CBS News reports that Jackie Chan, the Hong Kong action/comedy star of movies such as Rush Hour 1 and 2, has been publicly urging Asians to avoid American movies for fear that it will dilute or otherwise damage traditional Asian culture:

Even though he plans to soon start shooting “Rush Hour 3,” the Hong Kong native told The Times of India newspaper “Asians should unite against American cinema.” Hollywood movies are eroding the culture of Asian countries, he said. “Why do we need to ape their culture,” Chan reportedly said. “I see an Indian saying, ‘Yo Man!,’ but that’s not what Asians are about.”

That’s a pretty interesting set of statements from someone who has benefited greatly from American movies himself, not to mention someone who has received mixed reactions from Asians and Asian Americans about the quality of the roles in his Hollywood movies and to what extent they are a positive step forward for non-stereotypical portrayals of Asians in American culture.

It seems to me that if he really wants to put his money where his mouth is, he should use the millions of dollars that he’s earned through his American movies and start producing his own films that include more positive portrayals and images for Asian and Asian Americans to see. Otherwise, his position strikes me as a little hypocritical.

In an earlier post, I wrote about a persistent pattern of discrimination and physical violence perpetrated against Asian American students at Lafayette High School in Brooklyn -- so bad that the Justice Department had to step in to force the school to take corrective action to protect the Asian students. Following up on this trend, the Associated Press reports that despite recent efforts to highlight this growing problem around the country, physical attacks still continue to occur:

Nationwide, Asian students say they’re often beaten, threatened and called ethnic slurs by other young people, and school safety data suggest that the problem may be worsening. Youth advocates say these Asian teens, stereotyped as high-achieving students who rarely fight back, have for years borne the brunt of ethnic tension as Asian communities expand and neighborhoods become more racially diverse. . . .

Stories of Asian youth being bullied and worse are common. In recent years: a Chinese middle schooler in San Francisco was mercilessly taunted until his teacher hid him in her classroom at lunchtime; three Korean-American students were beaten so badly near their Queens high school that they skipped school for weeks and begged to be transferred; a 16-year-old from Vietnam was killed last year in a massive brawl in Boston. . . .

Increasingly, some victims are fighting back. A 2003 California survey . . . found that 14 percent of Asian youth said they join gangs for protection. Department of Justice school crime data found the number of Asian youth carrying weapons nearly tripled from 1999 to 2001. “There are more Asian kids being brought to juvenile court for assault and battery,” Arifuku said.

“The thing we’re finding in their history is that they had been picked on -- called names and teased -- and in some cases they lashed out and retaliated.” Advocates and students say that, typically, large fights erupt after weeks or months of verbal taunting.

It is truly sad and infuriating to see Asian American students -- or any students for that matter -- first, being targeted for physical violence on an everyday basis, and second, being subjected to utter indifference and even contempt by school officials who deny that there are any problems. It should tell you something that even the Bush administration’s Justice Department felt that things were getting out of hand at Lafayette High and had to finally step in.

For every article or news story that describes how Asian culture is increasingly being accepted, embraced, and integrated into the American mainstream, there are stories like this one that remind us that in many ways, Asian Americans still have to fight an uphill battle not just to be considered “real Americans,” but for many, just to stay alive.

In a recent article, Inside Higher Education recounts a rather convoluted and ultimately, rather silly tale of blogging gone awry: three academic bloggers are conducting a personal disagreement in a very public way. This is just one excerpt, and you should really read the whole article in order to know exactly what the issues are:

Escalation, not restraint, has marked the ensuing days, in which Deignan, Hettle and Bitch Ph.D. have hurled accusations of various kinds at each other. Both Deignan and Bitch Ph.D. have hired lawyers. Hettle wouldn’t comment on whether he has done the same. Deignan said he is prepared to begin a lawsuit as soon as possible.

He accuses both Hettle and Bitch Ph.D of libeling him — Hettle because of the e-mail he sent to Deignan’s professors, and Bitch Ph.D. for saying that he may have used a technique known as “IP spoofing,” which is a form of hacking, to try to determine who she is. Deignan denies having done that.

