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Rainbow Six Siege - Azami (Michael Meandro) 

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Rainbow Six Siege - Azami (Michael Meandro) 

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"Rainbow Six Siege" is a game I haven't played for a few years, but I decided to check the most recent iteration of playable characters as I remember the American-mad game utilizing Asian stereotypes. It took me thirty seconds to find the most blatant example. Azami is obviously inspired by the "Dragon Lady" stereotypes we saw in "Slaying the Dragon", as the site describes her as possessing a "charm that can be deceiving". The inviting personality on the surface hiding a dangerous ulterior motive is essentially the foundation of the idea of the "Dragon Lady", and I found it surprising (although maybe I shouldn't be too surprised?) that this stereotype is still utilized in such a blatant fashion. #Orientalism #Gender #DragonLady

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The countries of Qurac and Bialya are heavily featured in DC Comics and they were major setting points for several seasons of the 2010 show Young Justice that aired on Cartoon Network. These are two fictional West Asian or North African countries (this is never made clear) Qurac and Bialya were made to represent any given SWANA country that is currently being invaded by America and the West in the news and they are used as such. They are never seen on a map, the one that is moralized as “good” and “the right government” is the one that lets American forces occupy it (Qurac) and the one that is moralized as bad is not bad for any material reason, like religious fundamentalism or the region having been largely destabilized by western interests, but because the dictator queen had mind control over her people. Here we see the trope of “orientals” not being able to think for themselves, and their ways being somehow “backwards” compared to the US. Moreover, the two countries themselves are just vaguely Arabic sounding, with the people who live there having indistinct “Middle Eastern” sounding accents, as well as the two leaders of the countries having vaguely Arabic sounding names and similar accents. To me, this is the ultimate abstraction of orientalism, they just homogenized all of the SWANA region into two countries and did not develop them at all.

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The majority of the song is in Spanish but throughout the video, there are some “Asian references.” The video shows Bad bunny medicating, him practicing martial arts with a Japanese and American flag behind him. He is seen having food at an Asian restaurant with chopsticks. Everything about the music video is problematic because it is using Asian culture as decoration because it serves no purpose to the meaning of the video. Then at the end of the song, it shows him as an anime character walking through a field of cherry blossoms. He sings in I believe Japanese. Which serves no purpose. It is another way of being able to say inappropriate things and not get in trouble because it is done in a foreign language. Which is seen as exotic and sexy.
# orientalism
#cultural appropriation

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Doctor Strange used to be one of my favorite movies as it was part of the Marvel franchise. It's intriguing time lapse into the multiverse makes such a movie day to love. However, in the Doctor Strange comics, the main character, the ancient one, is an old Asian man. However, in the movie, they cast the Ancient One as a white British woman named Katherine Matilda Swinton. Following such casting, there was backlash toward the director as he was accused of whitewashing. This example of whitewashing can continue on through hundreds of movies and television shows, Doctor Strange is just one of many examples.

#gender
#orientalism
#culturalprejudice
#whitewashing

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Afnan Haque - Jian-Yang (Silicon Valley)

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Afnan Haque - Jian-Yang (Silicon Valley)

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Jian-Yang is an immigrant Chinese programmer/entrepreneur and a key side character in the HBO comedy, Silicon Valley. Out of all the Asian characters in the show, Jian-Yang was the most overtly stereotypical, considering the fact that he speaks with an accent, has trouble communicating, has difficulty talking to girls, is nerdy, and works in tech. Not only that, but there is a subplot in a later season where Jian-Yang creates a copy of the main character's software and uses it to create his own copycat company in China (a reference to China's record of IP theft and malicious business practices). This makes Jian-Yang both a laughingstock due to his pranks, dialogue, emasculated personality, and contentious rivalry with his landlord Elrich, but also as a representation of Yellow Peril. Additionally, when Jian-Yang's landlord insults him, he often makes references to his race or nationality. Although Jian-Yang and his landlord have something similar to a Tom and Jerry type of relationship, it's difficult to see where the line is when it comes to making racist jokes vs. making jokes about race, as well as to what extent it makes it okay for a largely white writing team to be writing such jokes in the first place.

#yellowperil
#masculinity
#stereotypes
#tech

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Andrew Ng - To All The Boys I've Loved Before

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Andrew Ng - To All The Boys I've Loved Before

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The To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy has spawned a trio of bestselling young adult feel-good romance novels as well as a corresponding movie to each one. I’ve read both the books and the movies and these books provide what seems like the author Jenny Han’s Asian goal of assimilation. The stories revolve around Lara Jean Covey, a biracial half White and half Asian teenage girl with a white, All-American nice father and an absent mother—coincidentally with absolutely no cultural ties to her Asian identity. Lara falls in love with five different white boys, and has to pick up the pieces of the very realistic romances that precede after her sister accidentally sends her stowed away love letters. While the collection of movies and books do provide much needed representation, it could work on presenting in a more authentic way, relying less on "model minority" archetypes. #gender #colonialsavior #modelminority

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Top Gear Burma Special and the Idea of the Colonial Savior 

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Top Gear Burma Special and the Idea of the Colonial Savior 

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In this episode of top gear, the main cast (none of which are Asian) go on a road trip in Myanmar (a former British Colony). Throughout the whole episode, they only once refer to the country by the name Myanmar and just choose to call it Burma the whole time (the name it had when it was a British Colony).  The episode reflects this in the name.  They even state at the very beginning "They told us each to buy a truck and report with it to what the BBC calls the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. But everybody else calls it Burma". This gives the impression of the colonial savior about how things were better when they were colonized vs decolonized. Much like The Last Samurai, in this episode they go around belittling the problems that face the locals, assuming their Western origins will make these problems insignificant to them. Throughout the episode there are a lot of anti Asian jokes, including one in which one member of the main cast refers to an Asian man walking across a bridge by saying “There’s a slope on the bridge” while they are in Thailand. Slope is a British slur towards Asians.
#orientalism #settler_colonialism #colonial_savior

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In the video game Valorant you can play as the character Sage.  She is from China and she acts as the healer.  The healer’s role is not to play forward but to simply play defense and support the team.  In the Valorant community it’s understood that healers are supposed to be good starter players as their kits are easy to use and you don’t have to necessarily play tactfully.  You could also play as Jett, a young Korean character, and she is also a woman and her special abilities are involved with winds and swift fighting skills.  To me this recalls orientalist ideas because their abilities are heavily associated with the elements, but to an extent it is also infantilizing because the only AAPI characters are female skins with healing abilities or female skins who are meant to be swift and jump around while not doing the hefty grunting noises typically associated with FPS games.  Jett makes light squeaks and such as she lands and it is very evident that you are playing as a female character.

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Julia Kenny - Baljeet in Phinneas and Ferb 

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Julia Kenny - Baljeet in Phinneas and Ferb 

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In the Disney cartoon, Phinneas and Ferb, the only AAPI representation stereotypes a child of South Asian descent named Baljeet. Baljeet stands as a foil to the main characters, who are white and go on “cool” adventures. In contrast, Baljeet is depicted as very nervous, nerdy, and with a heavy accent. He is consistently bullied for his background. For example, his name is often mispronounced and made fun of. Some episodes make fun of or make caricatures of South Asian cultural practices (pictured above). Finally, Baljeet is depicted with the "model minority" trope by being pressured by his parents to always get high grades in school.

#culturalappropriation #orientalism #modelminoritymyth #racialtriangulation

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I watched Marco Polo when it first came out over a decade ago and to this day it puzzles me how ahistorical it was. In the show, Kublai appointed blind martial arts master Hundred Eyes to teach kung fu to members of his court and the show also depicted multiple concubines as knowing martial arts. However, kung fu was not widespread at the time and concubines and foot soldiers would not have known it. Even the name, “Hundred Eyes” reflects an Orientalist fantasy of martial artist masters being named after a dangerous animal or having extrasensory abilities. Hundred Eyes also regularly spouts “ancient Chinese wisdom” as well as nonchalantly defeating opponents with sight and chopping fruit midair.

The character Mei Lin represents the trope of the dragon lady. She is a concubine and thus sexualized but also uses this seduction for assassination. Thus she almost perfectly coheres with the trope: overtly sexual, untrustworthy, and mysterious.

Marco Polo is played as a classic white savior. When he first arrived, Kublai instructed that he be taught in falconry, calligraphy, archery, and martial arts, something that he masters in a few months.

In the finale of the first season, Polo helps the Mongols conquer Xiangyang, the last remaining holdout city of the Song dynasty and he teaches the Mongols how to build counterweight trebuchets. This help allows Kublai to defeat the season’s antagonist, which they were otherwise unlikely to do because of the city’s defenses. However, Marco Polo was not an engineer and the battle actually occurred almost a decade before Polo came to China.
#colonialsavior #hypersexualization #orientalism

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The story talks about four girls who are finding their true passion and are in the process of getting their friendship tested. However, Jane is the asian character who seems to be what the stereotypical idea of asians in america is, being forced by her mother to study, focus on science and get good grades. Moreover, as asians are usually portrayed, Jane confirms it with those blue streaks on her hair, as if those streaks means she is the rebel girl, especially with her changing how she dresses (like skirts, dresses, leggings, etc), wearing makeup and changing her hairstyle, all to fit into what is fashionable and trendy at the moment. Here this representation of what an asian girl is just confirms to the audience that they are daring, they are sensual in their own way, and portrays that asian woman as the rebel or villain but sensual person. Moreover, having Jane’s mother come drop her off, and urge her to focus on school, also confirm that there can be this asian success, due to the guiding of the west, and justifying that nationalism or feeling proud of the greatness of their country.

#orientalism
#gender
#hypersexualization
#antiasianviolence
#colonialsavior

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Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior and Cultural Appropriation (Jennifer FloresSolis)

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Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior and Cultural Appropriation (Jennifer FloresSolis)

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Here, Wendy Wu along with her family seem to have americanized and forgotten about their traditions except her grandmother. However, when she is visited by a Chinese Monk named Koyamada, he brings some of the traditions back and trains her to be able to defeat the spirit of an ancient evil Chinese dragon. However Disney and the director benefited from cultural appropriation, by bringing in what a Chinese monk looks like, what food they eat, how they talk (like with an accent for example), how they act and other representations of the orient. Moreover, the part where the chinese monk or Koyamada has to change to be accepted by the group that Wendy hangs out with, and to seem “cool,” he is also americanized, by changing his clothes, his hairstyle and way of talking. This part relates to how it justifies US imperialism due to the fact that it represents what is civilized, and what is not, and how people of the orient can be modernized too (that the west is helping and can improve them for example).

#culturalappropriation
#orientalism
#antiasianviolence
#settlercolonialism

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Nicki Minaj released a song titled “Chun-Li” in 2018, and the song and music video have many references to Chinese culture. She titled the song “Chun-Li” because Chun-Li was the first playable female video game character in “Street Fighter,” which is synonymous to her success as a Black female rapper in the music industry. However, it is harmful for Nicki Minaj, a Black woman, to embody the persona of an Asian woman. Nicki Minaj calls herself Chun-Li and in the music video, she is dressed in a modified, very revealing version of traditional Chinese clothing. This relates back to “Yellowface” which described how Asian women were hypersexualized and viewed as a forbidden desire. Nicki reinforces these stereotypes by dressing in little to no clothing. While Nicki herself embraces her body and feels empowered, she is taking power away from Asian women and reverting them back to their stereotype.

Furthermore, Nicki is also wearing chopsticks in her hair in a bun; in the lyrics, she says “I went and copped the chopsticks, Put it in my bun just to pop shit,” which is a distinct example of cultural appropriation. In addition, there are many neon lights in the music video and text with traditional Chinese characters, even on her arm as a tattoo. This is problematic because all of the decorations and fashion in the video are being used for aesthetic purposes rather than through a deep understanding of their meaning.

Lastly, in the chorus of the song, she says “Bitch it's King Kong, this is Kin' Kong... Call me 2 Chainz, name go ding-dong.” Even though she seems to be referencing King Kong the character, the words ending in “-ong” are reminiscent of the Chinese language, and as a result, it seems like she is mocking the language. This relates to the alienation of Asian people because their language, features, and everything about them are “unfamiliar” to white Americans.
#culturalappropriation #orientalism #gender #hypersexualization

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A mixed bag of hypersexualization of Asian women, Orientalism and cultural appropriation. Mulan’s Qigong reminds me of the mystic energy of a witch in the Middle Age; the “Loyal, Brave, True” slogan sounds more like the incantation of a sorcerer; Mulan’s fixation on honor is reminisce of knightly virtues. Moreover, Oriental women are portrayed as weak and docile. However, the story of Mulan is set in the Northern Wei Dynasty, a time when female warriors were quite common. The movie also puts a lot of emphasis on the blind loyalty of Mulan to the emperor (prejudice of the West: people in the East don’t enjoy “freedom”). However, according to Confucius doctrines, the emperor and his subordinates share a reciprocal relationship. In her efforts to create an Oriental heroine, the director only succeeds in restructuring the ancient Chinese philosophies from a position of power and appropriating strings of identifying elements from an exotic culture.
#Orientalism
#Cultural Appropriation
#Gender
#Hypersexualization

