Dear Editor: I am writing about an Altoids ad I saw on 1st and Mission streets in San Francisco. I need some advice on how to make the public aware of this issue, and get the necessary authorities to take down the offensive display.

The ad features a Chinese male dressed in Chinese Dynasty garments, who is in a comical pose, holding a can of Altoids. The slogan of the cough drop is the same for many of the ads used by Altoids: The Curiously Strong Mint.

Not only is the image screaming back to the days when Chinese immigrants were depicted as devilish and conniving foreigners, but also the slogan carries the stereotypical message that Asian Americans are not strong — “curiously strong” reads “unusual because strength is not often associated with Chinese.”

However one chooses to read into the slogan, to me the graphics alone insinuate that Chinese are still thought of as weird, mysterious, exotic — not the norm.

Chuin Phang
Oakland, Calif.

Dear Editor: I was surprised that Kimberly Chun views the movie Pearl Harbor as a bigoted portrayal of the Japanese. In her article “The Dark Side of Bridget Jones,” (May 24), Chun made a reference to Pearl Harbor, claiming it placed the Japanese in a negative light.

With all due respect, any historian will tell you that the Japanese were anything but nice during World War II. In fact, contrary to Chun’s point of view, many movie critics felt Pearl Harbor was an inaccurate portrayal of history because it did not clearly show the Japanese as the enemies. Many complained that modern day liberalism has twisted history to ensure that no one’s feelings get hurt.

In fact, during World War II, the Japanese were enemies not only of United States, but also the Asian continent. It is very difficult to make an accurate movie of World War II without offending some Japanese or Germans. To make a movie about a Japanese atrocity is not a racist attack on the Japanese in anyway. However, it is an attack on the victims of the atrocity if the movie does not accurately depict the event.

Steven Li
via e-mail

 

Dear Editor: I read with great interest “Antenna Proposal Raises Some Ire,” (July 12). One key issue was missing from AsianWeek’s coverage, namely that the root cause of San Francisco’s poor cell phone systems may not be a lack of antennas but poor usage of existing antennas.

Reporter Avy Mallik mentions that these antennas emit radiation. The type of radiation involved, however, is neither the scary sort, such as x-rays and gamma rays, which will sicken and kill people quickly and miserably, nor is it the safe sort, such as infrared-C. Rather, it is medium-strength radiation, which we all receive 24/7/365, no matter where we go. Furthermore, one thing scientists know about radiation is that its effects are cumulative.

Mallik does not mention that other developed countries have capped allowable radiation at levels that are 220 times lower than U.S. levels, yet have better cell phone service than we do.

Pat Gerber
via e-mail

Dear Editor: Edward Liu, in his letter “Unequal Treatment,” (June 18), may be commended for first, acknowledging the racism that some Asians feel toward other Asians and then, excusing some of it by blaming racism as solely attributable to the colonial mentality.

As a Filipino American, moving from Cavite at age 11 to California in 1974, I have since traveled extensively throughout Asia, including China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, my native Philippines and most of Southeast Asia. Through my travels, I have sadly discovered that the Chinese, Koreans and Japanese have long held attitudes of cultural and racial superiority. They don’t like each other, for that matter, and while Westerners may have exploited these Asian-based prejudices, they didn’t create them.

Korea and Japan don’t fit into Liu’s example of countries long colonized and China was not affected by imperialism, but all three look down on “browner” Asians, like Filipinos, Thais, Malays and Indonesians as inferior domestic, unskilled laborers. That attitude was formed without help from the white man (though they copied the white man very well in assuming their imperial roles).

A niece of mine is engaged to a Japanese American man of whom my family is very accepting, already having a few daughters married to white men. But the Japanese family is disgusted that one of them would marry someone who is not Japanese. Additionally, the very surliness I encounter from Korean grocers is something I know other Koreans don’t encounter, and gives me some empathy with complaints expressed by African Americans. If more Koreans, Chinese and Japanese — and maybe more southern Asians as well — would be totally honest, they would admit that they feel superior to Caucasians as well.

The Han Chinese look down on Tibetans and Mongols, and the Japanese similarly discriminate against Okinawans and Ainus, as well as ethnic Chinese and Koreans who live in Japan. Even in the Philippines, you have Tagalogs who feel they are the most innately intelligent, Ilocanos who feel every other Filipino is lazy (“tomad”), and so on. Neither Americans nor Spaniards created these attitudes. We might blame other problems on conquerors, but attitudes we Filipinos have toward one another are of our own doing, and are played out by Filipinos living in the United States, as well.

Acknowledgment of racism of Asians by Asians is a healthy start, but it isn’t complete if we don’t also accept our own responsibility, rather than trying to place full blame on others.

Warren Trinidad
Alameda, Calif.