Recent Posts...
Page 5 of 30
Archive
Imagine (there's no Treaty...) | Aug 30, 2005 12:31
Brainwave! If Brash isn't racist (against Chinese) because he married a China-doll, nor sexist (anymore) because he's raised a daughter, he will start relating to Māori as people not problems if we send in a femme fatale Māori secretary to have his Māori baby through a torrid Māori Affair!
Do we have a volunteer for such a task?
No?
What about for Gerry Brownlee?
A little disappointed I missed Brownlee being asked on Campbell Live (as I ranted about yesterday) what he'd do with the Ministry of Pacific Island Affairs, in the name of consistency. Did he really say it could be absorbed into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? What - so Pacific Islanders in New Zealand are... foreigners??? Is Manukau City our French Concession? For god's sake man, get it together.
There's something rather limiting about only being able to relate to groups of people with different life-perspectives from you because you've been lumbered with them through familial ties. People should be smarter than that, shouldn't they? There is a theory that lack of empathy for Others and therefore the inability to do justice by them is symptomatic of a profound lack of imagination. Arendt says of forming ethical opinions, "one trains one's imagination to go visiting." If your imagination can't get as far down the road as GI from Remuera, well... no wonder Foreign Policy isn't shaping up to be your strong point either.
But what's this? Hmm, a familiar feeling of wanting to throw up and leave the country, not necessarily in that order... hey, it's 2004 Orewa-retro season! Since we're all indulging in the rehash, here's a quick quote from what I wrote for Landfall, post-Orewa, post-Hikoi:
Our high-profile migrant politicians exhibit no noticeable drive for political partnerships with Maori. But here on the ground, we can't fool ourselves into thinking that we can dabble in horse-trading when we are the horses.
Leading to the Pansy Wong update: Still no answer to my request for an appointment. I know she google-searches herself every morning, so she knows I'm monitoring her ignoring me. Hi Pansy!
Missed Brownlee's astounding performance last night for the media-screening of Unleashed, the new Jet Li movie directed by Luc Besson which, sadly, sucked ass. It supersucked. I don't just say that as a part of the 'Asian empowerment' school of objecting politically to the sight of China's greatest living wushu action hero infantilised and humiliated, as well as not get any action-if-you-know-what-I-mean. I say that from the 'me watch big fight good' school of film and television. Apart from some good-big-fight material at the beginning and end, the slow flabby cheesy middle section may as well have been a miscast Brendan Fraser teen-out-of-place movie. With our Li Chenlong not 'becoming a dragon' [edit: why on earth did I confuse Jet Li's Chinese name with Jackie Chan's Chinese name? I think because Jackie would have been a far better clown for this role] but becoming some kind of dorky Chinese Classical-piano-loving language-student learning the ways of the West. La-aaame.
Imagination is in short supply of late.
Ko Singapore Airlines toku Waka | Aug 29, 2005 17:37
No Māori in Cabinet. No Māori in Caucus. No Māori in the Public Service. No Māori in schools. Where exactly does Don Brash want Māori to go? Back to Hawai'iki?
Exaggerating just a little, but only a little. Witness:
1. No Georgina.
2. No Māori seats.
3. NO TPK!
4. Having, through steps 1-3, set a blinding example of abolishing tokenism, further ensuring that all teachers continue to have the right to mispronounce Māori, perhaps even when they are teaching it.
Gerry, Gerry, Gerry - as one nightmare of a possible future Minister of Māori Affairs (who will seemingly only exist to abolish his own job), and a former teacher of Māori - we know you have a sore spot over your struggles with "ko Gerry ahau." But as Howard Morrison says, "there's only five vowels for goodness sake."
I mean, you should try Cantonese. Nine tones. I tried out my new line of Canto-swearing on a Hongkie recently, and he said "yeah, you sound like a Mainlander." GodDAMNit!
