Here’s the update on the Miley Cyrus debacle.
1. Miley Cyrus takes non-racist picture with Asian people.
2. Miley Cyrus gets slammed with a $4 billion lawsuit.
3. Margaret Cho dedicates a song to Miley Cyrus (Hey, they have the same intials! … similarities end there.)
My little sister, Jelly, used to love Hannah Montana. She had all the chapter books (you know, the ones where publishers basically recap the episode, print it out in 38 font, stick a glittery cover on it and sell it for 8 bucks at school book fairs). She blasted “If We Were a Movie” through the headphones of her Mickey Mouse Mp3 player, while dancing around the living room with an imaginary microphone tightly held in her chubby fist.
Now she’s in sixth grade. She refuses to wear pink, replaced Mickey Mouse with an ipod, plays Coldplay on her electric bass, and recently informed me that she no longer “plays” with her friends… she “hangs” or “chills” with them.
Here’s my question.
If my little Jelly has managed to mature into a too-cool-for-school hipster in the blink of an eye, how long will it take for Miley Cyrus to grow up?
Cyrus is 16. Which is old enough to know making “chinky eyes” is not just making a “silly face” (which is what she claimed she was doing). She’s also experienced enough to know that her life is not private, and that many little girls look up to her.
With all of that said, $4 billion seems extreme. While I doubt my parents will be recieving $4000 in the mail anytime soon, the suit definitely makes a statement. The Asian community isn’t going to be pushed around.
Yay.
This is a very interesting issue.
Growing up in the nineties, I noticed that the presence of APIs in the media was different from what it is now. Now, APIs have the opportunities (especially younger ones, usually high-school aged to college-aged) to use YouTube to present whatever talents they want, and in some instances, be famous.
Asian-American children growing up in this decade have many opportunities to see other Asian-Americans on YouTube. They get to see themselves in ways that the nineties were limited to: the general stereotypes of Asian-Americans such as being too smart or unathletic or too technical. Now, you have people like Wong Fu Productions or Jennifer Chung, KevnJumba, David Choi, etc..
Maybe I’m just overexaggerating the exent of how many youths under age 13 use YouTube (I don’t interact w/ many people that age very closely anyway), but you get the idea. APAs under age 13 don’t have to search for indie Asian-American films (limited to those who have experiences w/ Asian-Am. Studies/ethnic studies) to see themselves anymore. Times have changed w/ YouTube.
What does this have to do with Cyrus?
I personally believe that this issue is not a big deal that APIs should worry about. They have many, many opportunities to see themselves in bigger, more better ways (hey, if some Asians really do have small eyes, they should be proud of it and try to display their beauties on YouTube; I’ve seen it before).
Maybe I’m not seeing the other side clear enough (I’ve only been made fun of once because of “small eyes”, but the guy was an idiot anyway and I forgot about him, and life is still good for me), but the closest thing that must happen to Cyrus is some APAs talk to her about why this issue is important to understand, so that she can stop and think. Kids her age obviously do not get any Ethnic Studies classes (unless you are at Mission San Jose High, but that’s a different story). Demand her to explain why her mistakes were wrong.
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Speaking of the Asian guy on the Cyrus picture, I wonder how old the guy is. Then, I realized that I have Asian friends who do laugh when they see/hear one of their friends imitate a “fobby” Asian accent on few instances, and they don’t feel bad or anything. I really don’t think these sort of things are a big deal, if you know yourself you can make a difference. You have YouTube, which, as Jeff Yang has stated on SfGate, as a new form of medium for APAs (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/05/DDIF113834.DTL).
I acutally do want to hear that Asian guy’s response.
+ edit; the demand part for Cyrus should also be posted on her blog.
On second thought (wow, a triple post), I realized that there are also APAs in other parts of the US that could be hit by this, and this issue is a bigger deal than I thought it is, speaking as a Californian.
Hi hb editors! great job on the blog, I so glad you guys have more of an online presence and are keeping the website maintained because it makes hb so much more accessible. I’m an old hb editor for those of you who don’t know me :) Good luck with the new semester!
Hey, AngryAsianMan has discovered who the Asian Guy in the Cyrus photo is!
http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/02/asian-guy-in-miley-cyrus-photo-revealed.html
As much as I’d love to receive free cash, I think that lawsuit is super stupid. What’s it gonna accomplish but paint us more as huge whiners who can’t be bigger than something as petty as this? Lame.