ASAM4

Tiger Woods

" i feel very fortunate, and equally proud, to be both african american and asian! the critical and fundamental point is that ethnic background and or composition should not make a difference. It does not make a difference to me. The bottom line is I am an American"

Wang on Linsanity

"Linsanity was never just a phenomenon about what we thought of or made of Jermey Lin but also what his story made up think about ourselves" - lins rise has offered asian american academics and writers an opportunity to rethink our horizons-- our relationship to mass culture and pop assimilation and acceptance

gerald early on sport : how do we critically understand sport?

- athletes as social systems, mythologies, markers of transcendence. Yet African Americans as a group "socially without honor" - the distinction between sport and other forms of popular culture. On Money and bodily enhancement

Thi Bui, The Best We Could Do

- author decides to find out about her past in order to connect to her parents - entails a temporal and geogprahic crossing of boundaries - use of childs point of view - uses of black - father shows symptoms of PTSD (avoidance and insturisve memory )

Asian American comics

- both these examples are bout the construction of an Asian american identity through the idea of strength and cultural power - other artists engage with this in different ways

Derek Royal "Coloring America : Multi Ethnic Engagements with graphic narratives "

- comics are heavily coded - rely on stereotypes for narrative effectiveness (eisner) - identities are condensed - physical , gestural, occupational assumptions EX: late 19th century and early 20th century --> caricatures of asians

what are the characteristics of being a model minority on culture?

- compliant and silent - culture : Asians are better equipped to succeed in America because they do better in math and have stronger family structures - in contrast to the "loudness" of African americans and Latinos during the civil rights movement ** these stereotypes are maintained not only by media but by asian american sense of self understanding

On Graphic Narrative and Literature : Derek Parker Royal on Graphic Narrative

"figures that make up the comics rub up against reality in ways that words cannot, revealing, the various assumptions, predispositions, and prejudices that author-illustrators hold. The power underlying the comic image becomes all the more evident when placed within the context of race and ethnicity." - comics serve to present stereotypes easily - we see this clearly in the historic record

Tomine on realistic fiction

"killing and dying", is a collection of short stories. Since I was a teenager, I've had an interest in realistic modern fiction, inspired equally by comics and prose fiction. I love reading the grim, mundane details of life thats often captured in those stories. Its actually never has the effect of making me feel depressed-- rather i find it strangely uplifting"

Pawn Dhingra : liminal space

"spelling bees work as liminal space. The bee helps us connect families to sports while avoiding the radicalized and gendered aspects of sports spaces" - "bees offer non normative gender competition separate from traditional sports one that does not endorse hyper-masculinity.."

On Time : Faulkner

"the past is never dead. Its not even past chapter 2: Bui moves back in time - the present has no meaning without the past, the stories of her parents allow her to understand herself chapters 2 and 3= work on past history of the character - family in vietnam - early years in america her remembers her father as a younger man after they came to america - remembers her father younger around her age - shows simultaneity (traditional way of thinking) Time is progressive .. emotional time is not progressive - Nature of trauma: things you think about are in the past will suddenly pop up when you least expect it chapter 7 - end of vietnma war - family tries to survive in new vietnam they decide to leave - so much time on boat story?? - becomes a deeply american story - vietnamese refugees, but the migrant becomes very specific and very America (popular america boat story ) -- slavery, mayflower

Jennifer Ho - Tiger Woods

"what if we think of him as a multiracial figure instead understanding him as racially ambiguous subject places mixed race asian american into a legible space with respect to asian american communities and US society "

Early themes in "Killing and Dying"

- 14 year old daughter with a stutter - mom is supportive; dad is skeptical

TBWCD

- A story from the point of view of a child of refugees - in humanizing the family, Bui attempts to question the idea of the gook, that in the arrival of south vietnamese, there were among them, communists = flat character= no capacity /change = round character = a character that begins a certain way and has a way to change - bus focus on creating two round characters Mom and dad making them more "human"

the fathers story

- Nam was 14 when he heard the story first, the father was 14 when he went though his experience : a coming of age - "he would be pleased with me" repeated phrase

The 2 Indian American Contestants

- Nupur : embodiment of the model minority --> humble, winning, striving - Neil : equally the embodiment of model minority But his father plays the shadow figure-- pushy for American Dream ** these dads will be important in how we understand the success of Indian American spellers

narrative

- a way to make sense of social phenomena - meaning we place on social phenomena ** narrative arise from historical, social circumstances

