the_puffin

(this post is all in jest, so don't take it too seriously. i'm aware that not all chinese people excel at playing the violin / musical instruments, just most of them. HAHAH jp)
Thinking about world domination (which is priority #2 on most mad scientists' agendas, second only to #1, move out of Mom's house), i was thinking about world population problems, china's 2 billion citizens, and listening to classical viola music, and an idea dawned on me.

Why not harness the raw material of 2 billion chinese, their musical talent, and use it to take over the world?
If we equipped every chinese man, woman and child with a violin and showed them how to play, created some sort of harmonic redirection amphitheatre that could collect the waves of sound and channel them towards a certain target (bouncing them off of satellite amphitheatres, of course, down towards target cities / structures) and destroy targets simply with the building up of sound waves.

Of course, we would need to demonstrate destructive ability of the 2 billion chinese orchestra to the world, and thus give away our strategic locations, but if we were to act fast and hit hard, it might be pulled off.

Then again, the costs of all the training / individual equipment / engineering for an amphitheatre / logistics would probably add up to more than we could bully out of the world, so i propose a simpler idea:

the world most populated single hop. Imagine, 200+ billion pounds of chinese fury hopping two feet into the air, landing on the ground, and creating tsunamis that would savage the coasts of the pacific west.

Of course, many chinese are still maoist minded, so all one would need would be to convince the masses with a communist pamphlet about the capitalist pigs, the horrors of individuality and the demonstrable power two billion chinese working together, in unison, in the spirit of communism, could accomplish.

this may have been easier to accomplish during mao's era, but i still see application nowadays.

cross-posted to mad_scientist

stranger988

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Back when William Hung was a hot topic, he was practically equated with yellowface. It's a bit of a stretch to understand how an Asian who portrays himself is the moral equivalent of a non-Asian portraying an Asian stereotype. But whatever the justification, the bottom line was that misrepresentation in general and yellow/black/red/brownface in particular, was bad.

But somebody must have forgot to mention that to the Wayans Brothers who seem to think it's ok to engage in a little race-face of their own.

I admit, this might be a little out of the scope of a community that is focused on Asian issues but since addressing misrepresentation never really goes out of style, I thought it appropriate. Apologies to the moderators if I'm being presumptuous.

Please comment with thoughts about how this movie contributes to the misrepresentation of (and subsequent damage to) ethnic groups by perpetuating the practice of race-face. Links to articles or blog entries is also appreciated.

alligatorandme

I understand why a lot of people would like to see ethnic minorities on TV and in the movies... BUT...

I can’t be the only person who, as a kid, a pre-teen, and a teenager, and now, as an adult, never vehemently wished nor cared to see people who “looked like me” on TV or in the movies. I never sought out a role model who was Asian, and I never felt like I had to. The “whiteness” of the entertainment medium didn’t bother me, even if my parents would occasionally make it an issue or comment on it. Even now that I’m 26, and have travelled to areas where the only Asian I saw was me and like 4 other people (Salt Lake City, St. Louis), I still didn’t feel excluded or conspicuously Asian.

I grew up in a upper middle class/middle class suburb of San Francisco, where most of the kids were white and the kids who weren’t white were Asian or Latino. All my dolls that were human were white. Most of my friends were white. Before the Cosby Show, most of the sitcom characters I watched were white. Hell, I watched He-Man all the time and He-Man was an artificially tanned, buffed, white blonde guy. I didn’t care. I didn’t feel excluded or like I didn’t belong just because I didn’t look like the people around me -- fictional or otherwise -- or something.

When I was a kid/pre-teen/teenager, there were more important things to worry about with other people -- like connecting with a person, having fun, playing on the playground, getting a group project done, having fun, stuff like that.

Right? Tell me I’m not the only one.

haruhiko

[	mood	|	amused XD	]
[	music	|	hilarity on NPR/KXJZ	]

(Re. the subject of the lack of minority representation in movies and other forms of media.)

Although my major is marine bio, I took a few early childhood education classes as an offshoot of my interest in psychology.

One of the main things we looked at is how a lack of representation in the media directly contributes to the self-image and feelings of "otherness" that many minority kids feel. We culled countless primary sources and secondary sources relating the stories of young black men and women who as children thought they had no future in life in professional careers or even in vocational careers because the only image they saw of themselves on TV or at the movies were that of maids, gangstas, drug dealers, people getting arrested, or "the token black person/comic relief person," et cetera. And then we went on to look at the stories of how young Asian adults thought as children that they could only work in the sciences or in a laundromat, or be a violinist, or a liquor store owner in Koreatown, and then there were the stories of Hispanic children, et cetera.

One "anti-PC" comment I read was, "Well, whose fault is it that there aren't many minority actors in Hollywood?" The implication inherent in that person's question was that it's the MINORITIES' fault for not pursuing the acting profession as opposed to the industry's fault for not representing more minorities. Too bad this person did not stop and consider the possibility that the main reason many minority people don't pursue acting is precisely BECAUSE they never saw any representation in TV and film as young children and assumed, as media-saturated young children are wont to do, that this means that such professions aren't really meant for them.

