Last night, Bwog reporter Karen Leung went to the Chinese Student Club’s annual culture show, and returned both entertained and bemused. Her dispatch follows.
Give people an excuse to talk about mass, and it’s only a matter of time before the fat jokes come. At last night’s Lunar Gala, the Chinese Students Club’s annual culture show, the theme was Momentum, in honor of the Year of the Boar and that noble animal’s “persistence to motivate himself as well as those around him.” The theme invited physics jokes – for the uninformed, emcee Kenny Liu declared that momentum is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. His partner, Monnica Chan, asked whether she looked nice in her dress. The collision of physics and the female body prompted a fat joke. It was the beginning of a beautiful evening.
It was hard for most of the acts to fail. People are fascinated by men balancing wooden bobbles on a piece of string, and they laugh when people in lion suits throw lettuce (and rightly so). The hip hop group was cool, of course; Radiance, the classical Chinese dance troupe, was beautiful, of course; the vocal performances were uneven but ultimately successful, of course. The only exception was an interminable performance by Hsu-nami, an Asian rock fusion group which the program told me has the sensibility of “the osmosis of oriental pastime + the tenacity of modern rock.”
But the best part of a night of live performance was no performance at all: the board skit, a video featuring members of the CSC executive. Part after-school special, part Asian soap opera, the skit trafficked in stereotypes that were almost intolerable. It was also the funniest and most touching part of the show. President Stephen Choy played a single father presiding over three dysfunctional daughters. The oldest works at a fashion magazine with a Wintour-esque boss, the second is a miserably competent hospital intern assigned to doctor movie star Allan Lau, and the youngest is very angry. We know this because she drinks coffee instead of tea. In a hilarious scene, she kicks at her prone, squirming boyfriend when she finds him kissing someone else in that den of iniquity, John Jay.
It was awkward, sometimes, to see CSC present the trope images of Asian Americans in the media – the uptight doctor, the traditional father – and then let them lie. I think of the organization as AAA’s somewhat conspicuously apolitical little brother. But in this case, the tropes couldn’t quite shed their political context. The discomfort that comes from seeing Asian Americans depicting themselves in the same way that mainstream culture would depict them was disturbing during an otherwise wonderful show. But Lunar Gala is not, after all, a show by the Chinese American Students Club, but the Chinese Students Club. It’s striking that the video ends with a kind of reconciliation, when the three daughters return to eat Chinese food with their father, lending the skit a sense of preoccupation with a return to the traditions of the homeland—much like Lunar Gala itself.
– Photos by Dan Fainstein
84 Comments
@Did anyone else see a fashion show last night?
@lame in my opinion hsunami was the best act there..
@secret admirer I LOVE YOU KAREN!! MARRY ME PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeee
@lunar gayla This ain’t China. People here are not only entitled to their opinion, but also to express it.
@la chouffe Including their opinions about other people’s work. I respect what performers do and the time they put into their work, but as performers, they should expect some criticism. We indeed do not give out A’s for effort anymore (well, not in most classes), so the comments surrounding the “attacks” on the performs should cease in favor of the more vital issue of cultural representation and identity.
@Uhh Clearly you don’t read Chinese blogs. People post all kinds of opinions online. It’s only journalists representing more than their own personal opinion who aren’t supposed to express dissenting views. Think Kantian public/private morality.
@uhh.. gay. Thanks for the needlessly pedantic input. Let’s remember that (1) this site is more blog than paradigm of journalistic integrity and (2) that this still ain’t China; journalists need not adhere to any public/private morality you may have just learned in your CC class. The punishment’s in the profits.
@a friend Nanoha whispers: i’ll buy [Xiaoyu’s Shampoo]x3 for 300g
P.S. I almost shift clicked Xiaoyu’s Shampoo when posting this………….. what does that say about me?
@lawl at these nubs hay lol sup guys,
y r tekkGod112’s moves so much faster than mine. so unfair. this game is imba.
P.S. Ling ftw
P.P.S Massivegirth yells: WTS [Xiaoyu’s Shampoo]x3 PST
@SmashGod112 YOO TEKKEN? I WANT A POLITICAL DISCUSSION. DONT WASTE MY TIME
PS: who u use, asuka?
@tekkGod112 DORYA!!!!^!%FE^@^R&GY@!UBJ
ewgf, ewgf, 1, ff, 1, ff, 1, ff, (wall) b+3,4,1,4, d+4
K.O.
