#my family is taiwanese-chinese and i was born and raised in the us so that's the background/region my knowledge is coming from)

[mr-payjay]

i am making my own ii human names list, but very slowly, because i am pedantic. also, i will not be counting mephone creating them as canon. ive had these ethnicity and family hcs for ages, and i will base my names on them. now, here are the two most important names.

OJ: Olivier-Jean "OJ" Jacques Silveira. my oj interpretation/gijinka is brazilian (paternal side) and ivorian (maternal side). his last name comes from his father and is brazilian portuguese. his first name and middle name were given by his mother, as many people in côte d'ivoire speak french (french colonization —> it's the official language now but there's MANY others accompanying it). a lot of people who speak french like to use "jean" in hyphenated names (trust me ive met a bajillion of them), so i included it. i think his name sounds quite classy.

oj was born and raised in america, speaking english at school and french at home. as well as some portuguese, but he never actually learned it. i think he would become quite pissy when kids at school would pronounce his name incorrectly (Olivier-Jean is... very not intuitive to english speakers. i believe they would say it like Oliver-Jeen) so they ended up using oj as shorthand. and he was fine with that, so it stuck. but at home he's Olivier and Olivier-Jean. he tells new people he meets to call him oj just because it's consistent and because he doesn't like the sound of his real name being mispronounced. coming from someone who constantly gets her real names mispronounced.

Paper: Paige Hsu (foreign name) and 许佩妍 / Xǔ Pèiyán (original name). my paper interpretation/gijinka is han taiwanese, so fully of han chinese descent. more specifically, hoklo (chosen because i hc he can speak mandarin AND hokkien). his family immigrated to taiwan from fujian (province in china with hoklo ancestry) post ww2. Xǔ is a particularly common surname in fujian, so i chose it for him. be gentle with me if i messed up with his given name LOL i know much less about chinese than french (but DO inform me if you know more about it and spot any mistakes!). Pèiyán means, in a way, beautiful garment. to wear something beautiful. to be adorned. etc. it's partially based on trying to make it seem a bit like the name "Paige", partially based on what i think his mother might name him (no real hopes or dreams for him so it's a little shallow), partially based on him as i know him (focused on presenting himself). it's also, as far as i know, a name mostly used for women. note that my interpretation of paper is usually a trans man.

now, Paige is unisex, it sounds like page, and it's a loved one of mine's favourite name for him, so i like it. i also think it makes sense for when he immigrated to canada with his mother as something they chose, and something he can still keep (being conveniently unisex). Hsu is one of the taiwanese romanizations for Xǔ. im not sure if he'd take on oj's last name. perhaps he'd hyphenate them. he's not particularly attached to his family, but Paige Hsu is quite a pretty name.

bonus: nickel is named Nikola Stević. this one was easy because my interpretation of nickel is kosovar serb. last names come from the father but the exact practice of it is a bit outdated so Stević is likely from his grandfather or great-grandfather (unless im misremembering how it works). i don't like the name Nicholas his name is Nikola. Nicholas sounds like a sweet little boy Nikola sounds like a menace. i see Nicholas everywhere start calling your nickel Nikola

[ennuijpg]

Hi! I'm introducing some friends to the untamed and making some notes on where the netflix subs don't give enough information/good translations, according to the fandom. I saw your translation of the 'to die by your hand' scene and it KILLED me, so I was wondering if there are any other particular scenes you think it's important to note a different translation? Thank you so much if you can!

ooh so there aren't any scenes i can think of where the translation falls so so short of the actual emotion and meaning as much as that one, however there are definitely some less dramatic instances.

in general, i would say that mandarin (and a lot of other languages from what i've heard) has a lot more inherent emotional depth than english, so in translation, a lot of the subtitles sound very emotionally neutral or ambivalent when they really aren't.

the instance of this that sticks out to me the most is during the confrontation between wei wuxian and jiang cheng at the guanyin temple (ep 48, ~9 minutes in) where wuxian says to jiang cheng「都不要放在心上了」(dou bu yao fang zai xin shang), which the subtitles translate as "please don't keep it in your heart," which i'm actually not really mad at as a translation, but it's just not a phrase used much in english, so it sounds slightly awkward/doesnt convey the emotional context of that phrase.

so for context, mandarin has multiple ways of saying, loosely, "don't worry." there's「不要擔心」(bu yao dan xin), which is probably the most common and versatile to say it, and there's「不要放在心上」(bu yao fang zai xin shang), which is the one wuxian says to jiang cheng. (there's other ways too, they're just not rly relevant here) the literal translation of it is "do not put it on your heart," which the netflix is pretty close to, but ofc that doesn't tell u much abt usage. the way i've explained it in the past was, say u made a mistake at work and were beating urself up over it.「不要擔心」is something your coworker or boss might say to you to essentially say "hey it's no big deal, don't worry about it, ur fine;" it can be very casual. whereas, once you get home and start talking abt ur bad day at work,「不要放在心上」is more likely something your parent/sibling/partner/other loved one would say to you as they put a bowl of ur favorite soup in front of u. it has a level of inherent familiarity and deeper desire to comfort the person ur talking to than「不要擔���」. (note: i say inherent bc「不要擔心」doesnt have to always be casual/relatively emotionally neutral, it can be said w emotion ofc but the words themselves do not carry as much emotion as「不要放在心上」.

other than that, i’m not remembering any other specific scenes rn (if i remember smth, i’ll rb w the addition and @ you), but one thing that happens throughout the show is translation discrepancy when characters are addressing each other. for example, when wuxian and jiang cheng talk to yanli, the subtitles always have them both addressing her by name, but in chinese, family members often dont address each other by name, like my younger brothers both call me 姐 (jie), which means older sister. jiang cheng calls yanli 阿姐 (a-jie) most of the time (the 阿 at the beginning is just a prefix used in front of names and other forms of address to express familiarity, it’s the same character used in a-yuan). wuxian calls yanli 師姐 (shijie), which is what you call a senior female fellow student studying under the same master/in the same school/etc.

(rest under the cut bc this got rly long)

nie huaisang calls mingjue 大哥 (dage)/哥 (ge); 哥 means older brother and 大 means big, so 大哥 is often used for the eldest brother (esp common if there are multiple brothers). an interesting thing is that wangji does not call xichen 哥 or any variation of it, rather he calls him 兄長 (xiong zhang), which also means older brother but is a term of respect and much more formal, so that’s also a reflection of their characters and upbringing. 兄長 is not in common use nowadays but 哥 very much still is.

after nie mingjue, lan xichen, and jin guangyao take their oath of sworn brotherhood, they also change their forms of address with each other. for example, guangyao calls xichen 二哥 (er ge), which means second older brother (since xichen is the second oldest) and calls mingjue 大哥 (like huaisang does). (i feel like i vaguely remember guangyao being called 三弟 (san di), which means third younger brother, by someone but don’t remember if it was xichen or mingjue.)

(also impt to note that in chinese culture, familial terms as forms of address aren’t strictly reserved for family (whether that be blood or found). for example, in a casual setting, you can address any woman who is your parents’ age or between their age and your grandparents age as 阿姨 (a-yi) (or name + 阿姨), which is the term for your maternal aunt, and you can address any man of the same age range as 叔叔 (shu shu), which is what you’d call your paternal uncle. similarly in a familiar/casual setting, you can call women older than you but younger than your parents 姐姐/name + 姐, like the daughters, who are all younger than me, of my parents’ friends call me jessie jie-jie. and you can call men in the same age range 哥哥/name + 哥, like how wang yibo calls xiao zhan, zhan-ge. the same applies for people younger than you, with which you would use 妹妹, younger sister, and 弟弟, younger brother.)

another example is that jin guangshan calls jiang fengmian 江兄 (jiang xiong), 江being his family name ofc and 兄 meaning brother (same character as in 兄長, which wangji calls xichen), since they’re of the same age and status and their wives are sworn sisters. xichen, on the other hand, calls fengmian 江宗主 (jiang zong zhu), which means sect leader jiang. in the subtitles, these are often just translated as “you,” when they’re talking directly to him. 

so in general, there is a lot of information abt characters’ relationships, level of familiarity with each other, age, etc that is contained in their forms of address that just doesn’t come across in the netflix subs, since those default to their names like 80% of the time.

hope this helps!! if u (or anyone else) have other questions/scenes ur wondering abt, feel free to ask, i’m always down to talk translations. and if you want to see more of my beef w netflix subs a;lskjdf, all of my cql gifsets with dialogue on them have either been translated from scratch by me or i’ve edited the netflix translations, and i usually put some notes abt my translation in the tags. any sets that i’ve translated from scratch are under my translations tag, though most of these are actually for word of honor/shan he ling and not cql.

edit: check my reblog in the notes for some more additions!!

[terubakudan]

This may be an old article from 3 years ago, but these cultural aspects/observations still apply even today. And though this is strictly a Chinese perspective, a lot of these everyday life bits are observed in Overseas Chinese communities in countries such as The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. as well as countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

I've always liked learning about other cultures and making comparisons between how things are done East vs West. Which probably stems from growing up with two cultures and Mom raising me on American movies xD

So the irony is if you asked me how many Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kong actors I know, chances are I know as much as you do xD Like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and that's about it. But if you asked me about Western (specifically American and British) actors, then I have a useless brain dump of movie trivia and who was with who in what movie xD

Hmmm, both Taiwan and the Philippines are two distinct cultures but both look up to a certain country and are fascinated by that. In Taiwan's case, Japan and the US for the Philippines. In both cases, this is due to being under the rule of those countries in their history. Taiwan being under Japan for 50 years, and the Philippines being under Spain for 300+ years, followed by periods of American and Japanese rule. To put it simply though:

Taiwan is "mini-Japan with a very Chinese culture".

The Philippines is "former colony of Spain with lots of American influences".

But unlike the author, I've never set foot in any Western country, so my understandings are strictly what I've observed in media, which while it can be accurate, doesn't compare to actually experiencing the culture.

Some further elaboration on most points:

#1 We quite literally use chopsticks for everything. We use it to pick rice, viands, vegetables, fruit, smaller desserts, almost all the food you can think of.

But where do you put your chopsticks when you're not using them? Just put them on top of your bowl or flat on your plate. But do not ever stick them vertically. It's taboo, since it looks like incense sticks, which we use to pray for those who have passed, like our ancestors or during funerary services.

#3 The majority of Asia is obsessed with fair/white skin. In my time at the Philippines, I grew up watching all these Dove Whitening commercials and my classmates often commented on how fair my skin was, how they envied it etc. In Taiwan, girls often say they don't want to 變黑 (biàn hēi) 'become dark'. Japan and Korea too are not innocent of this either (if their beauty/skin products weren't a dead giveaway).

