East Main Street

Connections I saw between Better Luck Tomorrow and this article: Also other information that I found interesting in the article:

• The article talks about different scrutiny that the film Better Luck Tomorrow faces and how it is caused by past cultural grievances and is fueled by anger
• ” Anger, as we know, is the most potent fuel for activism – especially for minority activism in the United States, where public expressions of grievance are activism’s most common public face and often its cultural voice”
• I found this question really intersting.. “What do Asian Americans mean in popular mainstream culture?”
• “Expressions of anger in popular texts are interesting not only because of their narrative weight and cinamatic value but also because of the right to express one’s grievances explicitly is a privilege.” pg 340
• When the article relates to Vincent Chin as well as L.A. riots – ” As he wanders through a sweaty, mulihued, third-world like Los Angeles embarking on a series of escalating rampages, his first victim, and immigrant Korean grocer….” pg 342
• ” This man is Korean. I, since you’ve never bothered to notice, am Japanese.” pg 342
• The idea of sterotyping against Asian males: “White people believe all Asians got little dicks. You think when an Asian chick sees your pecker, she’s gonna think it’s Mount St. Helen’s. It’s true! And then you look at the tiny hands on most Asian chicks, and think your weenie is going to look like a sewer pipe in her fist.” pg 343
• The idea that people are someone in China and not in the U.S -”I’m somebody here, I’m special!”" Back there I’m just a gook, just another wet-back, Charlie-Chan-low-pay-gook-dishwasher in a stinking tacky restaurant.

Better Luck Tomorrow

Here is just a list of things I found interesting or things that stood out to me in the movie:

• the idea that college is like natural selection
• the idea of having a “token Asian” guy (Ben) on the basketball team
• the idea that it is just a game, you do not have to play by the rules, and the idea that you can create your own rules (it meaning a literal game, or life in general)
• the car of Asians versus the car of African Americans
• fights that occur with guns
• the idea that having power very quickly becomes an addiction, just like the addiction that Ben was forming with cocaine
• the concept of adoption of Asian children (Stephanie) and her want to know who she really is, and getting her Asian name tatooed on her shoulder
• the ethnic groups you see in the H.S. in California and how those groups clash
• the idea that a certain place is where Asians hang out
• the comment of that someone can be funny even for an Asian
• the fact that this movie was based on a real story, “Honor Roll Murder”
• the idea of breaking the cycle and not knowing what the future holds
• having everything you want can end up being a trap
• how the beginning started with Ben and Virgil laying in the sun, hearing the phone ring and finding the body, to the ending where Ben beats Steve with a baseball bat, and they buried the body in the yard. His phone rings and once again we are back to the beginning, only the mood is completly different.

The State of the Asian American Cinema

Things that I found interesting about the article:

• By the middle of the 1990′s most Asian American films were only documentaries
• “The number of Asian American feature films that had seen theatrical release could be counted on the fingers on both hands.”
• Hollywood has benefited from the “Hong Kong brain drain”
• National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA)
• Christine Choy, Who Killed Vincent Chin? movie 1988
• movie titled My America… or Honk if You Love Buddha
• My America movie suggests that the spirit of Asian Americans is always in motion
• Chris Chan Lee’s Yellow ( same author/filmaker as previous article read?)
• teens do not have to prove American identity
• a mother ends up complaining about how her son is gulping down food in a Korean restaurant
• A charactet named Sin ends up explaing himself to a African American customer why he does not match the same price as the big super markets, right after his father embarrasses him about how his father is such a penny pincher
• scenes shot in Long Beach, which had to be rebuilt after the L.A. Riots
• “public perception of the so-called “Korean – Black conflict”
• “Tensions between Korean Americans and African Americans are more media constructed than reality, and that the best way to address that misperception is via cinema.” I found this statement really interesting because in many other topics we have studied the media has ignored injustice against Asian Americans and yet in this case they are saying that the media has caused more tension then the races have themselves.

Margaret Cho

Ok so I know that I previously said that I was going to stop making lists, and sorry I guess I lied. It is weird but now it seems that it is just easier to create lists of things or ideas that I found interesting.

