Posts

Showing posts with the label race

Decisions on What to Study Continues to Keep Asians Invisible in the American Entertainment Industry

Image
Watching the Super Bowl and its (some would call, underrated) Half-Time Show this year made me realize once again just how invisible Asians are in the American entertainment industry. As the Chiefs and the 49ers battled it out on the field and Usher reminded us of his hits from the 1990s, not an Asian face was projected, even for a split second, onto the TV screens of more than 100 million people around America tuning into the biggest sporting event of the year. The biggest representation of Asia in this Super Bowl, sad as it is, is whether prominent visitor Taylor Swift would get there in time from Tokyo.

Malta as a Globalization Hotspot that No One Has Heard of

The local takeout burger place was manned by three youngish workers when I last visited. One yellow, one brown, and one black. Clearly from three different countries (none of which is Malta) and they communicate in perfect English amongst themselves and to their equally multicultural clientele and delivery personnel taking orders for various meal-order apps. This little spot is a perfect microcosm of modern-day Maltese society: a society that is, quite literally, full of people from around the world, working and living together to make the island economy tick along.

Who Has the Right to be "Cancelled"?

Image
"Political correctness" seems all the rage in modern social discourse. Whether or not one supports its aim to punish any and all public figures found to have engaged in any wrongdoing in the past, plenty of individuals, both famous and not-so, have had their careers derailed due to their dark secrets revealed to the masses. The power of what some come to term the "cancel culture" have ensured that everyone thinks twice before saying or doing anything in public, lest their actions and words be interpreted as hurtful to any social group in the future.

Facing Down Casual Racism in Everyday Speech

Image
People have stereotypes about other countries. These stereotypes help people make sense of countries they have no first experience interacting with. It can be exhausting to navigate the almost endless nuances of sociocultural, political, and economic differences. Shorthand labels, however crude and oversimplifying they may be, provide, at times, practical starting points for people to build knowledge of a topic that they have little background in. For those who are emigrating to another country or coming into contact with people of another nationality for the first time, having a starting point is certainly better than not having one.

Can Asian Masculinity be Redefined as Romantic in a Non-Asian Context?

Image
This blog has had a persistent issue with how Asian men are portrayed in American mainstream media. To this day, the post about the perceived lack of "manliness" among Asian men is the most viewed of the blog's history spanning more than a decade. In subsequent years, this blog followed the rise of K-pop as a phenomenon that gradually changed how Asian masculinity is defined in both Asian and non-Asian culture, sparking a boom of clean, often non-muscular Asian men being perceived as a more down-to-Earth alternative of the domineering, violence-prone attitude of the Western "alpha male" trope.

What Does the Popularity of a Chinese Hotpot Chain Say About Foreign Food in Japan?

Image
It is around 8pm on a weekday in a big shopping mall in Chiba. A few shoppers walk through its wide corridors and most shops, selling everything from high-end fashion to tacky knick-knacks, predictably feel rather empty as the peak New Year's shopping season has already come to an end. Yet, in one corner of the mall, next to all the cheap eateries, some two dozen people are lined up in front of a boisterous restaurant behind a food court. While the other shops in the food court served the usual Japanese and Western cuisines, this one made sure its Chinese background was both seen and heard loud and clear.

A New Year, A New Career

Image
A regular theme of this blog is self-reflection. Just a few months ago , I was looking back on my past year as a 33-year-old, wondering what is the next step now that I had my fourth anniversary working with Blackpeak, graduated from my Ph.D. program at the University of Tokyo, got married, as well as became certified in Teaching English as a Second Language, Fraud Examination, and Anti-Money Laundering, all in the matter of one year. A new life project beckons, but at the time, I was unsure what that would be or where it would happen.

Verbalizing Diversity in an Educational Environment

Image
Many Western, immigration-centered societies, from the US and the UK to Australia and Canada, claim to value diversity steeped in equality. Laws are in place to mandate the equal treatment of ethnic, gender, and religious minorities in the workplace and everyday life, often enforced with a strong social taboo against visible, public, and blatant displays of discriminatory behavior against people of different sociocultural backgrounds. Of course, plenty of discriminatory incidents, some of which are well-known and questionable, occur in these countries, but there is a broad consensus at the grassroots level that discrimination is undesirable. Part of how the anti-discriminatory consensus came about in these countries relates to the educational system. Elite universities in these countries are well-known for their student and staff bodies made up of intakes from around the world. The Harvard brand name, for instance, is valued just as much in other countries as in the US, leading to the

Can Bollywood Help Indian Nationalism Find Global Resonance?

What do you think of when you hear the words "Bollywood films." Perhaps singing? Dances? Beautiful actors? Exotic locale and clothing? A simple good guy vs. bad guy storyline? These are indeed all very important elements. Indeed, they are the most obvious visual factors that contributed to the global success of Bollywood films in recent years, especially where in locales as diverse as Southeast Asia and eastern Africa, where a large number of Indian expatriates reside and have created vibrant ethnic communities that have gradually pulled in the local majority populations through a distinctive cultural imprint. 

A Boom of "Foreigner-Only" Establishments in Japan Shows an Entrenched Foreign Community in the Country?

Foreign residents make up a little more than 2.5 million of Japan's 130 million people, making up less than 3% of the country's population. And these 2.5 million foreigners include many that have been in the country for generations, born and raised to speak no other language fluently than Japanese and identify their cultural allegiance with no other than the mainstream Japanese one. Among those who do not identify themselves as culturally Japanese, the foreign community is diverse, spanning dozens of nationalities and ethnicities, not to mention professional, social, and religious affiliations. 