Nam Le

- at its most general level, the story is posing the age old question: who am i ? who are we? - Nam Le does it through the particularity of his characters Vietnamese identity and his desire to write fiction

On the best we could do

- the more abstract the cartoon is, the more people can relate to it - we need specifity in order to undo the kind of racist stereotypes that exist

On Tomine

- concerned with telling stories of a slacker generation that gets older but not wiser -his work is concerned with combing a set of themes alongside a set of aesthetic and stylistic choices THEMES - concerned with contemporary habits, particularly the complications of masculinity - racial distinction becomes less important - life on the margins STYLE - realism of his cartooning - the post modernism of collapsing of high and low - serious topics in comic book style Tomine humanizes his comics : produce work that is equally about the art of comic book but what is much more important here is reading about the mundane things of life, finds its strategy uplifting

Indian american Dominance?

- culture : tied to model minority notions of Asian cultural traits of hard work and memorization - immigrant encouragement from parents ESPN views we keep watching because of 2 primary narratives: as american geeks and foreign freaks -- basically a 21st century version of a freak show

Mine Okubo 13660 (picture novel 1946)

- documented the struggles, indiginities of daily life for Japanese Americans who were interned in camps during WW11 - sketches were valuable because no photos were allowed

Executive Order 9066

- effectively results in the forcible removal of the entire west coast japanese american population from their communities in CA, WA, OR. - they are sent under armed guard, into incarceration in 10 US gov. camps, spread across states during WW11 - 1942 Pres. Franklin Roosevelt signs authorizing military commander to designate military areas

The Tiger Myth

- for much of his career, he was heralded as the african american savior who would fix our racial wounds - Jennifer Ho suggests casting him differently so that asian american-ness becomes a part of the convo - the elision suggests that there is not much place for asian americans in mainstream sport

Implications of Apu's Brown Voice

- for much of the late 19th century and first half of 20th century, india in the american imaginary can be understood in the spiritual, orientalist tradition - but there is a second narrative that developed within asian america, in the context of american history

on writers block

- has trouble writing - buys himself a electric smith corona "your free to write once u know u can't delete what you have written or, for that matter have multiple copies of what u have written ETHNIC LITERATURE WILL RID WRITERS BLOCK - on one level, agents are telling him to write about his ethnic experience. The relationship between art and commerce is important. The particular - on the other hand his friend wants him to write something more universal. On love, honor, pity, pride, compassion, sacrifice - the assumption both the friend and the agents make is that these two roads do not cross -Nam Le is wondering how to make the particular the universal

Starn : Life on and of course --> tiger woods

- he got read as being traditionally black - seemingly only interest in white women- reopened the matter of his racial identity

Luis Graphic Memoir- a form of life writing

- history provides a grand narrative, # of soldiers, wounded, place names, dates - Buis graphic novel- provides particulars, everyday lives and experiences of those affected by war - crates emphatehitc readers who better understand difficulties face by her family; Vietnamese refugees

assimilation vision

- immigrant groups would move from attachment to traditional immigrant identities and culture toward integration into modern US life CHANGES: the nuclear family, generational and gender equality, the end of patriarchal structures

space and time in graphic novel

- in comics, figures are situated in panels, and laid out on page, physical and speech behaviors shown -time is spatizalized so readers can see character development - underscore the fluidity of ethnic identity

asian american contributions to comics

- include asian american artists (sometimes unnamed , collaborative work) in superhero comics --> the golden age of comics - some creators don't feature explicitly asian american characters - work often unrecognized as asian american EX: Whilce Portico (filipino american born 1963)

Rise of 1950's family

- journalist/social scientists/ policy makers began to emphasize the way in which Asian american children were deeply respectful of their parents - asian american nuclear family was seen as the model american family

Critiques of Assimilation

- neglects racial dynamics - dichotomy of tradition and modernity do not help us understand social change - modernization processes are UNEVEN (if promise of assimilation is to become modernized, not everyone gets modernized in the same way) - the persistence of immigrants ties and institutions (even as assimilation is suggested, when immigrants come, they maintain some social/cultural ties from the country they left - NO agency for immigrants (No agency = doesn't have the power be your own change)

"Hello World"

- places woods in a particular african american history of segregation - to use nike in this context is to be part of change - racial progress becomes commercialized - ad receives criticism for taking head on the history of blacks - racial exclusion

Apu's Brown Voice : "Much About Nothing"