PS: kazuya
@a friend hay guyz,
i don’t wanna use Bryan Fury ok??? So don’t keep trying to force me to use Bryan Fury!!! can we talk about this later and not on the bwog site plz?
P.S. I’m still waiting on a response. In the meantime, I’d like to know the name of the person who demanded my name.
@for the lulz l2play irl nubs
@yeah... …you definitely sound like someone who has a life
@tekkGod112 whoever said “l2play irl nubs,” i bet you’re one of those people who never have their shirts on and like listen to mad japanese music and have messed up sleeping patterns… gosh… if you are, then go get a life.
@a friend All comments posted by “a friend” are by me, Brian Hsieh. I will not sit quietly and watch the hard work and dedication of my friends and peers belittled by Karen’s sarcastic remarks. My opinions do not reflect that of CSC or AAA. Asian American identity is something that we all must explore in our own ways. It is impossible to speak definitively, as Karen did, about whether or not a student group has succeeded or failed in their portrayal of Asian Americans. We are who we are, stereotypes or not. I only demand an apology for the demeaning and judgmental statements written in the article. That is all.
In friendship,
Brian
@also an LG performer as a performer for the event, i agree with Brian (and give him props for stepping out of anonymity).
Certainly Karen is entitled to her own opinion and I’m sure she is well aware that this was to be posted on a public blog and would receive feedback.
i don’t think, however, that she is in any position to criticize the acts in such a sarcastic and belittling manner given the amount of time, effort and energy put into a successful show by the individual performers.
@65 again to be clear, im not affiliated with either AAA or CSC.
@"friend" …is pretty fucking ridiculous. how hard CSC worked has *nothing at all* to do with whether the show played into racism. you’re not in 3rd grade, you don’t get an A for effort.
@a friend Please read before posting. Nothing Karen said or any of the subsequent comments suggested that the show played into racism. If you are concerned about racism, please speak with AAA.
@a friend As a longtime performer for CSC’s Lunar Gala, and a board member of an Asian cultural club that is neither CSC nor AAA, I know that I am not alone in saying that I feel insulted by Karen’s belittling of the hard work and dedication that went into the LG production. We all have our own cultural shows and should know better. Karen basically applied her own views of Asian American identity to LG – views that are shared by AAA – and finding LG unable to satisfy her confusing and poorly articulated demands, concluded the shallowness and political incorrectness of LG. A very subjective, not to mention, unwanted opinion.
I demand a public apology from Karen Leung or from AAA on her behalf, for publicly making demeaning statements including, but not limited to:
“It was hard for most of the acts to fail.”
“People are fascinated by men balancing wooden bobbles on a piece of string, and they laugh when people in lion suits throw lettuce (and rightly so).”
“I think of the organization as AAA’s somewhat conspicuously apolitical little brother.”
@OK, so if you do feel you are entitled to make “demands”, then you should let us know who you are. Names!
@the_viet Just curious, but stems from Karen’s issue with the fact that “the skit trafficked in stereotypes that were almost intolerable.” The only examples that follow are:
-the uptight doctor
-the traditional father
Now, let’s for the sake of curiosity analyze all the key roles in this movie, starting with the 3 daughters:
Angry girl – I think this deals more with teenage angst than any sort of Asian stereotype.
Fashion girl – As the father says “Asian’s don’t succeed in fashion,” I would think then that the case with this girl succeeding Devil Wears Prada style would be an example of transcending stereotypes rather than submitting.
Uptight Doctor – The point of this doctor being assigned to Allan was that so she wouldn’t be uptight, and by the end of the skit she loosened up.
The Father – Maybe he’s the only one that conforms to any sort of stereotype, except that he is supposed to be portraying the 1st generation Asian. Perhaps that -is- his role, to be the one trying to conform his daughters to this stereotype, as a sort of juxtaposition so that when his daughters don’t conform and in the end everything comes together it shows how we as a new generation of Asian Americans can succeed.
Now please explain to me again, how this skit was trafficking in stereotypes that were unbearable to watch.
@AAA but my own words On what terms should we “work together”, then? AAA and CSC most definitely collaborate on things like CSC’s Nightmarket, there have been collective “field trips” to Chinatown, etc.