People here at Taiwan often mistake me for being from Hong Kong or Japan (as long as I don't speak Mandarin with my heavy accent xD). A Taiwanese classmate of mine joked that she often gets mistaken for being from Southeast Asia due to having a darker complexion. And while I laughed it off with her at that time, looking back, I now realize she was lowkey being racist. xD

And believe me Filipinas have mentioned literally being told 'your skin is so dark' here in Taiwan, or being given backhanded compliments like 'you're pretty despite having dark skin' and...*facepalms*

My point is, beauty is not exclusive to skin color. People who still think that are assholes.

#5 Not to say we don't have salt and pepper, but yes soy sauce and vinegar are the classic condiments you see on the table, be it at home or at a restaurant.

And if I may add, Taiwanese love their pepper. xD If you ever get to eat at a night market or a smaller "Mom n' Pop-style" restaurant here, some dishes/soups tend to add quite an excessive amount of pepper. Not like anthills, but quite liberally and way more than average. Enough that you see traces of pepper at the bottom of the food paper bag or swirling in your soup. xD

#6 I know this all too well from personal experience. In my years of studying at Taiwan, I always had roommates. 3 in my first school (I graduated high school in the Philippines pre K-12 so I had to make up 2 years of Senior High), followed by 2 in college, with the exception of 1 in freshman year.

My college did offer single person dorms but at around 9000 NTD ($324) per month compared to around 6000 NTD ($216) per semester. Because I wanted to save, the choice was obvious for me xD. But ah, this doesn't mean I don't value personal space, in fact I love having the room to myself, and since both my roomies would go home to their families every weekend, weekends were bliss for me xD

And you don't have to be friends with your roommates (that's an added bonus however), you just have to get along with them. I was quite lucky to have really great roommates all throughout my schooling years.

#9 In the Philippines, we do. Owing mostly to American influences and maybe being predominantly Catholic? xD

#10 *sigh* Chinese parents and parents from similar Asian cultures tend to put too much emphasis on grades, so much that kids could get sent to cram school as early as elementary. This is because what school you get into could literally affect your future job opportunities, and while that's not exclusive to any particular country/culture, I feel it's especially pronounced here in Asia. I'm really lucky my own parents weren't that strict about it. However, if your parents don't point the mistakes out to you, chances are you'll do it yourself, if you're an Asian kid like me anyway. xD It just becomes a habit.

#11 My family is an exception to this. xD We do say 'I love you' directly, but complete with the 'ah eat well ok?', 'don't scrimp on food', 'sleep well' and similar indirect words/actions of affection. We were doing 'Conceal, Don't Feel' before it became popular. xD

#13 I'm kind of confused about this but this has sort have changed over the years in which eye-contact is now more encouraged. But don't stare, especially at elders and authority figures. Sometimes it's just shyness though. xD And I've observed this with my own Taiwanese friend, especially when I'm complaining or ranting to her about something. xD I'm a person who likes to express my opinions strongly, which tends to scare/alienate some of the locals here, as doing so is kind of frowned upon. Thankfully, she does listen and offers her take on things.

#14 Ah this. xD In the Philippines, this is a common greeting known as beso-beso, and I freaked out too when an auntie did that to me. xD Needless to say, Mom lectured me later on what that was. ^^"

#16 Along with #3 another crazy beauty standard. In my view, people always look better with a little meat on them and when they're not horribly thin. Asia still has a loonng way to go with accepting different types of bodies if you ask me. This combined with modern beauty standards has made the pressure for women especially to 'look beautiful' higher than ever.

I know many people love them but please, starving yourself or glorifying eating disorders is never OK just to get this kind of 'ideal' body. I'm not part of the Kpop fandom, but even I think when idols get bullied just for gaining the least bit of weight among other insensitive comments, that's really going too far.

#17 'If you want to make friends, go eat.' <- I couldn't agree more. In the Philippines we have a greeting: 'Kumain ka na ba?' (Have you eaten?) . Similarly in Taiwan, we have 吃飯了沒? (chī fàn le méi), both of these can mean that in the literal sense but are often used as greetings instead. By then which invitation to having lunch/dinner together may or may not follow. Food really is a way for us to socialize and to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. Not to say we don't have regular outings like going out to the mall, going shopping, etc. but eating together is a huge part of our culture, be it with family or friends.

And while I'm at it, some memes that are way too accurate good to pass up xD

Parents, uncles, aunties alike will fight over the bill xD

Alternatively:

You just space out until your name is called xD

My parents are guilty of the last one. Logic how? xD

#18 True. xD I like giving compliments out to people but I have a hard time accepting them myself, though I've learnt how to accept them much more now than before. We're kind of raised to constantly downplay ourselves so we often say things like 'ah no no' or 'I'm really not that good'. The downside of this of course is that it can come off as somewhat fake. xD

Again from personal experience, that same classmate who made the lowkey racist remark, she was good, she was on the debate team, was a honor student, knew how to mingle with people, but she downplayed herself way too much, while praising me but I honestly thought that she never really meant it from how she treated me. She wanted to keep me around her yet make backhanded compliments at me and she didn't want me socializing with my other classmate who is now my friend. *sigh* It was only after discussing this with one of my roomies did I realize how this 'excessive downplaying' might come off to people like me who more or less grew up with a more 'Westernized' mindset. I'm not saying brag about your achievements but don't be overly humble about them either, which can also be a turn off.

#20 We do tend to be a lot more realistic on how we view things, neither entirely optimistic nor pessimistic. We try to think of things practically and often analyze things on pure logic. A downside of this however, is that Chinese people can be overly practical. Taiwanese for instance don't like to 'find inconveniences' and generally keep to themselves, meaning, they won't help you in your hour of need even when they do have the capabilities. Sounds really harsh I know, but in my 6 years of living in Taiwan, while this doesn't apply to all the people, a lot of them really do only find/talk to you when they need something.

So for some people saying Taiwanese are 'friendly', that's BS xD If you ask me, Filipinos are infinitely more friendly, and again while not all, generally make more of an effort to help you when you need it. I really felt more of a real sense of community during my years growing up in the Philippines compared to Taiwan.

#21 Children do tend to stay with their parents well into college and adulthood, since Chinese families are indeed very family-oriented, in a lot of cases, grandparents often live under the same roof as us as well! And it really does save a lot of money. I see there's a real stigma in the US when it comes to "living with your parents", but that's starting to change especially because of Covid and having more and more people move back in with their parents.

Housing unfortunately is pretty much hella expensive no matter where you go, and Taiwan is no exception. Steep housing prices and the very high cost of raising a child (schooling + buxiban fees, etc.) contribute to a very low birth rate and thus an aging population like Japan. It's not uncommon to see both parents working in Taiwan.

#23 I'm an overthinker myself, but I totally agree with the author that the best is to strike a good balance between these two. Which I guess is why I love drawing or any other related creative attempts, it helps me be more spontaneous or well, creative! I like to remain intellectually or artistically inspired.

#24 Is French high school really like that? xD My friend did watch SKAM France and more or less got a culture shock from what was depicted on the show. I can confirm however that most high schools both in the Philippines and Taiwan require students to wear a uniform, only in college is everybody free to wear casual/civilian clothes.

#26 Ah this is part of our Asian gift-giving etiquette xD We always open gifts later after the event/meeting and in private. Never open them in front of the person who gave it to you or in front of others. This is to prevent any 'shame/embarrassment' that may result both to yourself and to the gift giver. I know this may come off as something weird since some people may want a more honest response or immediate feedback when it comes to gift-giving, but that's just how it is in our culture. You're always free to ask us though (in private) if we liked the gift or not ^^"

#28 I want to say the same goes to drinking, partying, and drugs however xD Those are things which are still frowned upon in our culture. And to be honest, whenever I see those in movies, it does kind of turn me off xD It doesn't mean that we're "uncool" or "boring", we just think that there are much better or healthier ways of "having fun".

#31 Is this true in France?! Man I would kind of prefer that instead of people being on their phones all the time xD This kind of goes with #20 in that Chinese are overly practical or logical, and don't read fiction as much as nonfiction. My Taiwanese friend is an exception though, she's a bibliophile who loves the feel of paper books compared to e-books, and it's a trait of her that I like a lot. Both the Philippines and Taiwan however have a huge fanbase when it comes to manga and anime though.

I'm all for reading outside of "designated reading" at schools especially. Reading fiction improves your vocabulary too, and can be quite fun! It helps you imagine and really invest in a world/story, and if you ask me something that I feel Westerners are better at, they're more in touch with their emotions and creativity, and are thus much more able to write compelling or original stories. Believe me, I've seen a fair amount of Chinese movies that rip off Western movie plotlines xD

#33 Nothing much to add on here..except that since I'm a "weird" person, Mom often jokes that she got the wrong baby from the hospital. xD

#35 True. While I agree with the care and concern that your fellow community can give you, the downside of this is we tend to only hang out with our own people, e.g Chinese with Chinese, Taiwanese with Taiwanese, etc. I've seen too that it's especially hard to make friends in Japan and Korea as a foreigner. Not only is there the language barrier, but the differences in culture too. In a way, Asians can be pretty close-minded on getting to know other cultures or actually making friends with people from other countries. I know this all too well being half-Taiwanese/half-Filipino, being neither "Filipino" enough nor "Taiwanese" enough. xD It's more of people here being too used to what they're comfortable with.

#36 Oh this is something I feel that Chinese students and other students from similar cultures should really improve on. xD How will people respect you if you don't speak your mind?

I felt bad especially for my Spanish teacher in college, granted it was an introductory course (Spanish I and II) but the amount of times that our teacher had to prompt a student to recite/speak even with clear hints already made her (and me too) extremely frustrated. The thing is, these are college students, I personally feel they don't have any reason to be so shy of speaking and technically by not doing so they're slowing the pace of the class too much and a lot of time is wasted.

Unfortunately you can't always be very vocal with your thoughts and opinions in most Asian cultures. I would say strive for that, but at the same time, play your cards well, especially if you're in a workplace setting.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and here's a cookie! 🍪 I'm not perfect and there's bound to be something I missed so please let me know if you spotted anything wrong. Feedback/questions are very much welcome and please feel free to share about your country/culture's differences or similarities!

[wild-aloof-rebel]

In a candid conversation with the Star, Manji said “Schitt’s Creek” producers did not instruct him as to how Ray should sound.

“It is a very slight Indian accent — somebody who was probably raised in Canada, but probably was born in India or Pakistan,” he said from his home in Los Angeles.

“I don’t regret that because I think it actually works for Ray. He wasn’t like everybody else in that town. He was from somewhere else.”

Manji said he’s OK with viewers questioning his choices, but rather than focus on accents, he said, critics could ask why his character didn’t have a more fully developed story, like a relationship or a family.

“If you want to criticize something, do that,” he said. “We need to have three-dimensional characters.”

