Representation of Asian American Experience - Essay Example

Representative of Asian American Experience Introduction: America is the land of different cultures and communities. The people from all over the world came here for the purpose of bread and butter and they settled here in America. America is the land of opportunity and for three or four centuries back it is the source of attraction for the entire world and that is the reason why the people came from different countries of the world tends to settle here and become the permanent citizens of America. Even if they settle in America and their next generation born and brought up in the same land the problem is that the Native Americans shows disinclination to accommodate them in their community and thus the racial discrimination has taken birth in America. The minor groups living here are suffering the problems of identity and existence. They want to be recognized as Americans but at the same time they cannot keep their own culture away from their life. They cannot forget their originality and the native people always make them aware about their ethnic originality. Many books were written on the problem of Asian American communities in America. Many movies hit the box office disclosing the problems of these people. Many documentaries have been made on these minority groups. Here in this essay we are trying to find out which creative work is best suitable to represent Asian American culture and community. Keywords: Native Americans, minor groups, Asian American, identity, representation of Asian American culture. Asian Americans are only five percent of the entire US populations. Even though they have a very rich culture they often suffer by the crisis of distinctiveness because the native people from America have nothing to do with their culture even if it is rich. The purpose of this paper is to focus Asian and American culture from different perceptive and with the reference of different means of media such as films, documentary, feature films etc. Before taking into consideration the different above mentioned factors, Lets discuss about what is the term “Asian Americans.” This is a wide study which encompasses the wide range of topic as well as theatrical approaches. We can explore the concept “Asian American” by considering various fields such as psychology, history, sociology, politics, economics, literary texts and the films which are the representatives of Asian American culture. For this research paper we have included two feature films. First is “Chan is missing” and second is “Better Luck Tomorrow,” then a documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and the graphic novel “Donald Duk,” by Frank Chin. The common thing in all these creative works is that the Asian Americans considered here. Basically they are Chinese American community. Chinese community has occupied approximately 22% of Asian American population. Let’s first have a look at the film “Chan is Missing.” Chan is Missing: The film “Chan is Missing” by Wayne Wang is a story about the two cabbies search for a mysterious character who had disappeared with their $4000. This search led them on a very hilarious journey which focuses on many problems the Asian Americans have to face into the contemporary American society. This is really a fascinating picture of the ABC (American Born Chinese) in America. Thus the characters are very real and the movie. The protagonists of this story Jo, a middle age taxi driver and his nephew Steve a restless garrulous young man. Steve and Jo want to go into business for themselves. For getting the license they had to give their money to Chan Hung, a conciliatory character. But Chan is disappeared along with their money. While in their journey of search for Chan they came in variety of places such as a popular Chinese restaurant, a Manila town senior citizen center and the home of Chan’s ex wife. All these places also represent the Chinese community in America Their journey of search is very colorful with the appearance of variety of characters who are the representative of the Chinese American in China town. Though it is a detective film it rather focuses more on the cultural issues. This film is called Asian American film because it has tried to merge the two cultures, the culture of China and the culture of America. While arguing about the dual culture of Asian American in the film David Perry in his article “Chan is missing,” states, “Looking for "the third part of a binary," the film tries to find the idea of both Asia and America in Asian Americanism. Though covering many different cultures in Asia (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indian, Laotian, etc.), being Asian American "yolks together a continent and a nation" bringing attention "to the personality and contradictions that it contains (or fails to contain)." Feng looks at the fragmentation inherent in such a relationship -- the question of Asian Americanism vs. Chinese Americanism, heritage vs. subculture vs. hegemonic society -- and Wangs attempt to deal with these issues in the film.” (Chan is Missing, by David Perry Repertory Review ,) http://xiibaro.hypermart.net/archive/04/49.html “Better Luck Tomorrow”: Second film in this category is “Better Luck Tomorrow,” directed by Justin Lin is a black comedy again focuses on the lifestyle of the Asian Americans and their struggle for existence in American community. It’s a perfect picture of the frustration and boredom of teenagers which led to the criminal activities such as stealing school property, formation of Mafia gang, and the last step is the murder by the school going students. Ben and Vigil the two main characters of the movie are Asian Americans. They are highly scholar and overachievers. The major objective of these scholars is to gain acclaim and prestige in well known and prestigious American University, Ivy League University. Again