#aas218reenar

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What Home Tastes Like

I grew up with two cousins who enjoyed cooking for the entire family. They were the primary chefs of the household rather than my parents because their cooking was super yummy. Sometimes we would have these contests in voting for which cousin was the better cook. I could never choose who was better at cooking than the other, so I always voted for them both. Despite how great they were at making dishes, I never became as great a cook in the family like them. I was the one who made basic foods such as grilled cheese, scrambled eggs, and pancakes while everyone else older than me already possessed that pure talent and honed their skills.

On the topic of food, when I look back at my childhood with my cousins, the smell of lasagna, deep-fried dumplings, and apple pie were foods that first come to mind because that’s what brought the whole family together. On my dad’s side, he hosted many parties and we invited many of our family members and friends to come over. In this event, it was my sister’s birthday and we celebrated the day by eating some of our home dishes. 

To me, though, home tastes like joy and positive memories. That being said, at the end of the day, home-cooking is also a time and place for us to gather and eat as well as chat and laugh.

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(C.A.R. - Creative Product) A Tale of Assimilation

The Story of a Father

Written by Jason Yi, Ashera Tupas, & Shakira Figueroa

Peace, beauty, and freedom

My country, freed from the Imperial Japanese rule

My family, freed from misery and oppression

That was my home

But War was declared

And my father fought for our country

The smell of smoke and napalm filled the air

The rest of my family had to find a new home

Our country now divided

My father never returned from Pyongyang 

We had lost something-- everything

The thought of home far from the grasp of my hand

We dwelled in a dirty, wretched house 

With nothing valuable to sell

Our table was empty, with nothing to fill our hollow stomachs

It was so cold, that place was not home

My mother and brother fell ill

I walked to school, I ran to work, 

I took care of my family, repeating the same routine again and again

I couldn't allow myself to call this place home

After years of struggle, we immigrated to America

Away from the stalemate and into the arms of peace

Came from Korea to America

To live the American dream

A culture so different, a culture so strange

I had to make a change

Talk, act -- live American

And now I could call this place home

The Story of a Son

Written by Brian Cheng, Reena Rejano, & Ziping Yan

Land of the free, home of the brave.

America, how cool, how amazing

To be me, be myself, but

Who am I?

I am American! Born and raised

Places to go, people to see; so patriotic

Oh how great it is to be

A proud American.

But wait, I don’t look like the others,

We all act the same.

People look at me different;

They say I am Korean.

What is that even like?

Not so sure. Can’t speak the language.

Never been told anything

Always been American

Just like the others, how I wanted it.

Somehow I still feel strange.

Like something is missing. Is it ‘cause

I am Korean?

It bothers me; Not fully American.

Should I give up and stick to my roots?

What does it mean to be Korean?

Father, I don’t even know.

But wait, all the history, the struggles,

All the pain my father went through. Rough,

But empowering. I belong here, I can proudly say

I am Korean

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Cultural Energizer: Claudia Kishi Club Rules!

Based on the mini-documentary, I learned that back in the 80s there were hardly any Asian American actors/characters being shown or included in the media. However, the fictional character named Claudia Kishi from the book series called ‘The Baby-sitters Club’ transformed this outlook. She was both an inspiring and assertive character within the entire series because she redefined what Asian American culture can become by doing what she wants and by not conforming to the perceptions we typically see within Asian cultures. And as we know, there are many films/movies that Asian Americans have been in that conveyed incredibly flawed perceptions about them. Many of us grew up watching TV shows and without question - they were usually seen as being very obedient individuals at school and to their families, having thick accents, or speaking very broken English. There’s even been some films I watched that showed the audience how Asians were awfully successful people who’ve easily climbed the social ladder, which anyone can imagine was very misleading. 

With that said, I think it’s important to have Asian American characters in pop culture nowadays because when we introduce misconceptions about them, we’re ignoring the diversity of the entire group and it’s only promoting more biased perceptions about them. So, it’s good to include their authentic heritage, history, and culture. And after many years of their stories being told from the wrong perspectives, we are left with people who also have the wrong image about them. 

However, films such as To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Crazy Rich Asians go out of their way to challenge their viewers to think about these types of perceptions. They, too, confidently bring themselves to do this not only because they’re a minority group, but it’s one way for them to finally bring Asian American representation to life.  

In addition, I’ve watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before with my older sister a few months ago and we both enjoyed it. I asked what made her watch it and she was just shocked and thrilled to come across a movie with a female Asian lead, since she could see immediately that it wasn’t the typical protagonist who was White. Also, to have the main character who is Asian be a part of the trendy genres in both teen romance and comedy, it reminded us both about the importance of representation even now with universal/traditional films. 