[full article text below the cut]

At the start of Rizwan Manji’s acting career in the 1990s, the only roles available to him were those playing convenience store clerks and cab drivers. The parts usually required him to fake an Indian accent — just for laughs.

“We would joke about it. ‘This is so offensive, this is so offensive,’” recalls the Toronto native. “It’s not like we didn’t know.”

More than two decades later, Manji’s grin-and-bear-it perseverance has paid off. At 46, Manji now boasts a long — and diverse — list of TV and film credits. In September, he joined castmates from the hit CBC comedy series “Schitt’s Creek” in celebration as the show nabbed a record-breaking nine Emmy Awards.

That doesn’t mean, however, he still doesn’t grapple with questions about his acting choices.

While “Schitt’s Creek,” about a wealthy family that loses its fortune and is forced to move to a backwater town, won raves for its messages of inclusivity and positive queer representation, a segment of viewers took to social media to criticize Manji’s character, Ray Butani, the town’s bumbling jack of all trades — who speaks with an accent.

What irked them was that Ray, one of the few recurring people of colour on the show, seemed like a caricature — a rehash of the stereotypical, emasculated South Asian male. They also complained that Manji’s accent came across as “cringey.”

“Why go to the effort of writing in a character with an Indian name, played by an Indian actor, whose main personality trait is that he is stupid and has an accent?” Rishi Maharaj, a Port Hardy, B.C., engineer and avid TV viewer, wrote on Twitter days after the show’s Emmy sweep.

Across North America’s TV and film industry, there is broad consensus about the need to fight stereotypes and offensive tropes in casting. But the debate among actors of colour over whether they should fake accents remains fraught.

Some Hollywood actors, such as Aziz Ansari and John Cho, have reportedly turned down roles, citing the history of Hollywood playing up accents for laughs. (Think Mickey Rooney’s portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in the 1961 romantic comedy “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” complete with taped eyelids, buck teeth and cartoonish accent).

They worry that parts requiring them to speak with accents do nothing to help the cause of minority actors who are often typecast in secondary roles or as sidekicks, and who continue to be under-represented on TV and film.

Others say it’s important to represent linguistic diversity and see no harm portraying characters who speak in broken English, as long as their accent is not the butt of a joke and in keeping with a character’s backstory.

In a candid conversation with the Star, Manji said “Schitt’s Creek” producers did not instruct him as to how Ray should sound.

“It is a very slight Indian accent — somebody who was probably raised in Canada, but probably was born in India or Pakistan,” he said from his home in Los Angeles.

“I don’t regret that because I think it actually works for Ray. He wasn’t like everybody else in that town. He was from somewhere else.”

Manji said he’s OK with viewers questioning his choices, but rather than focus on accents, he said, critics could ask why his character didn’t have a more fully developed story, like a relationship or a family.

“If you want to criticize something, do that,” he said. “We need to have three-dimensional characters.”

The character that has generated one of the most heated debates in recent years when it comes to accents is Apu, the Indian-American shopkeeper on the long-running animated series “The Simpsons.” Until recently, the thick-accented character was voiced by actor Hank Azaria, who is white.

In 2017, American comedian Hari Kondabolu came out with a documentary, “The Problem With Apu,” in which he pressed the case that the show fomented racial stereotypes about Indian people.

In interviews at the time, Kondabolu shared that, as a kid, Apu was “the only Indian we had on TV” and that he was happy for “any representation.” But then on the playground, he had to deal with kids mimicking Apu’s accent.

In the documentary, he gets Dana Gould, a former writer on the show, to admit, “There are accents, that by their nature, to white Americans, sound funny. Period.”

With criticism mounting, Azaria, who had voiced Apu for three decades, announced he was stepping away from the role, telling the New York Times earlier this year: “Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore.”

There is growing sensitivity among artists, writers, directors and producers to avoid stereotypes and invest in “fully humanized, realized characters,” Steven Eng, an actor and voice and speech instructor at New York University, told the Star.

“There’s certainly been a whole history — that I don’t think any of us can deny — in film and television and the theatre where characters were stereotyped,” he said. “I think there’s so much more awareness, so much more determination to not go that route.”

But even “groundbreaking” shows, such as “Kim’s Convenience” and the recently cancelled “Fresh Off the Boat,” which were heralded for elevating Asian-Canadian and Asian-American visibility and immigrant experiences, have not escaped criticism, accused by some viewers of employing storylines and accents that do not ring true.

Cast members, in turn, leapt to the defence of their shows — and their accents.

“Some people are like, ‘Oh, stereotypical accent!’” Constance Wu, lead actress on “Fresh Off the Boat,” told Time magazine regarding her character’s Taiwanese accent. “An accent is an accent. If there were jokes written about the accent, then that would certainly be harmful. But there aren’t jokes written about it. It’s not even talked about. It’s just a fact of life: immigrants have accents.”

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, the lead actor in “Kim’s Convenience” told Maclean’s his character’s Korean accent is “part of who he is, but it isn’t the joke.”

“Yes, we’re in the entertainment field, and we will mine some of that because it is situational humour. You will get a point where we’ll say, ‘Here’s where some fun can be made, playing with the accent, and his inability and people mishearing what he says.’ But at the same time, that’s not all it is,” he said.

Jimmy O. Yang, who starred in the HBO series “Silicon Valley” and whose character spoke with a heavy Chinese accent, told Huffington Post the key is to portray immigrants with humanity.

“It’s maybe a better thought to change the perception of an accent than to avoid it all together,” he said. “I take offence (when people don’t go for parts with accents) ― it’s like saying, ‘I’m better than my immigrant brother with an accent.’”

Yang added he drew inspiration from his mom and relatives in Shanghai to develop his accent for the show. “It’s not just a (lousy) impression of a Cantonese Bruce Lee accent.”

Still, some actors have declared outright they will not do it.

“For me, personally, any time I’ve been asked to do that, I feel like — it feels like it’s making fun of people that have that accent if I do it and don’t have that voice,” comedian Aziz Ansari told NPR in 2015, years before he faced a public allegation of sexual misconduct.

“It feels like you’re doing it so white people can laugh at Indian people,” he said at the time.

That’s kind of how Maharaj felt watching Ray on “Schitt’s Creek.”

“I did find it cringey. The first thought that came to mind was it reminded me of Apu in ‘The Simpsons,’” he told the Star.

In The Problem With Apu, South Asian-American comedian Hari Kondabolu confronts his long-standing “nemesis” Apu Nahasapeemapetilon – better known as the Indian convenience store owner on The Simpsons. Creator and star Kondabolu discusses how this controversial caricature was created, burrowed its way into the hearts and minds of Americans, and continues to exist – intact – nearly three decades later. Featuring interviews with Aziz Ansari, Kal Penn, Whoopi Goldberg, W. Kamau Bell, Aasif Mandvi, Hasan Minhaj, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Aparna Nancherla

“To me what it sounds like is what a person from Saskatoon thinks a person from India sounds like. ... I’m sure he could’ve been a funny part of that show without an accent.”

Maharaj wasn’t alone. Arif Silverman, an actor and playwright in New York, posted a lengthy Facebook post in October sharing his conflicted feelings about the show.

“Schitt’s Creek has become one of my all-time favourite shows. But they did their South Asian characters dirty,” he wrote.

“Especially Ray, who plays directly into the racist South Asian trope of being an emasculated, goofy buffoon who no one takes seriously, not least in part because of his accent.”

Silverman told the Star Ray’s accent seemed “part of the joke” and struck him as a “betrayal” from a show that preached inclusivity and whose main romance was a gay love story.

“I’m half South Asian — my mother is from Bangladesh. … And so I think a lot about representation of South Asians in the media,” he said. “If you’re really going to talk about inclusivity it can’t be at anyone’s expense.”

Manji says he faced a lot of struggles as a brown actor at the start of his career.

Back then, he was often pigeonholed into narrow roles, such as the cabbie or 7-Eleven store clerk. One hundred per cent of his roles required him to fake a South Asian accent.

“It was very strictly, like, the joke was on the accent,” he said.

But he accepted the parts because he needed the work.

He did draw a line with one type of role.

“I’m Muslim, so I was more the guy who was like, ‘I’m not being the terrorist.’”

There was one time, however, when he auditioned to play an Islamic Studies professor on the show “24.” He was given limited information about the character. It turned out he was a bomb maker.

But the money was too good to pass up. He took the part.

“I rationalized it in my head, ‘Oh, it’s season 8, and they have good Muslim characters. … I don’t know if I made the right decision,” he said.

“To be clear, I’m OK with being the bad guy. I’d love to play the bad guy. It’s just when it’s this kind of thing where you’re screaming ‘Allahu akbar’ and bombing people.”

In 2010, Manji was cast in the short-lived NBC sitcom “Outsourced” set in an Indian call centre. He and his castmates employed accents, which some critics derided for lack of authenticity.

It’s fine if people want to criticize the quality of the accents, he said, but it wouldn’t have made sense for these characters not to have accents.

“The show was shooting in America about living in India. I don’t know what the other option was,” he said, adding that he channelled his father in developing the accent for that show.

Another thing to keep in mind is that accents have to be understandable to North American audiences, Manji said. For instance, during the filming of the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War,” Manji, who played a Pakistani colonel, said he settled on a “sweet spot” where his accent “sounds foreign” but is “not so thick that it becomes comedic or unintelligible.”

Manji said he did not have to audition for “Schitt’s Creek” but was offered the role of Ray, the town’s real estate agent, travel agent, photographer and Christmas tree salesman.

When he went for his first table read in Toronto, he’d had no prior discussion with the show’s writers or producers about what Ray would sound like.

Because most of his demo tape consisted of his work on “Outsourced,” Manji assumed that was the kind of voice producers were looking for. He went with a slightly toned-down version.

“Afterwards, I went up to Dan (Levy, the show’s co-creator) and said, ‘Hey just want to check in.’ He said, ‘I love what you did. It was funny.’ That ended up being the character for six years.”

Maharaj says he can’t help but feel Manji was selling himself short — playing to what he thought “a white audience might expect or respond more favourably to” to get the job. He likens it to job applicants of Asian descent who anglicize their names on resumes.

“I’m encouraged to hear he had agency, that they weren’t like, ‘We need you to do the accent,’” he said.

“I’d feel better if they were asking him to do a British accent or Brooklyn accent because if you’re doing this Indian accent and the character is comedic, it is nonetheless playing into that trope.”

Levy, who is also from Toronto, declined an interview request. Instead, he released a statement through his publicist.

“Ray was conceived as a character of Indian decent which we cast with Canadian-born actor Rizwan Manji, who is of Indian decent. No accent was called for in the casting or specified in the scripts,” it said.

