Denver’s 36th Kohaku Uta Gassen singing contest a showcase for extreme karaoke

It stands to reason that the country that invented karaoke is one that takes karaoke very, very seriously.

It takes singing to backing tracks so seriously that in Japan, Kohaku Uta Gassen, the annual singing showdown that airs live on New Year’s Eve, has been like the Super Bowl of the country’s broadcasting industry, drawing huge numbers of viewers year after year. And Colorado’s Japanese-speaking community has brought the tradition to Denver by hosting its own Kohaku Uta Gassen every January for 36 years.

Since 1951, the year Japan and the US signed the San Francisco Peace Treaty and Gen. Douglas MacArthur — the “Gaijin Shogun” who ruled Japan as the Commander-in-Chief during the US occupation of post-war Japan — was fired by President Dwight Eisenhower, the annual karaoke singing contest has been one of the highlights of the country’s cultural calendar.

Kohaku Uta Gassen (literally translated as “Red and White Singing Battle”) has pitted women (the Red Team) against men (the White Team) in a competition to see who has the best singers.

That first Kohau Uta Gassen was broadcast on NHK radio on January 4, 1951. When television broadcasting began in 1953, the show moved onto the small screen, and to New Year’s Eve. Along with sports shows such as wrestling (there was a huge fad of Western-style, not sumo, wrestling in the 1950s) and baseball, Uta Gassen helped boost sales of television sets because no one wanted to miss the shows.

Over the decades it became so popular, featuring the country’s best performers in evolving styles from traditional “enka” (Japan’s version of blues or country music, mostly about heartbreak) to the current Jpop and rock sounds, that it’s become an institution.

Denver’s Uta Gassen has also become an institution, with some performers singing every year. This year’s contest, held at the Denver Buddhist Temple’s auditorium in Sakura Square, was filled as usual with about 300 audience members, including the singers and their families and friends. It’s always an all-Japanese affair — the one year I served as a judge, I understood about 30% of the jokes and even less of lyrics but was able to vote on the merits of the performances.

It’s extreme karaoke, spending an afternoon hearing 32 singers belting out songs in Japanese to nothing but backing tracks. At least they don’t need to refer to a TV screen with the lyrics scrolling by — they’ve been rehearsing their songs for weeks.
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A Chinese tiger mom explains why being a hard-ass Asian parent is better for your kids than Western coddling

My mom, brother and me at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, eayly 1960sWow, the WSJ has a book excerpt today, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior,” written by Amy Chua, a Yale law school professor that boggles my mind and sends a chill down my spine. It’s her blunt declaration that the values of Chinese (and I’m telescoping it out to include all Asian) mothers are better for raising kids than “Western” parenting style.

She acknowledges the stereotype that Asian moms are hard-asses and then goes on to say that being tough on your kids is a Chinese mom’s way of showing they know the kids can a) get an A in the class, b) learn that difficult piece on the piano c) excel at everything the Chinese mom says is important. It’s just a different way of showing your children you love them, she says. She states her case so emphatically that this essay really just fortifies those American stereotypes. I can hear parents in conservative households murmuring their agreement: “See Martha, I knew there’s a reason why those Chinese are always so damned good at math and science!”

Here’s how the article starts:

A lot of people wonder how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids. They wonder what these parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it’s like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I’ve done it. Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• have a playdate
• attend a sleepover
• be in a school play
• complain about not being in a school play
• watch TV or play computer games
• choose their own extracurricular activities
• get any grade less than an A
• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
• play any instrument other than the piano or violin
• not play the piano or violin.

This has to be a joke, I thought, except the Wall Street Journal probably doesn’t have a sense of humor and doesn’t run satire pieces. Take this line, for instance: “If a Chinese child gets a B—which would never happen—there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion.”

Nope, Chua, who was born in 1962 a year after her parents immigrated to the US, is serious. In fact, this essay is an excerpt from a book being published this week, “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.”
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Happy New Year, Japanese-style

Japanese New Year

Unlike other Asian cultures, the Japanese don’t celebrate Lunar New Year. Instead, they celebrate the Western calendar New Year, January 1, and some of the special traditions for the holiday, called “Oshogatsu,” have been handed down to Japanese Americans over the past century.

Japanese New Year’s traditions are different from Western (or at least, American) ones: First of all, New Year’s Eve isn’t the big holiday, and the focus isn’t on partying and waiting until midnight on Dec. 31 to watch the Times Square ball slide down, or to see fireworks or make hearty toasts. A lot of us do, because we go to parties to celebrate with friends — after all, we are Japanese American.

