Yellow Fever:
Sexual obsession felt by a non-asian (Usually white, usually male) towards asians of the opposite gender. Symptoms of yellow fever include stalking, halfhearted attempts to learn Japanese/Mandarin/Cantonese/Korean and whacking off to Sailor Moon video’s.
And I should know.
–From Urbandictionary
The other day, an ex-Asian American girlfriend who currently lives up in San Francisco posted some photos from a Lunar New Year’s celebration she attended. She was dressed in a cheongsam that fit tightly around her still curvaceous and lovely body. The dress also had that slit that runs down the side to show off her long and silky smooth legs. And damn, if I wasn’t turned on! I haven’t thought about this woman in a long time, but the only thing that kept me from jumping on a plane to the Bay Area at that very moment was the fact that she has a husband and a kid now.
But it got me thinking about why these photos got me all hot and bothered. Like I said, she’s not someone I really think much about these days, yet there was something…well, I think I might just have to conclude that it was the whole cheongsam thing that made her look so fine. Which begs the question: Do I have yellow fever? And maybe even more pressing than that: Is it even possible for an Asian guy to have yellow fever? Read more...
Tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day when we celebrate the rich heritage of our Irish brothers and sisters by drinking ourselves shit-faced. Koreans are often referred to as the Irish of the Orient because of shared traits between the two countries such as our history of subjugation, volatile tempers and the ability to drink like fish. But is this really true? Do Koreans really drink more than any other group or is that just a baseless stereotype? Chinky or not chinky?
Let’s start with some anecdotal evidence. A short while ago, I asked you, our readers, via our Twitter and Facebook pages what you thought of the Koreans=heavy drinkers “stereotype.” Here’s a sampling of some of your responses: Read more...
Guten tag from Berlin! I’m currently wrapping up my annual jaunt at the Berlinale (Berlin Film Festival). Watched a lot of films and warming up my lower extremities because of one of the coldest winters in Berlin in a decade. For such a well run, beautiful place with rich history, their city services in salting sidewalks and streets is left to be desired. The sidewalks are ice rinks and many people have slipped and fell around the festival. A poor Indian film buyer actually broke his leg on his first day at the fest and had to travel back to India the next day because he was immobile. Read more...
When I was younger and more invested in the Koreatown nightlife experience, there was one thing that I gleefully guiltily looked forward to seeing at the end of each evening—the drunken brawl. Usually it would take place in the valet section or the parking lot of a K-town club or bar at closing time. A shouting match would develop between the two parties, usually because someone inappropriately talked to someone’s man or woman, and before you knew it, a drunken fight would break out.
Now, I don’t condone violence and I’m not talking about the type of fights where guns are drawn and it turns ugly and deadly (I’ve seen enough of these in K-town too). I’m referring to a particular brand of drunken K-town style of brawling that involves a lot of verbal dissing, slapping and clothing being grabbed. My favorites were the chick fights. Some of those girls had mad skills—they had a technique that allowed them to both pull their opponent’s hair in the most painful way while simultaneously vomiting all over their new Prada outfits. It didn’t take a lot to set off these confrontations—a simple look might be enough. I remember one time a Chinese American friend who was with me when a crazy fight broke out, turned to me and said, “Damn! Koreans are scary! What is it with you guys? Is it all that kimchi or what?”
Well, according to this recent article in the Korea Times, “Korea is becoming an ‘angry society,’ where killing people in a fit of rage is no longer a rare crime and other crimes of passion are increasingly becoming commonplace.” Read more...
There are 14 people in this “Lost Supper” picture. 4 of them are Asian (or 28.5%).
Now that’s something you don’t see everyday. Very, very cool.
*Update – 2/4/10 – from reader KEITH – Zuleikah Robinson (far left) is of English, Scottish, Indian, Burmese, Iranian and Malaysian descent. So there’s actually 4.5 Asians in the picture (or 32.1%). Even better! Thanks KEITH for the info.
