Source MedillNews

In his popular 1881 guide to home decorating, Clarence Cook praised “Oriental” furniture and ornaments as the perfect way to garnish the average American home. He admired the “handsome” Eastern rugs, “picturesque” Chinese bamboo chairs and the Japanese art, furniture, scrolls and fans that were “so perfect for decoration.”

The 1800s and early 1900s—despite the mounting anti-Asian sentiment at the time—illustrates an era when everyone in America was screaming for Chinoiserie and Japonisme.

Fast-forward to the new millennium. Enter chow mein, sushi, herbal medicines, Chinese tattoos, feng shui, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and, of course, Pikachu.

The fascination for things Asian is just as fervent today as it was a century ago. America’s commercial culture has ensured as much through clever marketing strategies. But when hip-hop artists and NBA players flash Chinese tattoos on their bodies and Madonna takes on a Hindu façade to create a fashion statement and the cast of the “Matrix” embraces kung fu techniques for survival, what does it mean for the Asian-American community?

Although these trends can be seen as a jump toward favorable reception of Asian-Americans, they can also create limits to this very acceptance. Critics say that the superficial nature of pop trends can leave people with incomplete knowledge about Asia and Asian-Americans, which may fuel existing stereotypes or even produce new ones.

“They’re invented traditions,” said Tracy Pintchman, professor and director of Asian-American studies at Loyola University. “There’s nothing really authentic about these [Asian trends]. It’s a very superficial engagement with an imaginary Asia.”

“It’s as if the commodification of [Asian] things requires a kind of essentialization of difference, which is at one hand helpful, but, left as mere essentialisms, are ultimately destructive,” said Thomas Kim, a doctoral student and instructor of Asian-American studies at the University of Chicago.

Since 1990, the Asian-American population in the United States has increased by 63 percent, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. More than half of the Asian population lives in just three states: California, New York and Hawaii.

Although Chicago has a relatively small Asian-American population compared to the major cities on either coast, the population has increased in size in the last decade. Chicago has the seventh-largest Asian population in the country. According to the U.S. Census, 140,517 Asian Pacific Islanders were living in Chicago in 2000 compared to 104,118 in 1990. In Illinois, the percent of Asians grew from 2.5 percent in 1990 to 3.8 percent in 2000.

As the Asian-American population and popularity of Asian things have proliferated, so has the number of Asian-owned businesses in the state and city. According to the most recent census data available, the number of Asian-owned businesses in Chicago increased from 8,027 in 1992 to 11,576 in 1997. In Illinois, the number went from 21,743 in 1992 to 36,857 in 1997.

Of course, these figures do not reflect the number of non-Asian-owned businesses that carry Asian or Asian-inspired products or services. For example, Urban Outfitters, a national apparel and home décor store, regularly sells Asian-motif trinkets, Buddha statues, bonsai trees, pagoda lanterns and bamboo-beaded curtains. Urban Outfitters’ corporate office in Philadelphia declined to comment on product trends, citing company policy.

“Asian-related businesses are certainly flourishing in this city,” said Pintchman, who has resided in the Chicago area for 11 years. “There’s no question about that.”

It is no question that many businesses have benefited from this Asian mania. For example, Chicago’s Chinatown saw tourism triple from about 2,800 people in 2001 to 8,500 last year, according to Jimmy Lee, executive director of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. The tourists are usually non-Asian, he said.

As pop culture icons and blockbuster movies incorporate Asian styles and cultural elements to spice things up, such factors become powerful commodities in the market. Along with the undeniable influence of Hollywood trendsetters, there is also a general romanticism about the East that further stimulates the hunger for Asian objects.

“It’s the lure of the exotic,” Pintchman said. “There’s a kind of romantic fascination with the ‘mystic East.’ There’s a lot of mystification of Asia. I suspect most people when they pick up books about Asia are interested only in things like religion, feng shui, alternative medicine.”

Feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of coordinating space for the most favorable energy flow, has become a good friend of many Chicagoans. Patty Par, feng shui master and owner of the Feng Shui Chicago Center in Irving Park, says more and more white businessmen are seeking her $150-an-hour consulting services.

“Two years ago, I might have had 15 Asian clients and five whites in a typical month,” Par said. “But now, it’s half and half. It’s gotten really popular in the last two years because so many people witness celebrities and famous businessmen on television who acknowledge that they apply feng shui.”

Pat Iwan, who runs a firm called AAA Feng Shui-Chicago, says that out of the 200 clients she serves during an average year, the majority are white. “I find that most of them are drawn to the mysticism of it all,” she said. “People are just drawn to the unknown.”

For Tatu Tattoo, a tattoo parlor in Wicker Park, nearly 80 percent of its daily clientele seek Chinese or Kanji (Japanese) characters to embellish their bodies. And again, most of these customers are not Asian. “Probably 95 percent of the customers who get Asian-inspired tattoos are non-Asian,” said Omar Bates, artist and manager of Tatu Tattoo. To many of the customers, the Chinese characters carry not only an aesthetic appeal, but also possess a mystical quality that patrons desire.

“A lot of people say they want these tattoos because the average person can’t read it,”

Bates said. “But without a doubt, many people do it because it’s just cool.” He also pointed out that when henna tattoos—the ancient Indian body art that Madonna popularized in the late 1990s—were the rage, his parlor would receive calls every single day from people inquiring about them.

However, the hip and cool only reaches so far. When it comes to discrimination and sensitivity issues, many say such popular cultural trends do little to prevent such phenomena.

“Obviously, a recognition of Asian-American pop cultural forms helps establish legitimacy for the Asian minority,” Kim said. “For example, it isn’t so foreign [anymore] to use chopsticks at ‘Asian’ restaurants nor is it odd to have sushi for dinner.”
But America’s commodification of things Asian is more complex than enjoying raw fish and using chopsticks.