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Cultural Organizer (Video of Hate Crime + Racism)

From the video titled ‘COVID-19: Hate crimes against Asians on the rise in US’ we listen to a few stories that include innocent people who were accused of playing a part in the spread of the virus. As a result, we see people who are of Asian descent who’ve faced both harmful and damaging punishments.

For example, in the beginning of the video, we see a man physically assault a woman only because she wore a face mask. And in another case, there was an Asian man who was casually riding public transportation when a different riding passenger stood face to face to him to only spray what seemed to be a disinfectant product all in his vicinity. But after taking a look at the entirety of the video, I felt awful knowing they’ve received so much disgust and lack of empathy. And from the ongoing news I’ve been hearing, society has been trying to alienate them in public places. 

But in fairness, most people wouldn't bother to intervene in any incidents such as these because it’s difficult to get rational reasons across people who are strongly fixated to their personal beliefs and understanding of the situation. That is why I could understand why there are people who would take the precautions necessary in order to avoid catching the virus and becoming very sick. With that said, it’s only normal for some of us to believe nothing good would come out from asking these people to be more polite/respectful or through informing them that what they’re saying and/or doing is wrong.

In addition, prejudice could only worsen when Trump publicly announced in one of his statements by referring to the Coronavirus as “Chinavirus.” Consequently, people and places in the world have been spreading racist remarks about Chinese Asians due to this. This reminds me about the graffiti found in the road in Sydney that reads ‘Death to Dog Eaters.’ This hit hard for my friend because she worries for her family’s safety even more because of the amount of prejudice involved in that specific area. All in all, it’s becoming almost everyday that we discover either offensive or violent stories being shared in the media involving racism and discrimination towards them, and unfortunately it’s becoming a part of who they are.  

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CONCEPT - ANALYSIS - RESPONSE

- Minding the Gap -

[C] Some terms or concepts that were present throughout the film are, “Trauma/grief child/adulthood, and parenting.” This film captures the lives of a group of adolescent boys who all experienced some form of horrible or unexpected moments in their lives by either undergoing abuse/mistreatment, becoming severely overwhelmed or having excessive stress, and they all shared another thing in common, which was going to the park to skate in order to cope with the suffering in their lives. Each of the boy’s lives reveal the dark side through raw camera footage and how painful their lives were due to either the weak relationships with their family, difficulties to match the standards they have to perform based on their identity/race, or the complications in handling other stressful situations, which influenced how they would ultimately act, choose what to do with their lives, and the way they looked at their futures. 

[A] Root causes to some of these problems would be from upbringings by which the parents situated a lifelong impact towards them through abuse/violence. Other issues involved was from having unstable incomes or not being able to take care of a baby from teenage pregnancy. There are also stereotypes that their parents enforced whether it’s having masculinity or to suppress or conceal your emotions. They also ended up feeling alienated from their family, feelings that made them different/not belong with their group of friends due to their race. 

[R] How I personally felt about the content was it was quite emotional to only discover the lives of the group of boys. It was intense, but at the same, it was very brave for them to reveal what’s happening as adolescents to such a big audience. It not only brought the effects in what a child can feel and react when they undergo something brutal or offensive, but how a hobby like skateboarding became the one outlet to have comfort and safety. It was heartbreaking to see the parenting that took over some of their lives as well as the domestic abuse that steered them to questioning their lives. The film itself was filled with many personal stories and experiences that were both educational and informative that could resonate with many different people. 

- Seoul Searching -

[C] Some terms or concepts that provide insight into Asian American Identity are, “ identity/self-discovery, and family.” Some of these concepts sums up just a portion of the result of understanding our culture, the very past history of our country, and of our relatives. This film communicates the sense of belonging from the several different characters’ perspectives. It also introduced how we can form a deeper connection in encouraging us all to both learn and acknowledge who we are, our origins, and to know our family’s history. Since the history we may or may not have known were most likely buried away, unspoken of or based around misunderstanding, miscommunication or assumptions. But according to the film, the character’s connection towards their identities lacked due to impacts of the Korean War and immediate immigration to foreign countries. On the other hand, the concepts of “stereotypes/racism” are also present throughout the film, which are portrayed through the characters’ appearances, behaviors, and personalities that society itself has about Koreans. More importantly, the discovery of our roots is one of the main factors in bringing together our relationships with our family, developing our personal growth, and passionately identifying with our heritage. 

