(Part 2) Top products from r/asianamerican

Was your humanitarian cruise in Haiti by chance? I'm reading the book The Big Truck that went by and he talks a bit about the US 'occupation' humanitarian mission post earthquake and how soldiers where not told when they would be done with the humanitarian mission. He cites letters to families that show their doubt in the mission itself.

Good book so far. Highly recommended. I'd say getting into aid is a lot like getting into the military. You have all these idealistic thoughts about serving for a greater good... and then you realize the entire industry is totally whacked. I think it's changing though. Slowly but surely.

I understand getting special treatment. I know you can only get into the USOs in airports if you're in uniform. Those are like Delta Sky Clubs. I'm a member of the Sky Clubs and they honestly make air travel way more tolerable. You're treated like a king! Free drinks free food. Not too bad. And the way I see it, I never have to pay for a drink in an airport (granted, I paid upfront for those drinks) but I will drink wayyy more drinks than the member fee.

Plus the networking that goes on in those places is great. I'd imagine the USOs would be similar. A good place to relax sit down and meet other members of the military who may totally agree with you.

TL;DR. Read The Big Truck that went by. Uniformed military may just be like me and trying to get perks of USOs/Delta Sky Club to relax a bit.

0. Looks like you have been reading sites like strategypage, my advise is to stay off those websites, It's better for your health.
   
   
1. String of Pearls is made up strategy for alarmist journalist, and reason for that is simple. China does not, will not in near future has control over the either the malacca straights or Sunda straight. So any investment in military infrastructure on the other side of that straight is a waste of resources. There is reason why China is so reluctant in securing naval docking station in Africa despite sending naval patrols there for last 6 years. (it quite amazing how long at sea these ships would go without docking anywhere, life must be pretty hard for these sailor. Which is probably those fleet usually go a pleasure tour to Europe and South America afterwards.) However it does not stop the media from creating a sensation about it, and make everything bigger than it really is.
   
   
2. As you have 一带一路 initiative is an economic policy, so far it just a bunch of empty talk. The only think that could be of value in that direction is the China-Iran pipeline, and that thing goes over land.
   
   
3. You really need to read The Influence of Sea Power Upon History again, everything we discussed here is not Mahanian strategy, or even modern interpretations of it. Hell, Mahan's vision of Asian strategic outlook is as far off target as it can be.
   
   
4. The Liaoning and new possible carrier China is building (100A is just a made up name by the internet, just like Shiliang) is really the dream of 刘华清, and the original crew that has brought the Varyag was actually discipline by by the Jiang-Zhu government, though Hu-Wen government did pick it up and made it into a carrier. China will it in same way US uses it, used to threaten small countries and protect Chinese interest. (For example in both Libya and Yemen all China could do is withdraw its citizens and basically abandon its assets there. While US can use it naval assets and supports the faction allied to it. However, look at where things are going, it appears China actually managed to minimize its losses, while the US digs the hole deeper and deeper. It did create an opportunity for political attacks on Hillary Clinton though). As for DF-21D, it's untested weapon that's based on asymmetrical warfare, which essentially on the opposite side of Mahan as he valued sea control and naval presences. If anything it is actually more line with the much criticized book 超限战.
   
   
5. In terms of grand strategy, China's maritime trade to primary to the US and its Allies (North America, Europe, Australia, ASEAN). If the conflict is a third party threatening the trade, US and its Allies will jump on it way before China could do it anything. (then accuse China as being a free rider) And it the conflict with the US, that trade does not exist anyways, what's use of a navy to protects it? As far as hydrocarbons from the middle east, pipeline over land would be better option (actually pipeline to Russian would be a even better option. Hell, the best option would be exploring hydraulic fracking in China, as China has the largest reserve of Shale gas in the world). On top of that, China is moving away from hydrocarbons anyways, for both national security and environmental reason.