For all this reheated talk of abolishing race-based Ministries, Brash has stayed pretty quiet about his much earlier indications of boosting the 'Asian Relations' portfolio into something meatier. Bringing it up again would throw some tricky questions in his face. Are... some races better than others? Is that it? Do they bring in more funding? Is that it? Are you... married to some races ...but not others? Is that it? How can you justify any of your Māori policies and let the other race-based bureaucracies, MPIA and the Office of Ethnic Affairs, survive at all? The OEA is the closest thing there is to a real 'Asian Relations' ministry. Are you going make it a full Ministry? Or destroy it? Are you going to take the 'Asians' out of OEA, give them a Ministry and ditch the non-Asians? Too scared to come out swinging against Pacific people? Since bro'Town, do white people not hate them enough anymore?
Or are you gonna ditch us all?
And if not: WHY NOT?
Go on, be consistent. I dare ya. Or... or... oh hell, it sounds so stupid to say 'or else you'll just look like a racist.'
I wrote last year that 'If Māori are expendable, we are all expendable.' A year later, the National Party immigration policy release proved it. I don't like being right that much, to be honest.
Given that everyone has an ethnicity, the Office of Ethnic Affairs has a rather convoluted explanation of what 'Ethnic' means for their very necessary purposes. But a more concise term for the so-called "Ethnic Sector" would be: Non-WASPs-without-own-Ministry. NWwoM. Not only does this acronym mimic some awesome 'ethnicky' temple-gong noise, it has an acronym within the acronym! But if Māori are stripped of their Ministry, and MPIA and Ministry of Women's Affairs follow, there will be an enormous population of non-WASPs and non-males battling discrimination Without-own-Ministry. Maybe we will all be WoMs, or WoMbles together, living underground and surviving on trash and ingenuity alone.
*****
An alarming discovery: Brash has regularly referred to his wife as "Singaporean Chinese." But this is the reverse formulation of what he himself has proscribed for Chinese people in New Zealand! He doesn't want "New Zealand Chinese" remember, he only wants "Chinese New Zealanders." I uh... wasn't very happy about this.
If Brash's wife is "Singaporean Chinese" rather than a "Chinese Singaporean", then by his standards, Je Lan is 'not a real Singaporean'. And all his touting of his 'Singaporean wife', therefore a terrible lie!
The bidding wars, the debate circuses, it makes a girl switch off. I only realised how sick I was of this election when I laughed out loud at, and VOTED for, these three efforts from the 'make-your-own-election billboards' website because I thought they said everything that needed to be said about the whole affair. I always knew Dr Dre would again become politically relevant.
Then I realised how lucky I was that I was experiencing fatigue with a party political system relentlessly trying to give me what they think I want. And that I'd actually get to vote for more than just a make-your-own-election billboard. Damian Christie, if he's reading this right now, is probably puking: 'it always comes back to the tanks with you', he wrote to me a couple of posts ago... Well actually, it might even be little closer to home than that.
I said to a fellow-yellow on the weekend, on an outing with my New Zealand-Mainland-Singaporean-Chinese mother, "Singaporean wives? We'd only vote for Brash if he was married to Lee Kuan Yew..."
"Oh Miiing!" said my Ma, shaking her head, wondering, as usual, what on earth I'm on about and hoping it's nothing terribly offensive.
"...'Cos we'd be too scared not to!" I finished. And we all cracked up.
"We'd have our individual IC numbers on the votes, so he'd know exactly who didn't vote for him!" Ma chipped in, hilariously. Ha-bloody-ha!
Singapore cancelled its presidential elections a few weeks ago: have a look at Rockson Tan's piss-your-pants-laughing take on it.
In the newspaper, "Cheebye and sibei toolan got no election!!!" become write in English as "Yay Singaporean very the happy no need to choose president!!!". Maybe the newspaper hokkien not so good, never translate properly.
Cyber-buddy Martyn See, maker of 'Singapore Rebel' is experiencing a mounting police crackdown. Singaporeans are also experiencing via the postcast of webstars Pilot n' Jo, their first ever competent and fair interview with S'porean opposition leader Chee Soon Juan, and are suprised and shaken that he seems like an intelligent, rational human being rather than a psychotic anarchist - and that they had fallen for the propaganda all along. If you're a S'pore, spread the word.