“The thoughtful choices that Rizwan made in his portrayal in the audition room perfectly encapsulated the warmth and the energy of Ray. All characters on our show were created with love, respect and humanity. It has been gratifying to have these intentions reflected through the overwhelming audience support for these characters. That said, I welcome any perspectives that encourage conversations about diversity, especially in entertainment.”

Despite what critics might think, Manji said he has felt more empowered in recent years to make creative decisions about his characters.

Manji, who had a role in NBC’s musical comedy “Perfect Harmony,” which was cancelled this year, said when he was approached about playing the part of a pastor, he was the one who initiated the idea of giving the character a foreign accent.

Because the character was raised by missionaries, it wouldn’t have made sense for him to not have one.

Conversely, when he was asked a couple years ago to read for a pilot for a dramatic series in which his character was a Muslim father he told the casting director he didn’t want to do an accent.

“I said, ‘You know what? I’d rather not. That’s not going to excite me about this part,’” he said.

“I ended up getting the job. I found my voice.” (The pilot never made it to series).

Manji, who guesses about 60 per cent of his roles in more recent years have involved accent work, says remarks by actors who refuse to do accents are “dangerous” because they could end up limiting the types of roles available to minority actors.

His worry is casting directors will go to India in search of authentic accents, overlooking North American-born actors, like him.

“I’m already marginalized.”

Nobody fusses when Meryl Streep performs with an accent, he adds.

Ishani Nath, a freelance entertainment and lifestyle journalist in Toronto, says anytime she sees an accented character who also provides comedic relief, it raises a bit of a red flag.

But she’s hesitant to criticize actors for taking those roles, knowing that opportunities are not easy to come by.

“I’m way more interested in criticizing writers, producers, (and asking): Why are you asking for these roles to be accented? … Is there an actual reason and backstory?”

Nath says she is starting to notice deeper conversations about how different cultures are represented on screen and what nuances can be added to make characters more complex.

She says a good example of this is the hit movie “Crazy Rich Asians,” whose actors exhibited a range of regional Asian accents.

“It’s important to note that the problem with accent roles isn’t the accents themselves — plenty of characters in ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ have accents, but no one has the exaggerated or generic ‘Asian’ accent that has historically been played for laughs in Hollywood,” she wrote in a 2018 article in Flare.

Jhanik Bullard, a writer and member of BIPOC TV & Film, a collective of Black, Indigenous and people of colour working in Canada’s entertainment industry, says it is no longer acceptable for characters to have accents “just because.”

“It should actually have an authentic origin as to why this character sounds the way they sound,” he said.

Audiences are also not as forgiving as they may have been in the 1990s if the accent sounds botched or inauthentic.

What is encouraging, he says, is that more doors are being opened for people of colour to tell their stories and there are more platforms for those stories to be to told.

To that end, Manji says he and his partners have initiated a handful of projects that are in various stages of development. One is a show about a Muslim guy who becomes mayor of a major city. Another is a sitcom about a “normal Muslim family” — something that “resembles me more.”

Does the character he envision for himself speak with an accent?

“Since I want it to be closer to me, then I would say not.”

[rorodawnchorus]

The Chinese journalist who’s been writing about Uyghur people

"Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 82 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors, including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.” - Uyghurs For Sale

Vicky Xu was born and raised in China. She thought the Tiananmen Square massacre was fake and she used to be very nationalistic, often standing up for the CCP. Now, she has been writing about the oppression and cultural genocide Uyghur people have been experiencing for years. In this tweet, she talks about her experience and why she was driven to do investigative journalism on human rights abuses in China, particularly Xinjiang. 

https://mobile.twitter.com/xu_xiuzhong/status/1377527819715010561

(I won’t be translating her thread word for word but I’ll translate some quotes and also the gist of the thread) 

She says she’s questioned herself about taking huge risks and writing about Xinjiang and Uyghur people. She’s wondered if it was all “worth it”. She says “no matter how difficult it is, I must report about all that has befallen on Uyghur people. The root of the oppression on Uyghur people stems from the governing authority which is held by the majority Han Chinese government and this is the destruction of Uyghur people and culture.” Using the excuse of anti-terrorism policies, Uyghur people who are just average citizens with no intention to overthrow the government, they’re being put into concentration camps that are called “re-education camps” by the CCP. “As an ethnic majority Han Chinese” she says, “I cannot sit by idly and remain silent.” 

In 2017, when she was writing for New York Times, she was told that articles written in English would more likely fly under the radar of the CCP so she decided to do that. However, her articles had been translated and she has been cyberbullied, her family and friends have been harassed in China, and deepfake sex tapes/nudes have been spread online with claims that it is her. 

When she graduated in 2018, she joined Australian Broadcasting Company. However, due to lack of funds, she was only able to interview Uyghur people who have moved to Australia (there is a community in Adelaide, as per her tweet). At first, she noted, they were reluctant to open up to her and share more with her. She says, “At that time, all I could do was to write and tell the truth. Even if no one cares about it now or what the truth is, at least I’m leaving a historical record.” She would listen to her interviewees in tears, talking about their captured relatives in Xinjiang. Then she would return to her office and draft an email asking for China’s formal response on these claims; she would always watch as her hand tremble, hesitant about sending the email. 

In 2019, she wrote a piece for the NY Times which had enough international attention which put pressure on the CCP to release the relatives of the two families in that article. Ever since then, her family and friends in China began receiving threats and were harassed. Her Uyghur friends said to her at the time: “You’ve become like us.” 

Later, she joined the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and was the lead author for a research publication, Uyghur For Sale. In that report, it was mentioned that “Uyghurs are working in factories that are in the supply chains of at least 82 well-known global brands in the technology, clothing and automotive sectors, including Apple, BMW, Gap, Huawei, Nike, Samsung, Sony and Volkswagen.” 

“This report” she says in her tweet, “illustrates the undeniable relation between every other person to the human rights abuses against Uyghur people: Everyone could possibly be wearing a product that was manufactured through forced labour. This research report was passed on within the journalism industry and the influence it has far exceeds the expectations which my colleagues and I initially had. I haven’t purchased any new clothes or mobile phone this year for I know that once I step into the mall, I would see all the brands involved which I have written about and I would feel guilty (about buying any one of them).” 

She says the State Security has been detaining, interrogating and harassing people in Mainland China who are close to her. They’ve also attempted to paint her in a bad light by “exposing” her sexual affairs, etc. 

Recently, she has been accused for being the mastermind behind the “fake news” of Xinjiang Cotton. She clarifies that she’s never written about “Xinjiang Cotton” specifically but have only been reporting on supply chains involving forced labour. She also emphasised that in the past years, countless journalists and scholars have been writing about these human rights abuses. This was how so many countries were able to arrive at a conclusion regarding the allegations of human rights abuses, thus making policy decisions to stop import or penalise any companies involved. 

She says “China is using “Xinjiang Cotton” to confuse the public (divert attention). The fact is that many companies, whether they are fashion houses, electronics companies or medical equipment manufacturers, or even food product manufacturers, they have all had some kind of relation to the Uyghur forced labour (through supply chains). This problem runs deeper than “Xinjiang cotton”*. The Chinese government is attempting to equate the forced labour issue in Xinjiang with the China-US trade war, completely ignoring the fact that Australian, American, European, Japanese and even some Chinese consumers are concerned about purchasing products that were manufactured through force labour.”   

“At first, I chose to become a journalist because I didn’t have the courage to become an activist. While working in the newsroom, I was less outspoken and seldom expressed my personal views. Now, I see myself being labelled “a devilish woman”, “Han traitor (a traitor to China)”; I feel helpless but amused at the same time. I started from “secretly writing in English to leave some historical record” to becoming the target of State machinations, painting me as the female monster causing disaster to befall on countless Chinese people.” 

“If I previously held onto the faint thought of remaining silent to save my own skin, I have become purged of all these thoughts after going through the cyberbullying. All I can do is to continue writing; I shall write to the day these “re-education camps” are closed down; I shall write until I see the day forced labour is put to an end; I shall write to the end of the earth. Personally, I must carry on doing what is right. The price which I must pay will all be worthy for the troubles I have caused to the people around me, I will repay them myself.” 

*** 

Note: The CCP and their 50 cent army/Little Pink movement online constantly tries to place the focus on Xinjiang cotton, pulling out a photo of enslaved Black people during a press statement, saying “Look! The US did this. We, on the other hand, use highly mechanized harvest operations in Xinjiang.” to claim that there are no human rights abuses taking place there.  

She concludes her tweet by saying she has not written in Chinese for some time and the CCP machinations has forced her to use a “translation tone Chinese” in her writing as response to the cyberbullying from C-netz. So this is basically  a translation of a Twitter thread written like a translation O_O

I would like to add, though, the way I see the CCP works is that they like to use nationalism and patriotism to inflame C-netz and cause them to “take things into their own hands”. They caused this “national boycott” of Western fashion houses within Mainland China using nationalistic sentiments and “a sign of loyalty”; to act in any other way online or in public could bring about verbal attacks. Some Chinese staff of Adidas or other stores in China are being cyberbullied as well. Some Taiwanese consumers have expressed that they feel less guilty about shopping at fashion houses like H&M since they took this stance but I wonder how many people around the world actually cared enough to take on the personal initiative to consciously choose what they are purchasing? Obviously, a Twitter thread can’t go into the complex psychological workings of all that’s going on. 

(Hopefully this adds to the voice for Uyghur people as well. Do not be confused by the whole “Western imperialism against China” talk. It does not erase or reduce the fact that there are human rights abuses happening.)  

[zombiegurlmode]

Part 2 of lauren jauregui appreciation post

So ok. Lauren inspired me to share a little bit about me. Or i don’t know maybe i’m just PMSing now hahahaha. First, i just want to clarify that this is not about race or ethnicity. This is just me sharing my view with regards to Lauren’s emotional state in her latest attunement.

I’m a half chinese half taiwanese born and raised in the philippines. (If there are filipinos out there who might encounter this post, don’t be shy let yourselves be heard).

The reason i shared my ethnicity is because i felt that me as a chinese would be able to relate to her on a very personal level. Again i would like to clarify, this is not about ethnicity or race supremacy, i’m just sharing my thoughts. See, chinese are raised in a very peculiar manner. We are thought of as rigid, perfectionist, judgmental, emotionless beings and rightfully so. These are all embedded into our very beings. It has a lot to do with our culture and history. And as chinese we tend to value family, culture, traditions, histories, and customs. We could not escape our fate even if we try. It’s in our very core. It’s in our veins.

