popularity

There are two contrasting - though perhaps not mutually exclusive - arguments for the usefulness of popularity of X (X here can be anything - food, media, game, meme, etc. - consumed by an audience) as a metric of X's quality to which I subscribe:

I) In order for X to appeal to a sufficiently large population (arbitrarily, say n+1, where n is the size of the largest identifiable subcultural group), certain characteristics of X that would make it appealing to a certain subcultural group, but not to others, must be removed - it must be "watered down". Therefore, the more popular X is, the more watered-down it must be: the most popular rap music is going to be less edgy and authentic than more niche-targeted rap music, more popular movies are generally going to be more blandly generic than movies which were produced with no popular success in mind, etc. This is the broad appeal effect.

II) In order for X to achieve mass popularity, there must be some factor present within X that appeals to a broad population. The fact that it is so universally accepted means that the producers of X did something right - hit on some key factor, some deeply satisfying foundation of human experience - that allows it to have such broad-spectrum appeal. My friend Jason Latshaw argues as such in his blog, It's Show Business, Not Show Preference on Avatar's success amidst in-group disapproval. This is the universal factor argument.

In short: the broad appeal effect drives down the quality of any product X which is targeted to appeal to the largest audience possible, while the universal factor argument claims that any X which appeals to a sufficiently large audience has inherent in that appeal some factor of great value/quality.

I don't know how to resolve these - but I think they do go hand-in-hand in the wild. After all, while a case might be made for Soulja Boy as aesthetically transcendent auteur, those who can subscribe to such an argument without a wink and a nod are arrestingly few, as they ought to be. But at the same time, most of what captures the attention of so many must have some sort of genuine appeal; and one hopes that the universal skein threading together the thoughts of so many is not the superficial, but rather the deep, genuine, true.

Perhaps the two can be reconciled according to lines similar to these: authenticity must be paramount. That is to say: appealing broadly and seeking to appeal broadly are two separate beasts. To appeal broadly, one must strike an authentic chord with the audience - but authenticity, as with happiness and passion, is best sought by not setting out to seek it, but instead losing oneself in the pursuit of something noble. The broad appeal effect applies to media produced in a conscious effort to find broad appeal; but the universal factor argument obtains for media that finds that universal element - a key foundation of which is that it is produced genuinely, and not self-consciously ("self-conscious" here meaning created to serve a second-level aim ["to be popular"] rather than a first-level aim ["to be funny/amusing/moving/well-produced"]).

The question; and a thought.

The Question

After a respectable (or thereabouts) deal of reading and thought (particularly reflecting on Frank Chin's repeated critiques of Maxine Hong Kingston), this is the question that presents itself:

How to be American without being White? How to be "of Chinese descent" without slipping into reactionist sinocentrism?

Of course the cultural inheritance of The West isn't to be lightly discarded or vilified, nor is the East (or even the immigrant experience) to be mindlessly embraced and valued. The answers' typeface is far from black-and-white. But among shades of grey (not shades of greige), where does one alight?

(Hint: God is the answer. [No, this is not just a flip answer; Yes, this is still a Christian, and not only ethnic theory, blog, appearances to the contrary])

The Thought
That said, another thought occurs to me at the moment (A few minutes ago, I jokingly told a friend that tonight was my Asian-American Film Studies night): while I have previously been a proponent of the narrative-as-description(e.g., NWA's Straight Outta Compton can be justified as a descriptive, not prescriptive, outline - "not a glorification, but a presentation"), I am increasingly understanding of the need to present balanced-but-idealized portrayals in the media, serving the function of a corrective to unbalanced and two-dimensional portraits of Americans of Asian/Pacific Islander descent.

