Chinese are coming!

China Aims to Put Man on Moon by 2020..

Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who's the fairest Asian of all?

When the venerable nyt covers a story, especially one concerning asia, you know it's a rather big issue..Although several months too late, the new york times delves into the latest china/japan/korea controversy which revolves around the popularity of two anti-korea and anti-china books in japan.

Japan's disdain for china and korea is nothing new but might be a revelation to many westerners as japanese are so adept at tatemae and honne. And westerners especially Americans' perception on animosity between china, japan, korea have something to do with western media's portrayal of the situation where most of the news from east asia regarding the tensions between the 3 nations had been depicted as one-sided; korea and/or china's animosity and hate toward japan but the media hardly ever mention ordinary japanese people's hate/bias toward koreans and chinese. The nyt's article brings some light into japan's true feelings toward her neighbors and her tendency to look down on korea, china albeit in a much subdued and subtle way.

As with many of Mr. Onishi's articles relating to china, japan, korea relationship this article lacks depth and goes out of its way to avoid criticizing past and current japanese society which promotes and turns a blind eye to hate mongering but it's good to see at least one U.S. media outlet has decided to show a glimpse of true japan with the usual friendly facade stripped away.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

While doing my daily browsing at work, I came across an article on apparent rise of violence against Asians in the states. Now many Asians would attest that this isn't something new and avid readers of Angry Asian Man site will be all too familiar with these kind of stories. What really captured my attention was a picture that was accompanying the article which I posted below.

This photo is truly the case of a picture being worth a thousand words.. It seems to perfectly reflect the perpetual foreigner image of Asian Americans in America..but what do I know..

I'm sorry..NOT!

I happened to come across this interesting article stating that Chiba Tatsuya of ashita no joe fame had been misquoted by a korean newspaper, donga-ilbo. This all stems from when a fan of Tatsuya asked him at a cartoon convention, which was held in korea, regarding the anti-korean book that's a huge hit in japan which sold 300,000 copies in one month and not coincidently spawning a sequel.. Mr. Tatsuya's answer was he can't really comment on something that he isn't really familiar with but expressed disappointment on popularity of such one-sided book and offered an apology to the questioner. Apparently donga interpreted that unintentionally or intentionally as an offering of apology on behalf of japanese comics.

Now, people being misquoted happens all the time but what really struck me was that on Mr. Tatsuya's website, he had to express how he was misquoted by donga-ilbo with a big bold red link to a page explaining how he had been misquoted. I mean how many letters from ordinary japanese folks flaming that japan shouldn't have to offer an apology for something she did more more than 60 years ago did he get before putting up this big bold red link on his site?

When people tell me ordinary japanese really feel remorseful of their country's sinful past, to that I ask why are they keep voting for right-wing politicians who claim nanjing massacres never happened, claim majority of "comfort women" are fakes and remind them that no japanese politicians ever apologized, as a representative of the japanese government or on behalf of japan, for their atrocities committed during the brutal occupation of Korea. This is in stark contrast to the apology U.S government offered to japan for the japanese interment camp incident. And the japanese people still bring the interment camp issue up yet when koreans talk about the insincerity of japan's hallow apologies, japanese and their apologists cry out korea is still "bitching" about something happened "long time ago".. This is just yet another example of how majority of japanese aren't remorseful of their country's past atrocities.

Leaving Las Vegas

For the past few days my boss and I along with our consultants and 2 folks from our asia branch, had been in sin city for business. Meetings with our clients went very well, and we found a new client who seem to be very keen on acquiring our products. Our new client, whom I'll refer to as "A", say they're innovators in their field..To that, I said yea right..you guys are from Canada! Anyway despite A's rather diminutive size, only rev of $20 mil a year and I'm not really sure if that's in Canadian dollar or U.S.., it's good we are managing to get clients even from remote place like Canada. We need to explore new uncharted, wild markets and Canada fits that billing. Heh I kid! I love Canada! America's 51st state! ;d Everything business related was a tremendous success but well non-business related things were lets just say didn't go as well as I had hoped for...

The day before my last stay, I went to some upscale club on my driver's recommendation. I was minding my own business having a drink by myself, ok a female "entertainer" talked to me for a little bit until I told her to bugger off, when some sharply dressed fellow sat next to me. Not sure who initiated the conversation between him and I but once we started to talk, I knew he was a very interesting person. Apparently he writes and directs plays in south america. He told me about what plays he wrote and directed in south america, etc. I listened intently as someone who has some artistic background, I am always happy when I come across a person with such artistic talent and passion for his/her craft.

As the night deepened, this latin guy tells me how joyous it was for him that I was so willing to talk to some stranger with funny accent and tell him about my person life. Granted I hadn't planned on telling this guy about what I do for a living, etc but hell we were having drinks and he told me about his personal life so I had no choice! After proclaiming how happy he was, he suddenly, in a shy voice, tells me if I wanted to hear a secret..Uh oh..Now, I don't want to be rude especially to someone whom I had spend the last hour talking about very interesting things..so I just bit the bullet and told him yeah sure..Well lo and behold he proclaims he's gay..Well ofcourse! play write/director, likes musicals, dressed too sharply for a typical las vegas crowd.. After that, our conversation degenerated into sexual overtures by this latin lover..Now I like the guy as a person and before someone gets the wrong idea, I don't have anything against gay folks but when the last few sentences consist of "I need a good lover, that I'm a young sexy boy, what happens in vegas stays in vegas, nobody will know.." it gets a bit upsetting.. It's just too bad it turned out the way it did as I really wouldn't mind just talking with him about south america's contemporary arts,music, etc..

So in the end, this guy was engaging in a conversation with me for the prospect of getting laid, not because he and I shared common passion for art..That's what upset me, not because I got hit on by some gay person. I've got hit on by gay folks before, and I am usually flattered but this time it was upsetting for the reasons I've explained above..I politely declined his ovetures. He then insisted on taking me to my place since that's the polite thing to do in latin america...uhh no..I think i'll have so more drinks..really really strong ones...He finally relented and left..I sat there alone and drank for maybe 30 mins til some pretty young thang came along and sat next to me..Now finally, a princess in a nice albeit revealing dress comes to rescue this lonely sexy prince in distress!! After talking for a good while buying her couple drinks..she says lets dance and after that she'll "entertain" me..oh shucks..not another "entertainer"! sigh...I just told the lovely lady..maybe tomorrow...
Why am I attracting "entertainers"..or gays when I just want regular laides?? I have no idea where it all went wrong but I'm glad to be back in my boring, old, quiet home..

"Intelligent Design"

This drawing is about this whole "Intelligent Design" fiasco that's taking place here in the states.

Sorry about the small image, but unless I can figure out how to make blogger let me show images bigger than 400x400 on the front page, there's nothing I can do about it ;/ You can always click on the img for the bigger version, but it's such a hassle..