get the comments back!
Where did all those comments go? T-Blog is known for its very dysfunctional comment gadget. As soon as I found Maskee's comments disappeared from the previous entry's comment, I thought,
Oh, how could he do that? I might ask him how to remove or edit a comment.
Later, I discovered most of comments from readers, seemngly non tblog uses, were gone whereas my responses were there. What kind of technical trouble could cause this? More importantly, can I ever get those back? I douubt it as sobbing.
Please drop something, people.
the Black Legend
Asian Fusion Racism: Memoirs of a Geisha
So, the appalling thing that I found about the movie Memoirs of a Geisha is that the makers did not even have the slightest sense of respect to cast at least Japanese actresses for the leads, which were all occupied by Chinese actresses. There are a couple of things discussed already about the blunder.
One is that those Chinese actresses are all the same employed and introduced as nameless figures and ignored their ethnicity as replacable figures. This happens because of the prevalent notion of Asia in US as more or less the equivalent of what is called Chinese with some contempt that refers uncanniness and cheap aliens from the East. In the context, to the Western eyes, all Asian women are nameless, nationalityless and faceless. This movie was a project to heig hten people's awareness of ever fuckable Asian women into something even more accessible (discrimination friendly) with a twist of novelty; that is supposed to be the notion coined as Geisha. No matter to be celebrated as it seemed, it is to institutionalize the dismissive persepective toward Asia.
The irony is that the movie does not seem to be seeking any authenticity, if there is such a thing here, of Geisha-ish facts. They are more interested in promoting the handiness of Asia by presenting the interexchangeablity of China and Japan, back and forth as they please, to the extent the border disappears. The contradiction we face here, the absence of Japanese whe n the movie is supposed to focuse to the theme, goes back to the intention of the project; if they attempted to discover (I don't necessarily like the idea that Asia as something to be discovered by West because it could refer and fix them to be the center that is entitled to manipulate the singlurar narrative on the world, by the way) unknown facts of Geisha around early twenty century, instead of materializing their fantasy of Geisha that is based upon their pure ignorance and issueing some worthy coin to feed Western Asian fantasy, at least they should have been more serious about the subject. What was so difficulut to resort to Japanese people who have more resources than US when it comes to Geisha only if they were on the same page, which is quite questionable. In this case, after all, materializing their fantasy of Asia=China and promote the idea of Asia=China=Japan (even more novel) was their point rather than pursuing better (less biased) representation of Geisha or Japanese culture.
It seems that the existence of real Japan, or Japanese people was rather a burden to the Geisha lovers in the West because the real people could always threaten their fantasy.
Some reviewers said the movie did not live up to what the Chinese actresses had acquired already in their careers. In other words, they were saying the movie did not do justice for the big names from China. Well, then, stop hiring them and expect them to fulfill what was demanded.
What was the trouble finding fucking a couple of actresses from Japan, where tons of showbiz people are thriving? The lead could have been done by anybody that's got an Asian face if it did not have to be Japanese. The most rediculous thing about the film is that they speak in English. Idiot.
Second thing was that this Asian Fusion project to promote and institutionalize the racism makes the entire Asia look and appeal as a metaphor of a brothel, where all women are accommodated to sell out. Believe it or not, this movie is celebrating it and institionalizing. So the house of Geisha in the movie is reflecting the history and the current women's condition there and the movie is unconsciously (or deliberately) acting as a pimp and a broker who trafficks them to US.
West is taking advantage Asia as part of the world where they are welcomed to get away with treating women as slaves and make excuses such as they have way worse treatment. Japan had institutionalized and refined the method, so they moved on the system earlier than any other Asian country. Now that other women do the dirty work, Japanese do not keep any high profile in the Asian fusion sex trade ring or mail order bride/adoption. But to register the accessiblity of easier Asian women in Western phyche is after all lucrative and beneficial to both parties, a country like China and punters of the world, West. They sell everything from babies to hookers to stir the economy and West is no say because they are happy to have somebody who is still happy to do things no one would not in their countries any more. The urgent need for both US and China is to exchange female sex and money. US wants Chinese people to have buying power and thier own people to get interested in China in any way to invest. Sex and/or war is always the first phenomenan to appear in the sort of contact.