I had a fairly strong and disconcerting response to viewing, Monday night, Justin Lin's modern Asian-American crime drama Better Luck Tomorrow: there is a scene in the film, in a backyard party, where the core group of four Asian-American protagonists (portrayed as and by a varied group of Asian-American males) confront a group of White antagonists. After a brief fistfight, instigated by implicitly racial (but only indirectly racist) comments, one of the Asian-American gang pulls a gun on the lead antagonist. The subsequent beating of the White varsity athlete - leaving him bruised and bloodied, but not permanently physically harmed - both signals the core group's increasingly rapid descent into crime and materialistic excess, and foreshadows the nadir of the film, where a similar beating takes place: this time, against a spoiled Korean-American private-school kid; and this time, to the death (based on an actual incident in early-90s Southern California).

What disturbed me about my response was that, in both cases, Lim took care to portray the Asian-American protagonists as complex, well-rounded characters: morally speaking, they were on neither the high nor low ground. In both cases, there were senses of moral indignation and vindication ("getting back" at the White bullies; retaliating against the rich prep school kid who treats his girl like dirt), and also a sense of excess and transgressed boundaries.

However carefully-laid-out the mores of the film, my responses were affectively discrepant with my moral construals of the situations, and I have little choice but to admit that the distinction was likely simply because of the race of the tragic protagonists: whereas I would unhesitatingly condemn the actions in abstract, the fact that violence originating from Asian-American sources, especially against a Caucasian figure, is contradictory to my construal of the stereotype of expected Model Minority behavior (albeit a malformed and, in fact, highly inaccurate stereotype) seemed to serve as justification for my emotional consent towards the action.

This is, I willingly and mournfully agree, evidence of a shamefully akrasic mental process, the ramifications of which I'm concerned, especially regarding my vocation as a minister, a profession part of the call to which is love for the Other above the Self, love for all facets of God-created diversity, and striving on behalf of reconciliation, healing, and understanding (Gal. 3:26-29, among others). However, it is not, I would guess, a drastically atypical response to such media depicting violence from an oppressed (or, more often, nowadays, suppressed) minority directed towards the dominant majority.

One thing that I always wondered, watching the incredible HBO series The Wire, a bastion of verisimilitude and narrative-as-depiction-of-reality, was how so many Black voices (not only, or even particularly often, academic Black voices, but definitely a predominance of street voices, as seen anywhere from nahright.com to the Smoking Section) could willingly applaud explicitly villainous figures, or at least what seemed to me at the time to be: the drug lords (Marlo, Stringer, Avon), shooters (Snoop, Christ Partlow, etc.), and other Baltimore inner-city hood figures (the more complex morality of characters such as Omar Little, Bubbles, etc., is of course less cut-and-dry).

Of course, what I didn't understand at the time, on a subjective level (and am now only beginning to scratch the surface of, as I begin to analyze my personal response to depictions of violence by the oppressed), is that the characters are not usually being lauded for their actions: their actions are the signifiers of a larger motivation, that is, defying power and breaking stereotype. The problem is that reactive stereotypes - the clever, tactical, chess-piece-moving crime lord as a response to the dumb, happy, bumbling Sambo - are also a system of entrapment and limitation for minorities: we sketch out extremes, but fill in no grays, leaving room for the Huxtables and the Barksdales, but fewer and fewer Redd Foxxes in between [note: by "Redd Foxx," I meant, a sympathetically- and humanely-portrayed member of the honest lower class, i.e. in Sanford & Son. Not quite sure if this was too opaque a reference.].

So, another question: where do we locate the line between audience discernment and filmmaker's discretion? Certainly the filmmaker should feel at liberty to create Art: but, and this is a topic on which I've touched before (specifically, in my senior Philosophy thesis), what is the intersection between Morally Good Work and Good Art? In that previous work, I strongly advocated for the imposition of moral sanctions on a work of art (humor, in that case), due to both a priori and a posteriori factors that seem to fall in favor of morality being a determining factor for the quality of art.

But the question then becomes one of reasonable doubt, or burden of proof: does the filmmaker (or rapper, other musician, artist, etc.) presume an audience comprised of the Lowest Common (discerning) Denominator, and simply create art that is unabashedly moralizing? In such cases, films become preachy, and subtlety is specifized out of the equation.

