Racism in LIT
Posted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:31 pm
I think we've all seen that silly lost-in-racism.org website that some guy keeps flogging on IMDB.
Here's an article in response:
Politically Correct Racism
By Tomoyuki Tanaka, Dec 31, 2004
I only recently noticed the campaign charging
racism in Lost in Translation, the 2003 film written
and directed by Sofia Coppola. The allegations
were a complete surprise to me because I rather
enjoyed this movie about a story of two Americans
lost in Tokyo — without even suspecting such vocal
objections could be raised.
I’m certainly not one of those easygoing Asians
and Asian Americans who seldom complain about
racism or stereotyping. I’m close to the opposite of
that. Having divided my time between Japan and
the United States, and having received university
degrees from the two countries, I am in a rather
unique position to evaluate issues of prejudice as
both a Japanese national and an Asian American.
I’ve experienced both the blatant kind of racism
(receiving “Jap, go home” telephone calls all night
long) and the more subtle kind (a law professor
insisting on calling me “Tanaka-san” while she
called all the other students by their first names).
More than a few times I’ve been accused of being
too sensitive.
Obsessively criticizing Bill Murray’s passing
comment about the Japanese mixing up L’s and
R’s is absurd. The scene lasted a few seconds in
the film. I did notice some stereotypical scenes in
the beginning, like the tall Murray surrounded by
drab-looking Japanese businessmen in the
elevator. But overall, the film was almost devoid of
the cliches I’ve grown sick of, such as the
obligatory crowded-train scene and “Japanophile”
proverbs. In particular, the film depicted Tokyo as a
vast, superclean, high-tech metropolis. The Tokyo I
know is uglier and more cluttered than that. And its
portrayal of fun-loving youth singing and drinking
was refreshing.
Some newspaper and web reviews criticize Lost
in Translation as if it were a new monument in
anti-Japanese stereotyping. When the film Rising
Sun opened in 1993, it was immediately seen,
correctly, as a propagandistic portrayal selling the
derogation of the Japanese as entertainment, and
it drew protestors. The film stands, as did
Breakfast at Tiffany’s of the 1960s, as a
touchstone of cinematic stereotyping.
To overly focus on Coppola’s film is unwise
because it tends to divert attention from films that
require it, like Steven Spielberg’s new Memoirs of
a Geisha. It is based on the bestselling 1997 novel
in which every plot component was designed to
demonize the Japanese. Professor Anne Allison of
Duke University wrote that the book “inspired
[readers] to see Japanese men as sexual
perverts.”
Among the signs that Spielberg’s film aims to
pander to stereotypical expectations rather than
standards of authenticity is the fact that he is
assembling a largely non-Japanese cast. A
Korean actress recently rejected a geisha role in
the film. Although it is likely to be another
forgettable addition to the list of recent Spielberg
films, with some magic and just enough finesse to
make it politically correct (what Oliver Stone was
able to do with The Joy Luck Club), it may turn out
to be something much worse.
Cross burnings and racially motivated hate crimes
are easy to recognize, but a form of prejudice that
is becoming increasingly prevalent is “politically
correct racism” — a more sophisticated version
that disguises itself as “concern for human rights,”
“equality for women,” “historical justice,” etc. The
New York Times has refined the technique of
turning Japan-bashing into often-entertaining
articles, until it finally elicited a book-length rebuttal
from American and Japanese scholars and
journalists, entitled Japan Made in the U.S.A.
New websites and organizations to combat racism
in the media are certainly welcome. In our
argumentative culture, we must be loud and use
exaggerated language just to be heard, but unless
we are careful to temper our arguments with cool
reason, we risk the danger of making our own
words meaningless.
Tomoyuki Tanaka is a lawyer living in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
Source http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_art ... ory_id=172
Here's an article in response:
Politically Correct Racism
By Tomoyuki Tanaka, Dec 31, 2004
I only recently noticed the campaign charging
racism in Lost in Translation, the 2003 film written
and directed by Sofia Coppola. The allegations
were a complete surprise to me because I rather
enjoyed this movie about a story of two Americans
lost in Tokyo — without even suspecting such vocal
objections could be raised.
I’m certainly not one of those easygoing Asians
and Asian Americans who seldom complain about
racism or stereotyping. I’m close to the opposite of
that. Having divided my time between Japan and
the United States, and having received university
degrees from the two countries, I am in a rather
unique position to evaluate issues of prejudice as
both a Japanese national and an Asian American.
I’ve experienced both the blatant kind of racism
(receiving “Jap, go home” telephone calls all night
long) and the more subtle kind (a law professor
insisting on calling me “Tanaka-san” while she
called all the other students by their first names).
More than a few times I’ve been accused of being
too sensitive.
Obsessively criticizing Bill Murray’s passing
comment about the Japanese mixing up L’s and
R’s is absurd. The scene lasted a few seconds in
the film. I did notice some stereotypical scenes in
the beginning, like the tall Murray surrounded by
drab-looking Japanese businessmen in the
elevator. But overall, the film was almost devoid of
the cliches I’ve grown sick of, such as the
obligatory crowded-train scene and “Japanophile”
proverbs. In particular, the film depicted Tokyo as a
vast, superclean, high-tech metropolis. The Tokyo I
know is uglier and more cluttered than that. And its
portrayal of fun-loving youth singing and drinking
was refreshing.
Some newspaper and web reviews criticize Lost
in Translation as if it were a new monument in
anti-Japanese stereotyping. When the film Rising
Sun opened in 1993, it was immediately seen,
correctly, as a propagandistic portrayal selling the
derogation of the Japanese as entertainment, and
it drew protestors. The film stands, as did
Breakfast at Tiffany’s of the 1960s, as a
touchstone of cinematic stereotyping.
To overly focus on Coppola’s film is unwise
because it tends to divert attention from films that
require it, like Steven Spielberg’s new Memoirs of
a Geisha. It is based on the bestselling 1997 novel
in which every plot component was designed to
demonize the Japanese. Professor Anne Allison of
Duke University wrote that the book “inspired
[readers] to see Japanese men as sexual
perverts.”
Among the signs that Spielberg’s film aims to
pander to stereotypical expectations rather than
standards of authenticity is the fact that he is
assembling a largely non-Japanese cast. A
Korean actress recently rejected a geisha role in
the film. Although it is likely to be another
forgettable addition to the list of recent Spielberg
films, with some magic and just enough finesse to
make it politically correct (what Oliver Stone was
able to do with The Joy Luck Club), it may turn out
to be something much worse.
Cross burnings and racially motivated hate crimes
are easy to recognize, but a form of prejudice that
is becoming increasingly prevalent is “politically
correct racism” — a more sophisticated version
that disguises itself as “concern for human rights,”
“equality for women,” “historical justice,” etc. The
New York Times has refined the technique of
turning Japan-bashing into often-entertaining
articles, until it finally elicited a book-length rebuttal
from American and Japanese scholars and
journalists, entitled Japan Made in the U.S.A.
New websites and organizations to combat racism
in the media are certainly welcome. In our
argumentative culture, we must be loud and use
exaggerated language just to be heard, but unless
we are careful to temper our arguments with cool
reason, we risk the danger of making our own
words meaningless.
Tomoyuki Tanaka is a lawyer living in the San
Francisco Bay Area.
Source http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_art ... ory_id=172
I know I'm cruel..
