I really dig the poems that we've been reading in class. Two Tuesdays ago, we had a really in-depth discussion about "Reminiscing About a Chinese Restaurant" and "Without Tongue" and I was wondering if anyone wanted to share their insights about the other poems.
Since there seemed to be a general agreement with Mary Rose's suggestion about relating the issues of the texts to contemporary issues in Asian America, I'm particularly interested in what you have to say about Janice Mirikitani's "Doreen" (and how it seems like a 1987 premonition of calf lengthening, double-lid surgery, colored contacts, and other transfigurations of the Asian body - P.S., I can't seem to make my hair stay black for very long) and Sun Yung Shin's series of poems (and their relationship to or disavowal of Western fascination with all things "Asian" - know any anime fans who have said disturbing things about "Asian" culture?).
Any and all comments welcomed. Discuss.
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In the spirit of conversation, I've dug up the poems and brushed the dust off of them (Okay, I know it hasn't been that long, but seriously, where has the semester gone?). I agree that Mirikitani's "Doreen" prefigures the trends we see today. In fact, in undergrad (also lightyears away) I had a friend who purposefully messed up her eyes so that her parents would allow her to get double-lid surgery.
Anyway, aside from that digression, what interested me about the poems was their free form. For me, the extreme use of line breaks and non-existent patterns really illuminated Seung Hye's point that Asian American literature (we discussed it in terms of the the novel, but I think it also applies here) takes the untraditional form that it does because there is no other option. Like the ending of No-No Boy, many of the poems leave questions unanswered, and many of them ask actual questions without giving satisfactory answers. When reading through "Doreen," for instance, I feel like I have a pretty clear picture of what Doreen looked like: "round face," "frost-tipped hair /...five inches high," "boobs," etc. But the final stanza of the is jarring. Though the narrator has spent the length of the poem describing Doreen, at the end, "no one could remember / Doreen's face." The fact that neither the "White boys" nor her friends who "were sad" when she died could remember her shows how Doreen existed only on the periphery of either group. Her marginalized status is what allows for or perhaps dictates the openendedness of the poem. Nobody who knew her knows, and consequently, we don't know. And really, we have no way of finding out the answers to the questions the poem leaves us with. Unlike Shakespearean sonnets that take on certain forms and patterns, the style of Mirikitani's poem defies conservative prediction. In other words, since its form is unlike the established forms of poetry, we have nothing to compare it to, and nothing to help us divine answers to unanswerable questions.
I've spent the entire day in the library and don't know if that makes sense. Comments?
P.S. As Doug said, I do work at the Pitzer Writing Center, and I do welcome anyone who wants to stop by. I work Monday and Tuesday nights, and since there are no freshmen writing seminars in the spring, no one comes in, I get extremely bored, I eat all the free candy (did I mention there's almost always free candy?) and then I feel bad for earning money for doing my homework while eating the center's resources. We can talk about stuff for this class or another, whatever you fancy. Oh! Someone came in last night with a paper about Mulan (the Disney movie). I was really excited, but had to hold back from telling her it was a bowdlerized version. Come to the writing center and we can get into it.
That last line caught my eye as I was scrolling through because, I confess, I am captivated by anime and manga. As in obsessed. Doug, your post got me wondering as to why I have this interest - am I simply interested in Asian culture, love the story lines (regardless of how absurd some might be), or enjoy the art work? The motives and personalities of the characters in the more popular manga are certainly appealing across cultural borders, and misunderstandings are limited to mostly pop culture references rather than traditional values. Yes, I love manga with ninjas, samurais, priestesses and demons; but I also adore the high school love stories, the intricacies of relationships explored in families and between friends, the stories about the spunky heroines who overcome high hurdles and in the process naively win the hearts of the hot guy next door, that earns me and my other manga-obsessed roommate awkward side-glances as we emit high-pitched squeals in our shared jubilation, horror, or shock.
SO, to go back to any resemblance of a post that is not simply demonstrating my consuming obsession when it comes to anime and manga, I've found it funny that whereas American cartoons and comics overwhelmingly feature the dominant race (Caucasian), A LOT of manga have characters appear to be non-Japanese/Asian. Popular hair colors in the more out-there mangas are pink, green, silver, white, blonde, red, orange, etc., and many characters in shounen (aimed at girls) mangas have odd features like blue eyes and blonde hair. An obsession with Western ideals of beauty? Or just the artist's preference for rainbow-inspired hair? A year ago this bugged me a little bit; that is, until I dyed my hair red one night and subsequently saw it morph into honey brown, then light orangey brown, until finally I dyed it back to black. I wasn't trying to be a different ethnicity, I was just bored. Just like how I sometimes fantasize about having anti-gravitational silver hair down to my knees, grey eyes, and the ability to kick serious butt with my awesome combat skills, maybe the artists just wanted to be different. Not a different race, mind you, but just something to stand out in the crowd. I'm sure if anyone explored deeper, there is sure to be some scantily hid underlying fascination with Western/Eastern culture and ideals, but I never read manga for the cultural conflicts or self-hate I can possibly derive.