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The film generalizes “Brown culture” as a mix of South Asian, Middle Eastern, in addition to others. There is no acknowledgements of the identities as distinct. In addition, the creators of the film are all associated with the West, and they give Western-like features to the main characters, Jasmine and Aladdin, who are not meant to be portraying white characters. These features include lighter skin in addition to American accents, despite the fact that Jasmine is given shoes to wear that hold resemblance to “Indian customs.”  There is no consistency in the cultural customs the characters adopt. This is associated with Orientalism, where the East is grouped as a mix of customs set apart from the superior West. Ethnicities from Asian countries are not being distinguished from one another which reflects an attitude of dominance and one lacking respect for these different cultures. Additionally, the villain in the film (Jafar) is portrayed as having a beard and an accent, to set him apart from the two main characters, especially Aladdin, who is his sharp contrast with his more 'handsome' like features. This portrayal associates the term “Barbaric” to Jafar and the other “evil” characters who have "non-white" characteristics, which once again reveals an expression of dominance by "Western" ideals.
#Orientalism
#cultural appropriation

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Batman Begins and the "Far East" (Daniel Elkik)

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Batman Begins and the "Far East" (Daniel Elkik)

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The movie has Bruce Wayne go to the “Far East” to study forms of fighting and how to control his fear. Once his training is completed, he learns that Ras Al Ghul, the Oriental who runs the organization, actually had infiltrated much of Gotham’s society and is someone who is willing to kill in the name of Justice. The movie never refers to what he actually is. He has a Middle Eastern name and speaks a foreign language (which according to some forum posts might have been made up by Ken Watanabe who played him). By doing so, they clump the entirety of the East as the same Oriental, similar to The Cheat casually changing Haka Arakau’s nationality.  Moreover, Yellow Peril again is present with the Eastern man infiltrating society
#orientalism
#culturalappropriation
#yellowperil

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The Karate Kid is a movie produced in 1984 at the height of the Kung Fu and Karate craze in American culture. While it is an empowering movie for some, it ultimately highlights the white protagonist as he uses an Asian fighting style. The movie capitalizes on appropriated messaging and stereotypes of the Asian mystic to drive home its point. One can see this in the portrayal of Mr. Miyagi who is cast as a Japanese national with a heavy "Asian" accent even though Pat Morita, the actor, is American-born. The film relies heavily on cultural stereotypes and appropriates Asian culture while promoting a white savior. #whitesavior #Culturalappropriation #orientalism #culturalstereotypes

Published by Rafael Garcia

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The Karate Kid is a movie produced in 1984 at the height of the Kung Fu and Karate craze in American culture. While it is an empowering movie for some, it ultimately highlights the white protagonist as he uses an Asian fighting style. The movie capitalizes on appropriated messaging and stereotypes of the Asian mystic to drive home its point. One can see this in the portrayal of Mr. Miyagi who is cast as a Japanese national with a heavy "Asian" accent even though Pat Morita, the actor, is American-born. The film relies heavily on cultural stereotypes and appropriates Asian culture while promoting a white savior. #whitesavior #Culturalappropriation #orientalism #culturalstereotypes

Published by Rafael Garcia

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Frank Jereis- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

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Frank Jereis- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars was created in 2009, which was apart of the Grand Theft Auto series. This is a video game that features violence and simulation missions. The story base for this video game is a Chinese man came into the country to move into Chinatown. From his house in Chinatown, the man began to deal drugs and run crime assignments for unscrupulous Chinese business men. The cultural appropriation and settler colonialism so very clear here beginning from the fact that decided the Chinese man would live in a Chinatown!
#orientalism #settlercolonialism #culturalappropriation

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The TV series based on the Marvel Comic’s Iron Fist depicts a white male who is orphaned at a young age and resurfaces as a martial arts pro and studied the art in Mount K'un-Lun, China from Chinese Monks. During his time there he is imbued with an ancient power. He then folded the ancient power and title as the Iron Fist. Once he joins back into civilization he takes it upon himself to protect the world of New York’s Chinatown using the gifts he learned and gained. Throughout the series, the portrayal of a ‘white savior’ enters a community to protect and serve on the basis that the people in that neighborhood are helpless. For a TV series about a man who cultivated power from Chinese monks and is situated around Chinatown most of the cast are predominately white with the exception of the Asian female character. The series cast Asian men as either villains or teachers who propel the white hero into greatness, whereas Asian women exist as romantic conquests.
#culturalappropriation
#colonialsavior

