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10:25 p.m. - June 08, 2002
I'm not being too sensitive...right?
Okay, okay. Two entries in one day? And all within less than what, fifteen minutes? But I'm doing this entry separately, because though it is semi-food related, I think it deserves its own entry. If you missed my previous entry, go back one day...it's called "More Food Things"

I have some TV commercials I have problems with. The first one is funny, but when I think about it, it is somewhat offensive to me. The other one just really gets on my nerves, and I'm not exactly sure why.

First, the Coca-Cola commercial. It's in German, so I'll do a quick description. There's a Japanese man who comes to the door of a German man. The first shot you see of this Japanese man is one of him caught in a bow. He wants lessons. The German man lets him in. The next shot: The Japanese man is sitting in a chair, with a notepad in his hand. The German man is trying to teach him how to say, "TOOOOOOOOORRRRRR!!!!!" (Goooooaaaaallll!!!") by all definitions, the Japanese man can't say it. In this meek little voice, he goes, "toorr." Over and over again, the guy tries to teach this Japanese guy how to properly yell, "TOOOOOORRRRRRRR!!!" with the same wimpy results. Break time. Coca-Cola bottles come out, the Japanese man takes a gulp of the pop and yells, "TOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!" Not bad. Then the next scene: Presumably at the World Cup, the Japanese fella yells "TOOOOOOOOOOORRRRR" with his arms raised in a sign of victory. This time, he's in the announcer's booth and raises a coke bottle to the German guy, who's also an announcer. The Japanese fella bows.

Haha. So I laughed every time I saw this commercial. But today, after I laughed, this little inkling of disturbance went through my head: yes, it bothers me that they are using broad stereotypes of Japanese people: the bowing, the reserve, the timidity, etc. I dunno. Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but it really does bug me that I'm seeing all these plugs for products now being associated with Japan and/or Korea.

The next one, I just think is in poor taste. It's for McDonald's (actually, I think the chain is a matter of poor taste, but anyway...) Scene: traditional tea house/japanese house. Woman in ceremonial garb, complete with white makeup, hair, the stuff in the hair. Basically, she looks like a geisha. She's playing the obi, and then the next thing, you see this shot of this McDonald's Japan Chicken Sandwich, which I think looks gross, anyway. Then the final shot: the geisha woman takes a bite of the sandwich and smiles (with a closed mouth, of course--if I saw food in her mouth, that would gross me out) at the camera.

Well, this commercial has bugged me right from the start. I think it's a combination of using stereotypes (and a romanticized one at that), and associating it with really gross, non-Japanese food. Eew. Oh, and need I say that there was a little red cloth hanging on the wall behind the geisha girl, with the fakeish white "M" that looks "Chinese" or "Japanese" or something.

I think if they could have used a better image than eating gross food in a tea house. Yeech. And maybe a less romanticized image.

Oh, and there's just an annoying commercial for something with a bunch of asian girls (maybe five-year old school girls?) singing. But this one is not offensive. Just annoying. It was fine the first time around, but like the theme song to Barney, it gets really old really quick.

So, there's my rant. Something that's been bothering me more and more in the past years: the view of Asians or Asian-Americans that has been presented to the public. I've been grappling with that perception for quite some time. I don't identify myself as Asian, Chinese, Chinese-American, or even American. It was only yesterday that I realized that I identify myself as an Ohioan. I don't live within the rules of being a proper Asian (I don't think, since I grew up in a community that was mostly white).

If you've read Their Eyes Were Watching God, do you remember that scene where the kid looks at his or her photograph and realizes that he or she is black? Well, this year has been one long realization of my own cultural identity and of how people perceive me, so it's been quite an interesting struggle.

For instance, my host family (thank goodness I only lived with them for one month) seemed to not see me as anything but Chinese, so they were making all sorts of weird assumptions about me (like I love Chinese food, am Buddhist, my mom cooks Chinese food all the time, I know Chinese, etc, etc, and know all the little tidbits about Chinese Culture. Well, here's the news: my favorite food is Italian, I'm Catholic (sort of, well, I'm rather secular), my mom hates to cook, so the duties fall to me, so guess what I cook, I know no Chinese, and I know as much about the Chinse culture as I do about the culture in Zimbabwe, which is pretty much nothing.) So I was rebelling a lot against these ideas and rebelling against my Asianness by amplifying my Americanness, since my host family never seemed to even think of me as an American.

You can't imagine what a relief it was to get to the University, where my classmates knew I was an American and treated me as such. I was so happy.

(But to be fair, I am sure there are commercials in other countries that romanticize or have really weird ideas of what Americans are like. Offhand, I can't think of any.)

 

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