But the alternative seems more and more distasteful: choices of presentation content and form are, implicitly, choices to condone audiences' viewing of particular material (for this reason, I recently started but could not finish both Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho [novel] and Jody Hill's Observe and Report [film]). Previously, I held to a reasonably extremely high view of individual volition: I acknowledged the real occurrence of akrasic mind states, but did not pragmatically concern myself over them. More and more, I regret this: both personally, discovering the truth of the saying that "once seen, you cannot un-see" certain materials; and pragmatically, in terms of furthering social progress and harmony, realizing (as I did when watching Better Luck...) that portrayals of immoral or unconscionable behavior, even when within the framework of a largely critical work, have the potential to grasp the imagination in a much stronger net than I had previously wanted to believe.

Of course, the potential remains: I may merely be particularly weak-minded, an outsider. I am familiar with the major arguments: kids know the difference between DOOM and the halls of their High School, and killing a few hundred digital representations in GTA IV won't lead anyone to the slaughterhouse. In fact, proponents of the gaming industry argue, such artificial violence, far from promoting violence, actually helps those in whom rage and anger have built up to let off some steam, destressing and potentially averting a future tragedy.

Previously, I was highly sympathetic to such claims; in fact, I agreed (as do I still now, though with greater qualification) that freedom of speech was a paramount right. But, as recent developments in the video gaming world have shown, freedom of speech, as with any other freedom, can be abused, not for the sake of art, but for the sake of commerce: in such a case, use of freedom does, I increasingly believe, actually constitute abuse or exploitation of speech, leading to negative social repercussions and, ultimately, indirect disenfranchisement of or disconnection from the Other (whether Otherization occurs by race, gender, or simple emotional distance). That such depictions constitute a legal problem, as statutes currently stand, is highly unlikely, I assume; still, my concern is not with the present legality, but rather the present ethics of the situation and, based on an increasing understanding of the ethical landscape, future policy decisions.

Several other areas remain to be addressed. Among them: a persistent question, so far as I understand, in Asian-American Film Studies is the pragmatic response to limited roles for Asian-American actors: marginalized as "wimpy businessmen... or villains with balls", several Asian-American actors have chosen to play the "villains with balls" (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, The Slanted Screen). It's difficult to blame them; but it's also easy to be troubled by this response, on both sides of the racial divide (Us and Other). The Mortal Kombat villain Shang Tsung is, while not emasculated, possessor of a twisted and villainous strength: it is easy to see in him the same archetype as a Stringer Bell or Avon Barksdale, wealthy, organized, manipulative boogeymen. The choice (and I pray it is a false dichotomy) presented to Asian-American actors seems to be marginalization or villainization: is it a wonder that many chose to be villainized?

And of course, one doesn't have to look far to see why an Asian-American presence was Othered and, subsequently, villainized: the widely-documented phenomenon of Yellow Peril was a racial agenda explicitly furthered by the spread of anti-miscegenation laws in direct response to (among other factors) a fear of competition by the Other.

As a friend commented on one of my several earlier posts, the point is not to find a scapegoat: White American dominance, Asian American complicity, and industry/industrial greed have definitely all played key roles in bringing the place of Asian-Americans in the media to their contemporary position. The point is, however, to find the roots of a pernicious construal of an entire section of American society, to see how it insinuated itself into wider American culture, and to find a healthy, healing, reconciliatory means of mutual affirmation and support.

it's been a long time

i shouldn'ta left you/ without a hot blog to get through

you know how it is, this is the life, right? I done been staying moving for the past 2 weeks nearly non-stop:

for the first week of Yale College's spring break, I was on tour with Living Water in western West Virginia (holla @ Williamson) and Kentucky.

After catching a midday flight back last Saturday, I got back into New Haven at 11:30 Saturday night, with just enough time to unpack, catch some sleep at home, wake up, pack, and head out for a full day of driving to the UCW Habitat for Humanity 2009 site, in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania (holla @ Greene County and my people in Waynesburg).