The point of this "anti-bias" class that I took was to show how bias limits possibilities for children. How such limits can affect a child's development and future. How lack of representation in the media negatively affects children, especially in this day and age when the kids are being soaked with all forms of media. I remember that when I was a kid it never occurred to me to be anything other than a scientist or a doctor, or perhaps a pianist in an orchestra. Part of that was my upbringing, but another big part of that was my young, naive notion that that was all Asians in America were good at, COULD be good at. And it's not just minority children but white children that are negatively affected, because this kind of inaccurate representation perpetuates such skewed notions of society.

Yeah, Hollywood is about making money, and not about accurate representation, but would whites really leave the theater in droves if Spiderman saved a black woman? Or if a show had a Mexican psychologist LIEK OMG? Some people may consider it "whining" when some people actually voice concerns, but guess what? A lot of what people call "whining" is what creates change, or at the very least starts the ball rolling by getting the damn idea out in the first place.

It is not "PC" to be annoyed at the fact that a depiction of New York City is all-white. Maybe that might fly for where The Nanny lives, but not in the rest of New York City. Nor is it PC to care about how misrepresentation affects young minority children in our society and limits their future growth. If people think that to be worried about such things is a PC endeavor, then fine. Personally I think it's nothing less than human and considerate to give a shit about such matters.

haruhiko

[	mood	|	aggravated	]
[	music	|	Bruce trying to distract me with some dumb talk about DVDs	]

Reagan is dead! I'm excited, guilty-happy, and kind of surprised. XD I almost want to throw a party or do something to celebrate/commemorate the event, but at the same time I don't want to expend that sort of time/energy/money on hate or on someone I despised.

I know I shouldn't be happy for someone dying - it's politically correct not to be, after all - but I am. The conservative era he helped to kickstart just... UGH. Sixteen years since he left office and STILL we're feeling the ripples of that craptastic tenure. The biznatch blew Carl Sagan off too, and I don't mean in the sexual way, *HAR HAR* I'm talking about nuclear proliferation!

Then again, I'm a "leftist commie Chink fag," so what would I know?

Anyone admired Reagan? Any thoughts?

P.S. I just know Reagan's death is going to inspire even MORE pointless Reagan books than already are in existence. Gag. And see, I used to work at Barnes and Noble, so I had to *touch* those things. They are TEH WORST BOOKZ EVAR.

<3,

TEH 808

asianrenegade

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Despite the fact that I used to be an avid comic book collector, I have not seen the first Spiderman movie, nor do I plan to see the the second one. It's not that I dislike Spiderman- he's alright. It's more so because I loathe movies based on comic book superheros. Generally, they dumb down the superhero and his/ her story and sanitize all the dark stuff about them turning them into some mickey mouse boyscout in tights. Millions of dollars spent on special effects can't hide a ten cent story.

Anyways, I happened upon the trailer for Spiderman 2 the other day and I noticed something...actually, I noticed the lack of something. Color. In the trailer you see Spiderman swinging around New York City saving people- usually that ugly red-head and some other miscellaneous people. Does anybody else notice that ALL THE MISCELLANEOUS PEOPLE ARE WHITE? I guess in all his travels around NYC, Spidey never made it to Harlem, Chinatown, Washington Heights, or the boroughs of the Bronx or Brooklyn. You know how Blacks, Latinos, and Asians are seldom victims of crime.

I asked my girlfriend who did see the first Spiderman movie if Spidey saved anybody that wasn't white. She said she was pretty sure he didn't.

Damn.

Can a Negro, Chinaman, and/or Hombre get a hand?

Stay tuned....

asianrenegade

Looking for a job? Want to do some community service? Want to attend an event?

Come join my community non_profits not to be confused with nonprofits.

This is a place where people who either work for or are interested in working for non-profit organizations can network, ask questions, exchange ideas, post events, post job openings, and plot world domination. Okay, maybe not the last one.

I started this community because I felt that there are many people who want to get involved but don't know where to go. I also feel that it would be nice to connect organizations who need help with organizations who can help.

Feel free to join and post- tell us which organization you're involved in, or are interested in getting involved in.

Thanks,

asianrenegade

bbsy

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Apparent later consequences of plastic surgery in Asian society - I found this in a British publication in the "quirkies" section:

Man divorces and sues wife over ugly past

The thing is, it does seem to reflect a clash that I could have seen coming from a mile away between two ideas in Asian society:

- The need to continue one's bloodline with the finest genetic material possible
- The need to physically alter oneself via plastic surgery to be acceptable in society

We've discussed plastic surgery before. Despite the fact that people have every right to do what they please with their bodies, I think that nevertheless, there is something fundamentally flawed with Asian society if this sort of thing is so apt to happen. I believe that this scenario illustrates it well.

Points and counterpoints are welcome.

asianrenegade

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Civil strife in Sudan 'could kill 350,000 if world fails to act'

RHIANNON EDWARD