- reflects the conflicts between the promise of the american dream for immigration and the pressure of cultural assimilation that lead immigrants to deny their cultural identity and focus on how the vocal nature of brown voice operates as an Indian accent

Beginning of Bui

- start of book sites up the parameter of what comes after - feminist power of child birth - birth of new beginning (profound amount of hope) - a baby that will not come on time is Bui's signal that she wants us to pay attention to time - about lateness, about time

Spellbound reconstructed for the multicultural age

- the diversity of the 8 contestants : the melting point the final two : the indian american nupur and April, the white working class girl - race and class can be overcome

expectations for new immigrants : On Race and Assimilation

- the late 19th century = race as biologically determined - early 20th century = Race is replaced by ethnicity (race is seen as a social category) - at the core of the "ethnic paradigm" is a decentering of race and a move toward assimilation as a model for immigrants - as immigrants are coming in, there are ethnic differences - proved / assimilate into this space

apu brown voice continued..

- the practice of brown voice is a form of cultural inflection : a variation on cultural citizenship that reinforces a static, radicalized position for south asian americans regardless of their status or occupation in US - "south asian american groups are represented as one undifferentiated group who are saddles with one accent and one voice" - ethnic assimilation illustrates how racial and ethnic identities operate beyond the visual and are influenced by the reception of accented voice - Apu represents many key themes from 1990's current times associated with indian americans (model minority, hypo masculinity, and informant on indian culture and religion) -brown voice can be understood as the cultural and performative practice of manipulating meaning and creating cultural meaning (indians tend to stress different syllables) - he helps us revise theories of racial performance and examine american racial hierarchies and formation of asian american communities in popular culture

Model Minority

- the term suggests a certain compliance. The model way of being a minority is to be a silent minority. To exist within the majority without being too loud - This idea is accompanied by a certain set of stereotypes about the compliant Asian. The emasculated Asian

The Blue Scorpion and chung

- the use of comics to get to serious topics - Chung as the sidekick, who is actually the source of power - Korean vs Chinese - Chung recognizes that he has to sacrifice his personal needs for the sake of the greater good. a popular comic book trope - part of his job as Chung is to fight the stereotypes

Tomines radical act

- to mine humanizes his characters - the movement past the 6 faces of the oriental - infuses his characters with our everyday emotions lives; death, parenting, failure, sadness, exhilaration - in other words "love honor, pity, pride, and compassion, and sacrifice "

Killing and dying

- tomine provides a way of talking about race and marginality without making it the central thematic motor - the issue of race comes up with the comic talking about obama - protagonist is marginalized in a different way-- stutter - the child of a white father and asian american mother. This is not the narrative motor of the story - the scream --> father - scream passed through nature ; it seems to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painting the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became the scream " - the ending epiphany : the moment at the end of a story where the characters move from dark to light. To knowledge - the father will take care of the daughter. He recognizes his role. The movement on from grief. The movement on from grief. He has been knocked awake - for her part, daughter will take care of the father as he ages

Why Sport?

- traditionally, a discussion of fandom, of escape, of mindless entertainment - at the crossroads of sport and race, sport is often seen as meritocracy, a metaphor for our ability to break through to progress - in american history, there have been figures that both represent the progress narrative, and those who critique it

American Geeks

- winners fit into a larger argument about asian americans as studious, prone to hard work and memorization - in this, it fits into the arguments made by Read, Maguire, and Spellbound

"I am Tiger Woods"

- woods second nike commercial - ad begins with an african american and then asian american. (No coincidence) - woods as the representative of us all - nike is multiculturalism a commodity - colorblindness: we no longer see color, we are all the same color

Dismantling icons and stereotypes

-because of its foundational reliance on character iconography, comics are well suited to dismantle problematic ethnic representations especially those formed in visual language - comics particularize the general

Immigrant and Nationality Act of 1965

-changed the quotas of asian immigration to america-->The history of exclusion slowly moves toward a trend of inclusion - each country in the eastern hemisphere was given a quota of 20,000 but children under 21, spouses, and parent of US citizens were exempt from this quota - large influx of asian immigrants - political citizenship

Who was Jermey Lin and what was Linsantiy?