After a week of building (a brick....) howwses and such, we took the 10-hour drive back yesterday, I spent ~4 hours fixing my computer which got infected by the Trojan.Vundo rootkit, slept, went to church, and spent a thoroughly joyful evening watching tv, napping, and thinking about streetwears and hip-hops, right where i now sit.

bidda-yow.

Big ups to the NV$N brand, Rich Long, dallas to the penn, kalvin trancao for the busy works tee, edem glover the realest hip-hop head in Berea, living water, Darlene "Dusky" O'Toole, Peter Van der Beek, "Hank Leigh", Big Ray, Lil Ray, Bobby Ray, janice wong, and time to stay moving.

more to come, but for now a quick overview of all that i had going on over the few weeks immediately preceding my travels (2/2 - 3/3/2009):

Thursday02.05.2009

In mid-January, Niche started stocking Head Porter both
in-store as well as online, making them one of the few
stores on this side of the Pacific (if not the only store) to
do so. Having recently misplaced my old Manhattan
Portage cell phone case, I seized on their January free
shipping offer and copped my first Head Porter item.


"My Philosophy" (c) KRS-ONE.



Friday02.06.2009


"ALL YOU SEE IS... CRIME IN THE CITY"

Tails! tags at the corner of Wall and Temple, New Haven.

Saturday02.07.2009

I love to see it when my people get put on...


Jess Chang and I been down since my freshman year
at school. She is a real up-and-coming talent on the
burgeoning (?) classical music scene, and her string
quartet is making big moves... it don't stop!!


B and I lived together for two of my years in Morse, and he is captain
of the Yale track team this year!!! Sonn be lookin good [||] on that poster,
doing what he do best.

Sunday02.08.2009


Sighted at church: design FAIL.

"Halls" be lucky that Hallmark isn't more litigious than they are... or
are they??


SHERLOK and SOLE stickers, New Haven.

Monday02.09.2009

After kickin it with him for a while, I crashed at my boy
Ray's downtown place Sunday night; i emerged to find
the weather crisper'n a pair of white nikes.


I dare anyone to complain about Morse college's looks!!
This is proper, nah right?


Just a good day - I kicked it in the library all afternoon, just getting
some work done and enjoying the view.

Tuesday02.10.2009

More birthdays: both David Chen and Iris Yang. Chea!


You know how we do, got the mad mad crew up in the house (c) KRS.


Green


Before they were a couple... but you can see it right?


One of my favorite Hawai'ians






Don't never say the kid doesn't still have the wild style! Holla BACK!


Birthday cake pt 1...


And pt 2.






Bday kids

Wednesday02.11.2009


I stay fly with mad styles, but you already knew that,
didnt you?

And just as I was headed out the door dressed like that,
a package I been waiting for with anticipatory and
bated breath showed up on my doorstep! So you know I
had to take that, rewind it back... (google it)


Chea!


Man... Staple even has customized packing tape...
This sort of attention to the details is just one of the
many reasons why they are absolutely killing the
game right now.


What's inside??? let's see... stickers...


Thanks Jeff!


Oh... aiight... that's what's up... and all in my size, too.


Word!! Pretty much every CD out on Staple Sounds right now,
including some live CD's of Hiroshi Fujiwara (!) jam sessions.


Another pair of my favorite denims, the Stapleton
1975. Levi's 501 cut, 14.5 oz Italian denim. No details,
no branding except for a leather hip patch, just good
jeans. I bought a pair as soon as they first came out
two Fall seasons ago, and have worn them ~2-3 times
a week, almost every week, since... good thing that i
copped when i did, too, because the price has since
jumped from extremely reasonable (120) to what they
probably deserve (170-190, comparable to APC)...
but the price for these = $0!


And more... the DJ Muro collabo tee, and a short-sleeve... in the current
Springtime weather, this is gonna get some wear, you know it.

MAJOR props to jeffstaple, the reed space crew & staff, and twitter (i
guess...). This is how you build a client base, for life.