If this might sound paranoid to you, I have got legitimate reason to have this angle to decipher as above as a die hard Asian hooker in the US. Just be patient until I gather up all the infos.
To conclude today's entry forcefully, this failure movie really proves how little they minded to show any accuracy in the representation. To make representation accurate or faithful to what exists in the reality (or in the history) is not the ultimate goal to achieve in film making in general. Because it is always a matter of whose persepective a movie is employing to percolate phenomena and let it manifest in the screen. However, they can never be too careful to depict things and people with least prej udice or bias; this is something those who engaged in the line of business, reagardless making money or not, should care. Most all, though, doesn't this movie promote some creepy notion that people have to have some kind of Western physical feature to be accepted as someon enough to be represensed to West: that is what they connoated to show the heroine to become a big shot sex worker because of the blue eyes (!) she got as idiocyncracy?
epiphany and third world feminism
Once I picked up a call from my ex-colleague that I mentioned in the previous entry, I knew that I would have no choice but doomed to get high: that was a call to invite, or rather put it to begging, me to smoke crack together. So I did pick up the phone; I was in an extremely bad shape because a fight that I had picked up with my husband, which lead he and me to split inevitably. Therefore I could welcome every kind of demon, bad luck and/or negative force. Anybody who's got addicted to any kind of thing knows the mechanism of the addictive mind, so did I and I let it happen knowingly. I had no regret that I got uncontrollably high and came to term that I'd better off working alone than clinging to one client=husband no matter he was loaded. Funny how long it took to the conclusion and the belief that I always had with conviction. After smoking crack two days and nights, I became a super bitch as always when I am on substances and fought over a phone with my husband to seal the case. Thanks to my Korean hooker friend!
I just lost a long draft that I had just written, which was studying the movie Guru and Memoirs of a Geisha to bring up the issue of identity politics and post colonialism in representation of Asia. Now that it is lost without any trace, I don't feel like writing all over again, darn it! So let me tyr to jot down only the outline of the draft that is lost.
Once I was a bartender in an ILA funded Irish pub when I really wanted to break off with hooking.
The bar was in an area concidentally where were a bunch of streetwalkers and their clients, cab drivers.
Those cabbies/punters were mostly South Asians. Naturally, those people had their own kind of restaurants running late at night/24 hours.
I was then a hardcore alcoholic and often sitting in one of those super ethnic restaurants in front of TV watching their Bengali soap opera with no appetite fbecause of the bingeing I had been at before the dining.
It was the perioud I got absorbed by their South Asian cultures and all the Pakistani Rock music.
Later on, when the movie the Guru came out, I liked the movie whereas it was criticised for its represention of Asian people and culture to be offensive to them.
I do not want to be an idiotic imperialist like Gwen Stefani and Sofia Coppora, who claim to adore other's culture while they really vandalise and triumphantly redicule Asian people. Top it all off, they are commodifying local people and fully contemptuous while they benefit the political imbalance and make money. This hypocracy was always justified in the name of love for Asia.
Racism gets institutionalized when the phenomenon, such as exploiting others or their culture, is justified of their saying "Can't be fairer when they are adored?"
The treatment of Asian women as helpless pieces of meat, just fuckable because they just happened to survive slaughter or poverty or no human right exists situation, is justified and institutionalized. People in the West/US believe they are doing ultimate good whey they adopt Asian orphan but very oblivous of how those phenomena would have been accused if it was done to white 1st world kid/woman.
This has been almost culturally assigned to Asian (Eastern Asian) and the ever unexamined conceptual signifier is Geisha. If they make this dysfunctional vocabulary, because it practically does not exist or unaccessible to the Western eyes, materialize under the total control of Hollywood w/o hiring any Japanese to the lead roles, they are nothing but imposing their beloney. They are trying to make Asia into what they want to see and what they want them to become of, instead what they really are.
