‘Banzai’ and Fox APA Executives
DEAR EDITOR: I am writing in response to “‘Banzai’ Premieres to Protests” (July 17) and “‘Banzai’ Boycotted” (July 24) by Irwin Tang. As all of us in the Asian Pacific American community are fighting for balanced portrayals in the media, I am saddened to have read such one-sided reporting in AsianWeek.
I am disappointed about the lack of research done on Fox executives Wenda Fong and Quan Phung. These two have been on the forefront of many important APA community issues.
The good that Fong and Phung have done for this community was widely ignored into the articles mentioned above. I truly believe it is a shame to have used them in protests as scapegoats or targets. We are so quick to judge and criticize without further understanding the ins and outs of the studio and network systems.
I truly believe that a journalist’s responsibility is to educate the public, specifically our own APA community, about those ins and outs.
Fong and Phung are two Fox executives among many who must be supported and continue to be our voices within the entertainment industry.
Jusak Yang Bernhard
Los Angeles
DEAR EDITOR: Just when you think it’s safe to go back out in the world, here comes another monster, another film, book or TV show that demeans and ridicules APAs.
Fox’s zany Japanese game show spoof Banzai is definitely a throwback to the past when actors, in or out of “yellow face,” portrayed APAs as goofy, oddly dressed cartoon characters.
Fox’s Banzai perpetuates stereotypes, not just about Japanese, but Asians in general. The show features Asians who speak in nervous, outrageous accents and who act bizarrely.
Since the TV show is shown in the United States, it can be hurtful to many APAs by continuing to show stereotypes and misrepresenting Asian pop culture. There is nothing wrong with humor or occasionally poking fun at different groups. But when the target group is misrepresented in the media, it is a problem. Shows like Banzai become one of the few ways that people view Asians and APAs. There is no balance in the mainstream media to offset this.
I can’t help thinking that some poor APA kid is going to be ridiculed at school. Or APAs at work or play might have to listen to more tales about the latest Banzai episode.
In the long run, I hope this lame TV show will run out of steam. Despite the Asian actors in the in Banzai, Fox’s comedy reminds us that the mainstream media stereotyping of Asians is not dead.
Burt Takeuchi
San Jose, Calif.
Wanted: Honest Chimp for Governor
DEAR EDITOR: I am a registered Democrat who signed the Gray Davis recall petition after making the mistake of voting for his reelection last November.
That the California governor had to fly to Chicago to pander to old labor union bosses of the AFL-CIO last week to save his job was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me.
Now it is “hasta la vista, Gray Davis.”
That said, I applaud Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, Rep. Loretta Sanchez, Mike Florez and the maverick Latino Democrats for bucking the Democratic Party machine and the old, entrenched Irish-Italian labor union bosses who have never been sensitive to Latino and Asian immigrant interests to begin with.
I find labor union apparatchiks who threaten retaliation against Democrats for not towing the line for Davis frankly offensive and unacceptable.
I can understand why Bustamante and the Latino Californians feel alienated from Gray Davis and the labor union bosses and asserted La Raza power.
Let’s face it - none of the party machine insiders, whether Democrat or Republican, have ever been particularly sensitive nor inclusive of “new Californians” (i.e. first-generation immigrants), nor have they elicited their ideas and thoughts in public policy issues that affect our state.
We immigrants are always at the bottom of the political food chain, waiting for the crumbs being discarded by the party machines.
How I wish and hope that Asians and APAs in California, instead of coat-tailing behind our namby-pamby political and community leaders, can take a page from the state’s Latino community to chart their own paths and break the stranglehold and monopoly of Democratic and Republican machines. How I wish March Fong Eu or Matt Fong would throw their hats into the ring and give the Democrats and Republicans a show of force of Chinese bloc voting?
On Oct. 7, there will be no less than three “new Californians” who speak with an accent on the ballot: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austrian immigrant, Republican), Arianna Huffington (Greek immigrant, independent) and Pedro Miguel Camejo (Venezuelan, Green).
I am ecstatic that all three have injected a new synergy and dimension that will shake California politics. All three immigrants, at least, are fighting from the outside for a new political culture for California.
For me, whether it is Schwarzenegger, Huffington or Camejo, the message is resoundingly one of disgust, despair and disappointment against “professional” and “experienced” politicians. What has experience gotten us? Instead of progressive politics, it is regressive politics.
As it now stands, any one of the three immigrant candidates or even just an honest chimpanzee will be better than Gray Davis. At least, an honest chimpanzee won’t pick my pockets or the state’s pockets.
Edward Liu
San Francisco