This is pretty hilarious. Russian figure skating champions, Oskana Domnina and Maksim Shabalin, “inspired” by Australian aborigines and their ancient dances, did this routine at the recent European Figure Skating Championships last week. Now, they’re getting some heat for being insensitive. Gee, ya think? Brown body paint?… Da!… Tribal fake tattoos?…Da!….Grass skirt?…Da!
They probably meant well, but it’s still a bonehead move. I wonder if they’re going to perform this in Vancouver? Now that would be precious. This incident reminds me of the Spanish National basketball team doing the chink eye. And for a time when it felt that there was a chink eye controversy every other week on the Net, here comes Jackie Chan doing the chink eye on the Red Carpet: Read more...
Back in December, journalist Kuroda Katsuhiro, the Seoul bureau chief of the Japanese right-wing newspaper Sankei Shimbun, upset Koreans when he made derogatory statements about bibimbap, the Korean food staple which consists of rice mixed with vegetables and meat (read story here).
In an article he wrote entitled “BiBimBap Terror?”, Kuroda called the dish “Yang Du Gu Yuk” which is a major insult. That phrase literally means “to hang a lamb’s head outside the shop to lure customers, but actually sells a dog meat.” He went on to add that bibimbap is an “unknown dish which loses all the different beautiful colors and looks gnawed when you are mixing the rice with vegetables” and derided Korea’s efforts to promote the dish internationally and particularly to Americans as unwise. Read more...
Saw this recent post entitled “Are Asian Women Easy For Non-Asian Men?” over at MaSir Jones’ blog. It references a study that came out last year that was conducted by Professor Hyeouk Chris Hahm at Boston University on Asian American women and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Hahm was alarmed to find how high the rates of STDs were among Asian American women.
Here’s what she discovered: Read more...
So I was at some social function last week and ran into an old friend named Gary whom I hadn’t seen in ages. Spent about 20 minutes catching up before realizing that Gary was not Gary at all, but another old friend named Sam. I don’t know if he was just being polite when I kept calling him “Gary” but once again I mistook one white person for another. I can’t say this happens with too much frequency but it has happened before. Look, I’m sorry but the simple truth is that a lot of white people look alike. Read more...
I went to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) this past summer and just had to share this cheese photo with everyone….
Ahhh, my peeps yo. Is that a<3 bubble or a <3 glass paperweight that he’s balancing on his furtive fingers? This pic makes me laugh but then I get entranced by his comely eyes! He just looks so damn…. talented! And don’t get me started on the NKOTB-esque frosty highlights!
I’ve travelled to a lot of places but Asia takes the cake on cheese. I’ve got a lot more photos… Maybe this can be regular feature? What do you think?
So I recently stumbled onto this site where a Dr. Robert Wallace answers questions from tweens and teens and gives them advice. His latest column included this letter and response from the good doctor:
DR. WALLACE: Why are Asian students more intelligent than the rest of us? At our high school, about 5 percent of the student body is Asian, but almost all of them are on the honor roll, and this year’s valedictorian and salutatorian are Asian. My dad thinks their intelligence is tied to their diets. — Lindsay, Newport Beach, Calif.
Read more...
No, the venerable movie schlockmeister, who’s recent FX-laden disaster flick, 2012, is raking up the box office moolah across the globe, is not in collusion with the Chinese government. Well, I don’t think so anyway. Whatever the case, 2012 has ignited patriotism among Chinese moviegoers. Why? Because in the movie, all roads point to China because of geography, finances, labor and good ole Chinese tenacity. Apparently, when the Apocalypse comes, China will save the world….
Hollywood blogger Anne Thompson wrote about her foreign exchange student daughter’s viewing experience, who saw the film in Kunming, China. Thompson’s daughter reports: Read more...
A wise man once told me, “Roger, there are 3 certainties in life – death, taxes, & the Chinatown episode.” So true, so true…
Every year, on just about every show on television, there is always a Chinatown episode. Something super chinky involving gangs, prostitutes, human trafficking, sweat shops, opium, family, honor, suicide, guns, and/or chinese cooks with crooked teeth. I’ve come to expect this annual chinky tradition from Hollywood, but I saw something tonight that I have never seen before… the super chinky chinatown advertisement for the chinatown episode. This be some revolutionary shit, brother. Here goes… Read more...
