Are Asians black?

“There is a race so different from our own that we do not permit those belonging to it to become citizens of the United States. Persons belonging to it are, with few exceptions, absolutely excluded from our country. I allude to the Chinese race. But by the statute in question, a Chinaman can ride in [...]

On doit exiger que je cherche la vérité, mais non que je la trouve.

“Daisey’s fiction was predicated on the notion that China is essentially unknowable, that reporters never go to factory gates, that highways exit to nowhere.” – Evan Osnos And that is the state of America’s xenophobia. It goes beyond a mea culpa that cripples any interactions with China. The most dangerous aspect of ignorance is the [...]

CHICKENHEAD

My reaction to the whole Pete Hoekstra fiasco was more aligned with China than with Asians in America. Simply put, it was like, how low can Americans get? They’re too stupid to even properly insult us. This thing is so ridiculous that the only one insulted should be America for allowing this ludicrous production to [...]

On the flip side of the pillow

Which is predictably, and perhaps fortunately, cooler, there is this: China to cancel majors that yield less than lucrative careers. There seems to be a perennial conflict between training productive human beings that may contribute to society in a meaningful (meaning, of course, being measured by cash money) way and training well rounded INDIVIDUALS which [...]

J’ai tant reve de toi

J’ai tant rêvé de toi que tu perds ta réalité. Est-il encore temps d’atteindre ce corps vivant et de baiser sur cette bouche la naissance de la voix qui m’est chère? J’ai tant rêvé de toi que mes bras habitués en étreignant ton ombre à se croiser sur ma poitrine ne se plieraient pas au [...]

love language

An aspect of 2046 that’s always confounded and fascinated me is how Tony Leung spoke Cantonese while Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi spoke Mandarin. Or really just scenes where two parties in a conversation are speaking to each other in essentially different languages. I have always always wondered why or what the point of it [...]

Empress CIXI Couture F/W 2011

Well, this is a reinterpretation of Chinese fashun I ain’t neva seen ‘fo. It is not quite literal, but the mix and matched prints are straight from the archives (a real modest archive due to a little tiff called the Cultural Revolution where China basically desecrated its history, culture and any other remnants of goodness [...]

toska

Edit: apparently, there’s a similar term for this in Czech, per Kundera. Anglo emotions must not be that nuanced, because humina humina, anglo barbarians. Vladmir Nabokov: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific [...]

Audemars Piguet, with the alligator strap

This little gem dropped in my inbox this morning via some heritage zealot (no i’m just kidding, you are heritage). It’s not that I take issues with the idea of hipster white girls running all over Williamsburg, Brooklyn wearing Chinese heritage, either. And it’s not that I’m upset that some European or American (I’m sure) [...]

Happy 1.11.11

So, the Sartorialist is in Seoul? This woman encapsulates everything about Korean fashion. Good fit, looks good overall – you can’t complain about their lack of effort though it usually looks casual and sans effort. But at the same time, none of it is really artful. I mean, an orange belt with a gaudy gold [...]