“Much of the force of popularity is constituted by desire,” Kim said. “And we tend to desire things Asian based on somewhat damaging ideologies about sexuality, imperialism and race. In films, for example, women such as Lucy Liu play roles catering to the utter femininity of the Oriental. And Jackie Chan with his accent and acrobatic martial arts reactivates a clichéd model of Asian masculinity.”

A prime example of Asian mania gone sour occurred in April 2002 when Abercrombie & Fitch faced nationwide criticism after introducing a new line of T-shirts portraying more than century-old caricatures of Asians as laundrymen, so-called "coolie" laborers and rickshaw drivers.

One shirt had read “Wong Brothers Laundry Service—Two Wongs Can Make It White,” with two slant-eyed men smiling. One of the graphics mixed in an illustration of a Chinese restaurant with a Japanese word and reference to a Vietnamese prostitute. A different shirt said, “Pizza Dojo—Eat In or Wok Out,” while another shirt featured a picture of a Buddha and read, “Abercrombie and Fitch Buddha Bash—Get Your Buddha on the Floor.”

The Asian-American community reacted strongly to the shirts, crying against the stereotypes and trivialization of Buddhism. This ultimately led the Ohio-based company to pull the shirts off their shelves. Hampton Carney, the company’s spokesman was quoted in various media outlets saying that Abercrombie was “very, very, very sorry” and that it had “never been our intention to offend anyone.” They were merely trying to add humor and levity to their clothing line, he said.

But humor does not work if people do not know the history behind the parody, Asian-American activists and scholars say. While the history of black slavery is found in any textbook, many people never learn about the bigoted treatment of Asian-Americans, despite the minority group’s existence in the United States since the early 1800s.
The primary problem with exoticizing and commodifying Asian religions and cultures is that people no longer feel that they need to understand more about them, some Asian-American scholars say. Buddhists wear prayer bead bracelets not as fashion statements, but to meditate and worship Buddha. How many people sporting these now mass-produced bracelets would recognize this religious background?

The acceptance of Asian-Americans and their cultures is limited to the exotic, mystic and ancient, Kim said. “The Orient is figured in our national imagination as a place without change, embedded in ancient traditions, and available for the West to cite continually as a marker of difference,” Kim said.

“The shallow parts of Asian cultures are constantly romanticized and hyped up in the media and in this market economy,” said Jino Lee, 20, of Arlington Heights. “But when white people hear Chinese people speak Chinese, do they think they’re chic and stylish? No, because Asians are still seen as strange, weird foreigners.”

But sometimes, people need to be given the benefit of doubt. While the influence of popular culture may always lurk over people’s heads, the mere fact that more and more individuals interact with Asian-Americans on a daily basis may spark genuine interest in Asian cultures.

Par, the feng shui master, points out that a good number of her white patrons were introduced to feng shui by their Asian-American friends.

“There’s been a tremendous increase since 1965 of Asian immigration,” Pintchman said. “More people have friends, neighbors, coworkers who are Asian. People are more likely now to have relationships with Asians.

“That’s another important vehicle that has less to do with the mystic marketing of the East. Just the everyday encounters with people from Asian cultures stimulate non-Asians to find out more about the cultures.”

Besides, some Asian-Americans enjoy the pop culture trends. “It’s great that we’re making progress,” said Eugene Chang, 21, of Naperville. “It’s a start, if nothing else. At least we’re getting recognized.”

And of course, there are the numerous Asian-owned businesses that gain significant profits from the popularity of Asian items and concepts. Chicago’s Chinatown has been trying to advertise more of their restaurants in the city’s major papers, knowing that there is more interest.

“Our focus is to increase the number of tourists,” said Lee, of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. “A lot of these people’s initial feelings about Asian or Chinese cultures may be superficial, but we try our best to help them learn about what the cultures are really about.”

So, while it may be difficult to decide whether Pokemon and Buddha T-shirts will ever help Asian-Americans socially and politically, the challenge is there to work beyond the commercial allure to achieve overall acceptance.

“Ultimately, it’s about how we ourselves negotiate the cultural differences that are presented to us,” Kim said. “Perhaps finding a way to collectively laugh at the misrepresentations about Asians wouldn’t be a bad start to destabilizing ideological forms that make the Asian ‘Asian’ in America.”

Comment from original article publication

The dilution, distortion, and misinformation about foreign cultures is a permanant aspect of cultural diffusion. Its not a racism issue. Look at what has happened to St. Patrick's Day and Macaroni and Cheese, and how long the irish and german cultures have had to assimilate into the US. This isnt a point of activism, its a point of cultural realization. Its a topic for academic sociology.

We need to pick our fights with real issues, not cry over the obvious fact that culture will not preserve its authenticity.

I thought it was a well balanced article encompassing academia, activism and business regarding trends. I don't interpret anyone as crying but perhaps that's me. While I don't agree with nearly all activist causes I usually understand their underlying argument. The foot traffic increase to Chinatown businesses itself is significant.

Just something I've learned through my experience. I'm not a huge activist so I leave it to others that are good at it and actually enjoy it. They only seem extreme because they have to watch full time in order to stay organized and pass on info to others in a timely manner. If it wasn't for activists I wouldn't hear about much of the news concerning Asian Americans. Like I said, I don't always, or perhaps often, agree but I also put them into context. I have friends on all sides of it. Some are the purveyors of Asian trinkets or foods who depend on customers and trends and others hate it because their livelihood is somewhat hampered by people's perceptions of them based on superficial trends and/or stereotypes. It's all easier if you're swimming with the current I suppose.