AP/Icon

Asian American Culture, Politics, Issues. Politipop, humor and observations. Road Stories from tour dates of Amerasian legends Slanty Eyed Mama. The comedy of Asian American Comedy Star Kate Rigg. Interacting with different Asian American groups from colleges and community organizations, as well as people involved in feminist/multicultural/socio-political/ and groups interested in fostering understanding between diverse communities in America and beyond.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

14 questions about penn state a/pi population

1. How many Asian American students are there on campus and how many
A/PI student groups?
about 4% of 40000 studnet (not including international students!

2. Do you guys typically hang out with all the other ethnicitites and
groups or do you find that your constituents mostly hang out with each
other and why?

3. Re: #2 what I am asking really is is it a really integrated campus
or do kids from each interest/ethnic group hang mostly with each other?
We hang out with our ethnicity. But there are occasionaly few asian kids with a
lot of white kids.

4. How many activities do you plan per year for your group? Does the
school support you?
We plan more than 10 a year. When we need money or advertisement, classrooms,
the school def. supports us.

5. Are you well funded compared to other student groups?
we make all the money we have with fundraisers

6. What is the best thing about your school?
football games, cremery ice cream

7. What is the worst thing about your school?
middle of no where

8. Have there been any campus scandals (people streaking/sexual
scandal/ race incidents/teacher getting fired/people freaking oer
unfair behovior etc) that you can remember since you've been there?
ALOT!! recently one of our lady lion coached was fired due to her discrimination
against lesbians.--- last year, we had a huge incident where a studnet yelled
out rascial slurs out their window in a resident buildiing to the president of
Black Caucus

9. who are more outspoken at your school the asian boys or the asian
girls or both?
girls are very active and out spoken

10. who are penn state's famous alumni?
not really sure

11. how are gay kids treated on your campus? do they have a group
and/or any big events?
Gay kids have big events on campus. We psrticiapte in the national out day and
there are a lot of new articles about gay student rights.

12. Is there a fabulously popular professor that everyone likes?
hmm.. the school is so big that a lot of the students don't know the same
professors. However, spanier is our school president.

13. Where does everyone hang out typically and what is the name of
your cafeteria building?
We hang out at the HUB - our recreation center. That is where the show is going
to be held at.

14. Do the white kids think you are nerds who do math?
hahah I think the white kids don't think too much of us in that way.