Rounding up the Axe-gang | Aug 26, 2005 12:10
Ah crap, I just wrote an 'Asian' law and order post, which was cruelly eaten by the system. So in the spirit of load-sharing that this 'Asian election blogging' fever has engendered, here's what Alistair Kwun has to say on the subject on the Herald Election Blog:
I read Errol Kiong's piece in the Herald yesterday Crime big worry for ethnic groups and it made me wonder: what are Asian communities afraid of? Is it:
a) racist sidewalk attacks and harrassment
b) non-racially targeted robberies on modest small businesses, like dairies or taxis
c) racially-profiled burglaries of affluent-looking 'Asian'-style houses
d) being incompetently kidnapped by members of their own community
e) their children listening to 'underground' hip-hop music and turning into 'wild childs' or
f) the perception that mainstream society and the police won't step in to defend people still treated as outsiders to New Zealand society?I'm a NZ born Chinese living in multicultural Auckland where people have mostly overcome that 90s sidewalk Asian-harrassment habit. Law and order are not a strong voting priority for me. Errol's article highlights that my generation of 'Asian' voters are less defined by conservative or 'ethnic' concerns. Insulting immigration policies, however, still rile them up.
I hope recent Asian immigrant voters realise that while the Right-Wing may try to woo the 'Asian' vote by promising to bring back flogging and hanging, draconian punitive measures [are] only useful [for] amplifying people's fears. They don't affect how much crime occurs. Today's 'PC-leftie' regime has followed through on actual diversification of the ethnic make-up of the police force to allow it to work better with ethnic communities. This is incredibly vital, and builds stronger and healthier communities.
A talented actor and youth-worker, whom I met recently on a trip to Wellington, used to regularly get in trouble in his teenage years around a refugee area of the city, where he'd challenge and shout down the neighbourhood racist shopkeepers who would call him a nigger.
I recall what he told me: "Whenever they sent out the white cops, I'd get arrested. Whenever they sent out the Chinese cop, he'd talk it over with everyone, and I wouldn't get arrested." If there hadn't been that (one) 'ethnic-beat' cop, he could have been one of those hip-hop criminals our parents' generation is so afraid of now, rather than a community mentor for at-risk youth. More Chinese cops please!
Nice work Al. YOU are the new Keith Ng being the new Tze Ming Mok being the new Manying Ip. He's right that our generation of assetless young Auckland 'Asians', are rather less likely be suckers for the politics of fear. But we do worry about our parents being worried. What concerns me about Errol's article is that it shows that the older generation (not to be confused with the 'Old Generation') are still afraid in their own country. There's something very wrong with that.
My original post was totally awesome, I swear. Anecdotes about my mother losing her rag and siccing the cops on racist teenagers, Nelson race-attacks, Singaporean political podcasts, 'It's in the Bag' jokes, practical tips for dealing with racial-harassment drive-bys (use those PXT-phones ESOL kids!), references to Aeon Flux and Three Kings Mall in the same sentence... everything! Them's the breaks.
Colourblinded by the calculations | Aug 24, 2005 11:00
It makes far more sense for Breakfast to ask Keith Ng what an 'Asian' is, than for Mark Sainsbury to ask Don Brash what a 'Maori' is. Al Kwun notes a follow-up to Brash could have been "and have you ever seen one on the street where you live?"
Or maybe, "have you ever suspected your wife is a Maori?"
Keith did well on Breakfast this morning, pointing out how both major parties have alienated Asian and migrant voters with on one hand, the Ching affair, and on the other, an immigration policy that treats migrants like economic units (or 'robots' in his private phraseology) rather than people.
I also liked how he looked really really yellow.
The interview should be accessible from this page at some point today.
