Gil Asakawa's Nikkei View | asian american
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February 18, 2011

the Campus Press is now the CU Independent Today is the third anniversary of the "War Against Asians" controversy, which was sparked by an ill-advised and poorly executed satire in the Campus Press, the student-run news website of the University of Colorado in Boulder. I remember the date because it ran on Feb. 18 -- one day before the annual Japanese American observance of Day of Remembrance, when President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of 110,000 people of Japanese Ancestry, half born in the US and therefore American citizens. So here was this commentary by a young student journalist, who thought it would be appropriate to make fun of Asians on the CU campus in a piece titled "If it's war the Asians want... it's war they'll get." In my initial reaction to the article, I quoted this passage:
I'm such a fool for not realizing it sooner. I can't tell you how many times the Asians have treated me like a retarded weasel and I've forgiven them. But now I know that Asians are not just "a product of their environment," and their rudeness is not a "cultural misunderstanding." They hate us all. And I say it's time we started hating them back. That's right-no more "tolerance." No more "cultural sensitivity." No more "Mr. Pretend-I'm-Not-Racist." It's time for war. But we won't attack their bodies or minds. We will attack their souls."
Some people might say that we're being too sensitive, but every Asian I know was outraged and offended. The article spread like wildfire, passed along via email and word-of-mouth. It didn't just make an impression with readers on the CU campus -- especially Asian and Asian American students, who felt unsafe. It provoked passionate angry reactions within the Asian community in Denver, and with Asian student groups in Denver. I wrote my response (and a bunch of follow-up blog posts), and others did too. There were community meetings to discuss what steps to take to protest the column. A group of the area's Asian and Asian American leaders met with CU administrators, including the dean of the journalism school and the university's chancellor. Meetings were held. A public protest on campus drew the attention of the local media. Nobody thought it was funny. The repercussions from this column have echoed ever since -- and in good ways.
February 17, 2011

Site of the Heart Mountain Internment Camp in Wyoming Maria Hinojosa, a very respected journalist for NPR and PBS who's currently working on a Frontline documentary about the detention camps holding Latin Americans suspected of being illegal immigrants, visited the University of Colorado this week. She gave a speech Tuesday night but that day she had a casual free lunch discussion with students from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She described the film she's working on, and some of the heartbreaking stories of families torn apart and the shame and embarrassment the detainees face. Her description conjured up for me how Japanese American families must have felt in 1942 as they were being rounded up and sent to internment camps in desolate parts of the Western United States during World War II, including Heart Mountain in Wyoming, shown above with a still-standing tarpaper-covered barrack. I asked her, since February 19 is the annual Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans, if she found it especially ironic that she's working on this documentary and giving a speech this week. Hinojosa looked at me, stunned. She clearly knew about Japanese American internment. But she had no idea there was such as thing as Day of Remembrance for Japanese Americans.
February 4, 2011

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.
February 3, 2011

Charmaine Clamor was terrific in her first Colorado appearance Jan. 28 at the Broomfield Auditorium. The Philippines-born, US-raised jazz singer, who does a fine job singing the classic song catalog but adds a layer of unique talent by bringing her jazz singing chops to traditional Filipino songs as well as original music and lyrics in Tagalog. The 300-seat auditorium, one...

January 20, 2011

From Huffington Post: Rush Limbaugh took the opportunity of Hu Jintao's state visit to the U.S. to show off his "ching-chong" impression of the Chinese language. How mature... it's so juvenile to make fun of a foreign language and foreign people by mocking how you think they sound. That's third-grade stuff. Many Asian Americans have heard "ching chong" aimed at them growing up, and it was always by schoolyard bullies -- ignorant schoolyard bullies who pull the stunt to make themselves feel superior. I've felt the sting of this taunt, followed by crap like "Ah-so! Harro! Go home, chink/Jap! Ching-chong ching-chong!" The bullies always pulled back their eyes into slits and bared their lips to show buck teeth while they spat out their hatred. It's one thing for ignorant children to use racist taunts to put down others. It's another thing entirely for an adult to do it, and especially shameful for someone with the public reach and potential impact of Limbaugh. He's showing his ignorance for all the world to hear.
January 13, 2011

Ada Wong, befor and after "The Biggest Loser" We weren't regular viewers of "The Biggest Loser" until last fall's Season 10, because of Ada Wong. I read an interview with her in the Pacific Citizen and some blogs, and Erin tuned in to the show. She got me to watch On-Demand and we were hooked. So we're honored to be able to host Ada Wong as our next guest on visualizAsian.com. She made it to the finals of "The Biggest Loser," and along the way lost 99 pounds and regained her relationship with her hard-ass Asian parents. She's an incredible inspiration for Asian Americans. Our one-hour live conversation with Ada will be on on Tuesday, Feb. 1 at 7 pm PT (10 pm ET) -- just register for the call and you'll receive the call-in information for our conference line, and the URL for the Webcast. As always, you can submit questions for Ada before and during the show via our Webcast page. UPDATE: Sorry, you've missed the live Feb. 1 conversation with Ada Wong. But you can still register for the next 30 days to listen to the archived MP3 recording of the show! If you've tuned in to a visualizAsian show before, you don't need to register -- you'll receive the login info in an email reminder. If you're new to visualizAsian, welcome to our 2011 season! We interview Asian American Pacific Islander leaders and newsmakers on a telephone conference call (long distance charges may apply) and Webcast (always free). Our goal is to inspire all AAPIs to find your voice and follow in or guests' footsteps. Ada was truly an inspiration during "The Biggest Loser." Alone among the contestants, she didn't have the support of her family. Several episodes of the series focused on her relationship with her immigrant parents, who were very critical of her growing up, and unlike every other contestant, refused to send in a video greeting urging her on. They criticized her weight and even blamed her for her brother's drowning death when she was just a child. Despite of these challenges, Ada excelled in the show, and worked hard to lose weight.
January 8, 2011

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."
January 6, 2011

Charmaine Clamor, Queen of JazzipinoThe music is straight ahead jazz -- the classic, swingy stuff with lots of space between instruments and a smoky, sultry voice caressing the lyrics. It's jazz, the classic American artform. But the words... aren't... English. The words to the lovely "Dahil Sa Yo (Because of You)" are sung in Tagalog, the native language of the Philippines. It's a jazz standard nonetheless, written for a Filipino movie in 1938 and better known for an English-Tagalog version recorded in 1964 that made the charts in the US. The singer is Charmaine Clamor, the self-described "Queen of Jazzipino," who sings with a lovely voice in both English and Tagalog, a range of songs from traditional jazz to a fine jazzy version of the U2 rock hit "With or Without You," to traditional folksongs of the Philippines in her jazzipino style. Clamor's built a loyal following of Filipinos worldwide by bringing her jazz chops to songs in Tagalog, updating her cultural heritage with a modern sheen. She was born in the Philippines and started singing when she was just 3, entertaining bus riders. She later learned to play the piano and accompanied her mother, who sang Filipino torch songs called "kundiman." Her family moved stateside when she was 16 and she retained her cultural ties to the Philippines. She's released four albums, including the wonderful, low-key "My Harana: A Filipino Serenade" that's almost entirely in Tagalog, and mostly sparingly accompanied with just a guitar or percussion. For fans of Brazilian jazz and samba sung in Portuguese, sitting back with Clamor's Tagalog songs has the same lilting, lulling effect. Clamor kicks off her 2007 album "Flippin' Out" with a wonderful take on "My Funny Valentine," "My Funny Brown Pinay," a powerful affirmation of her ethnic identity that starts out with a spoken poem backed by piano, bass and drums before she breaks into the melody: