Alpha Asian

Recently a UC Berkeley student named Kay interviewed me for a research project on representations of Asians/Asian Americans on reality TV shows.  She was nice enough to provide me with a transcript of our interview: Kay: Well, to begin, I really want to thank you for taking the time to interview with me. Again, like I said, this interview will be about 45 minutes to an hour long, so I really do thank you.  My topic is gendered representations of Asian Americans and Asians in reality TV shows.  For this assignment, we are asked to interview someone who can provide insight into our topic. After the interview, we reflect on it and provide any new insight that we might find and list the pros and cons of the research method. So, that’s the reason why I would like to interview you.  James: Can I ask you a question? Kay: I’m sorry?           James: Can I ask you a question? Kay: Yes, of course! James: How did you find out about my blog? K...

Thanks to AMR for this blast from the past.

  Major props to Tyrese on this project. Although I hope the cast will be more interesting than these kids.

We bitch about how Asian Americans aren't well represented in the media, but we've made some inroads in three areas: online entertainment, children's programming and reality TV. This makes sense, because reality TV is supposed to reflect... reality. Granted, you're holding a distorted mirror to reflect this reality, but at least you have a wide range of Asian American players being profiled and showing a wide range of emotions under a wide range of extreme circumstances. In Hollywood reality, everybody is white and colored people are merely supporting characters in the stories of white people. Asian Americans have won or come close to winning many high profile reality shows, which is signficant considering they make up a small percentage of contestants. There is of course Yul Kwon , who won Survivor: Cook Islands , but there are others: - Victor and Tammy Jih won Amazing Race 14 . - Yau-Man Chan came into the top four of Survivor: Fiji . - Jun Song won Big Br...

Scare the hell out of your husbands and boyfriends, ladies! The Kate Gosselin wig, just in time for Halloween! Well, I saw the new episode of Jon and Kate last night. As soon as Kate snapped at Jon ("WHAT PLANET ARE YOU FROM JON?") and bossed him around in that condescending tone in front of other people, every viewer watching remembered why Jon left Kate. Jon has always been a good father. He's just a reckless dater, and I think people get those 2 things mixed up. Anyway, here's a comment I put on the Big WoWo blog some time ago about Jon and Kate: "I know a lot of people are poo-pooing on Jon right now, but I say let him live his life. For the longest while, he let things happen to him. Kate was running the show and the relationship and the family and hence ruining, I mean, running his life. "After they had the birth of their twins, Katie wanted more kids. Oprah asked Jon if he also wanted to have more kids and he really didn’t want to. But h...

Wow, absolutely amazing. Congrats to Tammy and Victor Jih on winning the Amazing Race. The both of them really shined through and worked well as a team. In a way, it was good that they went through that meltdown in Romania early on in the race. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger , and they took that lesson and learned from it. Their bond as brother and sister became stronger, and their teamwork was unstoppable as a result. I was really impressed at how Tammy just kept pulling that pig, and Victor used just the right amount of "push" to get his sister going but not break her spirit. And Victor: wow, talk about calm and cool in the face of pressure. He didn't panic, and slowly caught up to Luke and surpassed him in the surfboard roadblock. Tammy and Victor winning is like vindication for all of the overachieving Asian sons and daughters out there. Congrats, guys!

Argh! Not a good finish for Tammy and Victor last night. My wife and I were watching them do the synchronized diving, and we thought to ourselves, "Why aren't they counting?" Well according to Victor both them and Jen and Kisha were counting before they dove. I guess synchronized diving is a lot harder than it looks. Anyway, I have no sympathy for Kisha and Jen for coming in last, considering they made some racist comments about how the Chinese have dumb looks on their faces and all look alike. They should have drowned.

Last Sunday's Amazing Race episode was interesting. Yeah, it showed the usual breakdown of relationships under extreme duress. But this episode was interesting, because it showcased more of Tammy and Victor Jih and their slightly dysfunctional sibling dynamic. Here's a brief recap from Entertainment Weekly : "On paper, Tammy and Victor are one of the smartest teams we've had on the race, and yet they made a huge blunder by aimlessly climbing a mountain while following the wrong markers. Victor simply refused to listen to Tammy. He'll have to change his approach pretty quickly if they want to stay in this race." Victor was adamant that they were following the right path, while Tammy felt it was the wrong path, but just went along anyway with her brother's stupid and costly decision. They fell from a commanding first place lead to second to last place, which is really last place (since the team that comes in last place gets eliminated). I hate to...

So The Amazing Race 14 premieres on February 15th. You all know I'm a big reality TV game show freak. The Amazing Race always has the same type of contestants: 2 dumb blondes, 2 overachieving control freaks, 2 gay dudes, 2 Black contestants, father-daughter team, brother-sister team, boyfriend-girlfriend team, etc. Plus, there is always an ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend team that is on the show to "work things out" and test their relationship. Hey idiots! Have you watched the show?! Couples have broken up after competing in just one episode. I'm serious. Anyway here is a bio from CBS.com on a team that fits the "Asian American/overachieving control freak attorneys/brother-sister" team slot of The Amazing Race 14. Talk about Model Minority Wonder Twins: Tammy Jih (26); Victor Jih (35) Hometown: San Francisco, Calif./Los Angeles, Calif. Occupation: Lawyers Relationship: Siblings/Lawyers If they can manage to work together, this smart and sassy brothe...

I love watching reality game shows. There are some really crazy shows with some crazy premises ("Hole in the Wall" comes to mind), but most have one thing in common: how much punishment can you endure for a prolonged period of time? As a whole, Asian Americans have done very well in reality game shows. The most famous is Survivor winner Yul Kwon , but there are other prominent Asian American Survivors, such as Yau-Man Chan from Survivor Fiji , the most beloved competitor from the series: "An atypical Survivor contestant, he achieved much success through his knowledge and utilization of basic physics. This was evident from the first episode. After the repeated efforts of much more muscular contestants, he was the only one able to open a box of supplies the tribe received. "While others had used various brute force methods to open the box, Chan simply dropped it on its corner onto a rock, opening it immediately. In this way he was also able to beat younger, fit...