Fellow pointy-headed ethnicity-geek Kumanan called me out for being 'soft' on Keith in the last Yellow Peril, vis-a-vis the South Asian Blindspot perpetuated in his Listener article. Maybe so. I'm still feeling guilty for punching him during the Leader's Debate. And... he wrote my blog for me at 4:00 am when he should have been numbercrunching! Even after I'd punched him! Thanks Keith - keep punching that calculator.
Keith's use of the '300,000 Asian voters' figure in the Listener, combined with a focus on exclusively Chinese political figures, did reflect the mainstream culture's misleading use of the term 'Asian'. This morning's Breakfast show tried to repeat that pattern, by trumpeting that figure intercut with shots of... Chinese people. They kind of looked like international students hanging out downtown, who are not eligible to vote. And some shots of maybe... Northcote Chinatown? But Keith did attempt to rectify that perception straight off, perhaps wary of a repeat Yellow Peril assault. Okay, now let's get this straight: a super-quick pre-breakfast number crunch of 2001 Census data shows that pan-Diaspora Chinese made up only 44% of the 'Asian' statistic. Combined with Koreans and Japanese ('Asian' in the white public discourse meaning CJKs, or Yellow Asians, or 'those ones we can't tell apart with that picture writing we can't read but would look real good as a tattoo') it bumps up to about 57%. South Asian ethnicities made up 30%, compared with the Chinese 44%. But South Asian and non-Chinese Southeast Asian ethnicities combined, come to 43%. Get the picture? The Yellow-to-Sepia ratio in 2001 was only 57:43, and I have yet to be convinced that it has swung wildly in either direction since then. I have a foot in both camps - in 2001 I ticked both ethnic Chinese and ethnic Vietnamese. That's right, at least an eighth of me is not Chinese. Where else do you think I get my great summertime tan? I don't get called The Bitch from 'Nam for nuthin'.
Alistair Kwun's latest Herald Blog entry also mentions a gathering at my place of a few of our friends to watch Tessie Chen, Michael Hsu (Cultural Signals) and Ken Ginn (Kiwi Asian Club) on Nightline, where they were again, marketed as 'Asian voters' when they are all different shades of Chinese. Two Taiwanese 1.5ers and one New Zealand-born Canto-classic. But they were good - check out Al's comments (although the dumb Herald Blog doesn't have individually linkable entries, you'll have to scroll down), and my pan-Asian pan shot of our crowd that evening which even had ...a token Indian.
[Edit: ah hell, scrolling is annoying - I'll just paste it in here for you]
They got a kick out of being interviewed, and it's a testament to how far the public discourse has come. Five years ago nobody would have bothered wanting to know what their opinions actually were.
However, the piece was edited into less than two minutes, and my friend Tessie Chen, one of the interviewees, was rather unhappy with them cutting the ending to make her sound like she would vote for tax-cuts at the end of the day.
Tessie's family knows that a vote for National would no doubt be a vote for cutting much needed settlement services to migrant communities, as a part of trimming government 'waste' to fund tax cuts. The Chens are just one of many cross-cultural community efforts to integrate new settlers which have been developed and supported by our 'PC gone-mad régime' for some years now. Where some people see 'PC nonsense', other people see life-saving infrastructure.
Tired of the election? Have a look at my extended InvAsian flickr set for some gorgeous screenshots of alternative-reality Japified Auckland, an Asian Invasion of Rising Sun for a sneaker swap-meet, a suggested name and logo for our 'Movement', and Wellington Chinese Association President Steven Young's disturbing visual interpretation of how we can all be the new Manying Ip: before; after. Are you ready for this Keith?
The Poll Dancer/Yellow Peril Cross-Over | Aug 22, 2005 10:04
[In a cheesy cross-over gimmick designed to bolster our mutual readerships, I will be guest blogging on Yellow Peril this week. At this rate, it won't be long before we end up with a "Best of" blog. - Keith Ng]
Oh Winston, now that you've left us for the Muslims, what's a Chinese cus' got to do to get himself on the political radar?
