I am Asian, I went to, and graduated from UCLA in 2000.  Like you, I’ve been irritated at Asians. There are A LOT of us at UCLA. We’ve even come up with silly acronyms acknowledging and poking fun at just how chock full of Asians many of the UC schools are. Asians are competitive when it comes to academics, classical music/instruments, and hot dog eating contests. Like you, we also get annoyed at each other and ourselves for things. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, & Pilipino all harbor tons of stereotypes about one another, in some cases, a lot worse than anything you said in your video. Like you, I’ve done things in life I regret before.  I didn’t post it on YouTube, but when I was in college, it would’ve taken a week to put a video on the internet.

I forgive you with the hope that you would be able to forgive others for their faults. You will never catch me talking on my cell phone in any library. Cross my heart.

I forgive you also because I want to move forward from the personal issues that have resurfaced as a result of the sub-popular reaction to recent tragedy in Japan. I can deal with someone expressing how annoyed they are at Asians in the library. Thank you for at least not being so ignorant to refer to all of us as Chinese people. There’s nothing wrong with being Chinese, I just take issue with being teased or talked about as, “Chinese girl,” when that is geographically and historically inaccurate. It happened a lot through grade school, and last time I remember anyone yelling that out at me, was in elementary school, middle school high school, ironically by some Latino students. No wait, actually it happened again about a year ago, in the form of someone in Copenhagen calling me Jackie Chan on the street. Ok, point is, it’s not rare for people to say insensitive things to Asians in countries where we’re still a minority…

Alexandra, what you said pales in comparison with what a whole gaggle of idiots have been saying on the Internet, in response to the devastating earthquake-tsunami in Japan. There are hoards of people who think Japan deserves what it got, as payback for Pearl Harbor.  Dropping two A-bombs, one on my grandmother’s hometown, and wrongfully imprisoning my relatives in internment camps wasn’t enough payback I guess. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to these heartless idiots, that it’s possible people who weren’t Japanese were hurt in the disaster, possibly even Americans. We have these amazing inventions called airplanes and ships that allow people from the States to travel, now and then. Some ask, “What did Japan ever do for us, the United States of America, during Katrina?” Here’s something they did:

Japan has pledged more than $1.5 million in private donations. The government of Japan has donated $200,000 in cash to the American Red Cross and some $800,000 in relief supplies — from blankets to generators — already are arriving to aid the most needy. Japanese firms with operations in the United States have donated some $12 million in total, including Honda Motor Corporation ($5 million), Hitachi ($1 million) and Nissan (more than $750,000).

The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo was overwhelmed by the generosity of one Japanese individual — Takashi Endo — who donated $1 million from his personal funds to Katrina relief efforts.  Endo said he was moved when, during a business trip to London, he saw a televised report about a mother separated from her children in the chaos of the flooding in New Orleans.  The story so disturbed him he could not sleep that night; the next morning he resolved to do something to help.

Yuji Takahashi, president and chief executive officer of the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company Ltd., which has operations off the coast of Louisiana, donated $100,000 to U.S. federal government hurricane relief efforts.  Takahashi said that when he learned of the destruction caused by the hurricane, he felt as if his own family had been affected.

In a note accompanying the donation, Takahashi said:  “I have no doubt that your people will stand in the face of difficulties and rebuild their lives in the near future.”

(Read more: http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2005/September/20050915165123ajesrom9.768313e-02.html#ixzz1Gs3f9ADl)

Did people start acting this way publically towards Haitians, New Zealanders, or Indonesians in their recent moments of crisis?

Maybe they did, and I just wasn’t aware. I am truly sorry for anyone who was hurt the same way I feel hurt by ignorant public bigotry. For me, the last straw came yesterday, when I was searching for information about sending care packages to Japan, and stumbled upon this gem:

The Japanese ARE WEALTHY! They don’t need your help. Have you seen the clothes those people are wearing in the videos? They have plenty of money stacked up in the bank. They don’t need your help. There’s however tons of people in USA who DO need your help because USA is always helping other countries. WE ARE IN DEFICIT. Time to take care of those at home. When have you seen Japan or India sending us money?

I’m not sure what videos this person is referring to. It’s like someone looking at the photos of San Francisco after the earthquake in 1906 through a magnifying glass, seeing a man walking the street in a top hat, and declaring that Americans are obviously rich, and don’t need our help.

You wouldn’t kick a pile of wounded animals on the ground, and ask whether they ever helped you put food on the table in your time of need- or maybe you would, as apparently some of you are the of the kind of people who can look at a whole town being swept away in a flood, and say that those people deserved it. I look forward to the day that you get what you have coming to you.

As an American, I feel embarrassed. As a Japanese person, I feel afraid; it makes me wonder who out there is hoping to see me trip into an oncoming bus, because I deserve that for Pearl Harbor. And as a Japanese-American I feel completely confused again about where I will ever fit. In Japan, I stick out like a sore American thumb, because I grew up in America, and so has my family for the past hundred years. And now I see that in America, clearly I am still facing the racism that my grandparents and parents faced, that I had stupidly hoped was going the route of small pox.

As an American, I’m asking for anyone saying things like this, to please think a little lot more about others before you speak, type, or upload a racist video to YouTube. Or at least just keep your opinion to yourself for the time being.  Yes, the first Amendment protects your right to say what you want, but it won’t pay for your medical bills, or save your life, when people have emotional and violent reactions to how you’ve chosen to exercise that right. On top of all of that, it makes us as a country look incredibly stupid and incredibly selfish. Maybe we are, but can’t we change? Aren’t we better than that?

 
I think we are.
 

1. Loading film.

2. Remembering to take off lens cap.

3. Winding film correctly.

4. Taking good pictures.

Here’s some shots I took with my Holga over the recently past holiday.

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I don’t think I’ve ever won any work encouraged design contest, but somehow I always get stupidly excited about coming up with ideas for them. Maybe my designs shine a little too bright.

This what my take looked like for a redesign of the Imagi Animation Studios logo, meant to convey whatever it was they were supposed to be about. This was (perhaps obviously) done a few years ago when they still had an office in the Sherman Oaks Galleria.

ah, there it is…

Above is supposed to be an image of another sketchbook I drew on and will be selling shortly….

keep checking back, I’ll try to get things tidied around here.

Sent from Kikutowne iPad.

If this post works, my weekend will be made.

Fingers crossed.

…

Sent from Kikutowne