OP, if you are looking for a really incredible book by a korean-am author, i recommend nora okja keller's fox girl. it is INCREDIBLY dark but honest and gorgeous and terrifying. i loved and hated it when i read it for an asian american lit class and to this day almost 8 years later i can't stop thinking about it. (https://amzn.com/0142001961)


esme weijun wang - border of paradise (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26196482-the-border-of-paradise)
^^CANNOT recommend this enough. it is LIFE CHANGING. haunting beautiful devastating modern gothic, mixes language and culture like nothing i've read before.

celeste ng - everything i never told you (https://amzn.com/0143127551)

annie choi - happy birthday or whatever (https://amzn.com/0061132225)

andrew x. pham - catfish and mandala (https://amzn.com/0312267177)

lisa see - snow flower and the secret fan (https://amzn.com/0812980352)

I'm not an avid reader but some I've enjoyed:

"Cebu" by Peter Bacho

"America is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan (an autobiography)

and "Native Speaker" by Chang-Rae Lee (cited by /u/mosthigh in this thread)

> They can hide things from their own people, not really from the rest of the world. Again, the rest of the world is fully aware of how terrible it is in that country.

That wasn't my point? My point was they deflect attention away from human rights abuses by playing the western media.

> This reply doesn't seem to make any sense. Could you elaborate?

Here's what you said:

> Portraying this as about the movie and not about Americans getting pushed around and being told what they can and cannot do by NORTH KOREA is dishonest.

Which suggests that you think a private company pulling a movie is the same as nation states affecting each other. Unless by American you mean Sony in which case Sony is not even an American company, it's Japanese.

> Please, read what I'm saying and respond to that. You're making points here that are irrelevant. Stuff I never disagreed with or commented on.

I did. Honestly, you didn't make much of a point beyond claiming this is about North Korea "censoring" Americans (it's not) and refusing to believe that the DPRK is a self-aware government that issues global statements as calculated propaganda pieces.

> That is a stretch, to put it mildly. The West engages in this kind of satire all the time.

Because that's exactly how North Korea wants the West to spin it.

> We are still fully aware of the reality. Do you really think Team America came out and people stopped knowing that North Korea was a shit hole? Did the Dictator movie with Sacha Baron Cohen make people think the Middle East was a great place to live?

I never claimed those things. My answer is pretty clear in the stuff you quoted. All the human rights abuses and police state business is swept into the subconscious because the first things that people associate North Korea with are stupid memes and movie villain statements, making them see the regime as a parody of inhumanity that is too ridiculous to be believed.

I'm not interested in trying to change your mind because. It's clear you haven't done any serious research about North Korea. If you really want to get into this, I can start quoting experts on North Korea. To quote Dr. Andrei Lankov, "North Korea is not a bomb." Despite what US officials and even what uninformed academics believe, it is not insane. They know exactly what the response from the West will be when they make these statements.

> Police brutality is something that has been going on for decades to Americans. It reached a boiling point. It always strikes closer to home when it's happening to you. Which easily explains why no one takes to the streets when foreigners are getting tortured or North Koreans are suffering.

Didn't take very much to invade Iraq either, if you want to use that argument. Nor did it take much to start committing US resources to assisting Syrian rebels.

In comparison, there's far less pressure placed on our leaders to deal with North Korea, despite the fact that NATO-friendly allies inhabit the region.

> I wish you would be more intellectually honest. The dishonesty you've just tried here is incredible.

Oh boy.

> Do you really think all 914 million results are about the movie? "the interview" is a pretty fucking common set of words. Guess what? From the 3rd page on, many of the results have nothing to do with the movie at all.

Okay, good point. Google results for The Interview North Korea still nets 163 million. That's nearly twice the number of the CIA torture reports.

> Any article about the issue at all is going to mention the title of the movie. That says nothing about whether the people care about the movie or about being told what they can and cannot watch by North Korea.

If reddit is any indication, this has been a constant talking point for the last few days while the torture report was a flash in the pan.

> Please, try again. I'm sure you're capable of doing better. You don't seem like a total idiot in your posts, but you do seem very agenda driven and dishonest.

Dealing with assholes is not my strong suit. Statements like this don't help.

I was already questioning whether I should have even responded to you in the first place because I recognized you from other threads about North Korea. Just in case you delete this comment:

> Very little sympathy.
> You. Can. Not. Change. North. Korea.
> Especially as one person. Unless you are Kim Jong Un.
> Going there does no one any good. You go there to satisfy your own personal feelings. When you get caught and ransomed like this it only enhances the North Korean position and reduces everyone elses'. Countries have to bend over backwards to retrieve you and give in the NK's blackmail. Meanwhile, North Korea gets to use you as whatever. Hold you up as a spy. Get food and aid to return your dumb self to your actual country.
> What good did you do any body with those acts?