That's what Labour's Chinese list candidate Steven Ching allegedly did, alleged Herald on Sunday earlier this year. The allegation was just retracted yesterday, after the man who was allegedly on the receiving end of the alleged offer came out and denied the link between the loan and the help with the application. Cruising slowly up shit-creek, the HoS ran the retraction and apology - presumably with the business-end of a lawyer pointed their way.
The Labour Party has said that they would only put Ching back on the list once he's cleared by a police investigation (which, conveniently, may or may not be completed before the election). But with no money ever changing hands and with the prime witness on Ching's side, it looks like it'll be difficult to pin anything on Ching.
Did he do it? Will he be cleared? I don't know, but either way, I - and I don't say this lightly - am personally insulted by the Labour Party's choice to have Ching on their list in the first place.
It's akin to putting the pre-reformed Jake the Muss on their list to represent urban Maori. With his dodgy business dealings, fisheries abuse, dubious grasp of English, perception as a walking wallet - are there any aspects of negative stereotyping of Chinese New Zealanders that Steven Ching *doesn't* represent?
He might as well be Mickey Rooney dressed up as Dr No with a Manchurian goatee smoking an opium pipe and eating a dog while hooning around with a fake licence and a bunch of Triad thugs in a souped-up Honda pumping out Canto-techno.
Some in the Labour hierarchy see themselves as the victim here - that they were trusting of Ching, and he betrayed their trust by not telling them about his dodgy dealings. Well, that's true, I don't hold Labour responsible for selecting someone with a dodgy past because they didn't know about it - but I do hold them responsible for selecting someone who doesn't really speak English, doesn't understand New Zealand politics, doesn't seem to care about either, and who was clearly never going to make any genuine contribution beyond raking in donations.
They can't plea ignorance on that one. You just have to meet the guy. He literally didn't know the meaning of the word "tokenism" - the word which best describes what his political career is built on. And as for his understanding of New Zealand politics... put it this way - if he was an international student in one of my first-year tutorials at Vic, I would have given him a C+ only out of sympathy.
I've met my fair share of skinheads from the National Front, but this gets me worked up much more than they do. The difference is that with the skinheads and Winston, it's all just a bunch of blowhard slogans and hollow rhetoric. They'd just as soon beat-up/scapegoat the next vulnerable group that comes their way - and they have. They're good like that, being so indiscriminating with their discrimination.
But Labour, by selecting someone who was obviously never going to be able to contribute anything as a representative, they have demonstrated a genuine commitment to the idea that Chinese New Zealanders are nothing more than passive participants who should have a token role in the democratic process because, really, they're just a bunch of rich, greedy foreigners who don't even speak English anyway.
Yeah - I take that personally.
On the other hand, I actually have a lot of respect for Pansy Wong (even though she didn't like my Listener article). She's capable and committed, and if nothing else, she's demonstrated the possibilities for becoming more than just the Token Asian.
That said, a vote for National is a vote for a National-NZ First government. Granted, Winston does a lot less yelling at people when he's in government (in fact, he arguably does less damage in government than in opposition), but do you really want to deliver Winston into power?
It'll be interesting, too, to see what Pansy would do in such a government. Can she work in a coalition with Winston? Or will she become the next Georgina Te HeuWho?
With all these MMP calculations, it's hard to find a safe place to park your protest vote. It's a sad, sad conclusion, and one that I never expected to make, but, er... this is kind of embarrassing... perhaps if you want to protest against Labour and National-NZ First, the best thing to do is to vote ACT. Chances are, it won't even count.
We can only hope.
(Ha ha, Tze Ming, I made your blog endorse ACT!)
*******
Tze Ming time resumes:
Don't worry Keith, I know you're actually voting for Peter Dunne. It's of more concern to me that you've said that Pansy has demonstrated the possibilities of becoming more than just the Token Asian.
Nothing is in its right place today.