Again, with another priceless post. This comes via Disgrasian, with a Youtube clip of “cartoonist and artist extraordinaire” Billy Connolly (sadly not the Scottish comedian who replaced Howard Hesseman in the final season of Head of the Class) giving us a quick lesson on “How to Draw Asian Women.” Okay kids, let’s learn!
What, no LV bag? I dunno, in the end, the drawing looks more like Donatella Versace.
What do you think?
In one of my earliest blogs, I wrote about popular songs that may or may not be offensive. Now I return for a look and listen to four more songs and the stories behind them so you can decide for yourself if they are indeed chinky or not chinky.
“POOR BUTTERFLY”
VARIOUS ARTISTS
(1916)
First introduced in the 1916 Broadway production of The Big Show, this song quickly became a standard and has been covered by everyone from Sarah Vaughn to Judy Garland (shown in the video above). Written by Raymond Hubbell and John Golden, it was inspired by the Madame Butterfly story—Japanese women falls in love with white American soldier who leaves her with their baby. When he returns with his new white wife, the Japanese woman must, of course, commit suicide. Read more...
I hesitate to post this youtube video only because I fear spreading ignorance farther, but it’s such a lovely look into self-involvement, I had to do it. She’s like a breath of fresh hot air.
To tip, or not to tip?
My mom and dad had no idea of the concept. I remember my mom leaving a few quarters and waving happily to the waiter at Sizzler as we left, our purses secretly stuffed with extra cheese toast and extra fruit from the salad bar. She’d say, “Thank you! It was wonderful!” as we walked out, also stealing more fruit as we walk past the salad bar. ”By the way, waiter? Can we have just a few more pieces of cheese toast? For the road? (Bat eyelashes.)” Read more...
On August 5, 1997, Korean Air flight 801 from Seoul to Guam crashed into the side of Nimitz Hill, a densely vegetated mountain three miles from Guam airport. Twenty years before, a Korean Air Boeing 707 wandered into Russian airspace and was shot down. Two years later, a Korean Air Boeing 747 crashed in Seoul. This was followed by a crash three years later near Sakhalin Island in Russia, a crash over the Andaman Sea in 1987, two crashes in 1989 in Tripoli and Seoul, and then another over Cheju, South Korea in 1994. Read more...
In honor of Real Housewives of Atlanta’s Lisa Wu Hartwell, who introduced us to her Chinese father and Black mother in last week’s episode (I’m finally caught up this season!), I present a round-up of my favorite Blasians:
Hines Ward: I love the Steelers. So much that I spin a little yellow Terrible towel above my head like a maniac every year starting in the fall. Hines is one of my favorite Steelers: a talented and scrappy wide receiver of Black and Korean heritage, Hines truly reps for his Korean side and literally reps his team’s colors–he’s black and gold (yellow).
Read more...
I somehow missed this… Reuters did a story of an emerging phenomenon in Japanese society of the “herbivore man” — a rising trend of Gen Y males who have no interest in actively pursuing women, is nonchalant about a career and finds cars a bore — and he is not alone in opting for a quiet, uncompetitive lifestyle. Better yet, it is theorized that these type of men in Japan, reject traditional masculinity when it comes to romance, jobs and consumption in an apparent reaction to the tougher economy. Read more...
A quick entry for our loyal weekend readers. The following clip was posted a few weeks ago by our friends at 8asians–a Jell-O commercial from the 1960s:
I’m not sure if there’s any question whether or not that particular ad is chinky or not chinky, but it reminded me of other commercials from the past that may or may not be offensive, but probably wouldn’t be made today.
The Frito Bandit:
Calgon’s Ancient Chinese Secret:
Afro Sheen:
But my favorites are the ones geared towards the children:
Have a great weekend! Yabba Dabba Doo!