Supposedly, we should be the ones who could relate to celebrities the most. We hide behind our ego, our pride, our masks, our personas 24/7. Sometimes, we could not even recognize ourselves in our own household. We are raised to fit a particular mould which is viewed as customary. We have to behave in a very specific way to uphold honor in our family and in our society. To some perhaps, you might say then screw that. Sadly, like i’ve mentioned, it’s embedded in us to uphold honor, commitment, and tradition. We simply could not break this without breaking ourselves completely. If you’d watched mulan the ost reflection is so fitting to every chinese individual. We are taught to show no emotion, we are taught to uphold honor, we are taught not to show weakness, and we are taught to posses perfection in every aspect of our lives. In the way we conduct ourselves, in the very minutiae of living. Hence, my handle zombiegurlmode. That’s how we feel most of the time - manufactured. And the times we truly feel alive, is when we are truly alone with our own reflection staring back at us. And yet we continue to live the life set upon us.

To be honest, i am one of the lucky ones born into open-minded family. We always have inside jokes about chinese women being born into traditional chinese household. Good luck to you and upholding your family’s honor. In that scene in mulan where mushu was telling her “dishonor your family, dishonor your cow, dishonor your house” it’s a funny scene i admit, but one we take into our hearts very seriously.

Another funny scene, where mulan was in a matchmaker, it was made perfectly funny with her script on her hand or her cheat code was one of the scenes i love the most. In reality, the truth that lies beneath runs deep and much much darker than what appears in the surface. I dislike feeling sorry for people because we shouldn’t do that. But this moment, i do feel sorry for those born to traditional family and went through this all in the name sake of honoring their family. We are judged 24/7 by our own family and relatives. We live under a microscope. We have to behave a certain acceptable way because we are scrutinized in the way we sit, the way we eat, the way we laugh, the way we dress, the way we conduct ourselves, the way we interact, and so much more. When we were young, if we show up with test scores of 99 over a hundred, you wouldn’t get recognition for your hard work. You would get humiliated for not scoring a hundred that’s what you get for your troubles. And we are always always compared to one another. Healthy competition is not present in us. There should be no competition because you are raised to be the best period. If you can’t be that, you can’t cry about it. You have to try harder or die trying. We bleed and we only yell: “how much more blood can i offer up to you.”

We don’t normally share these kinds of thoughts out in the open. We feel that this is a sort of betrayal to our kind. Because people wouldn’t understand. But then, the reason they don’t understand is because we don’t make them understand. We hide behind our pride, our ego, our perfectionism, and pride ourselves on our achievements that we tend to forget at the end of the day - we are still humans. Living and breathing. In which, we are allowed to feel pain, to feel small, and to feel vulnerable.

Lauren jauregui thank you for imparting with us a part of you that no one truly deserves but only you. For being open to feel, for being able to express that freedom with us, for being the person you truly are. We may not cross paths, but your thoughts and actions would have touch the lives of many. We only owe ourselves the lives we call forth as our own.

Our lives may come to conclusion one day, but the fruits of our labor would remain in the depths of those that we have touched

[1112pm]

I come from a generation of women who have dealt with situations that made them grow vindictive and hard around the edges that were made to be the softest. I come from a generation of women who have been called crazy, a little unwell and a little unlovable.

My great-grandmother lived in the time when feet had to be crushed small, when the bones you were born with weren’t good enough and had to be wrapped in layers of bandage and made to bleed until beautiful. My great-grandmother didn’t live very long but lived just enough to give life to so many children that my grandmother was the one she sold off to another family for money.

My grandmother sold cabbage on the streets of sidewalks as a young teenager. Later on, I would understand why my grandmother took home left-over french fries from Mcdonald’s to reheat later and kept every extra ketchup packet. She would scold my mother for throwing away moldy bread and food that had been long-expired. My mother would often tell me quietly, “your grandmother is a war-victim” as if she was afraid I would be ashamed, as if I didn’t understand. And I didn’t.

I think my grandmother fell in love, once. Once was enough for her to question all male identity and to remind me so when I came home in the 2nd grade and told her about the boy who gave me a flower. “You can’t trust them,” she would say in Chinese when the language barrier had not yet grown too thick. I would just nod and forget, nod and forget.

She fell in love with the man who she would later walk in on with another woman. The other woman would be her best friend who had only one arm. My mother tells me, though, that my grandmother did not cry. But not only does infidelity break a woman’s heart– she hated herself for not being as worthy as another woman who had no arm. At the time I shamefully wondered if maybe there was something more to it than a lost arm. Regardless, nobody could tell her that it wasn’t her fault, that there was nothing wrong with her, that she didn’t need to change.

But I think she did, anyway.

Spite became the soul of my grandmother but when I look into her eyes, I know that she is wonderful and loving.. that the heart of her is still there even if it was buried beneath years of trauma. Pain can change a person. Pain can change a lot.

She met my grandpa a few years later and had my mother. I’d like to think she did love him, but with more caution and less ease. One morning, while her and my ma were wrapping 粽子 (Taiwanese tamale), she kept dropping them and missing the table. My ma said there was nothing wrong with my grandmother’s eyesight but that something felt wrong about the air.

My grandpa died the next day. That was my grandmother’s last marriage.

Over the years, she would dedicate herself to loving me when my mother was too young to. She would pay for my mother’s trip to America to start her life over and she would raise me to love the color red and big, extravagant hats.

I would sit beside her and watch her reflection in her vanity mirror as she applied bright red lipstick to her lips. She would smile at me, tell me to scoot closer and make me pucker up. I am told that I am more like my grandmother than my own mother sometimes. I wanted to grow up too fast and I wanted to wear heels before I learned how to tie my own shoes and I absolutely loved red nail polish. My grandmother taught me how to be a woman before I could read or write.

My grandmother was my rock. She was my steel soldier, my only guidance to what a woman should be and how a woman should love. And maybe I took too much of what she had said to heart. Maybe I took a part of her coldness with me. But she would be the one who would hold all of my secrets, the fears I had for my biological father, my wishes for her to take my mother and me away. She would be the first number I would dial when he would come home late at night and I knew it was going to be another one of those nights. She would be the first one to teach me how to dial 1-1-9. She would be the one who made sure I was fed, that my skin wasn’t bruised, that my eyes weren’t too soiled, too young. My grandmother was my benchmark of how one could overcome anything, especially my childhood when images felt like glass held between my palms that would bleed and she would be the one to make all of it stop.

I can’t really talk to her anymore. The years and the age have caught up and made her weak in her bones and in her speech. I avoid looking at her sometimes because I feel shame for not taking care of her enough, for not loving her more, for not showing it the best I could, for not being able to communicate and open up like I used to when I was little. Sometimes she’ll look at me and smile, weak but always the same. The kind of smile that says to me I will still love you the way I always have even if time and circumstances and life changes.. even if we change.

I remember hearing a song come up on the television, once and it was the same song she would sing to me when I was little, the same song I would struggle but learn to learn. I asked, excitedly, “Nainai, do you remember this song? It’s the song you used to sing to me!” She would nod and chuckle but in a way that made me realize she couldn’t remember. But she smiled because I did.

And I turned my face quickly to hide away the salt rolling onto my cheeks because my grandmother taught me not to cry.

[hangrymates-blog]

Charm City Night Market To Remember

I was born and raised in Baltimore, also known to be the “Charm City”. It isn’t one of the largest cities in the United States, but it’s relatively a decent sized city with great potential. We are mostly known for crabs, crab cakes, old bay seasoning, pit beef, and Inner Harbor. Within the past few years, the food scene in Baltimore has grown beyond just crabs and crab cakes. Many farm to table has made its way into the city, and the cultural aspect has really made an impact in the food scene, where many Asian food places can be found around Baltimore. 

People have overlooked the asian culture in Maryland for many years. Matter of fact, there is actually a huge Korean community in Ellicott City, which is right outside of Baltimore. It may not be as big as New York or Los Angeles Korean community, but you can still get all types of Asian food; such as Japanese, Thai, Filipino, Korean, Chinese, Hawaiian, and Asian fusion.

The Charm City Night Market is a testament to the growing Asian culture in Baltimore. It is a one day market event organized by the Chinatown Collective, that first started last September. Their goal for the event is to showcase local Asian American culture and Asian business owners. The event is held at Park Avenue, where Baltimore’s Chinatown was once located. The significance of the location is a tribute to what used to be Chinatown and how they would like to revive the area and reestablish a Chinatown.

My family and I were able to go to the event this year along with some of our coworkers, from HangryMates, and their families. I thought it was an overall great experience and it was great that we could all go out and support the local Maryland, Virginia, and DC Asian American restaurants and shops. We wanted to beat the crowd because of our little ones that we brought along, so we all decided to go right at the start of the event at 3 PM. I have not been in this part of Baltimore for a couple of years, so the first thing I noticed was some renovations taking place on some surrounding buildings. 

The market stretched over a couple of blocks and into two park areas, both park areas had stages for performances. It was awesome to see so many local shops and restaurants come together with a common goal to showcase Asian cultural to the city of Baltimore. The weather was a little steamy, but it was a great day to have my wife, son, and daughter experience this event with me.

We got to try a lot of different foods that we normally wouldn’t. Some of the food that really stood out to me was the Filipino food. The pork and chicken skewers from Chuck’s Trading Post were delicious. They had a slightly sweet marinade, which went well with the grill/smokey taste. They also had a Filipino signature whole pig on top of the grill where they were grilling the skewers. The lechon belly from Kuya Ja’s Lechon Belly is my all time favorite Filipino dish, my son really enjoyed it, too. The classic crispy pork skin was like candy, while the meat was flavorful and tender. The garlic rice was a good compliment and the pickled vegetables helped cut through the heaviness of the pork belly.

My family got to try some food from an Asian Fusion restaurant that I have already tried in Baltimore. Ekiben is one of my favorite places in Fells Point, with dishes. Their “neighborhood bird steam bun sandwich” is one of the best fried chicken sandwiches I’ve ever had. The large piece of chicken was nice and crispy in between the soft pillowy steam buns. The chicken has a nice curry type of seasoning with spicy sauce all over, which reminded me of the Taiwanese popcorn chicken. The Local Fry is another restaurant that I have always loved. They are known for their unique french fries and wing flavors. My wife loves french fries, so we tried their signature Korean galbi loaded fries; the fries were crispy and the meat on top had a delightful sweet soy sauce flavor. 

My wife tried the musubi from Lei Musubi. Musubi is a marinated piece of spam with rice that is wrapped with nori, a Japanese seaweed paper, that is usually shaped into a rectangle. Spam musubi is a popular snack in Hawaii. Then, we finished our little food tour with some ice cream from a local food truck called Bmore Mochichi. My son loved the ice cream and really enjoyed the little mochi pieces on top. 