As I predicted, ethnic media monitors are picking up riceroots anger at the National Party immigration policy. Don't ask me about Stephen Ching, but just because people don't speak English, doesn't mean they're morons. The question I have for Pansy now is not 'Will you walk if National has to form a coalition with New Zealand First?' It's 'Why haven't you walked already over your party adopting New Zealand First policies?' If she wants to save her community reputation, the only possible answer is 'because I don't expect we'll win this election, so those policies will never be implemented.'
And it looks like everyone wants their own Chinese election-blogger now. Here's Movement subcommandante Alistair Kwun (aka Mr Asia) in the Herald Election blog lineup. Hmm, interesting format - ten blog-spots, a range of opinions, an assuredly non-token Asian... Familiar much? The Asian election-blogging crossover potential is spiralling out of control. By Asian, I mean Chinese. I worry that the media is just not getting that, in all this beatup about the burgeoning Asian population stats and potential voting bloc (as ennumerated in Keith's article), that around half of these Statistics NZ Asians are actually Indian.
Final role-swapping headfuck for your Monday morning: In this strangely vacant online Herald soft-profile, we discover that Winston Peters wants to one day work in a Chinese restaurant.
Love slaves | Aug 19, 2005 11:30
I confess, I find it comical when people in New Zealand express anger at the state taking away people's freedom... by giving them money. My frame of reference is being angry at the state taking away people's freedom by rolling tanks over them.
Hey, in Singapore, people must be free as free can be: there is hardly any tax, and *no* social welfare benefit. It exports only the finest mating-material for New Zealand's right-wing leaders. And look, just last week, four people stood on a sidewalk (one less than the number for which a permit is required for a public gathering) and held up transparent signs (which therefore did not cause any public inconvenience, because people could see through them and therefore take in an unobstructed view of corporate advertising legitimately taking up public space), and very very quietly (perhaps even silently) expressed a political opinion. Four vans of riot police turned up, forty cops poured out, ten for each demonstrator. Presumably to hand out money to them, in order to subject them to the repressive state apparatus and scour away their individualistic thinking. First hand report and pictures here at the Singapore Democratic Party site, and here by the frontrunner for best Singaporean male Freedom-slag Rockson Tan.
I ask him, "Uncle, why four people ah? They cannot find enough people to protest issit?" He said no, five people then consider no licence and against the law. Less than five only considered disturb people, is call public nonsense. I am thinking, the gahmen like this sure toolan, wait they change the law to make it less than five people is also against the law. Maybe they might say, more than two people is also need licence now. Like that die lah. You want to go Geylang to do three-way also consider illegal protest liao. You want to go pak tor, go dating also need two people but new law say cannot. So you can only go alone and pak chiu cheng.
There are many pointy-headed things I can and have said about freedom and coercion in the relationship of the individual to the state. There are also times when I am moved to say, as I said to Damian to his utter bemusement, "state shmate." People getting extra money to raise families is one of those times.
My breeding instinct has yet to kick in. I'm terrified of babies. I don't hate them, like some people seem to - I just find them weird and squishy, and they seem easily breakable. I'd get zilch out of Working for Families, now and for the forseeable future. But this chorus of single-professional-childless-mid-to-high-income whining has got to let up. Why do you think we don't have children? Why do you think we need to keep importing young people from other countries? Because having children is really really hard work. I look at the sacrifices my parents made for me, and that their parents made for them, and the very idea scares the shit out of me. All too often if you have kids (particularly if you are a woman), you have to give up your sense of self, your individuality, your dreams of becoming the first ManBooker Prize-winning International Criminal Court Chief Justice, your looks, your toys, your wardrobe, your sanity and your sex-life. You probably don't even have the time to watch childless Public Address bloggers who are quite nice to each other in real life, play-sniping at each other on their blogs about the ideology of welfare. Oh no! If you're a female Public Address blogger with a job and children, woe betide your posting-frequency and attending hit-rate - do the audit, go on. Double-woe! Having children, most of the time, is an immense restriction on your choices about where and how you live - in other words, a restriction on all your personal freedoms.