Bitch Ph.D., said that she feels somewhat threatened by Deignan. “I don’t know if his attempts to track me down represent a real threat, either in terms of my identity or in terms of a physical threat,” she said via e-mail Wednesday. “I don’t know if what he’s doing counts as cyberstalking. It’s certainly upsetting.”

All I can (and all that I will say lest one of these three people involved decide that they should sue me for expressing my personal opinion) is -- people, let’s grow up, shall we?

As the Associated Press reports, actor pat Morita has died at the age of 73. of course, he was best-known for his role as Mr. Myagi in the Karate Kid series of movies, but as the article notes, his career and life in general span a much broader set of experiences:

Born in northern California on June 28, 1932, the son of migrant fruit pickers, Morita spent most of his early years in the hospital with spinal tuberculosis. He later recovered only to be sent to a Japanese-American internment camp in Arizona during World War II.

“One day I was an invalid,” he recalled in a 1989 AP interview. “The next day I was public enemy No. 1 being escorted to an internment camp by an FBI agent wearing a piece.” After the war, Morita’s family tried to repair their finances by operating a Sacramento restaurant. It was there that Morita first tried his comedy on patrons.

Because prospects for a Japanese-American standup comic seemed poor, Morita found steady work in computers at Aerojet General. But at age 30 he entered show business full time. “Only in America could you get away with the kind of comedy I did,” he commented. “If I tried it in Japan before the war, it would have been considered blasphemy, and I would have ended in leg irons.”

Even though his Mr. Myagi character may not have been the most enlightening and high-quality depiction of Asian Americans in the history of American cinema, Pat’s quality as an actor and his status as an icon of Asian American culture are unquestioned. Here is a man who overcame two debilitating barriers in his life -- physical and then political -- to pursue his dream and to blaze a trail for other Asian American actors in the industry.

For that, all of us as Asian Americans owe Pat our gratitude and appreciation. Well done, Pat and may you rest in peace.

Last week, media such as CBS News, have been reporting that government officials have been looking to arrest former ’70s rock star Gary Glitter (whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd) on allegations that he had sex with two underaged girls -- a 12 year old and a 15 year old. There are reports that he was finally arrested trying to board a plane out of Viet Nam. One of my favorite sports commentators, Jim Rome, had this comment about this situation:

Gary Glitter is in some very hot water in Vietnam. Remember, Glitter is the guy who came up with the rock anthem, “Rock and Roll Part II”. This is the song that’s played in every sports arena everywhere. Anyway, I don’t think he’s going to be composing any more songs for a while, or ever, for that matter.

Glitter was arrested in Vietnam Saturday on child molestation charges as he was attempting to board a plane. Local authorities had been looking for Glitter for 2 days after he it was announced that he was wanted for questioning after he was accused of having sex with 2 girls, one 15, the other 12. If he’s found guilty of his crimes, he could face up to 12 years in the hole.

Believe it or not, this is the very least of his problems. Glitter could also face the death penalty if convicted of child rape, which would be carried out by a firing squad. Yes, you heard me right, a firing squad.

You know, I don’t have a huge problem with this. If he’s going to be touching 12-year-old girls, then I think a firing squad is an appropriate punishment. In fact, I wish we had that he in the Untied States. I bet a lot fewer 12-year-olds would be getting touched if people knew the punishment was a blindfold, a final cigarette, and a few bullets to the chest. Hopefully Michael Jackson has a trip planned to Vietnam in the near future.

I’m not sure if I completely share Jim Rome’s opinion but his sentiment is well taken. Child prostitution is unfortunately a big problem in several Asian countries. The CBS News article also notes that Gary Glitter was previous convicted of possessing child pornography in England and was permanently expelled from Cambodia a couple of years ago, for “unknown reasons.”

Perhaps Gary Glitter’s situation will make pedophiles think twice the next time they feel the need to travel to Asian countries to satisfy their urges.

The New York Times has an article on a topic that I know from personal experience -- more and more people (especially young families) are moving out of California due to unbelievably high housing costs and instead, are moving to cities in the Midwest, great plains, and south, where they can get a lot more for their money:

Last year, a half million people left California for other parts of the United States, while fewer than 400,000 Americans moved there. The net outflow has risen fivefold, to more than 100,000, since 2001, an analysis by Economy.com, a research company, shows, although immigration from other countries and births have kept the state’s population growing. . . .