Along with the famous “fried watermelon”, there were some other notable restaurants that I did not get to try:

Ejji Ramen - Japanese 

Dooby’s - Asian Fusion

Sobo Cafe - American

Old Boy  - Korean 

Dear Globe - Coffee

The event also served alcohol like wine, liquor, and beer. All the beer was from local breweries in Maryland. Key Brewing Company was one of the local breweries that the event offered. The cool part about one of the beers they offered was their Gose, which was specially created for the event, called the Charm City Night Market Gose. A Gose is a sour beer that seems to be gaining popularity recently. It’s an acquired taste for some, but I personally love them. The Charm City Night Market Gose was not as sour as some of the ones I’ve tried before. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3cgfjlJ_tu/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

The Charm City Night Market event also offered other entertainments. There were performances of people singing and dancing. One of the greatest parts of the performance that really attracted everyone’s attention was the traditional Chinese lion dance, which is two people running around while holding up a giant lion, so it looks like the lion is actually dancing. My son was enjoying the lion dance until they came up to him, which scared him because it can be a bit intimidating when up close. My wife, son, and daughter thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the event. 

We didn’t get to experience everything due to time, so I would love to take my family again next year and try other foods. I would also love to see what the Charm City Night Market looks like at night when its dark. Maybe we’ll consider going without our kids because of their bedtime. This is something I would want to support every year because I think supporting the local Asian community really benefits the Baltimore community as a whole.

Here are some other opinions about the event from some of my coworkers:

“Personally, I did not enjoy the Charm City Night Market. With that out of the way, there were some aspects of the event that I see would be enjoyable to some. The food was tasty even though the cooks were not actually cooking at their restaurants but instead under a tent. Ekiben was one of the best things that I tried although I feel like the chicken was a little undercooked. The event showed off a lot of Asian culture from martial arts to ethnic dances. So, in closing, would I attend the Charm City Night Market again? Probably not.” -John

“Overall, Charm City Night Market was a great experience for us as a family. The various restaurants and shops being represented truly showcased the often overlooked and even forgotten highlights to the city. My favorite sampling came from the Pork Bao and the coffee stand. I’d definitely visit again next year!” -Hyo

“My wife and I enjoyed the event. There was a lot more vendors than we thought. Since we love trying new cuisine, it was perfect for us to try little bits of this and that. Our favorite part was learning about many of the local restaurants and food joints that we never heard of or got to try. The best thing we had was the hot chicken sandwich from Hot Lola. It was hot, spicy, and juicy. Besides food, we saw a couple of cultural performances that were entertaining but the performers were mixed with different races and ethnicities, which I thought was fascinating. We would definitely go back to Charm City Night Market next time.” -Ryan

“Charm City Night Market was one of the most interesting markets I’ve ever been to. I saw so many different cultures come together, especially through food. So, I was able to try various kinds of food such as chicken sandwich with an Asian twist, crispy pork belly, musubi, and mochi waffle on a stick. It’s safe to say that food was my favorite part of the event. I also loved how it was family friendly. I took my 2 year old; he loved trying all the food and dancing with the chinese lions. I can’t wait for next year!” -Dinah

Lastly, check out our video from the Charm City Night Market!

[weeklyreviewer]

Japan’s Would-Be Silicon Valley Wants You

Masashi Tomita, who leads municipal efforts to attract tech startups to Fukuoka, Japan, is laugh-out-loud tipsy. The laughter is a clue, but so is the empty mug of Mega Jim Beam Highball, his third. We leave the bar and roam the streets for shime, or drunk food, hunkering our hankering at a solo yaki-ramen cart in the posh Tenjin district. Clinking glasses of plum liquor, I ask what I think is a cheery question: “Why can’t all of Japan be this fun?” He looks crestfallen, not insulted but embarrassed.

The Japanese call it nazonazo, a mystery upon a mystery, a riddle: Why is Japan — a 130-million-strong G7 nation with the world’s third-largest nominal GDP, bullet trains, robotics, a space program, and tech renown — such a dud in the startup world?

For all its business and engineering prowess, Japan has just one unicorn, or privately-owned, venture-backed tech company worth at least $1 billion, according to CB Insights. For the record, that company is artificial intelligence startup Preferred Networks.

But despite behemoth native power players including Honda, Mitsubishi, Nintendo, SoftBank, Sony, and Toyota, its corporate salaryman circles are full of squares, by design. Nearly every member of the Japanese workforce is a de facto senior vice president of rules and regulations. Japan’s national sport is protocol. In June, the country’s largest initial public offering of the year raised ¥33.8 billion ($315 million) and shares soared 21% on the first day of trading. What was all the fuss? It was Sansan, a tedious business card management app and sales-lead generator.

But what if the lack of Silicon Valley-style disruption is a cultural asset? Consider the Japanese art of kintsugi, in which broken pottery is repaired by filling the hibi, or cracks, with gold. What if “move fast and break things” — the early Facebook motto adopted by brogrammers everywhere — isn’t lost in translation as much as it’s discarded in translation? Why break when you can beautify?

Cue the startup incubator

Cue Fukuoka Growth Next, the country’s largest startup accelerator, which debuted in 2017, refurbished this May, and in August launches a nearly half-billion yen internal venture capital fund, FGN ABBALab, that will double investment in the next year. The fund is bankrolled in part by Mistletoe, owned by Taizo Son, the brother of SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son.

Backed by 22 companies, including Fujitsu, Ricoh, and Seiko, FGN joins other global tech hubs in the hopes of becoming its nation’s, um, Silicon Hibi. On site, in a converted three-story elementary school built in 1929, there are no foosball tables or vintage arcade games like in Silicon Valley. The whimsy comes from within.

Fukuoka Growth Next startup accelerator in Fukuoka, Japan.

“This city has been accepting different cultures for 2,000 years. And 100 years ago Toyota was a concept of entrepreneurial spirit—it is within us,” says Tomita. “We got organized after the war, but uniform—same, same, same—salarymen. It’s time to take our neckties off.”

Fukuoka, on the west coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost big island — a five-hour bullet train ride from Tokyo — is preternaturally suited to the task. Amid Japan’s infamously aging population, Fukuoka’s 1.6 million residents comprise the nation’s youngest city. That includes 80,000 students across 19 universities (a 120-member student club at Kyushu University runs an office at FGN).

The exquisitely Instagrammable Kawachi Wisteria Garden nearby and Nokonoshima Flower Island, surf town of Itoshima, and wine country across Kyushu, famed for its hot spring spa towns, give Fukuoka a distinctly California vibe — as does its diversity.

Large populations of American, Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Indonesian, Korean, Nepalese, Portuguese, Thai, and Vietnamese immigrants were bolstered by relaxed labor laws in March. The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, which has collections from 22 countries, bills itself as “the only museum in the world that systematically collects and exhibits Asian modern and contemporary art.”

The port town is the cruise ship capital of Japan, not including the ferries that jet to and from nearby Busan, in South Korea. And Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo are just two hours away by plane.

The world is at its fingertips. The city’s unofficial mantra is samiyasui (easy living).

The force behind the tech push

Fukuoka, Japan

Its youngest-ever mayor, Soichiro Takashima, a television news anchor elected in 2010 at 36, returned from a trip to Seattle intent on remaking Fukuoka in its image. In 2014, he convinced the federal government to declare Fukuoka a National Strategic Special Zone. FGN opened three years later, in tandem with a startup visa specifically designed to lure foreign entrepreneurs. The mayor still drops into FGN almost weekly.

Future prospects are buoyed by Fukuoka Smart East, a 124-acre smart city campus in Hakozaki district that will be a playground (and showroom) for Internet-of-things prototypes and hydrogen power, with its own accelerator division within FGN. In June, a smart city incubation program launched. But that kind of thinking has already begun: in January, Line, Japan’s largest social network — with 78 million users — tested a digital wallet in Fukuoka.

Yuichiro Uchida, FGN’s executive director, throws his arms into a human emoticon: ¯(ツ)/¯. “There’s just less pressure here,” he says. “That leaves more room for creativity and inspiration.” His bemused grin radiates “duh.” He continues: “Tokyo aims for the U.S. or London for status. But our proximity to Asia — Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore — is our strength. I’d rather be big in Asia than big in New York or San Francisco.”

To keep stress low, FGN offers free consultations to startups on, say, accounting, copyright, or intellectual property (what Tomita calls “startup defense”). Uchida talks about the smart city project as a “grand vision,” a physical, infrastructural white paper.

When we meet, Uchida is dressed down in a t-shirt. A rugby star in school, he’s now 43, but retains a boyish breeziness. In contrast, his entrepreneurial radar is mature and specific: the drone startups of Bordeaux and its Darwin station, the design scene in Copenhagen, tax structures in Singapore, and the European Union’s de facto IT bureau in Tallinn, Estonia. I ask him what’s better than creating — what is the entrepreneurial equivalent of omotenashi, Japan’s hyper-hospitality? — and his answer is kyoso: co-creating.

His is a train of thought born of wabisabi, the Japanese notion that imperfection is often better than perfection. As Tomita puts it: “I value diversity. You can’t embrace diversity and expect perfection.”

At its debut, FGN’s initial goal was for its tenants to raise ¥500 million ($4.6 million) by December 2018, but they instead raised ¥8.2 billion ($75.9 million). Amid the Japanese economy’s Abenomics, the fiscal reforms of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, FGN offers a radical oasis of wabisabinomics. As opposed to existing for the sake of getting on Google’s radar (and the acquisition bounty that comes with it) FGN’s startups seem genuinely, refreshingly focused on their users in a way that prioritizes purpose and risk over buzz and security, harkening to the era when Silicon Valley was defined more by garage-built moxie than IPO bluster.

Sakiko Taniguchi developed Nyans, a social network for cat lovers, at FGN. “There’s no word for salarywoman but there doesn’t need to be when you’re family. Here I have drinks with the mayor,” she says. “In Tokyo, I can’t think of anything other than work. I’m more than that. My company would be possible in Tokyo — I expanded there in February — but there I wouldn’t be able to run the company the way I want. Fukuoka gives me what I want and how I want it.”

Early success

She hopes to follow FGN’s successful alumni: Alterbooth, a cloud integrator, raised ¥100M ($922K) in June; Authentic Japan, an SOS app that sends rescue drones to users, became mandatory at a major ski resort in April; and Skydisc, an air quality startup with both agricultural and home/office applications, was called a “future unicorn” by Nikkei news service. In all, FGN’s 293 total companies, 21 are established players like local banks and Yahoo, while the remaining 272 startups have pulled in $82 million and lured entrepreneurs from nine countries.

FGN member Kenji Umeki frequents FGN’s ironically named bar, Awa (Bubble), a satellite of a spot popular among techies in Tokyo’s Roppongi district. Umeki named his human resources startup, You Make It, as a pun on his name. His users include Bangladeshi, Chinese, and Vietnamese workers. “Honestly, I have a Vietnamese friend and I just wanted to help him,” he says. “I want that to be a good enough reason for a business proposal.”

