the following designers (I left out Vera Wang because Stephanie already covered her):

One of the most established Asian American designers is Anna Sui. She was born to French-educated Chinese emigrants in 1964 in a suburb of Michigan, where hers was the only Asian family in town. After high school, she moved to New York to attend Parsons School of Design, but dropped out after two years and dove headfirst into the industry. Her first collection was created in 1980, and she ran her label out of her New York apartment for much of the 80s until she premiered her fist runway show in 1991. The following year she opened her first flagship store on Greene Street in Soho and then launched a successful beauty line. Today she has 32 boutiques in five countries and her collection is sold in 300 stores in over 30 countries. Her clothes are always full of energy and are influenced by her current cultural obsession.



Phillip Lim, the creative director of 3.1 Phillip Lim, is much newer to the scene than Anna Sui. His parents were Chinese immigrants and he grew up in Orange County, California. His interests in design stemmed from discovering Katayone Adeli's collection, and afterwards interned and landed a spot on her design team. In 2004, he moved to New York to start his own line with his business partner, Wen Zhou. He describes his work as "classic with a sense of madness."



Another designer who entered the industry at around the same time is Thakoon Panichgul. He was born in Thailand, moved to the U.S. when he was eleven, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska. With a business degree from Boston University, he worked as a merchandiser for J. Crew and a writer covering fashion trends for Harper’s Baazar, and he studied tailoring at Parsons before starting his own line.



Doo-Ri Chung, a Korean-American designer, started her label, Doo.Ri, in 2001. After graduating Parsons with a bachelor in fine arts in fashion, she worked at Geoffrey Beene for six years as head designer. As for her own line, she had been working out of the basement of her parents’ dry-cleaning store in New Jersey before receiving a financial boost from an Ecco Domani award and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund.



One of the newest and youngest (only 24!) designers is Alexander Wang, a Chinese American born and raised here in San Francisco. At the age of 18, he moved to New York and attended Parsons, but dropped out by his sophomore year to design his own line. His full collection was launched in 2007 and is now selling in over 150 boutiques and retail stores internationally.


There are actually more Asian American designers than the ones mentioned above, such as Richard Chai, Benjamin Cho, Derek Lam, and Peter Som.