This is about the most dismissive, armchair, straight up asshole things I've ever seen on this website and yet I'm sad to say I'm not shocked you got upvoted for it.

I have personal friends who were saved from concentration camps in the most hellish country on Earth because of people who infiltrated the country. The defectors of the Black Market Generation are raising global awareness and reason they're able to do this in the first place is because of people who entered the country to get them out. North Korea has had to adjust its internal propaganda because of foreigners infiltrating the country and smuggling media from the outside world. Now, experts project that the regime may not last beyond the next 25 years. All this is thanks to the work of the people you're mocking.

But I guess it's easier for you to sit there like a smug prick and tell me that the people who risked their lives to save my friends from a life of torture, starvation, and oppression went there to satisfy their "own personal feelings". I guess you know better than the people who have spent years studying North Korea and devising ways to dismantle the Kim regime, who agree that constant infiltration is the key to breaking down the DPRK.

I could say fuck you but it's Christmas Eve tomorrow. I'll be honest, I'm pretty pissed at what you wrote, but I sincerely hope this makes you examine yourself and consider that maybe what you said is probably the most dickish thing I've read in this sub.

Its been mentioned before, but strangers from a different shore by Ronald Takaki does a good job in his book for what you're looking for.

http://www.amazon.com/Strangers-Different-Shore-History-Americans/dp/0316831301

Recommend Clash!: How to Thrive in a Multicultural World and Breaking The Bamboo Ceiling to understand and adjust for differing perceptions of cultural communication styles.

My white girlfriend cooks from this book. The meals taste like what I grew up eating in China.

I found this book in my school library. my parents were pretty open about our family's history, but they are both Filipino.

The Chinese in America: A Narrative History

ETA: Also important stuff - http://www.vincentwhofilm.com/research/

> It actually isn't

Well crap, I thought this was based on a book. So it doesn't even have that.

These are a must-read for all PoCs

https://www.amazon.com/Longer-Talking-White-People-About/dp/140887055X

https://www.amazon.com/White-Fragility-People-About-Racism/dp/B07D6XQQRY/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1540937009&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=white+fragility

Fresh Off the Boat by Eddie Huang - This memoir is what the upcoming ABC sitcom is based on, and it's what WSJ journalist Jefff Yang has said, if unedited, will be "a game-changer for Asian Americans on screen." It's a witty and insightful story of how Eddie Huang bridges his old school parents' background and the American lifestyle of hip-hop and Air Jordans.

American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang - graphic novel that weaves the story of the Chinese tale of the Monkey King, a second generation kid who moves into a primarily white neighborhood and doesn't want to be considered a "Fob", and a white American boy whose Chinese cousin "Chin-kee" visits.

No-No Boy by John Okada - A Japanese American returns home after being interned during WWII and struggles with where he belongs in US society. The term "no-no boy" refers to how interned Japanese Americans answered to a "loyalty questionnaire."

Native Speaker by Chang-rae Lee. The protagonist is Henry Park, a Korean American whose identity as an American with a Korean upbringing has impacted all facets of his life, including the strain on his marriage and his excellence as a spy. He goes further into cultural turmoil when he is assigned to spy on a Korean-American politician who during his run for mayor of NYC has to deal with tensions between Blacks and Koreans.

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine - graphic novel whose protagonist Ben Tanaka is in a struggle with his own identity. His girlfriend is politically active and is involved in the Asian-American community, which he doesn't care much about. Ben denies the relevance of race, yet he has a certain attraction towards white girls and complex about his own attractiveness as an Asian male. Ben is bitter and angry, and his rejection of many things, including his own race distances him from people.

I also liked American Son (story of two Filipino brothers and their mother navigating violence and a new culture in America) by Brian Ascalon Roley and The Dead Do Not Improve by Jay Caspain Kang. The latter is Kang's first novel and it was not spectacular, but I did like his writing style and his use of pop culture from the view of a Korean American. He incorporates the story of the shooter Seung-Hui Cho, which he originally wanted to write a book about to reflect on Korean American male anger. Jay Caspian Kang is already in the media for his journalism pieces, but I'm looking forward to more of his writings and possible continued foray into literature.

Hey, bud. I get you're upset at reddit's circlejerks. I get how you're trying to build solidarity by trying to find parallels in the treatment of other oppressed or disempowered groups.