It’s when it comes to more serious stuff that the question of “working together” becomes one of note. Maybe about a month ago we organized, collaboratively, a roundtable discussion on Rosie O’Donnell’s “ching-chong” comments and racial humor. While both boards promoted it, and the discussion was productive, the turnout was very, very small, BOTH from AAA and CSC’s ranks. And perhaps this comes down to what #56 was saying in regards to AAA and CSC having different goals; there is no doubt about that. But to simply dismiss a lack of “working together” between AAA and CSC when it’s been a concern on both ends for quite some time eliminates the potential for us to find a common ground. But–and this applies to anyone, regardless of club affiliation–finding a common ground about which everyone’s concerned is not an easy task.
But that doesn’t mean individuals have to stifle their own opinions, no? And if this doesn’t bring up discussion b/w AAA and CSC–and I’m sure it will–then we all lose, right?
@god One can only dream of the day members of both clubs can get together, talk this sh*t out and just be REAL with each other..
@umm wait is this in response to #54 or #55
@AAA member, again... The racist comedian of which people speak, Rio Koike, specifically ignored our instructions not to do anything so blatantly offensive. People in AAA were outraged. There’s a reason why he didn’t return. I as an individual think that AAA has a responsibility for its decisions and actions, no doubt, and if criticisms remain behind closed doors until they surface in online forums, then, well, we’re not really united in progress, are we?
Point being, I personally value our work in coalition building with other students of color or in advocacy for Ethnic Studies far more than an annual show, because it allows a space for camaraderie that some guy we (mistakenly) hired to perform can articulate for us. We haven’t lost the respect of, say, the African American campus community. We’re working together.
And, once again, if critical opinions on what different student groups on this campus project forth are characterized as mere “mudslinging”, then doesn’t that stifle the debate in the very same vein that people would want to criticize AAA for, for questionable performers?
@Not in AAA or CSC Funny, AAA doesn’t work together with CSC, just lets out criticisms and subtle club propaganda on online forums.
@anon in response to the last post, everybody is entitled to his/her opinions, BUT Karen is on AAA and her actions reflects on the club. If an OCM of CSC said bitings words to AAA, no doubt CSC would take responsibility. When you join an organization you assume the name of that organization, regardless of if you act alone or not. Now, not everyone wants to explore the implications of America society on Asian society and what it means to be Chinese ALL THE TIME, sometimes people just want to WATCH A SHOW FOR ENTERTAINMENT.
Moving on from that, yes Karen does point out good topics for discussion. CSC and AAA are two different organizations, obviously with different missions. Lunar Gala is an event dedicated to the Chinese community, to reach out the Chinese students on campus so they can showcase their skills or become involved in something.
It is UNFORTUNATE? that the show has become stylized with American views. I am sorry but who gives you the right to make that statement? Each club is different, with different goals. I do not want this to become a political debate which is why I will not bring up specifics. I also do not want to target AAA for being “too political”. The goal of the club is to represent the asian community and it is them who stood up against Rosie and the racist song years back. But this is ridiculous, as I said before LG’s purpose is not to explore what it means to be Chinese, nor is Naach Nation, nor is Liga’s show. The boardskit this year even showed the steps Chinese individuals have stepped out of their doctor stereotype to pursue professions in i.e. fashion.
I feel that these comments were completely unwarranted as not only was a simple skit targeted but she also derailed the show itself. Karen’s comment of “I think CSC can do better” is completely out of line. Every culture show requires a lot of time and dedication, and her statements sends a message not only about the boardskit but about the entire production itself. Yes I do feel this is petty and yes I do think people should just have enjoyed the show for what it was. Karen has not only insulted CSC but all the performers in the show.
@umm Culture Shock – Spring 2006:
Racist Comedian
Culture Shock – Fall 2006:
“I’m gay, and I have cancer”
Perhaps there wasn’t any article denouncing AAA because no one in the other cultural clubs was petty enough to sling the first mud.
@AAA member I’ve heard more than one fellow Asian American student–at least one a board member of CSC–refer to AAA as “too political.”
Therein lies the problem–can CSC, by embracing a “traditional” view of Chinese culture, thereby escape the potentially undesirable logo of being “too political” and assert Lunar Gala as a production, simply, of “culture?” Perhaps. But that decision in itself, to return to a homeland, to exude an ethnic pride in terms of lion dances and Chinese yo-yos, is one that is inherently, political, either by expounding a self definition of what it means to be Chinese American or Asian American, or simply by disassociating themselves from the addendum of “American” itself. Very few organizations of Asian identity–namely, AAA and the Taiwanese American Students Club, off the top of my head–make an “Asian American” association distinct. As Karen said, it’s CSC, not CASC.
