It’s a thin line between self-loathing and pride
I begin this blog post with two pieces of information, which will seem unrelated. Please bear with me.
1. Yesterday, over at the Hyphen Magazine blog, there was this really interesting entry about the stage revival of Joy Luck Club. Interesting not because I’m a big Amy Tan fan, but more about the personal story that Neela, the post’s author, shares about being 15 and naively loving the movie because any representation – no matter how simplistic and self-loathing the material – was better than no representation. It brought back memories of purchasing Sex Packets by Digital Underground (on cassette!) when I was I guess 10 or 11, and actually feeling kind of proud when the guy in the skit was telling the packet dealer, “give me the Chinese girl, man.” It was like, I never heard anybody say anything about Chinese people – except Chuck Norris, who had me actively hating the Chinese villains – and so I was like, “Cool! Digital Underground likes Chinese people! That’s probably because they’re from California…”
2. The Boston Red Sox victory parade was held yesterday as well. A bunch of people at work headed down there, as did my mom. Exciting times, I mean we haven’t had a major sports championship parade in Boston since, man, like, almost three years now! I can barely remember 2005 when the Patriots had the thing, then in 2004 the Patriots and the Red Sox won, and if I stretch, I can vaguely recall 2002 when the Patriots won the Super Bowl. Imagine, for some toddlers, this is their very first Boston team championship! But the one thing that has struck me as really bizarre for several years is the songs the Red Sox have chosen to affiliate themselves with.
The two I’m thinking of are “Dirty Water” by the Standells and “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond. The former is about how Boston is home to “muggers and thieves” and how women have to “be in by 12 o’clock.” The latter is about a couple in love that basically grows up together (but the song was used as a sing-along in the movie “Beautiful Girls,” which took place somewhere in rural Massachusetts – the connection to New England is weak, I know). The Standells were a California band from the 19060s, using a 12 bar song structure most closely associated with the Delta blues. Neil Diamond is from Brooklyn. Are these really the best songs the Boston Red Sox could find to represent themselves?
Ssssssssso…
These two happenings from yesterday got me thinking about what Asian American music really is? Is the landscape so sparse that we kind of grasp at anything we think might qualify as remotely Asian? There are songs playing on our Internet stream that I don’t politically agree with, but I would never dream of saying that out loud. All in the name of progress with a lowercase ‘p.’
But is it necessary to embrace those we don’t truly love in the name of community? I’ll admit, I’ve held my tongue many times so I don’t seem like the irrational hater. But where is the line? A few years ago, there was an uproar by young API folks about the Bloodhound Gang’s song “Yellow Fever,” which I will not dissect here, but rest assured was wack, infinitely more offensive than what Digital Underground said above. But what if that song had been made by an API band? Would we suddenly switch it up, and say they were combating stereotypes in an ironic fashion? Does just saying racist shit about your own race mean you’re combating it? Is that how low our standards are right now? (ahem…Margaret Cho…)
I guess there’s no easy answers. The cassette (!) that started me down the path to politicization at the age of 12 was 2Pac’s 2Pacalypse Now, when he was at his angriest and most radical. (Do any rappers send “fuck yous” to the president, the FBI, the CIA, and local law enforcement authorities anymore?) The weird thing is, I bought that tape because 2Pac had been a member of Digital Underground. Woah!
Last 5 posts by giles
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Tags: Commentary, radio.
I would like to say that everybody’s opinion is bound to differ. But is any one opinion better than another. Political views are essentially opinions right? Amy Tan’s images may be inaccurate and stereotypical, but at least she put some Asian’s experiences out there when there were none.
On the other hand, why shouldn’t I be able to take a stand sometimes and point out the ethical problems with a particular piece or a particular artist? I don’t think critique is the same as hating. In the end, I have a view as to what I’d like our world to look like and the only way I can make that happen is to make conscious choices in my life.
That’s sounds so fucking preachy. But whatever. It’s my comment and I can cry if I want to. =P
Hater! Joy Luck Club finally told the TRUTH about us Asian men - that we’re all evil and unredeemable.
If this wasn’t true, how come there are NO ASIANS on the Red So-oh wait.
You know, in all seriousness, what I find interesting is what people/the general public gravitate towards. I think it would just be wack in Joy Luck club was out there but no one read it. Unfortunately it’s looked upon, and taught, in a lot of classrooms as the definitive Asian American fiction. Really shows you how far behind people are re: Asian Americans and representation.
what about the flip side? like if someone made a song that was all f- the president, f- the racist heterosexist patriarchy, etc. but in their personal life they were like some sexist republican?
i guess i just say that to throw the question out there - is Asian American music about the music or about the artists? do we support music by people who happen to identify as Asian Americans? or do we support music that agrees with certain politics regardless of the identity of the artist?
i don’t have answers either. but i think part of the way to go is to acknowledge the diversity within our community. however you define that.
I think the intersection of progressively-minded people and Asian Americans (and I’m not sure how to define either) and musicians seems so small that we might not end up with much if we started to get too picky.
I don’t know where to draw the lines.
There was a story on NPR yesterday morning on the origins of that dirty water song. I guess it’s attributed to this one guy on the fenway staff who always wanted to play it b/c of some line in it about boston, and waited for the perfect moment to execute it. He found it and the rest is the rest… I think it was Morning Edition.
Limiting a person’s right to say something seems like an infringement of rights in the bad way. I think the problem is how people pick up on things and make them bigger than what they are. I don’t think it’s Amy Tan’s fault that her book gets trumpeted around the way it does as much as the folks who are lazy and want an easy-to-digest look at asian culture (or want to culturally legitimize themselves?). It’d be nice if people realized how their work might be molded to fit someone else’s agenda.
What do you think of that “if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it” mentality? I guess that only works up to a point.
fam,
i guess on the level, a person’s truth is a person’s truth. what i wonder about a lot is accountability & responsibility - if that’s something that’s built in or can be created for what we call “asian america.”
some folks may not think of themselves as a community member while others place them folks in the “community.” let’s take fresh kid ice for example. i grew up loving 2 live crew not only for their sex rhymes (which for a youngin was hella fun to hear) but becuz of the long dick chinaman - one the late 80s ambassaders for our community, uh yeah…
nowadays, i try to be on some patience tip (not really good tho’) especially for my fellow asian am sisters & brothers. i know i’ve changed, learned, & been pushed to grow over the yrs, & i’ve seen others do the same. i try to have faith that others will hopefully learn too, one step at a time. shit, i’m not ready to give up on folks even when they all about some wack shit.
i’m definitely more tolerant of different points of view now than i was when i was 21. i was young and bullheaded and convinced that since i felt the way a minority of people felt, it was right.
but you know, i think all i wish for us as artists and as a community is that we had more thought going on about everything all the time. uh…while that may seem kind of irrational, that’s what it is. it’s too easy to see every statement or event or whatever in the mainstream context - or in the default anti-mainstream “revolutionary” context, that sometimes we forget to look at the REAL context, that is as interaction between two people, or writer and reader, speaker and listener, performer and audience, etc…
but also, i’m very ready to just not deal with people that frustrate me. i’m not gonna engage in public squabbles over shit that matters because without concentrated strategy, public beef about important issues never gets anywhere toward resolving the issue. it’s just theater.