In Japan, New Year’s Eve and the days leading up to it are all about cleaning house, cleaning yourself and your soul, putting your business in order to prepare for the new year. It doesn’t sound like much fun. And traditionally, people spend New Year’s Eve quietly at home with family or friends. There are events, such as the release of thousands of balloons at Tokyo’s Zojoji temple to pray for world peace — pretty different from Times Square, huh? My mom’s hometown of Nemuro is at the easternmost tip of the northern island of Hokkaido, and thousands of people gather on Cape Nosappu outside of town past midnight on January 1, to see the first sunrise of the new year in Japan. Buddhist temples ring their bell at midnight to mark the start of the new year, a very spiritual sound.

There are other festive events throughout Japan too, with live music and fireworks just like in the US — it’s not all traditional.

By the time the clock ticks over into the new year, Japanese have spruced up their house with traditional decorations made of pine, bamboo and plum trees to bring good luck. On New Year’s Eve, families settle in with special toshikoshi soba noodles to bring long life, and watch Kohaku Utagassen, a men versus women singing contest that’s like karaoke on serious steroids featuring the country’s biggest enka (a traditional style of pop music) and J-pop stars. This show has been aired on New Year’s Eve since the end of World War II, and for decades it was Japan’s equivalent of the Super Bowl in popularity. Denver’s Japanese community has held a Kohaku Utagassen competition for many years too.

The main event in Japan isn’t New Year’s Eve and the midnight celebrations. It’s New Year’s Day, or Oshogatsu, and not because of college sports contests. The first days of January represent the start of a clean slate for everyone, and a time to celebrate family and friends by visiting people and wish everyone well. January 1 is also the day for a family feast that can put American Thanksgiving to shame.
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Spotlight on Colorado Rapids’ Kosuke Kimura at Consul General of Japan’s annual reception for Emperor’s birthday

Consul General Kazuaki Kubo and Mazuko Kubo w/ Kosuke Kimura, defender of the MLS champion Colorado Rapids soccer team.

Early every December, the Consulate General of Japan in Denver hosts a reception to honor the Dec. 23 birthday of Emperor Akihito, which over the years has become one of the few times that Colorado’s Japanese and Japanese American communities gather together. It’s a festive catered affair, with Consul General Kazuaki Kubo and his wife Kazuko in traditional Japanese garb of kimono and hakama greeting guests as they arrive.

This year’s birthday reception was held at the Westin Tabor Center on Dec. 2. Kubo, who’s been the longest-serving Consul General since the consulate was established almost 10 years ago, gave his usual excellent speech.

It was full of historical perspective and a grasp of current, shifting geo-politics and business climate that may be a hallmark of a career diplomat but seems more passionate and learned, as if he’s truly a fan of world history and politics. He also delivers his annual speeches in his excellent, vernacular English, not all stiff and formal. He’s a very authentic and likable personality; the Denver Japanese community will miss him when he’s rotated out of Colorado to parts unknown, which surely will happen any month now.

During his speech, the Consul General introduced a special guest of some historic note: Kosuke Kimura (shown above with the Kubos), a defender for the Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer (football in the rest of the world) team. The Rapids won the MLS Cup league championship on Nov. 21 in an overtime Finals game in Toronto against FC Dallas, 2-1, the franchise’s first championship season.

His team’s big win — and his award as the Rapids’ 2010 Humanitarian of the Year for his community service — aren’t the only reasons Kimura stole the spotlight after the Consul General stepped down from the podium, and spent the next hour of the reception shaking hands and signing autographs on scarps of paper, hotel napkins, invitations, whatever people pulled out of their pockets.

He was in much demand, even with people who wouldn’t know soccer from, well, football, because he’s the only Japanese-born player in the MLS.
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Go where the hipsters go: Privy 5 city guides are all about Asian & Asian American celebs & playas’ Top 5 lists

privy 5 la

Here’s a cool Asian/Asian American spin on the ubiquitous city guides concept, if you live in LA or some select other cities around the globe. Privy 5 is a startup that’s launching a series of city-focused websites that invites celebrities and local playas to submit their Top 5 lists in categories such as restaurants, hotels, bars, karaoke/noraebang, shops and spas, and also allows normal folk like us to comment and vote a la Yelp.

For the recently launched Los Angeles Privy 5 city guide, you’ll find lists of faves from a pretty interesting array of movers and shakers, including Lisa Ling, Justin Chon, Daniel Wu, Kelly Hu, John Cho, Russell Wong, Archie Kao, Jeannie Mai, Jaeson Ma, Beau Sia and more.

Here’s Kelly Hu‘s list of favorite restaurants, for instance.

Some of the directory portion of the ste looks like it’s still a work in progress, with few listings and lotsa businesses yet to be added. But you get the idea. The Privy 5 team also has a guide up and running for Shanghai with other major cities to come: Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Tokyo, New York, London, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seoul, Taipei, etc.

Uh, don’t see Denver on the list but that’s understandable, I guess. We’re not exactly a magnet for AAPI A-List types.

Next time I get to La-La Land, though, I’ll check in with Privy 5 LA and dine somewhere that’s on Lynne Chen’s list. She’s one celeb I’d love to meet!