Is there a place for heritage? Of course, and nobody would ever deny that. But, as Karen points out, it is unfortunate that Lunar Gala must become a stylized representation of a “Chinese” culture as viewed through a Western lens, that this becomes the face of Asian Americans on campus. When AAA pulled off its own show last November, the only mention in the Spec it got was a behind-the-scenes look at our diligence and work ethnic, not about the acts and how our own conception of the “Asian American” is mediated between a throwback to the past and the necessity to traverse new, politically aware, domains. Nope–it’s all about the show, the spectacle, and that’s how we’re depicted.
Would Karen possess a bias? Yes, and that’s not something to fault her for–I believe reviewers are allowed to possess a bias. But her association with AAA should not reduce her argument to voicing AAA’s opinions, we as an organization certainly do not speak as a unanimous voice. Rather, she points to a fairly critical need to unearth, investigate, and debate these intersections of identity, race, and politics. Otherwise, we simply wallow in our own dramaturgy.
@observer let’s just end this debate now — without any more negative talk about CSC, AAA, or the way Columbia students present their cultures on campus. and let’s give CSC some credit for creating an event that generated this much substantiative debate.
@dont care Yall can sit here and bitch and moan about the CSC and stereotypes and whatever, or you can just ignore them and leave them alone to build walls and segregate themselves from the community or whatever they want
@boardskit the videos at the culture shows i went to last year (CSC and KSA)both exploited stereotypes. Those videos concentrated a lot more on stereotypes than CSC’s this year, when these characters tried to break away fromt he stereotypical “chinese” mold. I don’t have any problems when parodies exploit stereotypes because ultimately stereotypes have some seeds of truth. If many of you had these problems this year, why were they not addressed last year?
@the_viet Maybe the board skit portrayed stereotypes. But they also portrayed a family not dissimilar to many family friends of mine. You look down on this image as some sort of shameful thing for the Asian culture, and yet it is something very prevalent in 1st generation Asian American society. I think it is more shameful, and apolitical for you to look down on such things, and still think to yourself that you’re furthering the cause of Asian awareness somehow.
We can’t all live in your rosy, white-washed world and afford the luxuries of non-traditional parents. And who are you to say that that world is better?
@right you touch on really interesting themes that AREN’T ever addressed by CSC or their activities, namely, class disparities in APA communities, acculturation and each generation’s different coping methods. At the same time, you miss the irony of this: the pres of CSC, a 2nd gen CANTONESE-speaking Chinese American, is allotted the role of Mandarin-speaking immigrant father. His Mandarin was appalling. sure, there’s elitist bias in the selection of narratives that should be taken into account, but the video in no way tried to reconcile or at least explore these weird contradictions.
@think abt this Please don’t make ad hominem attacks on the CSC President. He has been one of the driving forces within the organization towards expanding the scope of the club, reaching out to the community, and mitigating interclub tension. Although he speaks Cantonese, he pushed for Mandarin for the boardskit and practiced hard for his part. Don’t make holier-than-thou statements about what others aren’t doing in one breath and then attack a worthy individual in the next. That, for sure, is appalling.
@defensive much? this was by no means an attack on the CSC president. I was pointing out that the characters chosen for the film were tropes that even the CSC board members felt like they had to play into–why does that have to be so? there’s undeniably something strange about that. There’s space for self-examination that isn’t character attack at the same time..jeez..
@sorry I think your levelheaded use of erratic capitalization rendered me momentarily unable to read into the deeper meaning of your comment.
@the_viet I’m not going to say that this is the reason why, but maybe he chose to speak Mandarin because the rest of them spoke Mandarin, and it would be odd if he spoke Cantonese instead.
It seems that everyone here is so quick to jump on the ‘insensitive stereotypes’ bandwagon that they don’t realize they’re making comments and criticisms that suggest just as much that they are insensitive to the Asian American situation.
@CULTURE as a performer for CSC’s LG cultural show, i am glad for the having the annual event. CSC is the CHINESE students club celebrating chinese culture and oh, coincidentally, the biggest event is the Lunar new year.
It’s a time to showcase the different asian talents and skills at such an appropriately timed and themed event.
it’s a CULTURE show celebrating traditional ethnic arts and culture, not a politically driven event.
I do disagree on previous year’s LENGTHY fashion shows and I’m glad CSC is finally getting around to focusing on the CULTURE show and not the FASHION show.
@case in point. (refer to #36)
Well argued, CULTURE, very well argued.
@I hope you were sarcastic.