Strolling the bank of the curly Nakagawa River, a ¥1-a-day shared-economy umbrella in his hand, Kazuya Shidahara, FGN’s head of engineering events, sits me down with some FGN leaders among Fukuoka’s other great startups: the yatai, the here-and-gone nightly food carts selling ramen, mentaiko, and yakitori. I ask the group what would happen if one of the ramen stands were so successful that it opened locations all over the world like McDonalds or Starbucks. “Like Gong Cha?” asks Shidahara, referring to the Taiwanese bubble tea chain. “Do you know people wait up to three hours there? For what? A tea and an Instagram upload? It’s a trap, a prison. Maybe that’s why they’re called chains.” His words are scalability heresy, but they also call out a Silicon Valley contradiction: its dueling ambitions of ubiquity and unique experience.

Perhaps FGN’s roundabout unorthodoxy can solve a riddle that has been plaguing San Francisco, too — especially the toxic tumult at Facebook, Google, and Uber — while paradoxically paying tribute to an ancient Japanese tradition: Fukuoka is primed to be a beacon of entrepreneurial bushido, the samurai code, helping restore honor and morality to tech (cough, Theranos, that once-celebrated Silicon Valley blood-testing startup that ultimately imploded). Now would be a good time to practice bowing.

Credit: Source link

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[vermilion-king-blog]

Euriel here~ this is my newest addition to the glasses gang, Longfeng! Say hi~~ c: (Warning this is long.)

This is quite long since I’ve played with the idea of this character for a while, so I divided it up by section lol.

History

Longfeng is descended from the last line of Ming Dynasty emperors that were still fully ethnically Han Chinese.

Longfeng (龍鳳) is their courtesy name that they currently go by, and Mingli (明麗 - bright & beautiful) was the name that was given at birth. It symbolizes the dragon (long) and phoenix (feng), both symbols of the Chinese emperor, coming together in harmony. It also is part of a famous Confucian saying.

Mingli is an extremely feminine name. It was discarded after they came of age at 20, and they were given the courtesy name (that was more masculine), Longfeng.

Their coming of age ceremony was also their throne ascension ceremony, so they’ve effectively been ruling for the past 15 years. Their father abdicated the throne due to an undisclosed illness.

Since the ceremony, Longfeng has been putting on a guise of being a man in order to “properly” inherit the throne.

They were born a female, still identify as a female, but for political reasons must present as male.

Their father really wanted to “keep” his daughter, but due to the one-child policy, if he wanted a rightful heir, the child needed to be a male, and he would’ve consequently have to give up Mingli at birth (which more than likely meant she would’ve been killed rather than put up for adoption).

So his solution was to keep Mingli out of the public eye until they came of age. Under the protection of the palace, Mingli was able be a girl as much as she wanted, knowing that she’d have to stop when she turned 20.

Relationships

One of the things she didn’t want to miss out on was getting married and having a child.

At the age of 18, she married her childhood best friend and fellow royal, Taiban. They both filled out the marriage registration using her birthname (which was unknown to the public) and his aboriginal last name respectively to avoid any suspicion.

Later that year, she had a daughter with Taiban who is now 17 years old and being raised by Taiban as a “single” father.

Mingli’s father wasn’t angry that his daughter had a child. After all, he said that she could do what she pleased for the first 19 years of her life. But the child could not stay, lest it be known that Mingli is actually a girl.

Sadly he told her that she must give up the baby saying sympathetically “I know what it’s like to want to have a daughter.” So, they arranged for Taiban to take care of their child, and the daughter was raised thinking that Mingli had died in childbirth.

But Mingli didn’t want to be absent during her daughter’s life, so as Longfeng, they act as an overly doting family friend/uncle who showers her in gifts, like dresses and jewelry.

Personality

As a ruler, Longfeng is known to be a man of few words, and truly “leading by example” instead.

This was more because they feared any sort of hint that may reveal they aren’t truly a man, whether it be voice or mannerisms, so they come across as terse and proper.

In their private time however, they can actually be quite talkative, sociable, and indulgent, but very few people know this side of them.

One thing they cannot change about themselves though is how much they want to help people. Although they won’t say much, they’re more than willing to lend an ear.

Outlook on the war

Longfeng is more concerned with keeping the Chinese empire under control and from tumbling into a civil war due to rising tensions between the Taiwanese and Han (mainland) Chinese.

As such, they’re trying to keep China out of international affairs, only looking to those within its sphere of influence (mainly East Asia) for possible assistance and/or threats.

Miscellaneous

After being privately tutored inside the palace until the age of 20, Longfeng transferred into Tsinghua University, double majoring in industrial design and mechanical engineering.

It took them 4 years to finish the dual degree instead of two because their fear of public speaking kept them from properly presenting their capstone project. That, and they just wanted to stay in the lab and not talk to anyone.

They also spent a year studying abroad at MIT, where they met Evgeni, King of Russia. Surprisingly, they did not hook up.

Afterwards, they pursued a Masters in Engineering in Mechanical Engineering with a focus on Product Design at UC Berkeley.

[mastcomm]

How Kobe Bryant Helped the N.B.A. Conquer the World

During his two-decade N.B.A. career, Kobe Bryant evolved into far more than an exceptional basketball player. Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday near Los Angeles, became a crucial conduit for the league as it moved swiftly to expand its empire into an international enterprise.

Raised in Italy for seven years of his childhood, Bryant was fluent in Italian and was an ideal draw for a league that, ever since David Stern took over as commissioner in 1984, had seen basketball as a global game. Bryant’s stature as an international celebrity, honed by both the N.B.A. and Nike, crystallized during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There, Bryant was swarmed by other athletes asking for autographs and photographs on the infield of the Olympic stadium with a man who was considered one of the world’s greatest basketball players.

It was fitting, then, that on Sunday, the tributes to Bryant poured in from across the globe.

Luca Vecchi, the mayor of Reggio Emilia — one of the Italian cities where the Bryants had lived — posted a message on Facebook in tribute to the star. “Kobe Bryant grew up here and for us all he was from Reggio Emilia,” he wrote. “He left us today. A basketball legend whom our whole city will remember forever with affection and gratitude.”

When Bryant entered the N.B.A. in 1996, his experience of growing up partly abroad was a rarity in the league. This was the era before the stars Yao Ming of China and Dirk Nowitzki of Germany had made their marks. But Bryant’s rise also coincided with the introduction of critical new technology, Adam Silver, Stern’s successor as league commissioner, said in an interview on Monday. The N.B.A. was just beginning to capitalize on the power of digital video and to beam its games into the homes of budding fans around the world. Today, foreign-born stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are rapidly becoming the norm.

“Kobe came of age almost at the exact moment that we became a digital league. I believe we launched NBA.com the year before Kobe came into the league,” Silver said. “And Kobe embraced all things digital. In China, he realized he could be virtually present around the world by providing content to websites. He saw an opportunity to make himself universal.”

As the N.B.A. was desperate for a new face to represent a diversifying league without Michael Jordan in his prime, Bryant did more than any other American player to fill that void. Silver referred to Bryant as “the most traveled player of his era.” Bryant even teased the idea of playing professionally in Italy during the 2011 N.B.A. lockout. His father, Joe Bryant, played professional basketball there after an eight-year N.B.A. career.

“Italy is my home,” Bryant once told an Italian-language sports outlet, Gazzetta dello Sport. “It’s where my dream of playing in the N.B.A. started. This is where I learned the fundamentals.”

Shooting, passing, and moving without the ball, he added, were all “things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”

Stern, who died Jan. 1, made foreign expansion a core goal of the league and studied proposals to place teams in Europe. Bryant readily accepted his role as an ambassador for basketball, for both the league’s interests and his own. He played on two Olympic teams, winning gold medals in 2008 and 2012. In 2018, Bryant was named, along with Yao, as a global ambassador for last year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup.

“Stern’s vision was always to make the N.B.A. a global sport, and certainly, he was a commissioner who embraced that,” said Michael Veley, a professor of sport management at Syracuse University. “But he needed players to also buy into that. It started with the Olympic team — ‘The Dream Team’ — but after some of the superstars like Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan, the baton had to be passed on to other people who not only were going to be great players, but were going to represent the sport and talk about it on an international stage.”

Matteo Zuretti, the head of international relations for the N.B.A. players’ union, said in an interview that Bryant’s dominant play alone had helped the league encourage more foreigners to take up the sport. Embiid, who was drafted to the N.B.A. from Cameroon in 2014, wrote in a Twitter post following Bryant’s death that he had started to play basketball because of Bryant after watching the 2010 N.B.A. finals. “I had never watched ball before that and that finals was the turning point of my life,” he wrote.

“When you are an international player and you stay up till 4 a.m. to watch your idol play, you develop a special connection,” Zuretti said in a phone call from Italy. “Kobe had been super relevant for people in Los Angeles. But for a generation of international players, he was the winner and idol.”

But nowhere abroad was Bryant’s impact as prevalent as in East Asia, particularly China, where Bryant, one of Nike’s top personalities, routinely had the highest sales of shoes and jerseys. Amplifying the reach of Bryant and the league in the country was the fact that Yao happened to join the Houston Rockets in 2002, right as Bryant was hitting the peak of his superstardom following his third N.B.A. championship.

“Kobe saw how big the N.B.A. was becoming in China,” Silver said. “I think Kobe recognized that he was a product of his time.”

By then, Bryant had already become a frequent visitor to the country for basketball camps and promotional stops. He stayed popular in China through commercials, like one for Sprite in 2011 with the Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou. After Stephen Curry, the star of the Golden State Warriors, unseated Bryant in Chinese jersey sales in 2017, Rick Welts, a Warriors team executive, told USA Today that Curry had done it using the “Kobe Bryant playbook.”

Nike accelerated its expansion in the Chinese market in the 2000s, and Bryant became its most visible face when he started a partnership with the company in 2003. China has been Nike’s biggest market outside of the United States for several years.

Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, released a statement on Twitter on Monday that nodded to Bryant’s reach in China. “Saddened by the tragic loss of #KobeBryant,” he said. “An inspiration for many and a legend of his generation, he will always be remembered for his contribution to the world of sport and to #ChinaUS people-to-people exchanges. My deepest condolences to his family and other victims.”

The statement was notable beyond illustrating Bryant’s stature, as relations have been strained between the N.B.A. and China for months. In October a Rockets executive expressed support on social media for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. After decades of the N.B.A. conducting outreach to China and courting fans (with an assist from Bryant), the Chinese state broadcasting channel pulled the league’s games. Relations have yet to formally thaw.

Bryant was also popular in the Philippines, where he made several visits. Basketball is followed with an almost religious fervor there, dating back to the late 1800s. On Monday, a reporter for ESPN posted a photo on Twitter showing a famed basketball court in Manila, known as “The Tenement,” being painted over with an image of Bryant and his daughter Gianna, who also died in the crash. In the city of Valenzuela, just hours before Bryant’s death, a Kobe Bryant-inspired basketball court was inaugurated called “House of Kobe,” and it has become a memorial site for Bryant filled with flowers and notes from fans.