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Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (Serena Romano)

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Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (Serena Romano)

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The film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior written by Vince Cheung, Ben Montanio, Mark Seabrooks, and Lydia Look who tell the story of Wendy Wu. She is an Asian American teenager that is visited by a Buddhist monk who tells her that she is the only one who can save the world from “Yan-Lo” she has some pushback but eventually agrees to help fight against Yan-Lo. The film portrays Wendy as more “American” than Chinese and throughout the film we see her learn more about her “Chinese heritage”. In doing so, we see many examples of orientalism as the “East” is being represented by the “West”. This can be seen in the Buddhist clothing worn and practices such as meditation and kung fu and sacrifice. We also see that Buddhism is made fun of in the film, one example is when Wendy refuses to learn from Shen if he has his robe on. We also see cultural appropriation when Wendys “white” teachers become possessed by the kung fu trainers as well as the other “white” people who became possessed by Yao-Lo. Since they are possessed by Chinese spirits, they “white” people are seen acting as if they are Chinese.
#orientalism
#culturalappropriation

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (orientalism, model minority) (Moris Goldshtein)

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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (orientalism, model minority) (Moris Goldshtein)

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In Marvel comics, Shang Chi’s father was originally Fu Manchu, but a retcon provided him with a new name while maintaining his characteristics. This was to capitalize on a growing trend in the 1970s that glorified Kung Fu. The film relies on Orientalism by showcasing Shang Chi’s homeland as a world removed from the common place that is the U.S. The people in his mother’s village are shown to be deeply rooted in their beliefs without a desire to change which makes them seem more special. Asians are worshipped and feared with the inclusion of the mystical village and the crime areas. The movie at first seems to fight against the model minority idea by showing Shang Chi and Katy as underachieving valets, but it then explains how Katy graduated with honors and Shang Chi speaks multiple languages while bashing them for their apparent lack of success.
#orientalism
#modelminority

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[example] "Fairfax" on Prime and the Model Minority Myth" (Alison Park)(ADD NAME IN TITLE)

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[example] "Fairfax" on Prime and the Model Minority Myth" (Alison Park)(ADD NAME IN TITLE)

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[share your notes here]

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During the two decades I've lived in Los Angeles, the Fairfax District has undergone a transformation from being known primarily as the center of the city's Jewish culture to being a lively, diverse and chaotic hub for retail pop-ups and so-called hypebeast capitalism.

It's easy to be perplexed by and a little derisive of the area's ubiquitous lines that sometimes wrap around multiple blocks and appear to lead into empty or abandoned storefronts. At the same time, you can respect the obvious passion of the people willing to queue up endlessly for the remote chance of copping a pair of sneakers or a T-shirt whose value will be appreciated mainly by the people joining them in the line or the strangers hitting "Like" on their Instagram post.

Airdate: Friday, Oct. 29

The culture is ephemeral, one week's hottest brand becoming the next week's historical relic, leaving these connoisseurs of clout ever chasing the next consumer high. In that respect, it's a natural complement to streaming TV culture, and it isn't surprising that streaming TV has been aggressively attempting to depict hypebeast culture - Netflix's Sneakerheads and Quibi's You Ain't Got These being key examples - even though the target audience barely recognizes "TV" as a concept.

Amazon's new animated comedy Fairfax is a fittingly ephemeral thing, more amusingly silly than deeply funny. It's visually energetic, humorously frantic and populated by an exceptional voice cast. It's much more invested in endless name-dropping than in being consistently substantive, but it does a good job of simultaneously respecting and mocking the world it's depicting.

Our point-of-entry character is middle schooler Dale (Skyler Gisondo), who moves with his parents (Rob Delaney and Yvette Nicole Brown) to Los Angeles so that they can take over his uncle's vape store, or something comparably flimsy that's mentioned in the pilot and then is never again relevant. Dale is from Oregon and knows nothing about social media or hypebeast culture until he meets budding filmmaker Truman (Jaboukie Young-White), teenage activist Derica (Kiersey Clemons) and aspiring multihyphenate Benny (Peter S. Kim) in line for a new drop from Latrine, a creator of scarce tchotchkes overseen by the mysterious Hiroki Hassan (Billy Porter).

Making new friends and being indoctrinated into their gang sets Dale on an eight-episode adventure that includes Chernobyl-themed music festivals, corporately sponsored Instagram verification parties and a multi-episode homage to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

It's easy to be exhausted and occasionally annoyed by the way Fairfax layers on the jargon and feels the need to explain the jargon to the uninitiated, who won't have much interest in the show anyway. The series gets away with this in large part because of the decision by creators Matthew Hausfater, Aaron Buchsbaum and Teddy Riley to focus on a group of young protagonists fueled by insatiable enthusiasm more than anything else.