That being said, comparing reddit circlejerks to the Rwandan Genocide or the Nuremberg Laws is a bit out of the scope of the issue it looks like you're taking issue with. Sure, the circlejerk of the "shitty chinese tourist" is probably an effect of european imperialism, just like some of the shitty things in Africa are also a result of european imperialism. But the "shitty things in africa" include genocide, while the "shitty chinese tourist" trope is a probably very real circlejerk on reddit that is not comparable to genocide, even if you can make the broadest of connections between reddit circlejerks and the Rwandan Genocide.


I get that you don't like how reddit circlejerks about an important aspect of your identity. But respectfully, you're overestimating how important reddit circlejerks are in broader cultural discourse.


If you're looking for academic books that look at orientalism and imperialism and identity and all that jazz, to situate your thoughts in the broader context I think you're searching for, here are some books:


http://www.amazon.com/Orientalism-Edward-W-Said/dp/039474067X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426553762&sr=8-1&keywords=orientalism+edward+said


http://www.amazon.com/Rescuing-History-Nation-Questioning-Narratives/dp/0226167224/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426554057&sr=8-1&keywords=rescuing+history+from+the+nation


http://www.amazon.com/Japans-Orient-Rendering-Pasts-History/dp/0520201701/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426553687&sr=8-1&keywords=japan%27s+orient+stefan+tanaka

perhaps you are seeing merely just one perspective, all the negatives from a Western perspective, and have yet to familiarize yourself with other perspective to counterbalance your worldview on China. i sense some cognitive dissonance here as i think it's unhealthy to internalize and conflate what you perceive as negative about China with your self-esteem/feeling ashamed, and what it means to be Chinese American as you have lamented in an earlier post. if you can, it would probably be more ideal to compartmentalize the two and untangle your worldview from self-esteem/identity.

However, I will say that many Americans have similar lopsided perspectives as I have found out by reading this book: The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia by James Bradley, which I think will aid to enlighten a more balanced perspective. For what its worth, it's written from an American guy so you may find comfort from a Western perspective, albeit it's of a differentiated one from the usual mainstream publications. He talks about the misguided and failed foreign relations with China and the ignorance the US has over China, where there is a large misunderstanding of perceiving China from a foreign diplomatic and mass media perspective. I highly recommend it. Let me know what you think of Mr. Bradley. I'm curious to know!

*He has two lectures/book talks online: one at the Marines’ Memorial Club and C-SPAN to supplement with his book.

>This to me is really bizarre, and why I term the piece mendacious: Asian Americans do talk about white Americans the way whites talk about black folks. This sort of thing was a clear subtext of Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Many (most?) Asian American kids who grew up with immigrant parents were barraged with assertions about the disreputable character of their “American” (white) friends, and how it was important to keep on the straight & narrow. Immigrants from Asia often perceive white Americans to be sexually obsessed, lazy, and prone to a general amorality and fixation on short term hedonic interests. These are polite ways to condense the sort of attitude many Asian immigrants have toward the white American mainstream, which they worry will absorb and corrupt their children. Dash must know this, as he probably had immigrant parents, or was friends with people from immigrant backgrounds. Most white Americans don’t know this, partly because most white Americans don’t have non-white friends. But anyone from an Asian American background would be aware of the stereotypes and perceptions.

And Amy Chua, if she indeed "subtexted" racist stereotypes about White people, she should be called out for it. But I suspect the "subtext" is rather more imaginary than the author let on.

and yes, some of us have racist mothers or grandmothers who engage in that sort of behavior.

Years ago, I remember reading a book by a famous Japanese engineering expert, Dr. Ishikawa.

http://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/kaoru-ishikawa/

his book, http://www.amazon.com/What-Total-Quality-Control-Japanese/dp/0139524339, had a chapter on why he thought Asians were better in science and engineering.

It was pretty racist stuff in that chapter, and I had no problem point it out to my colleagues.

The point is, lots of smart people (especially of the older generation), harbor some racist ideas.

"Harboring" is OK, because you can keep thinking about it, and if enough evidence counter your ideas, you can still change your mind.

"Talking" racist shit in public is NOT OK, because you are hurting people with your own shit ideas.

"Subtexting"? Not sure where that one falls, not unless the author clarifies the definition of that word.