this is the struggle of Asian Americans for making their identity. This is the story about crime, violence, moral fall of the young generation. If we compare both of the above films from the point of view of representation of Asian American we realize that the previous one is the better representation that the later one. “Chan is Missing” is the story whose basic theme is the problems of Asian American while the film “Better Luck Tomorrow” has just the reference of the Asian American characters but its focus is more on crime and the deteriorating moral values from the society. It’s a tragic fall of the teenagers who are wandering aimlessly. They have lost the right track of the life and that leads to the total downfall of the characters. Ethnic issues here are taken as subordinate or stand by to the main theme, which is crime and violence. Only thing is that the focused community here is the Asian American but it doesn’t mean that this film is suitable to represent the Asian American Community because the same theme can be applicable to any society and not just to the Asian Americans. It is the problem of the young generation and it cannot be the problem of any particular community or group. Unlike “Chan is Missing” it is not film based on the problems of American Indians and their problems. But according to me it’s a typical and pure crime film whose genre and theme is crime. “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” Third representation here we are going to consider is the documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” It’s a documentary directed by Christian Choy. This is the story about the death of Vincent Chin; Vincent Chin was an Asian American who was murdered in United States in 1982.The murder was committed by plant superintendent Ronald Ebens, with the help of his stepson, Michael Nitz. The tragedy happened through a violent argument between Chin and Ebens who insulted him on racial matter. The fight between both of them took a violent turn and Ebens hit on Chin’s head with baseball bat.The reason behind this murder was just grudge against the Japanese Americans or we can say the strong feeling of grudge towards Asian Americans because of whom the Native Americans were feeling that they had to lose the job. It’s a story about the conflict between the Native Americans and the Asian Americans. The murder became a dispute because after the murder the punishment given to Ebens was very small and didn’t deserve the crime he had committed. His punishment was just a fine of $3000 and $700 as the cost of the court. It was an injustice that the person who had committed the crime of murder had not been punished properly. Thus the murder became controversial because of this major reason. “Donald ‘Duk” Next reference in this regard we are going to take is the reference of a novel “Donald Duk,” by Frank Chin. Again it’s a novel about the struggle of an Asian American to find his existence and his identity in American community. It’s a story of a young boy of twelve years old named Donald Duk who was trying to find out his identity. It’s a constant struggle between his American identity and his Chinese identity. By born he was American but his origins are from China. So he is trying to balance between the American lifestyle and his roots to the Chinese culture. He constantly feels that his parents have oppressed the American culture and he wants to live his life as an American and ignore his Chinese ethnicity. He is of the view that the Americans are always biased in their attitude towards Chinese and so being an American he should also do the same thing. On the same issue he constantly has a fight with his father who used to say, "I think Donald Duk may be the very last American-born Chinese-American boy to believe you have to give up being Chinese to be an American" (pg 42) The question here arises why Donald hates his own Chinese ethnicity when his white friend Arnold Azalea is eager to know about the Chinese culture. Thus the novel deals with the racial issues. Donald was constantly being made aware of the racism right from his school where his teacher introduced the class the Asians as passive and can never compete the western culture which is more vibrant and energetic. So the image of the Asians fits in Donald’s mind in a certain way that he cannot adore his own culture. His mother always tries to convince him that there is nothing wrong in being Asian What’s wrong with racists, anyway?" Mom asks. ‘We have been living with them for over a hundred years now, and we get along with them fine.” (p. 150) The basic theme of this novel is an embarrassment about our own culture and a constant struggle for running away from our identity. This novel is definitely a fine representation of the Asian American society in America. "Shortcomings" by Adrian Tomine The last work we are going to take into consideration is the graphic novel “Shortcomings” by Adrian Tomine. “Shortcoming” is the novel which is the fine blend of ethnic identity, racial politics and frivolous sex. The protagonist of this novel that is Ben is obsessed by the white women in spite of his Asian American (Japanese) girlfriend. Ben’s fondness for the white women is the main cause between Ben and his Asian American girlfriend Milko Hayashi. Thus the protagonist of this story is a crabby, negative, self-absorbed, and a race blind person. In “Shortcomings” the major Asian American characters explicitly address how they handle the problem of being minor in the community. The protagonist though is interested in flirting the white women and he prefers to be with them, he has a very good friend in whose company he feels relaxed. Her name is Alice, a Korean lesbian whose presence makes Ben more appetizing. I would rather say that this film is more focused on the relationship rather than racial representation. The protagonist’s relationship with his