[A] Root causes for stereotypes and racism would be from an example of hegemony. It would be within our social life such as in the educational system by which we generally would have a superior group who makes decisions for the inferior group to complete their needs in what they think is necessary. For instance, the principal of a school would create safety rules and go over a curriculum to ensure a friendly community and we are taught to assimilate to these rules and so we are influenced to think and perform these things ideally. Not only that, but I think hegemony plays a huge rule in many of these issues because we have to follow or perform what we know or believe is “normal” or “natural.” To take it a step further, an idea that is considered “normal” in our own society is we are expected to maintain a job in order to gain money and pay for things like college tuition, food, rent, etc. That is when assimilation and cultural appropriation can become a part of our way of thinking in society or in our individual cultures because we’ve created these high expectations, and in this case for Koreans to the point we have one-sided beliefs and perceptions about them. 

[R] How I personally felt about the content about the Korean-Americans was that in the long run they embraced stereotypes about themselves and stayed proud of their heritage. I felt happy being reminded that groups like them could be represented despite how the media strongly influences our thoughts and feelings towards them due to promoting those stereotypes. Something I closely related to was the portrayal of stereotypes and how they seem to act and behave. I’m mixed and I’m typically told to act and behave a certain way because I grew up living in two different homes with two different cultures, which only made living much more difficult with what image I was supposed to have and what roles I needed to occupy. Overall, I enjoyed the film because it brought out cultural awareness that we get to see from different perspectives of many different raised Koreans such as from Germany, the U.K., and Mexico. I thought adding mixed cultures was unique to also learn about their independent stories. 

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Cultural Energizer: Who Is Vincent Chin?

American automobile companies were aggravated to discover that the Japanese were responsible for increasing unemployment rates in the city of Detroit. Americans not only blamed Japanese people for importing their automobiles, but racially discriminated against them as a result of economically hurting many car companies themselves. 

What was hard to believe when I watched the segment with when political figures appealed to the public about this major issue was setting the tone of how upset they were. To me, it almost seemed primitive. But as a capitalist country, it’s almost expected to behave this way, so they can ensure there are jobs and that businesses are stable. It’s quite understandable to an extent, but after I learned how citizens of the city reacted by smashing Japanese-imported cars and presenting banners that say, “Strike/Fight Back,” it’s persuading violence towards the Japanese and providing terror of what can happen when you mess with auto-companies. Also, despite the white folk stating, “This isn’t prejudice,” sounds absurd because there are other people like him who feel strongly about how companies should and shouldn’t be running and it almost seems as if he doesn’t fully understand the situation of the Japanese who were currently facing overwhelming hate and unwanted presence amongst many of the car industries. 

One piece of information that took me by surprise was from the punishment of the two white folks who’ve badly injured and killed Vincent Chin were put with only 3 years of probation and they’ve easily avoided this with paying a fine to bail. Knowing all of this, it’s important for other non-Chinese asians to join in solidarity for the justice of Vincent Chin because after he was mistaken for being Japanese as he was Chinese-American, this whole situation resonates with many outsiders; it was brutal and it showcased how far racism can lead to someone’s innocent death. Also, I’m certain that the community that stands close to Vincent Chin is his own family and his own people and what matters is that they’re aware of not allowing this to happen to anyone else, and this goes back to all other nations and all other people non-Chinese who don’t tolerate serious matters like this one.

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Cultural Energizer: How SF Erased A Neighborhood

Those in poverty were exploited by those who were wealthy, which created this whole controversy and situation regarding people’s homes by enforcing eviction upon them. This ongoing inequality by which wealthier groups have the power, the resources, and opportunities to gain and achieve higher service and convenience in their area still continues today taking advantage towards gentrification. 

On the other hand, the reports of residents who were undergoing the gentrification process all shared something in common, which was fighting for their home in that one building called the International Hotel. However, in that moment, all I could think of was the displacement of the poor, overpriced rent of the homes, the targeting in mostly low income individuals and families, and forcing the minority to go in decline because they cannot compete with the price ranges. 

Nowadays, these issues continue and the minority has had the disadvantage for years. They were either living in poverty or made much less money than others, so this affected and influenced where they lived. To put it in my perspective, the average white family has a significantly higher wealth compared to the average minority group. In addition, race and class plays such a huge role when a low-income family is evicted because a family who works full time earns less compared to a typical working family, even when their household is unemployed. This video can also demonstrate the struggles and position of the minority and it’s given me insight that sometimes based on your racial or ethnic background, and social class, it can directly contribute to where you may even end up living just from how poorly wealthy people think about residents’ lives after going through eviction.