Friday02.13.2009

James' sister hit town and we went out for Thai Food, along with
other UCdubbers.



Sunday02.15.2009


Esther Lee's phone is adorable, that's all I wanted to say here.

Monday02.16.2009


Some stickers... SOLE is gettin up...


I unboxed my ALIFE "Frog Pack" Everybody Hi's
on account of the weather being so fresh that day.


Joints scraped my achilles tendon region all raw.
Moral of the story: either break in the kicks first,
or wear something OTHER than low-profile athletic
socks.


Some of yall get this.

Sunday02.22.2009

Having not taken a day off in about two weeks, I still had a long
week of intense work to look forward to, which unfortunately
included succumbing to illness, working through it, my condition
steadily decreasing, and ultimately, starting Thursday night,
deciding to spend the following 50 hours in my room in order to
recuperate and scramble together a sermon for Sunday. At some
point during that time, I decided to bounce to New Yiddy after
church on Sunday, to kick it with the fam out there.

First night I hung with Steve Yu.


Late-night dinner..... falafel in midtown... yea!


One of the dudes I look up to and have relied on the
most, no lies.

Monday02.23.2009


Steve and his roommate have a solid place in the midtown housing
jects

After an afternoon kicking it with an old man (blee), I headed uptown
to Harlem House, home of some of the rawest dudes I know in the
City: the NYU Navigators.


You know how they get down in the city!!!


After linking up with my boy Lando Schelrissian at
the house, we headed downtown towards NYU to
his evening Bible discussions and a leadership
meeting.


Shopping with big L


He takes care of his kids way bettern I do

Tuesday02.24.2009


Uptown baby, we gets down baby, for the crown baby...

St. Nicholas Place, Harlem! It's rough in the skreets!

before heading out of town, you know I had to drop
by SoHo... but I only had about an hour of downtime
before my train left for New Haven, so I had to
choose wisely... you know UNIQLO never ever
disappoints!


This is how they're displaying the upcoming S/S 09
line. In miniature!

After finally copping the short, light, well-fitting pea
coat that I've been looking everywhere for (but
finally found in Uniqlo... sadly in canvas, not wool),
I headed back to New Haven, refreshed.

Wednesday02.25.2009


POO. Best tag.


Nobu and I straight kicking it.


Nike SB "November Rain" Dunk Mids.


"In the Chaplain's office, there are no right answers
about religion, only really good questions" <= Public image FAIL. I've noticed that they've since changed that line in their printed materials.... good for them.

Thursday02.26.2009


You said it... i guess?


The colors are pretty ill. It seems that all of em (except blue?) are
representing on this plate. Way to go James!


Tiffs & Staple design denim & jacket.


My roommate David was kind enough to bring me by
the New Haven post office... I copped a NIKE SB suit
vest (yea they made those) and the seller made the
obvious gaffe of ordering signature confirmation. So
I had to haul myself out of my little world of foot
traffic and hoof it out there thanks to David's coupe.

Let me just put this out there: NO ONE who works is
gonna be home in the middle of the day to sign for
your package!!! [||]. Come on, people.

And having copped a sweet vest, you know I had to go
all out afterwards.




Oh yeah it's like that.

Frisday02.27.2009




My Sun Chips got wedged into the Berkeley basement vending
machine. The first time in years that I used a vending machine
wound up costing me a gold dollar and aggravation. SMH.


Moh lei made a cake for Ben's bday! Ausome.

Saturday02.28.2009


As I passed the Grove St. Cemetery, I noticed these
little birds. All chillin' and such.




Andrea hard on the grind...


Waiting for the bus back home, I noticed for the first time that Yale's
recycling bins are specially branded for them. Nice touch.

Sunday03.01.2009


AISON (?) tag, New Haven.

Tuesday03.03.2009

For my upcoming birthday, my parents copped me an
H&M slim fit suit, seeing as how ive been both getting
into more growed-up wears (don't worry, streetwear is
still the default!) and also seeing as how even so-called
tailored suits are usually too large for me.




Thanks mom & pops.