• A quote stating “how do you keep going when someone tells you there is something wrong with your face.” She said this quote when talking about having to loose weight in order to be on tv. I also think this quote deals with her race and how she has continued on with her career dispite road blocks that she has faced because she is Korean
• I thought it was interesting how Cho was trying to fit into the same mold, of being something that you are not, whether it be lossing weight or acting differently. At one point she was taught how to be more Asian to fit into a certain mold, which was not herself
• Sterotypes that Cho discusses: having someone tell her to speak in her native language (which is English), the sterotype that Asian women should not marry white men, the sterotype that white people have big eyes and are tall
• The idea that her parents tell her that her life is not whole because she does not have a child. I thought this was an interesting idea because many people do not have children and still consider themselves as having a wonderful life.
• The idea that Cho talks about how instead of having a child she could adopt a child from China and no one would know the difference

The End of Native Speaker Part II

So I know on a previous post I said that it would be the last list that I created. But there are just too many things that I wanted to focus on. So sorry there are so many lists – but here is the last one. I promise.

• Kwang tells Henry that he thought that Eduardo was a traitor so he ordered that the office be burned and Eduardo killed
• Henry ends up going to dinner with Pete and Grace – who both work with Dennis – Pete also calls Henry, Harry. Why is that?
• As mentioned before, Kwang ends up getting in a car accident after drinking at the bar – the “dancer” that was at the bar with them was in the car and ends up in a coma- the news also comes out that she was in America illigaly with caused even more problems
• Kwang ends up getting in trouble with the IRS for his illigal activites including the gghe banking system
• Once Henry is “out of the business” Lelia is very worried for his safety
• Henry once again recalls a moment in life with Lelia and Mitt at a grocery store – he makes the statement that they were “looking like a family accident.” pg 320
• He ends the story by talking about Lelia and the work she does helping people with their speech and makes the final comment of ” Now, calls out each one as best she can, taking care of every last pitch abd accent, and I hear her speaking a dozen lovely native languages, calling all of the difficult names of who we are.”

The End of Native Speaker

So now that I have read the whole story, I still have some questions that still have not been answered. I also still found a lot of different points that really stood out to me as I was reading. So once again as a fina list, here are some ideas or questions that really stand out to me. 

• Kwang ends up giving 1,000 dollars to Henry to give to Eduardo’s parents (even though we find out that Kwang paid for this apartment as well)
• Kwang asks Henry to go to Eduardo’s funeral for him
• Henry talks about the ggeh again when people are sending in money in rememberance of Eduardo – this comes up again with the IRS and the illigal ggeh
• I just found this funny – Lelia goes on the pill and to make it fair Henry takes the 4th week of placebo pills
• Dennis asks Henry (Parky) to print a copy of everyone who has a connection to Kwang
• Kwang ends up telling Henry that “Even with a little hate you are so respectful and Korean” pg 279
• Kwang says ” I am not your father. I am not your friend.” I thought this showed up later on in the story as well when they were fighting in the bar
• Kwang hires exotic dancer to dance for Henry – who is not interested (this same exotic dancer ends up in a coma due to a car accident that Kwang caused
• Kwang ends up getting in a fight with Sherrie at the bar- she tries to leave and Kwang hits her and she is trapped in the room
• ** see the next post for more of the list

Native Speaker Continued Part II

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Again I am staying with the idea of creating list about information with this section of the text. At least for me this is an easy way to organize information and try to make sence of it all.

• Lelia and Henry go together to clean out his father’s house – she ends up making his favorite stew which brings back memories, which leads to them having sex
• They find papers that his father had written his “American” name that he had given himself” George Washington Park
• Henry describes his mother as “she wasn’t what you called friendly, never warm.” pg 205(in my version)
• ** Lelia knows about Dennis and Jack and that there is a problem between them and Henry
• Henry ends up telling Lelia that it is his job to follow Kwang and gather information on him
• Lelia and Henry end up growing closer together and move back in together
• Henry ends up telling Lelia that he will always make errors in his speech and that he went to remedial speech as a child
• Henry states “I used to almost feel good that there was a word for me. Even if it was a slur.” 226
• pg 228 – the local news talks about how another cabbie is shot dead in the back of the head while driving his taxi- the driver was Cuban and from the Bronx – Lelia also states that he was the 5th or 6th driver to me killed in the last two months
• More on the news: A Chinese ship hit land and many of the illigal immigrants that payed 20,000 dollars each ot get to America died – the people who survived were taken away by the police
• ** The largest news: there was a fire at Kwang’s office – the city commisioners office was set on fire with the use of accelerants and possibly a bomb
• Both Helda Brandeis (a janitor) and Eduardo Fermin (Kwang’s worker and friend) were killed in the fire
• Questions: What is NKVD? — Why does Dennis call Henry, Harry and Jack call him Parky?

