What Jeremy Lin means to Asian-Americans

Palo Alto, CA native and current Harvard basketball star Jeremy Lin had a great weekend. He hit a running 3 pointer at the buzzer to allow his Harvard team to stun William & Mary 87-85. Interestingly enough, he was also just featured in an article on Slam magazine's website.

Links here:

Jeremy Lin - Buzzer Beater highlights

Slam Magazine Feature on Jeremy Lin

As an Asian-American AND a basketball fan, I am thrilled that Jeremy Lin is having success on the basketball court at Harvard. I am definitely curious if Jeremy can play in the NBA in the future. While it's unfair to put a lot of burden on Lin's shoulders, I think his success at Harvard (and hopefully in the NBA in the future) will indirectly help Asian-Americans in many ways. Here are some of the ways:

- Changing media representation and stereotypes about Asian males

For whatever reason, Asian males have been stereotyped in the media as geeky and unathletic. Why this is the case is unknown. The fact that Asian representation in major college and professional sports (baseball, basketball, football) is not all that high does not help. When it comes to athletics, Asians are usually not the first people that come to mind.

Jeremy Lin breaks a lot of these stereotypes. First he's playing basketball, a sport that is sometimes looked at as a primarily African-American sport. Secondly, he isn't your typical "short" Asian standing at 6'3" tall. Third, he isn't just a bench warmer. He is a starter for the Harvard team and earned All-League and MVP honors.

- Changing Asian's perceptions about sports

Asian families are really practical. Parents are usually found encouraging (pushing might be the better word sometime) their kids to study hard, get an education, find a job and earn a lot of money. The downside to this is that when the academic demands become too great, parents force their kids to drop some activities. The first activities that usually get dropped are sports. For some reason, certain Asian parents feel that sports is for fun but is not a priority when compared to education. As many Asian kids can attest to, Asian parents always encourage kids to study practical subjects like Accounting, Finance or something in the medical field.

Thus many kids who may have a talent for sports get pushed to study instead. They never get a chance to develop their talents. Jeremy Lin's success in basketball at Harvard may help change that. Harvard is an elite university that DOES NOT offer athletic scholarships. While Lin is a gifted basketball player, the fact that Harvard accepted him into the school means he was a smart kid as well. While I don't know how Lin is doing at Harvard, I think he has proven that sports and academics CAN co-exist, even in college. Asian kids should not longer aspire to simply be an accountant or doctor. They could also dream about being a college basketball (or other sport) player like Jeremy Lin. I would also hope that Asian parents allow their kids to pursue professional sports as a career as well.

I'm going to talk more about this point in a separate post later this week.

- Asian-Americans DO EXIST!

It has been great that Asian-born players like Yao Ming and Yi Jianlian (among others) have made their way to the NBA. As great as it is to have Asians represented in the NBA, these players do not have share or understand the Asian-American experience. Those of us who were born in the United States have vastly different experiences than someone who has lived in China their whole lives. When Yao or Yi speak, they represent "China" but not "Asian-Americans". Yao or Yi cannot understand how it is to be a minority in a country. They don't understand how racism and stereotypes about Asian-Americans exist. The Asian-American experience is one thing that is nearly invisible in the United States. Fortunately many schools have Asian-American Studies courses and many books have been written.

Jeremy Lin could be the bridge to shed light on these experiences. Jeremy may look Asian like Yao or Yi but he is a full-blooded American. If Jeremy can make it to the NBA, he may have a platform that allows him to discuss how it is to be an Asian-American that no other person has ever gotten (short of Bruce Lee).

America's Best Dance Crew - Martial Arts Challenge

I just finished watching this week's episode of the 4th season America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC) on MTV. This week was the Martial Arts Challenge week. The dance crews had to incorporate moves from various martial arts styles (Kung Fu, Karate, among others) into their dance choreography.

Alas, it appeared the challenge made things difficult for the dance crews. The first several dance crews struggled to incorporate the martial arts moves into their dances and were called out for it by the judges. Ironically, it was the final two crews that performed did the best in incorporating martial arts in their dances. Unfortunately, these last two crews were also up for elimination!

While the challenge may have hurt the dance crews competing tonight, I think it was a good idea. The show had Steve from Quest Crew (winner of the 3rd season of ABDC) present the various martial arts styles to the dance groups. Judging from the reactions of some members of the dance crews, it was clear they had no idea of what some of these martial arts style were.

It was great that MTV had Steve explain the various martial arts styles that exist. Most people are aware of martial arts in a general sense. They may have seen a Jackie Chan, Jet Li or Bruce Lee movie or watched a mixed martial arts fight. However, most people don't know the difference between Kung Fu, Karate or Muay Thai (three of the styles presented today, among others). Martial Arts is an important part of Asian culture and it was great to see this presented on TV to a large audience.

It may have been a conscience choice by MTV because the past three seasons of ABDC have been won by Asian-American dance crews. They may have been playing to the large Asian audience that may be tuning in. Alas, the irony is that the only all Asian/Asian-American dance crew part of this season's ABDC was eliminated during the first week. However, there are some Asian-American members that are part of the other crews.

While I don't claim to be a big hip-hop dance fan, I have tuned into the show because it was great to see Asian-Americans represented in something they are not known for. Asian-Americans don't get a lot of exposure in prime-time TV but ABDC is one of those exceptions.

Lastly, I think ABDC is the best reality show out there due to it's diversity. It shows people of all cultures doing what they love (dance) but also interacting and working together. I think ABDC has proven that people do not care who is performing as long as they are entertained. I hope that network TV and movie executives pay attention to this in the future. We have a big melting pot in the United States but it sometimes is not accurately represented in the mass media.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard - Controversy

The Angry Asian Man blog posted this today:
http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/08/paramount-doing-damage-control.html

According to the blog posting, Paramount Pictures has requested media outlets remove all trailers for the movie The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard which depict lead actor Jeremy Piven spouting some Pearl Harbor and Anti-Japanese rhetoric to motivate his sales force and then actor Ken Jeong gets beat up. This may be in response to protests which were held at Paramount Studios on Friday by various Asian-American groups.

Here's another Angry Asian Man blog posting on the trailer in question:
http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/08/hate-crimes-for-fun-and-laughs-in-goods.html

While I have seen the various advertisements for the movie, I wasn't really interested in the movie and never watched the trailer. Because of the controversy, I decided to watch the trailer that included the scenes described.

If you want to watch, the trailer is still on Youtube here but no guarantees it will remain there:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeZMNxB0BOQ

My take on the scene? While I am not personally offended like many people are, I think the scene itself was unnecessary. The anti-Japanese rhetoric brings up bad memories for many people. One group of people would include the many Japanese Americans who were subject to internment during World War II. The other people who may be upset would be the folks who lived through the 1980's. Many American auto workers (non-Asian I have to add) did not like the "Japanese taking their jobs away" because Japanese cars grew in popularity at that time.

This brings up the biggest problem with the scene. Actor Ken Jeong (the only Asian in the scene among the many people) gets beat up after Piven spouts his rhetoric. Many older Asian-Americans remember the case of Vincent Chin. Chin was beat up and later died when a couple of American auto workers mistook him for a Japanese person.

Wiki will do a better job of explaining the Vincent Chin case than I can: Vincent Chin Case

I think many people (Asian and non-Asian) may also think the scene is non-offensive, they say so without knowing the history of Vincent Chin and the memories that is brought up by this scene. Plus, there is a question to be asked:

What if anti African-American rhetoric (the "N" word) was said and a African-American salesman was beat up?