apparently the theme for the day is asian. in related news, going back to college!
found this... enlightening tidbit online (source):A few weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Life magazine published an article headlined "How to tell Japs from the Chinese." The Chinese, who were U.S. allies, found themselves mistaken for Japanese on American streets and treated rudely by angry Americans. Then Life came to the rescue, with annotated photos. The Chinese had "parchment yellow complexion." The Japanese had "earthy yellow complexion." The Chinese were "tall and slender." The Japanese were "short and squat." In their facial expressions, the Chinese "wear the rational calm of tolerant realists," while Japanese show the "humorless intensity of ruthless mystics." A person from China "never has rosy cheeks." A Japanese person has "sometimes rosy cheeks." The apparent message: If you feel compelled to angrily confront an Asian stranger, harass the one with the rosy cheeks.
i'm kinda curious what these annotated photos look like now...
in other news, chinese new year (well, lunar new year, so it includes vietnamese/korean new year too i believe) is on valentine's day this year.
this is apparently kind of a problem, because good asian children spend chinese new year with their families, and this clearly conflicts with the traditional valentines day festivities. also, with the whole family thing, chinese new year is apparently a bad/unlucky day to get married, because people should be spending time with their families instead of going to/being in weddings, which is bad news for those who've picked up on the western "oh, getting married on valentine's day, how romantic" vibe. also, bad news for florists, who usually get to cater to both the asians and the westerners, but this year have both big holidays on the same day.
if you ask me, there should be an overabundance of bad tiger-related puns on valentines cards. maybe pass out red envelopes with money and those little cards they used to give out in elementary school?
also, red will be everywhere everywhere.
and an anecdote:
so a while back, hannah and i were at the pastor's house helping them with their computer. main problem (at least, that we found)? when your antivirus expires and you don't renew it and your computer is suddenly telling you you have all these infections and should buy this program to fix them... don't.
anyway, we'd gone about lunch time, and the pastor's wife wouldn't let us leave without feeding us, so she was chatting to us about school and whatnot while we were eating. after talking to hannah about what fellowships are big in colleges over here (they used to be in california and other places) and asking about the asian fellowships hannah was in, she turns to me and goes, "so, you're in one too, right?"
"oh... no, not really."
"you don't have a fellowship?"
"well, i... not chinese people."
"ah," she says wisely, "i see. koreans. mmhmm."
"...er, no, white people."
"oooh." she nods, understandingly. "so there are no asian fellowships on campus?"
"i mean, there are, but they're... i just... don't hang out with asian people that much."
le sigh.
i'm kinda curious what these annotated photos look like now...
in other news, chinese new year (well, lunar new year, so it includes vietnamese/korean new year too i believe) is on valentine's day this year.
this is apparently kind of a problem, because good asian children spend chinese new year with their families, and this clearly conflicts with the traditional valentines day festivities. also, with the whole family thing, chinese new year is apparently a bad/unlucky day to get married, because people should be spending time with their families instead of going to/being in weddings, which is bad news for those who've picked up on the western "oh, getting married on valentine's day, how romantic" vibe. also, bad news for florists, who usually get to cater to both the asians and the westerners, but this year have both big holidays on the same day.
if you ask me, there should be an overabundance of bad tiger-related puns on valentines cards. maybe pass out red envelopes with money and those little cards they used to give out in elementary school?
also, red will be everywhere everywhere.
and an anecdote:
so a while back, hannah and i were at the pastor's house helping them with their computer. main problem (at least, that we found)? when your antivirus expires and you don't renew it and your computer is suddenly telling you you have all these infections and should buy this program to fix them... don't.
anyway, we'd gone about lunch time, and the pastor's wife wouldn't let us leave without feeding us, so she was chatting to us about school and whatnot while we were eating. after talking to hannah about what fellowships are big in colleges over here (they used to be in california and other places) and asking about the asian fellowships hannah was in, she turns to me and goes, "so, you're in one too, right?"
"oh... no, not really."
"you don't have a fellowship?"
"well, i... not chinese people."
"ah," she says wisely, "i see. koreans. mmhmm."
"...er, no, white people."
"oooh." she nods, understandingly. "so there are no asian fellowships on campus?"
"i mean, there are, but they're... i just... don't hang out with asian people that much."
le sigh.