christians dont like us at Penn State

So we drive to Penn State where they are holding a sweatshop awareness raising evening with some powerpoint presentations (very educational) and some skits (later my friend kristen who was raised born again tells me that christians love skits--who knew!). And we (slanty eyed mama) are gonna re-present with some hip hop and material on the colonialization of the third world and the paradoxes inherent in sweatshops in general. in the email trail that leads to this gig my contact there, the lovely and proactive Dayi Lee has been asking me to be specific about my material which kind of weirds me out as in (me) "why do you want to know what material we will do?" Oh by the way the kids inthe picture are some of the students who brought us to Penn Stae and they rock. Anyways, as I was saying, I am thinking it's weird to be asked about content when I have a whole 2 websites devoted to our p.o.v. and to our work so I am like what do you want a script??? Apparently this would have been a good idea, for when we show up, Lyris all in her big boots and leather jacket and tattoos, me in a silver blazer and hot new leather arm cuffs (thanks steve leather!) apparently, we get "looks." I of course notice none of it and blithely say hello to all and sundry thinking what? Asian American students are often a little scared/starstruck when we walk in so I set about talking to everyone about the night and who will be there etc. Seems like the event is actually co sponsored by 2 christian groups, and I am like ok whatever it's all good, and I make a note to self to censor some language. But yall know what I think -- profanity is sometimes political esp when it comes from the mouth of a person (eg. me) who is traditionally discouraged/gender forced/culturally unaccepted as a purveyor of hard words hard ideas. This lotus petal can spew poison and will and should when talking about the disenfranchisement of an entire population (asian women, as in no voice allowed, thanks hello kitty). So up we go on stage and how bizarre to have half an audience, stage left, rockin with us, cheering and hearing protest songs. And have the other half , stage right, recoiling in horror, not at what we are saying, but at the attitude of it. Loud. Bold. Outspoken. Political. Do I have to be a blushing flower in order to believe in God? Do I have to be gentle and meek and defy no authority to be filled with the spirit? I don't think so. I wanted to scream Come oonnnnnnnnn you guys come onnnnnnnnn. Rise up. Take your place. Feel your power. Like my new white college boyfriend Chris who is unafraid to sport a t shirt that says Slanty Eyed mama. I insist on giving these and the other shirts we sell that say "Chink" in a box of words that alos objectify the Asian American (such as "gook, nip, slant etc") to white fans--everyone can subvert the racist paradigm and everyone can have a discussion on the pain of racist language not just the people who represent by the way they look. I love anyone who is brave enough to come to a concert and open discussion on the issues of language and wear a shirt that provokes that discussion. Anyways back to the christians. Now of course profanity and subversive language is not the only route to self awareness. Just as doing a breakdance to gospel music (which we were treated to by the lively korean christian assoc) is not the only way to bridge past and present. We dont talk about sex in our act -- but we are sexy. I do not curse anyone out, but i do say the f-word in exactly 2 places because it has been used as an oppressor of asian women as in, fucky fucky sucky sucky all night long.
After the show a shaken Dayi waited for us to finish signing autographs and bonding with fans to inform us that the christians wanted a formal apology. For what I asked. For sexual content and offensive material. I said, why didnt they ask me themselves-- indeed why dont these type of christians ever feel empowered enough to actually sit and discuss, to examine the material they react to with such emotional vitriol...? She said they were too "overcome". I said have them send me an email expressing what they disliked and let us open a dialogue, further pointing out that I being a college graduate and political thinker and frequent speaker at colleges am about the empowerment of asian americans and the debunking of negative stereotypes. The removal of fear and the honest cheerleading of young A/PI thinkers who are looking for a voice in american culture, and my intent is never to hurt or scar anyone. Further I pointed to the actual lyrics which we sang this night which were all about positive reinforcement and also about third world poverty and why it sucks and is enmeshed with the politics of corporate colonialism. no cocks in pussies, no sexual deviation (although I should remind you all that Penn State is the college where recently the female coach for the Lady Lions basketball team was quoted as saying she didn't want lesbians playing basketball on her team. Ummmmmmm. Anyone been to a women's basketball game recently? I dont know how many more mullets and flannel shirts you need to see lady before you take a hint. That's like saying I will not allow any fags in the ice skating team. Fer goodness sakes take a pill and concentrate on the game.) Anyways, all ye asian christians feelin righteous. Ask yourselves if it is you, or your parents, or your fear of your parents that have at the tender age of late teen/early 20s instilled this ultra conservative submission to and dogmatic assertion of concepts which actually serve to exclude other people (you know who i mean, fags, black people, non christians, people who use the f word) and keep you ghettoised in your stepford wives like world. And if after that you say, yes Kate I am indeed a jesus freak, I say let your freak flag fly high, remembering that there is room for all kinds of voices in the great A/PI choir and when we are working to a common goal of community and self empowerment, we can all sing different parts, respectfully, joyfully. I would continue on this point but I think you get it. And the jesus freak asian american community is certainly a sizeable population. Lyris pointed out that people who "convert" esp with colonial history are frequently the most vehement of zealots. This is a topic for another anthropologist. I just want to let all A/PIs know that we are about to gel now as a cultural movement and to get ready to speak up loud and proud, whatever kind of flag you fly.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

rice cracker fan mail and a little more on "chink"

From our show in San Francisco--I got this email and was thrilled that my rice cracker joke made sense to a real person---

Dear Kate,
I just wanted to thank-you for doing what you do. I saw your show at Brava tonight and immediately went home and e-mailed everyone I knew to tell them to go see your show, all while listening to your CD. I have a feeling I will take in a few more shows before you leave.

For the first time in my life I have a word to describe myself. Not half-breed, banana, twinkie, etc. I am a ricecracker and I am proud. I could never say Asian-American, because my dad is English and Eurasian, well, just never seemed right. Now, ricecracker, that is something I can live with. I had never heard that expression before and I am so glad that I finally have.

When I was growing up the word "chink" was so hurtful. It wasn't so much the word, it was the way it was said. That and the "Chinese, Japanese, ouh wee, look at these, dirty knees." I didn't figure out what that one was about until I was an adult. I never thought I would ever be able to use that word, but after your show and reading your chink theory, I will use it with pride.

Your show and the anthology Half and Half have done so much to finally make me feel not only comfortable in my own skin, but proud as well. From the bottom of my heart I thank you.