And yet... someone's gotta have children. Otherwise... we're done for. They really should pay people to do it.
Oh crap, but if you pay people to do it, you're taking away their freedom.
I don't see any meaningful distinction, in the case of Working for Families, between being a slave to welfare and a slave to love.
****
Check out TV3's Nightline tonight, 10:45 pm to see what some 'young ethnic voters' (i.e. not me) are thinking about the election - including my friend Tessie Chen.
Due to Asian-Brain collapse and competing priorities, Yellow Peril will be lightweight next week. Unless Pansy starts returning my emails. Expect pictures from the InvAsian show of a very cool Asian-invaded alternative-reality Auckland, and snaps & talk from last night's Rising Sun Sneaker-Swap-Meet. Hot. Asian. Guys.
Inv-Asian: The Next Generasian | Aug 15, 2005 13:24
Pat Booth, the journalist who wrote and vigorously defended the original 'Asian Invasion' article of 1993, is to receive a Lifetime Achievement award for journalism this month. There are those among us who are baying for blood, but it might surprise you to know that I'm not so angry - honest!
I sent this email, dated 9 August:
Open letter to the Asian Invasion cc: Pat Booth
Dear Embedded Asian Underground, Wider Movement and Associate Movement members.
Oh... didn't you know you were in the Movement? Sorry, I'm sure I mentioned it at the last rally/yum cha/pearl tea/film festival/art show/civil service event/media shindig/cultural identity conference. Oh well. You know, there sure are a hell of a lot of you in my Bcc: address box there.
Well, you sure wouldn't be in the Movement if it wasn't for this guy: Many of you would have heard by now through the Aotearoa Ethnic Network, or through the Embedded Asian Underground, or both, that the old white dude responsible for bringing us all under one warlike banner to start with is being justly honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to Journalism. Yes, everyone's favourite curmudgeonly uncle, Pat Booth of 'Off Pat' fame, is getting a gong for his long and richly textured career, whose highlight was the famous Asian 'Inv-Asian' Howick and Pakuranga Times article of 1993! If it wasn't for Pat, we wouldn't know who the hell we were (Invaders! Hell yeah!), and many of you would never have met or worked together. To take the sucker down.
To refresh your memory, please click on this link to go to my convenient flickr set of images, 'Asian Invasion: Birth of a Movement' - The long struggle to establish our rightful place as victorious Invaders of this weak and vulnerable land - a ongoing history in print and art, with descriptions of each scan.
They are scans of the original article and [articles covering] the community fightback, courtesy of Manying Ip, and one extra special one that I'm loving (loving like we love the Alien InvAsian), that shows where we've got to now, courtesy of Leon Tan. Ignore those Ghost in the Shell screenshots at the end.
I suppose I will be blogging about this, but not just yet. Maybe I'll end up just using the text of this email [heh heh]. 1993 seems so long ago, and we've come so far, that I can't quite be angry about it anymore. As you can see from my commentary on the images, and from my blog, I love being an Invader. The Invasian art show that Leon and others are putting on, speaks for a generation that I'm a part of. ['Invasian' kicks off tomorrow 16 August at Galatos, 7pm, also showing 17th and 19th]
And Pat Booth - well, he was a good journalist on the whole, and what I'm really curious about, is what he thinks now. I really am very curious. Booth always seemed to me to be the quintessential representative of all that is good and bad about the 'Old' New Zealand. For every time he made me chortle or splutter while complaining about young people, or foreigners, or women, or those bloody Maoris chopping down that stupid tree on that stupid hill, he [made] me grateful for his well-places swipes at the New Right. Okay, maybe one out of four times. And... he's really really old. How much longer can he hang on? Would it be ungracious, in our ascendance, to not allow him an honourable exit?
Then again, should we be 'smoothing the pillow of his dying race'? (I don't mean actual 'race' by the way - it's just a figurative historical reference) Or should we be looking for signs of change and accomodation? Is there new sap in the old wood yet?