@lol omg…
you are awesome
@omg.. I totally just got this image in my head of club members in hooded jedi capes hunched over their laptops in dimly lit rooms duking it out..
am I the only one who finds it f-ing hilarious? and I’m part of one of these groups too.
@just a thought Is it just me or is this a conflict between AAA and CSC fought under the veil of anonymity? I’m not a member of either group but I just wanted to make that observation.
@more thoughts, 2 I thought some of the ideas in this article were valid but the manner in which they were presented was slightly insensitive and fraught with generalizations. This is an interesting topic, one which I would love to see discussed in forums other than an online blog (and said blog’s comment area).
@whoa there the AAA comment was totally unnecessary but she makes a good point about the culture show kids. Not to belittle the effort & time they put in–but *why* are they doing this? how many of them put serious thought into why an annual show like this is necessary and what its role is in disseminating ‘culture’? and whoever said that we should ignore the video’s un-reality because it’s entertainment is wrong. the tropes that were performed didn’t just materialize out of thin air; if they can’t see that, then serious genuflection is all the more necessary on their part.
@bias? Is this what you think is “CSC = a terrible group” bias? Because if you got that from this article, just as a Columbia student talking to another, you have a pretty egregious misunderstanding. (I’m not even in a cultural group.)
@lol bias as in favoring her own organization…i’m not in either one (AAA or CSC) and i can even see that
@lol because clearly there is severe bias in this article
@lol now who’s getting defensive?
@Count me on the list of people who found absolutely no fault with Karen’s article. The rest of you are being defensive, and ba hao is right. There is not much to your arguments.
– #28 again.
@ba hao Actually, I’m not Chinese. And while I thought the underlying thrust of the article had substance, the argumentation was problematic.
@I love how only five people are commenting, all of them probably Chinese.
@#28 by “I love how” I really mean “I find it massively irritating.
@Oh my gosh. Please do.
@a friend Perhaps commenter 22 would care to first read comment #21 and second, realize that the real “substance” of this article was a feeble and convoluted attempt at undermining a truly entertaining show in hopes of promoting her own organization?
@Anonymous quite the fking post
@Anonymous commenter 22,
I think if you read the last 15 posts, you’d realize the article subjectively trivialized and belittled aspects of an event that were never intended to be portrayed.
@Anonymous “I question why the board skit should be considered honest, because the Asian American experience isn’t actually populated by repressed doctor types, and family rice-eating isn’t actually the answer to cross-generational divides.”
I don’t recall seeing a disclaimer saying that this board skit was a true story. Relax a bit and try to enjoy something put out there for entertainment.
@Anonymous “Kudos to bwog for finally and publicly calling out this disgusting Orientalist charade/minstrel show.”
could the interesting link between this idiotic coward and karen tried out for CSC and got miserably cut?
@curious Karen,
I was wondering whether you spoke to anyone on CSC before you formulated such a strong opinion?
Also aren’t you the political chair of AAA?
@KAREN IS NOT THE POLITICAL CHAIR OF AAA. Do your homework!!!
@someone why must you divide chinese-american with from purely chinese? Ultimately this is a culture club and although it may seem that the club is more chinese-american, it tries to honor its chinese culture. And ultimately we are currently living in, i do believe, in the little country called the United States of America. If you wanted to see a purely CHINESE show you should have gone to that rockafeller center performance celebrating the Chinese New year that they were selling tickets for in Lerner. But even if you went to that you probably wouldn’t have appreciated those performaces either. I also think you undercut the talent of the student performers, which is completely unfair. there was so much time and effort put into these acts. to write them off the way you did shows that you probably have never tried traditional dance or chinese yo-yo or any of the other types of performances.
as this entry is clearly your opinion of the show it probably would have been more fair/accurate to interview members of the chinese students club “executive” and get their opinions as to the mission of their club and their intentions with the show.
@a friend “People are fascinated by men balancing wooden bobbles on a piece of string”
Karen,
Please do not trivialize the talent and hard work that go into this show. It’s called a culture show because it’s just that – a show to entertain the audience. Take your sarcastic undertones and identity crisis elsewhere.
@ba hao Perhaps commenters 17-20 would care to address the substance of Karen’s post and the subsequent comments rather than resorting to ad hominem attacks?
@poster #18 how am i not addressing the substance of karen’s post? she under-rated the performances in the tone of her writing and the comment that stated that “It was hard for most of the acts to fail.” These are her PEERS that are on stage. She should not just write off her peers like that because these acts take talent and PRACTICE.
also if the best part of the night WERE the board skit, which she clearly has so many problems with, that doesn’t speak well for the rest of the show now does it?