Far more Californians are staying - for the weather, the landscape, the culture and other reasons - than are moving, but it is also clear that California is losing some of its attraction. . . . Some families say they have to make decisions based more on home prices than on jobs or family reasons. They end up with more space than they imagined, but they miss other things. . . .

Mr. Cannon and Ms. Dayton do miss California’s “culture and excitement and food,” he said. “We’ve been spending two and a half years trying to find good Thai food and still haven’t found it yet.”

The New York Times has an article that discusses the emerging popularity of several comic books published in Japan that contain rather stereotypic, derogatory, and hostile portrayals of Chinese and Koreans. One might initially dismiss these comic books as ultra-nationalists trying to appeal to a small niche, but as the article describes, they have actually become runaway best sellers throughout the country:

The two comic books, portraying Chinese and Koreans as base peoples and advocating confrontation with them, have become runaway best sellers in Japan in the last four months. In their graphic and unflattering drawings of Japan’s fellow Asians and in the unapologetic, often offensive contents of their speech bubbles, the books reveal some of the sentiments underlying Japan’s worsening relations with the rest of Asia.

They also point to Japan’s longstanding unease with the rest of Asia and its own sense of identity. Much of Japan’s history in the last century and a half has been guided by the goal of becoming more like the West and less like Asia. Today, China and South Korea’s rise to challenge Japan’s position as Asia’s economic, diplomatic and cultural leader is inspiring renewed xenophobia against them here. . . .

So far the two books, each running about 300 pages and costing around $10, have drawn little criticism from public officials, intellectuals or the mainstream news media. For example, Japan’s most conservative national daily, Sankei Shimbun, said the Korea book described issues between the countries “extremely rationally, without losing its balance.”

I find this development to be rather disturbing, but not entirely shocking. As many observers and citizens in Asia will tell you, unlike Germany, Japan’s government and its people have never fully come to grips with their acts of hostility and brutality against their Asian neighbors during World War II. Every year, a furor erupts over the visit of the Japanese Prime Minister to a war veteran shrine that among others, honors war criminals.

In addition, as the article also notes, for several decades after the end of WWII, Japan has enjoyed the status of Asian’s only economic superpower. But in recent years, the emergence of China, South Korea, and India represent increasingly significant threats to Japan’s economic dominance. Therefore, as sociologists will tell you, when there is economic or political competition, there is inevitably also going to be racial/ethnic hostility as well.

Unfortunately, this cultural rivalry between Japan and its Asian neighbors doesn’t look to be waning in intensity any time soon and in fact, looks to be intensifying. Hopefully these incidents will not affect the development and continuing proliferation of a pan-Asian American identity among us Asian Americans. In this case, it becomes even more important for Asian Americans and non-Asians alike to remember that being Asian is not the same as being Asian American.

Reuters has an article that describes how many in the American scientific community feel that their research, profession, and the idea of scientific investigation itself is increasingly under attack by increasingly political and religious ideologies:

“Among the most significant forces is the rising tide of anti-science sentiment that seems to have its nucleus in Washington but which extends throughout the nation,” said Stanford’s Philip Pizzo in a letter posted on the school Web site on October 3. . . .

Cornell acting President Hunter Rawlings said the dispute was widening political, social, religious and philosophical rifts in U.S. society. “When ideological division replaces informed exchange, dogma is the result and education suffers,” he said. . . .

In the past five years, the scientific community has often seemed at odds with the Bush administration over issues as diverse as global warming, stem cell research and environmental protection. Prominent scientists have also charged the administration with politicizing science by seeking to shape data to its own needs while ignoring other research.

Cornell President Rawlings is absolutely correct -- when political ideologies and agendas get in the way of academic knowledge and learning, all Americans suffer. Some may argue that “theories” like intelligent design should also be included in “academic learning,” but it’s pretty clear that it is not a theory, just a set of hypothetical propositions that can never be tested or proved/disproved.

I suppose it is almost inevitable that science/academics will be increasingly in conflict with contemporary conservative politics. This is yet another major front in America’s Culture Wars.