Gil Asakawa
@gilasakawaGil Asakawa escreve sobre cultura pop e política a partir de uma perspectiva asiático-americana e nipo-americana em seu blog, www.nikkeiview.com. Ele e seu sócio também fundaram o www.visualizAsian.com, em que conduzem entrevistas ao vivo com notáveis asiático-americanos das Ilhas do Pacífico. É o autor de Being Japanese American (Stone Bridge Press, 2004) e trabalhou na presidência do conselho editorial do Pacific Citizen por sete anos como membro do conselho nacional JACL.
Atualizado em novembro de 2009
Stories from This Author
Japanese Americans deserve some respect on Veterans Day
6 de Dezembro de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
At our local supermarket the weekend before Veterans Day, veterans were handing out little red poppies to pin on passersby’s lapels as tributes to generations of war dead (it’s a reference to John McCrae’s 1915 WWI poem, “In Flanders Fields”). I thanked the vet for giving me one and was heading in to shop when a scruffy-looking guy came up and growled that I was supposed to pay for the poppies. I stammered as he walked away that I was …
“Voice” star Judith Hill’s cultural mashup combines African American & Japanese upbringing with artistic talent
12 de Novembro de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
I was lucky enough to see Judith Hill perform in Los Angeles during the 2010 convention of the Asian American Journalists Association, when she played a set for opening night. Hill had a unique story as a performer: the daughter of an African American father and Japanese mother who are both professional musicians, she earned a degree in music composition. She woodshedded in France in 2007. Hill’s professional breakthrough was supposed to be as Michael Jackson’s duet partner for the …
Is it racist to want sushi chefs to be Japanese?
25 de Outubro de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
Recently a Seattle sushi restaurant, Mashiko, posted an open letter on its website saying that people who criticize the restaurant for having non-Japanese employees sushi are bigots. “Stop being an ignorant racist,” the letter said, after noting that the restaurant is Japanese-owned and there are Japanese as well as non-Japanese staff. The letter also defends one of the restaurant’s most popular chefs, a Caucasian woman, who’s worked there for 12 years and has a loyal and devoted following. “Should you …
Museums—Even Tiny Ones—Are Where Our Collective Culture is Stored
24 de Julho de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
I visited the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland, Oregon last week while on a business trip to the northwest, and I was struck at how important organizations like it, and the museum it operates are for our community. Institutions from the largest such as the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles to one-room repositories such as the Nikkei Legacy Center or the Amache Museum in Granada, Colorado, are repositories for our collective memory as a community, and home …
It’s time to take the offensive yellowface of “The Mikado” off the stage
11 de Julho de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
I recently blogged about a video produced by the City of Los Angeles—using taxpayer money—that was originally produced with good intentions: explaining the importance of recycling water. But to make its point, the video used a ghastly, stereotypical caricature of geishas played by non-Asians with painted faces wearing kimonos, including one played by a non-Asian man. Of course, they spoke in “ching-chong” Japanesey accents. It’s disturbing that it’s OK even in 2013 to caricature Asians with the most shallow racial …
Karami: A new product that’s an old Japanese American twist on salsa
27 de Junho de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
Forget Pace Picante Sauce, which used to make a big deal of being made in San Antonio instead of phony salsas made in New York City. Forget San Antonio as well as New York City. Look no further than Pueblo and Boulder, Colorado. Boulder-based entrepreneur Kei Izawa and his partner, Jason Takaki, are launching a new product this weekend that really isn’t new at all. Karami is a Japanese American twist on salsa that tastes pretty great on a lot …
“The Red Kimono” captures the tragedy of internment, and the larger context of racial injustice
31 de Maio de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
For a long time, there were painfully few novels that were about the experience of Japanese Americans who were put into concentration camps during World War II. Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston which was published in 1973, stood alone, unless you counted the powerful post-war story of John Okada’s 1957 classic, No-No Boy. In recent years, there have been more fictional works set during internment, most notably David Guterson’s Snow Falling on Cedars, but …
Naomi Hirahara, author of “Mas Arai” mystery novels
28 de Março de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
I’ve always been a fan of detective and crime mystery fiction, starting from my earliest days devouring the Hardy Boys and Three Investigators books when I was just a kid. I graduated to author Agatha Christie (including her female sleuth Miss Marple), Ellery Queen, and of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Then in college I fell in love with the hard-boiled noir novelists, such as Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Among this pantheon of excellent writers and their incredible …
Pop culture including J-pop builds bridges between Japan and the US
27 de Fevereiro de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
I’m a fan of anime and manga, although I don’t actually follow the zillions of comics or animated series and movies, because they’re instrumental in building bridges between Japan and the United States. I’ve spoken with eager young Caucasian anime fans in full cosplay (dressed in costumes playing the part of their favorite anime characters) who said they’re taking Japanese classes, and are planning on Japanese Studies in college, because they love anime so much. Watch Video >> That’s some …
Japanese Americans, Chinese food and our sense of community
18 de Janeiro de 2013 • Gil Asakawa
Mmmmm. Chinese food. Just thinking about Lao Wang Noodle House in Denver, which I swear serves the best dumplings in the universe (it’s where the photo below was taken) gets my mouth watering. It’s a tiny hole-in-the-wall tucked into a tiny strip mall along the South Federal Asian strip of mostly Vietnamese eateries. It’s run by an elderly couple who can be cranky (“We’re closed,” we were told gruffly on one visit even though they were supposed to be open …