Native Speaker Continued

So once again there was so much information in this part of the story I thought it would be easiest to list things that I thought were important or that stood out to me.  (note: page numbers are for my version of the text – they will not match up to anyone elses)

• A black mother is shot dead in a Korean store, a college student, Charles Kim was also shot and killed – relates to Zia text and talks about the riots (pg 140)
• “Koreans were cast as dogs of Asia” pg 142
• While Kwang is giving a speech a young teen starts shooting into the crowd – Henry is responsible for getting Kwang back to the car safely
• Henry ends up doing work for Hoagland in an apartment complex building that he owns
• Hoagland has the power to change the key cards to get into each apartment and does so whenever he wants
• Henry’s friend Jack works for the CIA – he talks about kidnapping, and buring buildings – acts that he had done
• It is Henry’s job to get information on Kwang for Dennis – who works with Jack
• Boycotts of Korean stores were spreading from Brooklyn to other parts of the city (pg 167) 
• Chillingsworth is the police comissioner
• Henry ends up using his real life to create his new altered life
• Henry (sometimes called Harry) admits that he has cheated on Lelia (while they were together)
• Henry is told that he no longer has to observe the psychologist that he has been seeing
• Henry chooses to go to see him one last time and Jack ends up giving drugs to Henry (without his knowledge) to get him out of Dr. Luzan’s office

Native Speaker

There was so much information in this section, I figured for this entry I would just bullet some key points or interesting information I found in the text -

• Henry’s mother passed away when he was young – from liver cancer, never smoke or drank
• His father hired a woman from Korea to help take care of them as well as the house- Henry never got along with her, which ended up becoming a problem with his wife later on in life
• Henry and his family would go up and visit his father every memorial day (this is important because of Mitt)
• Mitt ends up dying on his 7th birthday at his own party, at the grandfather’s house
• Henry was out getting supplies and comes back to find his son dead due to a pile up of kids on top of him (playing a game)
• He tries to save his son, just like his wife did but it was too late
• Henry and Lelia never discussed the “accident” revolving around Mitts death
• Later on in the book, Lilia talks to Henry about Mitt’s death saying “Maybe it’s that Mitt wasn’t white or yellow” (pg 120, in my version)
• Henry’s father ends up dying a year and a half after Mitt
• The woman that his father had hired to take care of them ends up dying of pneumonia before Henry’s father – this is influenced because she did not tell anyone she was sick and ended up dying as a result
• Another thing that was interesting in the text was the talk about the burning of buildings and stores owned by Asian Americans
• How the father was beaten at his own store
• Ggeh- the system of loaning money that we have seen in other texts as well

Native Speaker

Where to even begin…

First off, I found this part of the text really confusing. I almost felt like I was reading the script for a really bad love story that would along be shown on LifeTime at 2 a.m. Anyways, the text basically starts off with Henry recieving a list from his wife about all of the things that she thinks about him or calls him. This is not a very nice list and his her way of telling him that their marriage is over. If that is not weird enough, the author goes into a flah back of how they first met, causing the pretty bad love story.

The two love birds meet a party and then drink themselves silly. They continue to tell each other about themselves as well as weither or not she likes kissing someone who is Asain or if he tasts funny. From this drunk encourter in the park, they fall in love and get married. Only to have hsi wife leave soon after.

To add to the confusing text, the author talks about their son named Mitt. He tells us that Mitt is dead but does not tell us what from. Something that keeps the reader wondering as well as trying to figure out the sequence of events.

So I guess with all of this rambling I just hope that this text become easier to follow. I think this text could really be a lot more interesting if I was no so confused trying to follow the events as well as his occupation, family and friends. I guess only time and reading will tell.