Follow-up Comments on "My America, or honk if you love Buddha"

Below are my follow-up comments on the video some of you saw last Tuesday, Nov. 20th. Remember, it is these comments that you need to pay attention to for the sake of the final exam. Also, don't forget your Interview paper is due when we come back on Tuesday, Nov. 27th. And I'll also be handing out a write-up of your final essay, which you will have a week to work on.


"My America, or honk if you love Buddha"

I would first of all call your attention to the narrator of the film. Her name is Renee Tajima-Pena. She is Japanese American, and at the very end of the film she marries a Mexican American with the last name of Pena (pronounced painya), which is a bit unusual among Asian Americans.

The documentary is basically a search for identity -- are Asians still an "alien nation," don't belong. (Frank Wu talks about the "perpetual foreigner syndrome" in Chapter 3 of Yellow.)

Victor Wong (actor, artist, photographer, beatnik, Jesus-freak,etc.) is someone the narrator comes back to time and time again. His rebellion against his father who was so Chinese (and the mayor of Chinatown in San Francisco) is typical, very American. Lots of Asian American families go through this, which can be the source of much pain for parents.

1.) Victor talked about why he liked the beatniks (of the 50s), because they were open, nonjudgmental; they accepted him as "one of the boys."

We switch then to Chinatown in New York City, and Mr. Choi, who manufactures fortune cookies, among several other jobs. Seems to fit the stereotype of Asians as "work-a-holics". In this context the narrator mentions the immigrant dilemma: to come to the U.S. for freedom, equality, or "take the money and run."

In the context of the Filipino enclave in New Orleans (the oldest Asian group, having come here in 1765), among other things, the narrator comments on the complicated formula for race-mixing. Generally prefer Asian, followed by white, and then other groups, with blacks being the least desirable. I would say this clearly reflects a degree of prejudice against blacks, which I might add often goes both ways -- blacks having prejudice against Asians (as was evident in the Los Angeles riot when blacks attack Korean stores).

Bill and Yuri Kochiyama, the Japanese American couple who the narrator caught up with in Mississippi. Reflects on the Japanese internment experience, Bill fighting in Europe during WWII, and their involvement in the civil rights struggle. One of their sons participated in the Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi in 1964. Yuri was a friend of Malcolm X's. Shows Asians did participate in the Civil Rights struggle. (In Yellow, Frank Wu urges more Asian Americans today to join that ongoing struggle and not see themselves as above it all.)

1.) In this context, the narrator mentions briefly how Asian Americans benefited from the Civil Rights Movement.

In her own family, the narrator notes how "all-American" her family strived to be, yet still they were not accepted. Mentions the Japanese proverb (which I believe is widespread throughout Asia): "the nail that sticks up, must be pounded down." But she resisted eventually, and ironically began to feel more "comfortable in her own skin" and even more American, as she participated in protests.

The Hmong family in Duluth, Minnesota clearly was struggling. Had been on welfare for a number of years and now working at a low-wage job, and still told to go back where you came from. The father who had just lost his job and was no longer the breadwinner of the family, looked depressed and longed to return to Laos. It has been tough for many refugee families in similar circumstances.

In this context, Victor Wong made a very appropriate comment about how many Americans associate an Asian face with "the enemy," since we fought so many wars in Asia.

Finally, just a word about the "Seoul Brothers," who clearly break the mold of the submissive Asian. They are clearly "in your face," one of them wearing a t-shirt depicting Malcolm X's saying, "by any means necessary."


The above are just some highlights. As we get into Yellow, I may have occasion to elaborate on some of these points.