Fill in whatever your own juvenile obsessions might have been - baseball cards, video games, a newly encyclopedic passion for movies or books - and you can relate to these kids feeling like they've discovered the coolest thing in the world even if the show is refreshingly aware of the limits to that coolness. The Fairfax crew might be willing to do almost anything to get in on the next big Latrine drop or to hit the next huge social media milestone, but they still have to go to church or practice the cello or go on school community service trips overseen by a principal (Colton Dunn) who's willing to let some discipline slide in exchange for an Instagram "follow."

A lot of behavior that would be obnoxious in older characters (see Sneakerheads, but also several grating recent Netflix attempts at adult animation) becomes appealing when perpetrated by kids who still need rides from their parents (see HBO Max's Ten Year Old Tom). This may be why some of Amazon's publicity for the show - built on the service's own clout-chasing and boasting about participation from brand Pizzaslime and characters designed by artist Somehoodlum - are obnoxious in press release form but reasonably charming onscreen.

The Titmouse animation cutely captures the general Fairfax geography, even if this is a fictionalized version of the neighborhood, one where you'll want to pause to take in all the jokey business signs, many of which - "Oy Vape," "Big & Tallis" - nod to the area's Jewish roots. Certain episodes, like the music festival half-hour, over-rely on disposable reference humor, while better installments lean more into character-driven comedy, among them several storylines involving Benny and his family that are written and performed in Korean. Early investment in character will, as shows like BoJack Horseman and Big Mouth have proven, give you a lot of latitude later for meta gags. I wish Fairfax had steered into that character-based focus a bit more in early episodes, but by the end of the season I saw real potential there.

The voice cast, full of precision-comedy-delivering talents, is capable of providing punchlines or heart as required. Kim, Young-White, Clemons and Gisondo are likable, and supporting work is provided by an outrageously strong group of performers, including Pamela Adlon as a burnt-out waitress at the Canter's-esque deli Schwimmer's and Timothy Simons as a Latrine henchman with fashion aspirations of his own. The community service episode, set at a retirement home, features the likes of Henry Winkler, Elliott Gould and Garrett Morris, while Shania Twain and David Strathairn are among the standout voices in the festival episode. After eight episodes, I still don't get the point of the talking pigeons voiced by J.B. Smoove and John Leguizamo, but perhaps they'll be somebody else's favorites.

The first episode of Fairfax should be enough for most viewers to decide whether they find this world amusing or designed mostly to make people feel old. I found enough of the former in the uneven pilot to carry me through a typical-for-the-genre up-and-down season with affection for these characters and their commitment to this silliness. I apologize if a tempered endorsement from an industry trade TV critic means that Fairfax is already uncool before it even premieres.

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During the two decades I've lived in Los Angeles, the Fairfax District has undergone a transformation from being known primarily as the center of the city's Jewish culture to being a lively, diverse and chaotic hub for retail pop-ups and so-called hypebeast capitalism.

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In her music video, "Bounce", Iggy Azalea is performing in Mumbai, India, wearing saris and bandis, while belly dancing. Iggy Azalea, as a white person, is at the center of all of the action taking place in the music video. She is depicted as the most important and powerful compared to the rest of the people in the film by overshadowing the people of India. Iggy Azalea is appropriating and wearing Indian culture in a Bollywood themed video. #culturalappropriation #orientalism #colonialsavior

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Iggy Azalea - Bounce (Official Music Video)

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Lucy Liu's portrayal of the character O-ren Ishii in the film Kill Bill (Edwin Stone)

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Lucy Liu's portrayal of the character O-ren Ishii in the film Kill Bill (Edwin Stone)

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I really love this movie and I love this character. However, I thought it was very peculiar how they casted a Chinese woman to play a Japanese character. Liu is obviously a phenomenal actress but there are so many talented Japanese actresses that could have done just as well in this role. To me, it feels like Orientalism because the casting is basically saying: "oh, the audience will not be able to tell the difference between a Chinese and Japanese women because they look the same." Casting aside, I think the appreciation and the detail that goes into portraying Japan and the other Japanese characters is very well done and makes me appreciate the settings and Japanese traditions represented. Samurai and Yakuza are part of the history of Japan and it was very cool to get an inside look at these things.