Sincerely,
Tavia

P.S. Nip-chink is so beautiful, I think I may be in love:
)

Am happy to oblige with a photo from the show of "nip chink" aka Satomi Shikata the excellent dancer who also does double time as our resident cyber butoh in Slanty Eyed Mama performances. When we were touring Chink-O-Rama more actively we each had a chink name: Nip Chink, Afro Chink, Euro Chink etc. In any discussions of the word itself, one of the first things we talk about is that at some point in our lives we have all been called chink--adn we all know others: Thai people, Japanese people, Hapas, Laotians, Vietnamese people all called "chink". Which sort of renders the word meaningless and a composite racist name which removes a person's actual cultural identity and replaces it with the stereotypes and phobias the speaker is applying to asian americans. One of the tenets of racism against asian americans is that we are "all the same" all "look the same" etc. so chink, implies that we are all chinese-- that is the bigot's idea of what a "chinaman" is. In chinkorama we put an epithet about our own actual heritage next to the word chink to qualify occupy and disenfranchise the word.

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Mixed Race Hotties a Mt Holyoke. HAPA thoughts.

So there are in addition to A/PI groups on campus, a new breed of Hapa groups (Hapa: part asian part something else--usually applied to half asian half white but actually means mixed, derived from hawaian slang--google it), and groups for people of mixed race. When we played Mt Holyoke, some girls from "Mixin It Up"-- the mixed race club on campus. I think one of the biggest affirmations of what Slanty Eyed Mama is about, is when younger AAs and particularly Hapas just want a picture or an autograph or a t-shirt. I grew up reading George Wolfe and Alice Walker because I was looking for people writing about being different and yearning to be part of the bigger cultural whole. Whoopi goldberg was a revelation because in so many of her monologues she was talking about feeling one way inside, while being perceived in a different way from the outside. That is the kaleidescopic experience of the Hapa.

When I saw my first real drag queens in Australia I had that experience again. The paradox of having two spirits, many aspects to our physical, historical, ancestral and psychological selves that was injected into our DNA resonated for me in drag performances-- which were playing out those issues in the gender arena. Which is why forever I will be a drag hag.

I have always said (in the most narcissistic way) that people in America of mixed race carry an important role in educating people about race and in breaking the hard walls of assumptions that close in the racist mind. In our biology lies the chemistry of possibility. In our mixed blood lies the fundamental truth that human beings can and will transcend ideas of race to find common ground. We are also vessels for alienation and loneliness-- in our in-between status. If it is a fundamental truth that people want community, that people want to feel like they belong, then the mixed race person is immediately given the challenge of being different from every single person in their ancestral families with the exception of their siblings and /or some cousins. It's no big revelation that when a Hapa kid goes to visit white family s/he is the asian kid and when s/he goes to visit the asian family s/he is the white kid in the family. So where do you fit in if in your own immediate family you are different from everyone? And what is the big deal anyway? You're still the son/daughter...So what is the big deal?

Firstly, everyone always points to high school as a place where we all try to "fit in" with clothes cool clubs, music, being popular etc etc. Kids have breakdowns over owning the right runnign shows or getting excluded from a peer group. So if your biology sets you up to never ever fully be "like" other people, especially early on, the potential for anxiety and self bashing increases i think. The other big deal is the need for us to classify. To label and organize our reactions to people based on names and i.d.s we assign them-- race religion sexuality -- all in the pursuit of knowing which group you fit into. If your family is mixed, you now are outside many of those labels. You can be a freak. You get asked the dreaded "WHAT are you?" a constant reminder that you are other; marginal; non-mainstream; not 'normal'; different; unrecognizable as a peer to other people.

This outsider status is our burden and our genius.

Our burden is to try to feel good while always having to explain (and feel like we have to justify) who we are based on an outward reaction to our look.

The genius is that piece by piece we can build a new vision of multiculturalism that needs must include everyone if the world's children are to be honored as they morph and change the hues of our collective skin. And our spiritual brothers and sisters will be made in the shared experience of all different kinds of mixed race people. The dialogue will have to transcend the particulars of race and move into how we can make the world work for all the people.