As for Doreen, I can see her motives behind her actions, and can't really hate them. She's killing a part of herself to get dates. She's ditched her friends for white face powder. She's selling her body, losing respect, and still not being accepted. She's trying to ease the social pressures on herself. She's trying to adapt to her surroundings by following the most distinct guidelines. She's being a teenage girl with insecurities that just happen to be a little more pronounced because of her hair and skin color, the size of her breasts, the length of her legs. I don't condone her actions; I like filling in the little checkbox on doctor and survey forms that say 'Asian' next to it. But the fact is, I've always lived a sheltered life in a very Asian community in Hawaii. Not too sure where i'm going with this post, but in conclusion since i'm running out of ideas and brain juice, I have to wonder = what are we to make of works of literature that do not fall into the pattern of the stories that we have been reading so far? What are we to make of Asian-originating manga that Americans read? American-made movies about a Chinese folk-heroine? A Caucasion novelist's retake of an ancient Japanese novel, and the response it gets in America and in Japan? Dattebayo!!! (ahahah just had to add that in... the reference is from Naruto in case you're wondering ^_^ )
I was also wondering after class on Thursday where I had developed any preconception I had about Asian Americans in general. Since I have no real biological or genetic connection I think most of my ideas about Asian Americans came from both the media and from my friends, some of which are Filipino and Japanese. It occurred to me that I didn't really put Filipino into the category of Asian American in my mind, and I was wondering if anyone thought of why that could be. Is it because the Philippines is not part of main land Asia? or because the Philippines was colonized? or is an island? For me it is just interesting to think about how I define Asian American, as not a direct member.
On the subject of the novel as a bildungusroman I have some problems with the lack of resolution. If the middle chapter, "Shaman" was moved to the end of the book I would be able to clearly see that Maxine had developed some kind of resolution. However with the "Song for the Barbarian Reed Pipe," we don't have such a clear ending, let alone a resolution. The story of the women in the barbarian tribe as a metaphor is also complicated; is the woman Maxine? Who are the barbarians supposed to be, Americans, Chinese, the ghosts? And if it is Maxine who is supposed to be represented, how is the end of the story showing that she has made some kind of resolving decision about her life? Her life with the the barbarians seems like it is enjoyable, more enjoyable than the life she has with the husband at the end. Is the marriage supposed to represent the uniting of the two cultures? or is the music?
Perhaps it is the woman's ability to sing the barbarian song that represents the blending of the two cultures (American and Chinese) within Maxine. She is able to represent herself among the barbarians and although she leaves, she brings the Han people a song to sing for generations. Maybe that is paralleled in Kingston's own novel. She was able to make a mixture and tells her own story and interpretation of her culture and her novel is its expression.
In terms of bringing up current issues, does anyone think that fighting among Asian nations affect the relationships between those nationalities here in the US? I thought of this because of the recent fighting between Chinese and Tibet. Do people think that the fighting will have some kind of repercussion here?
I think that the writing style of "Doreen" and the actual content are paradoxical: the writing style is fairly simple but the message seems so profound. The poem portrays a similar struggle that every teenager goes through: the struggle of self-image and confidence. I think that in many ways minorities in a predominately white community undergo (at least) a slightly more difficult process than their caucasian counterparts in developing confident body image in many different phases of their lives. I was reading a science article awhile back that said that the idea of beauty derives from "the average", meaning most people deem someone/something as attractive if it falls into the average of what they've seen and are used to seeing because it's much easier for the brain to process. Therefore, if the "average" as depicted by the media is white, then minorities must compromise any physical characteristics that deviate from this white standard of beauty by undergoing cosmetic procedures that Doug listed in his post (calf lengthening, double eyelid, breast augmentation, etc).
I don't know how much we can step away from the natural working of science but I'm afraid that already, society has opted for homogeneity rather than diversity. Personally, I think it's in large part up to the media to start publishing and broadcasting people that are ethnically diverse, instead of those that are "beautiful" because they are "average." Maybe then, people will use yellow or brown powder instead of trying to disguise themselves under white powder, and maybe then people won't be ashamed at the shape of their eyes or the lengths of their legs. Maybe then, being "average" won't be the only way to be beautiful.
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