@cs major I don’t get the point of this anti-spam filter… it’s obviously meant to avoid bots, but then a simple bot could be written to read the source code behind it where the color is written in practically plain text.
Makes me almost want to.
@interesting “I think of the organization as AAA’s somewhat conspicuously apolitical little brother.”
Was this before of after AAA’s racist comedian last year?
@authentatious Authenticity? Curious, please explain; that’s a dangerous word.
@ba hao While you could argue that anything is “authentic” inasmuch as it exists or is representative of some subset, I mean “authentic” Chinese culture in the sense of something established in or representative of China, which I would argue that hip-hop and fashion shows (though also present in China and the Chinese-American community) are not. Moreover, the word “authenticity” highlights contrast with the artifice of presenting a Western stereotype/cariacature of China as its true character. My use of loaded language was intended to argue the point that at the Lunar Gala in particular, the emphasis placed on traces of (Western) modernity worked to the detriment of the cultural show rather than its celebration.
@But What about Felipe Tarud
@Another perspective Karen,
I agree with the gist of your comments, but from my point of view, I think the club preoccupied not with the traditions of the homeland so much as the Westernized and Orientalized view of traditional China. The problem lies in the fact that it IS fundamentally a Chinese-American students club, and by its membership more accurately a Special Economic Zones+Taiwan-American Students Club. Students are miming the “culture” American society has led them to believe should be Chinese, rather than that present in the actual society, which inevitably comes to be associated with those poorer and less fortunate than the expatriates. Hence the event’s overwhelming focus on totally non-Chinese attributes: hip-hop, fat jokes, and finally a fetishistic fashion show, which detracted from some of the quite wonderful moments of authenticity. I, for one, liked the board skit because it was one of the few aspects of the show that presented Chinese-Americanism honestly, resorting to a stereotypes, to be sure, but also giving the only example of Chinese (and especially women) making any effort to overcome them.
@more thoughts Many of the club’s members are not first generation immigrants but rather have been removed from the “homeland” for many generations. There is no template for what it means to be Chinese-American and yet the club tries to create one. Since many of them do not have real-life examples to draw from, they are forced to mime popular culture’s Asian-American stereotypes.
That said, I enjoyed the Board Skit for the way it wasn’t afraid to examine the conflicts and doubt that are common staples of the exchanges between the younger and older members of the Chinese-American community. Some of the conversations may have seemed like caricatures of real people but, speaking from personal experience, most of the dialogue (regarding father/daughter exchanges) rang true.
@Anonymous I don’t think there’s really a conflict between what I said and what you’re arguing, but after reading your comment, I realize that I should have explained myself a little differently. As you say, CSC is preoccupied with what it means to be Chinese in terms of a Westernized view (in other words, LG is an example of Asian Americans depicting themselves as mainstream culture depicts them). When I said in the last line that the club looks toward “traditional” China, I should have added that this too is part of that Westernized view. So yes, CSC is an Asian American organization; but its buying into the stereotypical meaning of what it means to be Asian American also, ironically, encourages it to call itself CSC rather than CASC, to concern itself with “tradition.” You explained it more clearly than I did.
I question why the board skit should be considered honest, because the Asian American experience isn’t actually populated by repressed doctor types, and family rice-eating isn’t actually the answer to cross-generational divides. People aren’t as cartoonish as all that. However, I can’t say that I know what the depiction of Asian Americans should absolutely be, or that there’s one true depiction that LG should have presented but didn’t. In fact, the skit was probably as funny and touching as it was because it was partly true. I just think that CSC can do better.
@#8 again I think we’re on the same page. It’s good to see someone unafraid to make public the criticisms you’ve put forward. I liked the skit in the context of cariacature; I didn’t like the show because it presented cariacature as reality.
@LeroyWells I thought the event was off the chain!
@jbw I thought Hsu-nami was absolutely fantastic, by the way.
@jbw “Last night, Bwog reporter Karen Leung went to the Chinese Student Club’s annual culture show last night, “
@Lion Dance you are my heroes!
@colorless Bwog needs to revamp the comment confirmation. Im colorblind and it took me atleast 3 tries.
@IDPoliticsSuck Kudos to bwog for finally and publicly calling out this disgusting Orientalist charade/minstrel show.
@hmm yeahhh CSC!