Archive for the 'Asian-ness' Category
February 13 2010: Happy Chinese New Year!
Filed under Asian-ness & Family & Relationships/Men with 11 Comments
Happy Chinese New Year to anyone for whom it actually means something!
I managed to inadvertently aggravate my parents by forgetting that it was Chinese New Year’s Eve tonight – it’s more important to our family than the actual day itself. Having lived away from home for the past few months though, I forgot entirely about the New Year, and arranged early on to meet a friend from Sydney for dinner tonight as she’s only down for a few days. Bad move on my part. At least I’m back in the family home in the afternoon, to at least do my part in the worshipping of our family ancestors – the burning of paper money, etc. I try my best to do what’s expected of a good Chinese daughter.
And – tomorrow’s not only the start of the Year of the Tiger, but also Valentine’s Day! I haven’t planned or organised much as I was quite extravagant in planning an elaborate birthday for Dylan last week, so I’ve just done something quite small (which I can’t write about here yet, because apparently he’s starting to read this blog again).
I have told him though, that however commercial or cheesy he might find the holiday, I fully expect him to make an effort tomorrow. We might be used to just chilling at home with a few DVDs, but tomorrow needs to be something more. It needn’t be as cheesy as roses and chocolate – I just need him to show that he understands that while the holiday might not mean anything to him, it means something to me, so he should just suck it up and treat me like a princess. So there. =P
August 8 2009: Jay Chou As Kato
Filed under Asian-ness & Media with 7 Comments
This entry will possibly not be of any interest to anyone who’s unfamiliar with the Chinese entertainment industry, and who has no interest in the type of movies that Seth Rogen makes, but: Jay Chou has been cast as Kato in the remake of the Green Hornet.
Now, this film has been in the works for months now – it was first announced that Stephen Chow (this man is a genius in the Hong Kong movie industry, my childhood was spent ROFLing to his films, and I still delight in them now) would both star as Kato, and direct the film too. I was absolutely ecstatic when I heard the news – Stephen Chow crossing over to Hollywood, and working with Seth Rogen who I adore equally? Fantastic! Now with Stephen entirely unattached to the project, this announcement of Jay as Kato is equally as exciting, especially considering how disappointed I was to miss his Sydney concert early last month. It means that since Jay is crossing to Hollywood, there’s every chance that in his promotion obligations for The Green Hornet’s release next year, he’ll return to Australia, and I can see him there. There’s a silver lining!
Plus, considering that the role of Kato in the remake is rumoured to be written as more of a equal crime-fighting partner, as the real brains behind the operation rather than a silent partner to the comic Green Hornet, Jay’s role is bound to be as prominent and prestigious as Seth Rogen’s. It could do a lot in improving the depiction of Asians in mainstream Western media and removing the Asian geek, bad accented Asian, Asian mail order bride, etc. stereotypes.
Heck, the release of the movie next year might even encourage me to change the layout on the Jay Chou fanlisting.
June 18 2009: Terrified Of Breaking The News
Filed under Asian-ness & Media with 23 Comments
There’s a free newspaper that goes out on weekday afternoons in the Melbourne CBD entitled the MX. If you’re looking for hard-hitting news, it’s absolute bollocks, but if you’re looking for a spot of celebrity gossip, of human interest articles, and mindless entertainment, to read on the train home, MX is the way to go.
Amongst the mindless “feedback” pages that make up half the paper, is a section entitled “My Platform” where randoms on the street answer a general question. Below is one from earlier this week:
So really, it’s not just me who finds the whole idea of confessing a relationship to my hardass Asian parents terrifying. It probably doesn’t help that the night I’d planned to confide in my mother (and thus, ask her help to break the news to my father), she effectively told me that she thinks I should only date Asians, because Caucasians “just aren’t like us”, despite the fact that we’ve been in Australia for two decades. Mr. M isn’t Asian, so needless to say, there’s no way I can tell them yet.