I love that in addition to A/PI social and cultural groups on campus, that themixed kids are starting to find each other and talk about stuff. I hope they become the problemsolvers, the mediators and the free thinkers I know they can be. That they move beyond feeling the "what are you stigma" to actually finding interesting, dynamic and healing answers to that question that may lead the whole world the assumption that we are all related and all belong.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

High School age asian adoptee responds to "Phoenix Rides a Skateboard"

It's a fan letter, ok, which is trashy, but she is part of us, and I had to share....


Dear Kate Rigg,

Hi! My name is Denise and I'm currently sixteen years old. I currently attend Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School which is located in Markham, Ontario.

Near the end of grade eleven, my drama teacher suggested that I read a play -- this play, known as "The Phoenix Rides a Skateboard." She told me that this piece was quote on quote "so you, Denise." So I decided to read it and it kinda freaked me out at first that my drama teacher knew me that well.

Case in point: I love the play. I love it to bits. Sometimes I feel as if I am Kim and that should maybe use Kim as my middle name or something. It's also kinda' eerie too at the same time to relate to something i've actually been through. I'm in love with it and for the past two weeks, it's all I have been thinking of.

I grew up in Ajax, Ontario and lived there for around thirteen years. Oh yeah, I'm Chinese but I gotta admit that I like it when people say I look mixed or something. It's just weird because I grew up in a different neighbourhood around people that were of a different race. It was hard to fit in but I survived.

When I moved to Markham ... I was overwhelmed at the number of Chinese people at my school. it was... scary, for lack of a better word. And yes, I was born in Canada and sometimes I refer to myself as Canadian and even say "I am CANADIAN but my parents are Chinese"... hehe. It's strange b/c I refused to hang out with people of my race... I just wanted to be Canadian. Not just that though -- back in the day, when I was delusional -- i wanted to be someone else... simply that. i guess sometimes i still am but the point is, i try my best to overcome that "everyone bully denise" phase.

Oh yes! I went through a phase where I listened only to Rock Music... I still love it by the way -- LINKIN PARK!! All my closest friends aren't even Chinese... I felt really embarrassed to be one. It's hard to explain but when I read your play, it's almost as if I felt good to know that a fictional character seemed so real, she could almost be related to me.

Anyway, I'm getting to a point here. My drama teacher suggested that I perform "The Phoenix Rides a Skateboard" for the Ontario Sears Drama Festival. I was soooooo hyped up for it over the weekend and couldn't stop thinking about it. I read the play over and over again and fell even more in love with Kim.

But just today I found out that the festival doesn't accept one woman shows and was completely traumatized. i'll admit it, i was so upset and disappointed, i cried. this would have been the greatest challenge for me.

so i decided to email you and ask you if you're familiar with any festivals that actually do accept one woman shows... because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and i don't think i'd ever get this chance ever again. i want to make my last year in high school worth remembering and acting has become my biggest passion.

it would be amazing to act in your play. it's brilliant and astounding. i can fully connect to it. it just so happens that there are such restrictions. if you do know any festivals, please let me know. i'd really appreciate it.

thanks SOOOOOOOOOO much ... if you got this far. sorry for typing so much!!

UCSB comedy invasian. Racist language? Political Art?


Me and Davis Cho (aka. MC PhD) visited the multicultural center at UCSB to do a redux version of Chink-O-Rama plus some stand up comedy and a version of Mulan to open. We found out that the year before some kids had eggs thrown at them from a balcony because they were asian -- comments about them being chinks etc. Sad that, real sad. The kids were slapped on the wrist and everyone was pretty much just kind of bewildered about the incident.

Our audience was nice and mixed for this show and in the talk back the same question got asked: Do I get criticized for saying the word chink? Are people offended. I asked the student, were you offended? He said no. But he was wondering if anyone else was. Here is my pretty stock repsonse to this stock answer

When people see my shows, the response is overwhelmingly on the positive side. I know this for the following reasons: 1. Young asian americans shyly approach and say a version of thank you and invite me to speak at their functions. 2. we get asked back to most venues. 3. people sa things like we have never seen anything like this from an asian american point of view and we all collectively sigh about that. 4. I haven't been pelted with sago pearls.