girlfriend Miko, after her departure to New York for an internship, his relationship with the white women and his Korean friend Alice, all these show the broken and shattered moral values in relationship. So the main focus of this film is relationship and it cannot completely represent the Asian American issues which is the major part of our discussion. It is the representation of a confused young generation of late twentieth century. Tomine here handles the other issue of modern culture like sexual mores along with the issue of racial politics. And I think the theme sexual more is more dominating throughout the novel than the theme of racial politics. Real Representatives of Asian American Experience “Donald Duk,” a novel by Frank Chin is the one who can represent the Asian American Society because the protagonist itself is the representative of the Asian American community. But if we consideration from various perspectives we can say that among all sources of representation two of the creative works are more suitable to represent the Asian and American culture. First is the film “Chan is Missing,” and the documentary “Who killed Vincent Chin?” In “Chan is Missing” the author is quite insistent in showing the problems of the Asian American people. Each and every character of this film represents the Asian American (Chinese American) culture. The various problems of Chinese people who have settled down in America and struggling to be the part of the society. Rather this is supposed to be one of the first major American film productions in which the Chinese Americas have been portrayed in a very realistic way. Apparently this films look like a comedy but deeply studying one can realize that it is an illustration of the film’s quite serious concern. It is the question of assimilation and a cross cultural misunderstanding which has been illuminated in the film. This film really represents the Asian American society with their various problems. Chan here in this film is actually the part of all the characters. Chan is a metaphor, a representation of Asian American community. Jo and Steve were wandering in entire China Gate in search of this character. They were asking people about Chan. But they got different answers from them. Some of them said that Chan was a communist spy and hiding somewhere while according to some people he was a robber and he fled to his motherland after committing robbery here. Here in the end also Chan’s identity issue becomes unsolved. No body is able to conclude anything concrete about Chan. In this context Chan is a symbol of the Asian American people who are trying to find out their identity. The documentary “Who killed Vincent Chin” is an academy award nominated film which is really a powerful presentation of racism especially in working class people in America. It explains how the Asian Americans are tortured physically and mentally by the local people and the laws also are different for the white people and the Asian Americans. The murderer of Vincent Chin was offered a very small amount of punishment who actually deserved the capital punishment i.e. Death sentence because his deed was capital crime or capital offence. Had it been committed by any Asian American or had the situation been vice versa then the murderer would have been definitely given a very serious punishment. In ideal principle of law every person should be equal before the law but in reality it never happens. . It is not a personal matter between Chin and Eben but it is related to the problem of entire American Society in which racism is spread like a cancer. In America anti-Japanese feeling had spread in America due to the remarkable achievement of Japan in International trade. Chin’s murder was a biased motivated crime which was committed out of the hatred for the Japanese. Even the American laws were not right from humanity point of view In this regard the statement of Vincent Chin’s mother reveals her early life in Detroit when there was no chance for Chinese immigrants to get the job in automobile industry. She further says that her son was making a mistake by anticipating that the American community will accept him because she was brought up to be unobtrusive and reticent in a white world.Vincent Chin’s mother was very subtle when she said, “What kind of law is this? What kind of justice? This happened because my son is Chinese. If two Chinese killed a white person, they must go to jail, maybe for their whole lives... Something is wrong with this country." (Iris Chang. The Chinese in America: A Narrative History. Viking, 2003. 0-670-03123-2. p. 320) The proceeding is done on the basis of race and ethnicity. This is the tragedy of the land where democracy was rooted and cherished. Second question related to the racial discrimination is that why Chin was brutally murder? The reason is quite illogical and unpersuasive. The murderer killed Chin out of hatred for the Asian American as well as out of frustration due to the survival problem. The native Americans are living under constant threaten from the Asian Americans that they are snatching away the source of income from the native people by arriving and settling in their land. Thus the film is about many things which are focused from Asian American point of view such as economics of automobile industry, about the oriental immigrants, blue collar aspiration, and American justice. Conclusion According to me film “Chan is Missing,” and the documentary “Who killed Vincent Chin?” both are perfectly suitable to represent the Asian American community and they are like a mirror of the Asian American society. The major problems which today this community is facing have been perfectly portrayedin both of these creative works. If one wants to gain knowledge of all the facets of the Asian American community then these two creative works will definitely give them major clues to their topic. Read More