‘China Doll’ Wins American Hearts
May 22, 2008
Olympic figure skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi became winner of the sixth season of Dancing With the Stars this week. No surprise if looking at it from a purely mathematical standpoint. After all, Kristi received a ridiculous number of perfect 10s from the judges and earned the highest cumulative score in the show’s history. She also broke the men’s winning streak of the past four seasons. But does technical brilliance alone galvanize American viewers to phone in votes of adoration?
Dancing With the Stars, much like American Idol, is a show less about pure dancing talent and more about overcoming handicaps, like being overweight, deaf or having a prosthetic leg. The most charming of these seems to be America’s fascination with the man’s man retaining his masculinity in the face of the effeminizing dance; hence the four previous wins were given to these types of men.
Kristi’s Achilles’ heel, as the judges time and again pointed out, was her lack of passion during the Latin rounds. She was the go-to girl for the exuberant and fun jive for which she received her highest marks; but her tango received the lowest. Kristi herself had trouble getting into the passionate sexy dance and resorted to role-play where she was Kristiana and her partner Mark was Mercucio. Kristi’s win seems to reinforce America’s notion that men can’t be effeminate (read: gay) and woman can’t be sexy (read: slut), and that these stereotypes are the cornerstone to American mores. Of course, Kristi’s ethnicity only compounds this image of the unsexed “China doll,” which is why she’s the winner of America’s heart. …
On the other hand, Step It Up and Dance takes itself a bit more seriously; there is no audience participation, and the contestants are judged solely by dancing professionals. Unlike Kristi, Michelle “Mochi” Camaya seemed to thrive in this past week’s sexy Latin dance-off and was aptly rewarded for it, winning her first challenge. It’s this sexuality that the judges delight in, and fortunately, it’s the judges who call the shots. This sexy nymphet would not do well under the auspices of puritanical America. …
Dale Talde, the chef everyone likes to hate, seems to have finally exhausted his “I-Hate-Dale” streak as other Top Chef contestants pulled dirty tricks on each other to avoid elimination. It shouldn’t be surprising that Dale was viewed as a villain. Five wins out of 20 challenges should inspire a little jealousy, rage and hatred from the super-driven contestants. But it also shouldn’t be surprising that Dale’s ego is so large. After all, he “does his own thing” and is a model of self-reliance. But at the end of the day, for those who are too self-reliant (as many second-generation Asian Americans are), who’s left to congratulate you on the job well done? Only your lonely self and your equally lonely ego.
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What is the big deal. Christie does not represent Asian. She is pretty much American. In fact, we do not have too many Asian women who speaks up for our culture and people. All those who claim to represent our culture are either married to American and live an american life style. I do not see Christie at many Asian events speaking for Asian and supporting Asian culture.
As for the Asian men, not many can compare to the women. There seems to be a lot more successful women inthe entertainment business than men.
“There seems to be a lot more successful women inthe entertainment business than men.”
That’s because the entertainment industry only wants asian woman. No white man want to see an asian man sucking on a white woman’s tongue.