This is a bullshit so as Memoirs of a Geisha, Hollywood's m oronic imperialism based on a white male's sexual fantasy and lim itless greed to dominate others' culture. The movie dictates and monopolizes the discourse and representation to order around Asian women to be like this (sex servant of West) and serve them officially.
a Loony Bin
It has been snowing for a couple of hours and stuck already. We NYers use to stick over to settle to refer to snow's unmelted and building up conditions. I am watching out for it is a time like now when my feline husband goes cabin fever and gets pretty much depressed in his own way. I know what kind of nuisances he could cause and how over the years of our marriage. I am feeling a bit loony myself, too, for a couple of reasons. One was to attributed something concrete matters that I happened to stumble into; this client of mine persistently had been calling when I ignored entirely but I finally picked up a call today hoping to talk him out of it. Now I feel very bad because it& nbsp;was as if I gave in to his invasion of my privacy and let him violate me even for certain time and some exhaustion that I did not even get paid for.
This guy was my private client and has been a headache more than two years. It was amazing to hear from him even after I had cautioned more than once before. I really did not want to be nasty but what could I do when it seemed to be the only way to let him know that his friendliness is something burdensome and uncalled for a sexworker she she is not working. It is appalling for me to hear from him, especially after he was supposed to be cut off, believe it or not, more than a year ago!
The other torment tonight was a grudging toned message from my former co-worker, saying "You don't want to talk to me, do you?" I just don't know how to describe the situation that I am w/o getting personal, which usually is not appreciated in the industry. This woman, though, seems to be pretty much willing to act a big sister to me and never thinks twice to leave me alone. Doesn't she get that someone is not in the right shape to reach you back when there is no call back. Her frantic and frequent messages at some point picked up this tone of indirect menacing and something grudgeing. If only she knows how crucial it is to give someone space to maintain any kind of respectful relationship. However, I know it is not going to be understood so here. She is a typical Korean woman, after all, as affectionate as hell and prying as fuck.
On top of all the above, guess who are still calling; dealer friends. Who can make me more nuts than these guy now?
the obscene missionary
It has not been long since I regained this sort of quiet life based on regular routines w/o residue of thrill or intoxication from the life. While I was slacking off, I saw more trash movies than ever and learned to sit up instead of lying down with my heart racing so fast, pondering on nonsense and mostly on suffering in life.
During the time I discovered it afresh to watch tv again, I just observed a strange phenomenon kept happening:
I was watching this pirate Korean channel, maybe a cable that I happen to access in my place accidentally. This seemingly a Kor ean cult church missionary show was about an event took place in St.Petersberg, RU. It was such a wierd sight where local people rushing to a camera to report what kind of miracles they experienced because they had converted, with a Russian male interpreter who translates from Russian to English and a Korean interpreter who translates form English to Korean.
Now the show entitled Crusade in Russia is on again. While those locals are at mass, three guys, one in Korean, one in English and one in Russian, all languages I unfortunately understand, are ranting God's words in rather an insane manner. People are making a line speechless to be showered by the multilingual blessing that almost sounds obscenity. Most testimonies from those local believers are apprently bullshit; they are rediculously mundane and/or physical miracles rather than anything metaphsycal such as a woman who has not been able to walk for ten years suddenly gets to walk because she participates the church event. Give me a break. It has been like this for three days and nights. Every time I happen to turn tv on, this fanatic scene pops up. What is going on?
A Married Call Girl
It has been a while since I put my job on hold. There might be a couple of excuses that I could make for doing so and having neglected to write but mostly I am a sort of commited and engaged to someone. This requires a drastic change in my life and I am still working on the adjustment. It is decided that I would move in with him by the middle of this month (but I don't mean to give up my own apartment where I have my feline husband). I had been unusually reluctant to do so (leaving my job and the life style that I had for years), and was not in the mood for writing, either. My life was utterly a mess up until recently, for being unstable and torn between wanting some safety and still looking further adventure.
Now that I am getting back to normal as a writer, I can finally start putting some writing that I had held back together. Boy, the trouble I had to leave my drug habit behind was really frightening this time. Those Korean agencies not only make their workers get busted and gettin away with it but also turning workers real crack heads. It was tough, indeed, to go through the period when I found the substances throughly indispensable all day and night for more than a month. Horrendously I even went back to court recently for the case secretly getting high.
There are a couple of good things happened, too. The great news was Tracy Quan's new work, the sequal of Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, Nancy Chan novel. I did enjoy reading it and found it insghtful more than her first novel. This second novel coincidentally depics most of the issues that I have nurtured over the course of surviving the life and agendas I am about to face; the title of the novel is Diary of a Married Call Girl.
So I am marrying to a drug addict closet drag queen entreprener. Stay tuned.