Status Quoted

Fascinating link to story about the first Chinese instructor at Harvard.

And the story itself.

There’s a great documentary running on PBS right now, called “Hollywood Chinese,” about what it means to be in Hollywood as a Chinese/Chinese-American.

There will be few revelations for many of us, but they’ve interviewed a lot of awesome ABCs, and offer a surprising diversity of opinions. Some of them are incredibly thoughtful about issues of race–B.D. Wong does a brilliant job explaining the conundrum of playing Chink roles on the one hand and not being allowed to be too Chinese on the other–and some of them are Luise Rainer.

The choicest bits:
Luise Rainer, who played O-Lan in The Good Earth, justifying her being cast as the lead Chinese woman in one of America’s most enduring stories about the Asian home, by waxing “we are the world” in drug-addled pantomime that gives Gloria Swanson from Sunset Blvd. a serious run for her drug money.

Christopher Lee explaining how excruciating it was to “build” epicanthal folds for his non-Asiatic eyes.

This line: “Do I get frustrated with the de-sexualization of Asian men, as a gay Asian man? No. I’m frustrated that I have to answer questions like that.”(B.D. Wong)

Apathy as much as censorship has pushed the events of 1989 into the dark recesses of history.

From the LA Times

17 Chinese Uighurs are heading to Fairfax, VA after having spent years detained at Gitmo, Fairfax being one of the most Uighur populated cities in the U.S.

But wait! Not so fast. “Not in my back yard” Americans, and more importantly, all four Virginian senators are saying “no way Ho Tse.”

What’s ironic is that many of these Uighurs (Chinese Muslims) were actually detained because the Chinese government caught them planning dissent against their government. And of course…China is renown for religious tolerance. Not like they’ve ever jailed “outspoken” journalists, bloggers, feminists…

Not like they’ve permanently exiled the leader of the world’s most peaceful Buddhist autocracy.

Can you imagine sending these Uighurs back to China? I mean really.

This is why I’m glad I don’t follow reality shows.

He realizes more people speak “Chinese” (even assuming he means Mandarin) than any other language in the world, right?

If you’re in the Dallas area and someone on your Skype line claims to be calling from a Chinese gang, tell them to fuck off.

Then, if they really are from one…uh, I’m sorry…