Honorific Language in Japanese: Not Required for Foreigners?

For those with some familiarity with the Japanese language, honorific language is one of the big challenges of using the language for daily interactions. Sentences with the same meaning can be written and spoken in multiple ways, with different wording used to show differing levels of respect for the intended audience. When speaking to those of more advanced age and higher social status, one is expected to use honorific language that shows deference and respect. Failure to do so is not just rude but makes the linguistic output feel awkward and out of place. 

A New Marcos Heading the Philippines Should Not be Dismissed Just Because of His Family Name

Today, the Philippines ushered in a new political age as the country elected a new president with a controversial background. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his famously shoes-loving wife Imelda, was elected in a landslide victory, with analysts predicting the continuation of the outgoing president Rodrigo Duterte's attempt to create more balance in the country's foreign policy between the US and China. Indeed, Rodrigo's daughter Sara was elected as the vice president in a transparent partnership with Bongbong all but ensuring policy consistency under the new administration. 

When Ordinary Citizens Become Collateral Damage in Reputational Damage for a Nation

As the war in Ukraine enters its second month, the damage being suffered by Russia is expanding from the battlefield and economic numbers to the daily lives of individual citizens. Media reports in Japan, at least, are speaking about Russian residents of the country being hurled abuses and asked to leave, while Russian-owned restaurants seeing downturns in clientele unless they put up high-profile campaigns in support of Ukrainians. The issue is grave enough that the Japanese foreign minister had to release a public statement calling on Japanese citizens to not abuse Russians in the country just because they are Russians.

Lessons from an International Marriage in Japan: Personal Edition

I am happy to announce that after several months of dating and living together, I have recently decided to submit the required documentation to officially register my marriage to my wife in Japan. Given my previous jealousy toward the same woman's professional success, for us to come this long way so quickly was as surprising to our parents, relatives, and friends, as it was, in some ways, to ourselves. With COVID still raging on, the decidedly low-key affair, without an elaborate proposal, wedding, or honeymoon, is markedly by an unremarkable sense of smoothness and nonchalance among all parties involved.

Social Media Treatment of Professional Athlete Speaks Volumes about Nationalism and Its Place in Sports

Japanese and Chinese social media are respectively inundated with reactions to the misfortunes of two different athletes competing in the ongoing Beijing Winter Olympics. On the Japanese side, the ski jumper Sara Takanashi was disqualified for using a jumpsuit that violated competition rules. She apologized profusely on social media after the disqualification for contributing to Team Japan failing to secure a medal in the team event. On the Chinese side, figure skater Zhu Yi fell during her routine, contributing to China not medalling in the team competition. Videos made rounds of her crying after the fall.

When Will Tattoos Finally See the End of its Social Stigma in Asia?

The small poster next to the main entrance of the neighborhood gym is clearly designed to be seen by all who try to enter its premises. In big red letters, it states that the gym absolutely prohibits tattoos and that anyone found with one will be reported to the police and be escorted off its premises. Regular members of the gym who are later discovered to have tattoos, the poster says, will have their membership immediately revoked. The gym proudly presents itself as a "clean" destination free of body art, and the poster at the entrance symbolizes it.

What Does an Increase in TV Shows about Foreigners Wanting to Come to Japan during COVID Says about Japan's Perception about the Outside World?

Turn on Japanese TV and one often sees programs about foreigners living in the country. The shows have foreigners introducing their cultures to a Japanese audience, stories about foreigners who lived in the country for decades and how they interact with the community, and unfortunately, many foreigners who choose to caricature their own cultures to make a living as foreign TV stars. But as COVID rages on and Japan remains firmly shut to the very idea of accepting new long-term foreign residents, TV shows about foreigners have also evolved somewhat in line with the changing attitudes during COVID.

Can Tears Help Humanize World-class Athletes in the Eyes of the General Public

As the 2020 Tokyo Olympics draws to a close, major media outlets in Japan and around the world are already coming up with compilations of these Games' greatest moments. Particular to the Japanese case is a sheet abundance of crying on the part of both the athletes and commentators (many of whom are former athletes who participated in past Olympics). In media interviews, athletes shed tears of joy when they won medals, and plenty more tears of regret and disappointment when they lost close matches or just missed a medal. As commentators cried on-screen with the athletes, the media outlets hope that the audience cried with them.

Unprecedented Minority Representation in the Olympics Shows that Sports can Still be a Social Equalizer

If there is one keyword that describes the athletes that competed in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it could be "diversity." Perhaps an unprecedented number of minorities among minorities found themselves on the biggest stage of their athletic career, making news not just because of their performance, but also for their very identities. The examples are numerous. From a Haitian-Japanese lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony, to a transgender competing in women's weightlifting, to the very first ethnic Hmong competing for US Gymnastics, there are many competing, who, many just a couple of Olympics ago, that would not be present.

American Athletes Much More Fortunate Than Asian Ones in Receiving Public Support for Mental Health Issues

For some people, the legendary American gymnast Simone Biles is currently in the news for all the wrong reasons. Before the Tokyo Olympics started, the news was all about her dominance in her sport, revolutionizing the field of women's gymnastics like no one before she has ever done. Given those news articles, people rightly expected her to win gold medal after gold medal in Tokyo. Yet, instead of winning gold medals, she has recently been in the news for suddenly dropping out of the team and individual all-around competitions, citing issues with her mental health.