Silver said there was “something very universal” about Bryant. It may have been his willingness to embrace technology and his European background, but there was also Bryant’s relentless competitiveness.

Silver recalled an interaction between the Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic and Bryant in December at Staples Center. Doncic was about to inbound the ball, and Bryant, sitting courtside, was trash-talking him. After the game, Doncic told reporters that he had been surprised to hear that Bryant was doing so in his native language of Slovenian.

from WordPress https://mastcomm.com/how-kobe-bryant-helped-the-n-b-a-conquer-the-world/

[mixedfeelingsproject]

Anonymous

Where are you from? Cleveland, OH & Greater D.C. area

How would you describe your race/ethnicity? I identify as American, Japanese, and Taiwanese. My ethnicity is a mix of Russian, Polish, Irish, Chinese, and probably other stuff too.

Do you identify with one particular aspect of your ethnicity more than another? Have you ever felt pressure to choose between parts of your identity? When I'm in the U.S. I feel Asian. When I'm in Japan I feel American. This is mainly because I don't look like everyone else.

Did your parents encounter any difficulties from being in an interracial relationship? They divorced when I was 5. There may have been difficulties from the interracial relationship, but it was moreso that their personalities just didn't match.

How has your mixed background impacted your sense of identity and belonging? I never felt like I really "belonged" anywhere growing up until I did my Masters in Hawaii and felt a tremendous weight lifted off my shoulders. People stopped asking me where I was from and didn't expect me to fit certain stereotypes. For the first time in my life I felt "normal."

Have you been asked questions like "What are you?" or "Where are you from?" by strangers? If so, how do you typically respond? I feel like I shouldn't be so sensitive to this type of question, but I hate getting it because I never know what they really want to know. And it takes a long time to explain and people don't usually have that much patience or interest. I usually reply, "Do you mean where was I born, where did I grow up, where are my parents from, what languages do I speak, or where do I live now? Each one has a different answer . . . " My dad is Taiwanese and my mom is "normal" American. But my dad's family moved to Japan more than 50 years ago because my grandparents grew up under Japanese occupation. So I grew up visiting them in Japan and learned Japanese to speak with them. As an adult I lived in Japan for a couple years, largely to understand more about my family's culture.

Have you experienced people making comments about you based on your appearance? In the U.S.: "You can't be twins. He's Asian and you're not." "You're mixed? You're mixed!" "What type of Visa do you have?" "I remember you because you're not white." "I was putting the moves on the Asian chick." "You're so exotic." "You should be a model." (multiply the last two by a hundred) In Japan: "You look Japaneseish." "Is she Japanese??" "You're so cute/pretty."

Have you ever been mistaken for another ethnicity? Native American, 100% White, 100% Asian, Hispanic

Have you ever felt the need to change your behavior due to how you believe others will perceive you? In what way? Unconsciously, I think I do. I feel like I need to "prove" that I was raised in the U.S. sometimes in order to be accepted. That's hard because I've been strongly influenced by Japanese culture from my years living there.

What positive benefits have you experienced by being mixed? I can travel to many different countries/places and stay with relatives. More importantly, I think it keeps me open-minded and tolerant of new experiences and cultures different from what I'm familiar with.

Have you changed the way you identify yourself over the years? I used to feel that I didn't have a "right" to identify as Japanese because my ethnicity is technically white and Chinese-Taiwanese. But seeing how I know so little about Taiwan and I can't speak Chinese, I realized (after a white male therapist told me it was okay to do so) that I can identify as Japanese if I wanted to. I feel much happier now, but its sad that I needed to feel "permission" before doing so.

Are you proud to be mixed? Yes

Do you have any other stories you would like to share from your own experiences? As a hapa female, I've been exoticized so many times. I know people are just trying to complement me and usually they have good intentions, but sometimes I feel like I'm being treated like a prize. I'd much rather people complement me on something other than my looks.

[mastcomm]

How Kobe Bryant Helped the N.B.A. Conquer the World

During his two-decade N.B.A. career, Kobe Bryant evolved into far more than an exceptional basketball player. Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday near Los Angeles, became a crucial conduit for the league as it moved swiftly to expand its empire into an international enterprise.

Raised in Italy for seven years of his childhood, Bryant was fluent in Italian and was an ideal draw for a league that, ever since David Stern took over as commissioner in 1984, had seen basketball as a global game. Bryant’s stature as an international celebrity, honed by both the N.B.A. and Nike, crystallized during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. There, Bryant was swarmed by other athletes asking for autographs and photographs on the infield of the Olympic stadium with a man who was considered one of the world’s greatest basketball players.

It was fitting, then, that on Sunday, the tributes to Bryant poured in from across the globe.

Luca Vecchi, the mayor of Reggio Emilia — one of the Italian cities where the Bryants had lived — posted a message on Facebook in tribute to the star. “Kobe Bryant grew up here and for us all he was from Reggio Emilia,” he wrote. “He left us today. A basketball legend whom our whole city will remember forever with affection and gratitude.”

When Bryant entered the N.B.A. in 1996, his experience of growing up partly abroad was a rarity in the league. This was the era before the stars Yao Ming of China and Dirk Nowitzki of Germany had made their marks. But Bryant’s rise also coincided with the introduction of critical new technology, Adam Silver, Stern’s successor as league commissioner, said in an interview on Monday. The N.B.A. was just beginning to capitalize on the power of digital video and to beam its games into the homes of budding fans around the world. Today, foreign-born stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid are rapidly becoming the norm.

“Kobe came of age almost at the exact moment that we became a digital league. I believe we launched NBA.com the year before Kobe came into the league,” Silver said. “And Kobe embraced all things digital. In China, he realized he could be virtually present around the world by providing content to websites. He saw an opportunity to make himself universal.”

As the N.B.A. was desperate for a new face to represent a diversifying league without Michael Jordan in his prime, Bryant did more than any other American player to fill that void. Silver referred to Bryant as “the most traveled player of his era.” Bryant even teased the idea of playing professionally in Italy during the 2011 N.B.A. lockout. His father, Joe Bryant, played professional basketball there after an eight-year N.B.A. career.

“Italy is my home,” Bryant once told an Italian-language sports outlet, Gazzetta dello Sport. “It’s where my dream of playing in the N.B.A. started. This is where I learned the fundamentals.”

Shooting, passing, and moving without the ball, he added, were all “things that when I came back to America the players my age didn’t know how to do because they were only thinking about jumping and dunking.”

Stern, who died Jan. 1, made foreign expansion a core goal of the league and studied proposals to place teams in Europe. Bryant readily accepted his role as an ambassador for basketball, for both the league’s interests and his own. He played on two Olympic teams, winning gold medals in 2008 and 2012. In 2018, Bryant was named, along with Yao, as a global ambassador for last year’s FIBA Basketball World Cup.

“Stern’s vision was always to make the N.B.A. a global sport, and certainly, he was a commissioner who embraced that,” said Michael Veley, a professor of sport management at Syracuse University. “But he needed players to also buy into that. It started with the Olympic team — ‘The Dream Team’ — but after some of the superstars like Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan, the baton had to be passed on to other people who not only were going to be great players, but were going to represent the sport and talk about it on an international stage.”

Matteo Zuretti, the head of international relations for the N.B.A. players’ union, said in an interview that Bryant’s dominant play alone had helped the league encourage more foreigners to take up the sport. Embiid, who was drafted to the N.B.A. from Cameroon in 2014, wrote in a Twitter post following Bryant’s death that he had started to play basketball because of Bryant after watching the 2010 N.B.A. finals. “I had never watched ball before that and that finals was the turning point of my life,” he wrote.

“When you are an international player and you stay up till 4 a.m. to watch your idol play, you develop a special connection,” Zuretti said in a phone call from Italy. “Kobe had been super relevant for people in Los Angeles. But for a generation of international players, he was the winner and idol.”

But nowhere abroad was Bryant’s impact as prevalent as in East Asia, particularly China, where Bryant, one of Nike’s top personalities, routinely had the highest sales of shoes and jerseys. Amplifying the reach of Bryant and the league in the country was the fact that Yao happened to join the Houston Rockets in 2002, right as Bryant was hitting the peak of his superstardom following his third N.B.A. championship.

“Kobe saw how big the N.B.A. was becoming in China,” Silver said. “I think Kobe recognized that he was a product of his time.”

By then, Bryant had already become a frequent visitor to the country for basketball camps and promotional stops. He stayed popular in China through commercials, like one for Sprite in 2011 with the Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou. After Stephen Curry, the star of the Golden State Warriors, unseated Bryant in Chinese jersey sales in 2017, Rick Welts, a Warriors team executive, told USA Today that Curry had done it using the “Kobe Bryant playbook.”

Nike accelerated its expansion in the Chinese market in the 2000s, and Bryant became its most visible face when he started a partnership with the company in 2003. China has been Nike’s biggest market outside of the United States for several years.

Cui Tiankai, the Chinese ambassador to the United States, released a statement on Twitter on Monday that nodded to Bryant’s reach in China. “Saddened by the tragic loss of #KobeBryant,” he said. “An inspiration for many and a legend of his generation, he will always be remembered for his contribution to the world of sport and to #ChinaUS people-to-people exchanges. My deepest condolences to his family and other victims.”

The statement was notable beyond illustrating Bryant’s stature, as relations have been strained between the N.B.A. and China for months. In October a Rockets executive expressed support on social media for pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong. After decades of the N.B.A. conducting outreach to China and courting fans (with an assist from Bryant), the Chinese state broadcasting channel pulled the league’s games. Relations have yet to formally thaw.

Bryant was also popular in the Philippines, where he made several visits. Basketball is followed with an almost religious fervor there, dating back to the late 1800s. On Monday, a reporter for ESPN posted a photo on Twitter showing a famed basketball court in Manila, known as “The Tenement,” being painted over with an image of Bryant and his daughter Gianna, who also died in the crash. In the city of Valenzuela, just hours before Bryant’s death, a Kobe Bryant-inspired basketball court was inaugurated called “House of Kobe,” and it has become a memorial site for Bryant filled with flowers and notes from fans.

Silver said there was “something very universal” about Bryant. It may have been his willingness to embrace technology and his European background, but there was also Bryant’s relentless competitiveness.

Silver recalled an interaction between the Dallas Mavericks star Luka Doncic and Bryant in December at Staples Center. Doncic was about to inbound the ball, and Bryant, sitting courtside, was trash-talking him. After the game, Doncic told reporters that he had been surprised to hear that Bryant was doing so in his native language of Slovenian.

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