There are two main schools of thought in the discussion of reoccupying racist language and stereotyping: The first is that by taking the word back into the community it targets (fags calling themselves fags, balck people calling themselves nigger) it removes the sting of the word because you now "own it." Secondly it changes the word and instills it with new meanings assigned by the new users. If you look at the word fag, originally a piece of wood to be burned, viciously then applied to gay men as if they were fit to be burned, and now in queer culture a noun with adjectival qualities apllied to not-so-butch gay guys who haven't quite graduated to queen (although if you place aural emphasis on fagGOT it can kinda mean that too)-- anyway if you look at that the gay community re transforms a word that was trasnformed from its original mundane defninition. They un-hated it if you will.
Now all isms are not created equally-- I am equally against them in terms of their hate and fear content but they do not share the same history and do not share the same tenets. Racism against black people is different from racism against Asian people because our history in this country is different. There are times when they intersect. But Vincent Chin is NOT the same as a balck slave hanging from a tree. Our outrage is similar. And the violence is an overlap. But the hatred and racism have different qualities. Which we may discuss at a later time.

My point is that in Chink-O-Rama I am addressing stereotypes and pictures of Asians in Western pop culture, and from an insider point of view. And I am choosing this first school of thought: the subversion of racist language by exploiting it, re-directing it and expsing it for its weaknesses.

The second school of thought says that any use of words which historically were used to punish and destroy groups of people based on their racial heritage, keeps us tied to those words and doesnt let us move along. Secondly, the use of these words in a "urban updated" way is irresponsible to the history of those words and the people who suffered because of the racist ideas they embodied. And thirdly that using these words is a false sense of power and keeps us out of the mainstream because we are still defining ourselves by the oppressor's language-- just in a contrary kind of way. I give credence to all of these positions and agree in part with some.

My final position then is this: as a creative artist, I choose subversion, parody and satire to discuss the subject of racial suspicion and disharmony. I choose to re-interpret words to spin and examine them, to sing and scream them so we can all look at them through my particular comedy filter. And when people disagree with my use of these words, and therefore my politics I am still gratified that discussion is open. I dont mind being called an asshole in the context of my shows because someone is now thinking about asian americans as members of our pop culture--even if they are hating on me as one of those asian americans.

One of the biggest weapoons leveled against us is invisibility. We are not on TV as regular people (grab a shirkin! do someone's nails! speak in pidgin english and teach ralph macchio martial arts!) We are not considered a separate demographic as the guys from Better Luck tomorrow pointed out, our dollars are lumped in with white dollars. If ever there was a call to arms/ spending dough on asian american product that was it people! We are dehumanized with the word chink which implies that all asians are chinese. And therefore the same. And therefore devoid of distinct histories and identities. And therefore less human, less individual, less equal participants in culture and life. We are identified by jobs: the martial artist, the delivery boy etc.

I want us all to have our names back. And for me the first step is to take the names we have been given, such as CHINK, and expose them as lies. And I am working in 2 directions: satirizing this old way of thought, as in Chink-O-Rama, while creating new art and new inroads to pop, through Slanty Eyed mama and other projects.

Friday, November 11, 2005

LA Grand Performances 05: Who is more american?


We played the fab outdoor stage at California Plaza and premiered the song "Naughty Schoolgirl". Some die hards got to the free stadium style outdoor seats a half hour before the show. Some asian women, some kids, it was cool to see them out there, excited to see us.

We started with Rice Rice Baby (an easy in because of the parody and humor of the song.) Me and Lyris are still nervous about starting with a musically serious or more edgy piece. We think the audience will be afraid. We feel like we have to ease an audience into this concept of Asian American girls rising up and speaking strong. We do a funny piece first because it says--it's ok to laugh. We have a sense of humor. Now watch us rant and rave about cultural politics!! Sometimes I feel like a sell out doing the funny first, to make sure the audience feels alright about it. It is a fine line between taking care of the audience so that they are open to hear these new ideas, and doing something I know is safe in order to be liked by an audience whose ears have been tuned by exclusion and fear.

Always the un-safe one, Sato went naked under the cellophane in 'Mulan'.

The best moment of the night came after the actual concert. A woman puts up her hand in the talk back and says this: "I just want to thank you, I just, I came here today and I breathed out a sigh of relief I said "FINALLY." I have served my country for 31 years. I have lived here since I was 4, from the Phillippines, and have been in the army for 31 years and am a sargeant now. But even though I am in the army, if I am not in uniform, no one treats me with respect there. They all assume I am someone's wife or mother. And they hesitate to let me on army planes or speak to me. Your songs, it is the first time I feel like someone is talking to me. And some of it is painful, the things you talk about the things you are saying and the stereotypes. But I am glad I came and I hope you keep going."

That is the SHIT everyone. And for now, we keep going.