-child of Taiwanese immigrants - grew up in Palo Alto - went to Harvard - didn't get drafted into the NBA after college ; signed partial contracts to the warriors, houston, and then Knicks - spent plenty of time on bench and in minor leagues - came into knicks game and the team started winning LINSANITY - a 2-month period between Feb 4 2012 and March 24 2012 when fans and global media went insane about the successes of an asian american basketball player - 3,000 news stories appeared about Lin in Feb 2012 - this was not just a sports story but a global story

Scott McCloud Understanding Comics

-enables us to see ourselves because of its simplistic or abstract image - lack of visual details acts as a generic person - reader has to put an effort in giving this image life vs photo realistic face

why do comics and superheroes have such resonance in american life?

-metaphor for being marginalized, yet very powerful - the fact of difference is the marker of power - in moments of social disarray, narratives provide clear, unambiguous notions of heroism and victory

Gene Leun Yang : American Born Chinese 2006

3 narratives used - monkey king - ABC Jin Wang (Danny) - Chinese cousin: Chin-Kee --> Danny comes to accept his Chinese identity

Spelling as American Meritocracy

Allen Walker Read: "the community participated without social barriers, in a fashion typical of democratic social conditions" James Maguire : "its a story of pure americana. The Bee is an egalitarian gathering in which kids from every social class compete in a true meritocracy"

On racial Triangulation

Claire Jean Kim argues that "asians americans have been racially triangulated vis-a-vis blacks and whites" through two simultaneous, linked processes" Relative valorization = whites valorize asian americans in relation to blacks in order to dominate both civic ostracism = whites contract asian americans as being foreign, which leaves the out of the body politic

Nam Le's style

Realist Metafiction - a self reflexivity in a work prompted by an authors awareness, of the ticks and trade of fiction

What accounts for his popularity?

Reason #1 = UNDERDOG - repeated reference to the fact that he was undrafted and ignored for so long - americans love the underdog - oliver wang "as suggested.. social values/norms" Reason #2 = the MODEL MINORITY - the ideal asian american self : harvard educated and athletic - the stories about Lins perseverance fall perfectly into the "model minority myth" placed upon generations of asian immigrants to america. - they come here silently work hard for the collective good, maintain there families, and do not as for gov. handouts. And this ideal is often present in contrast to myths about african americans, and in this case african american basketball players Reason #3 = Triangle Offense - during this period, Lin was particular praised for playing "in the context of team basketball" as suggested by Mike D'Antoni, his coach - As a point guard he was praised for distributing the ball, instead of incessantly shooting it - in reality during this time, Lin did so well because he scored and shot plenty Reason #4 = New York as the center of global media - it was Lin's fortune or misfortune, that he played for the Knicks in New York city the center of global media Reason #5= Humble everyman - under magnificent lights of the garden. Lin lived out everyday revenge fantasy we all entertain, made even more poignant by the recession. His success speaks to everyone who feels ignored waiting for a chance to show the skill that we believe lies within us, to prove naysayers wrong Reason #6= GOD LOVING - one of the first comments he made about his success sudden was "God works in mysterious ways" Reason #7= ASIAN AMERICAN FANDOM - the complications of fandom. Why do we have favs? - reflection of ourselves - reflection of our better selves - world as we would want it to be ** for asian americans there has not been much of an occasion for ethnic used fandom Reason #8 = ON RACE - racial assumption of asian masculinity the exact opposite of the post scandal tiger woods assumptions on black masculinity

Father and sons

from beginning, father and son have had a difficult relationship borne partly out of fear and respect name has to hide everything that his father doesn't see

Asian American comics : Y-Men

Y-men: traditional notions of asian superhero - the experience of being young and marginalized. Even among the marginalized, you can't be who you want to be - the power of comics - creating particular asian american superhero from asian history and culture - culture particularity can be a source of power

Apu

offers case study to portray how indian americans are situated and understood in popular american imagination - Apu is someone who is masquerading as someone who is culturally and stereotypically american. - an identity that does not reflect his experience - "brown voice" connotes both foreigness and familiarity because the accent is identified with an english speaking identity and hence offers some cultural privileges of assimilating into american culture - Apus voice reinforces rather than challenges stereotypes of south asian americans and more generally, asian americans in american media

Buis book

shines a light on and humanizes the current moment of migration across the world - telling of one history sheds light on other histories - the reason why the past is such a presence is that past is the ways in which she conceptualizes the present moment, she can't understand her own story until she understands her past

On Freaks

the freakishness-- the anxiety about hyper success-- begins to be more prominent the more the indian american kids win - the decoupling of america from indian american - once they win too much, their american-ness is questioned