What do you think?Tze Ming Mok
I have larger file-scans of the newspaper articles if anyone is interested in reading them. Pat never wrote back.
What was remarkable about this old scab being ripped off afresh, was the instantaneity of response, information transfer, phone-calls, media strategising, networking, solidarity, and tapping in to collective memory. There's a very silly question in the back of the Metro this month: 'Is Tze Ming Mok the new Manying Ip?' Manying was delighted. She thought that it would get her off the hook, and that she could take a holiday. It's a silly question, because the answer is: 'No - we are all the new Manying Ip.' Even Keith. He will be commenting further on his Asian Vote Listener article next week, and I am delighted, as this gets me off the hook and I can take a holiday.
*****
The last time I saw David Lange was in Viet Hoa cafe in Otahuhu, in the later part of the 90s. It wasn't the first time my family had seen him in the Otahu-Vietnam axis of Sam Woo, Viet Hoa and Vietnam Cafe, nor Phil Goff. I shall not repeat what my mother said about the big guy in Mandarin, but suffice to say, it's what Chinese doctors in Asian restaurants tend to always slip into Chinese to say, when worrying about the health of large Westerners they see. At the time, we thought he should have known better than to inflict that on himself, being the son of a doctor. And at the time, we thought he should have known better than to inflict the economic hurt that he did on South Auckland, being from South Auckland. But today what really sticks out is this: I've never seen a National Party prime minister while out eating with my family in South Auckland. Or at least, not one that I've ever wanted to remember.
The reflux | Aug 11, 2005 22:04
[Update: Okay. So I punched Keith. But I gave him prior warning, grabbing on to his raggedy brown hoodie in a spasm of rage (we were the only two people in the green room wearing hoodies), hissing "I really need to hit something. I'm really sorry. I just... I ....."
WHAM!
What's a Leader's Debate without violence? Keith was very understanding; he believes in violence as the basis of political discourse.
It was the "Third World" trigger. The whole 'we aren't importing quality people, we're importing people from the Third World' line. Dude? My parents were from the Third World. After the pounding - both in my head and immediate physical environs - subsided, I was however gratified that none of the undecided voters with their fingers on the worm gave a shit either way about immigrants or where they come from.]
I sent around my last post to The Movement, apologising again for my 'political Tourettes', and with this comment:
Over now to the Asian and migrant community leaders. You fought so hard against the Citizenship and Identity Bill - and now this? From the 'Asian-loving' party? What now? What will Pansy have to say about four-year probational residency for all migrants?
Two responses from the Embedded Asian Underground:
a blatant pitch for New Zealand First votes.
Would Pansy's role, in the 'Asian' context, unfold and unravel like Georgina's, in the Maori context? Maybe another National MP will take on the 'Asian' spokesperson role ... Gerry again perhaps?
And is he an 'Australian Chinese New Zealander'? 'Chinese New Zealander Australian'? 'New Chinese Australian Zealander'? Anyway, from a member of the Double-Diaspora, who left before our 'first Asian MP' took to the House.
oh dear. I'd forgotten about National and NZ First. how charmingly parochial. is pansy some drag queen? perhaps... a beautiful turncoat deadly nazi double agent drag queen.
And from the Rice-roots, an actual 'community leader':
Someone had to say it and it may as well be you!
Come on people: Step up to get yo' rep up. I'm not the only one.
A slow, hocking sound. | Aug 09, 2005 23:45
"Four year probation period of Provisional Residency..." hhaarrrrhhcrrhHHH... "benefit stand-down extended to four years..." CrghCCHHrggHAAAAKKHH.... "wife born in Singapore..." KKKHHKSSpPPLLUAATTT!!!! Hm - what was that unexpected spitting noise? Oh, just Don Brash losing the Asian vote.
I've not seen a more conflicted, confused, and personally insulting piece of intellectual dishonesty in this election campaign (except for New Zealand First of course, but you expect that - in fact, every sentence in this post should be shadowed by that assumption) than Brash's speech on National's immigration policy. Probably because I haven't been paying attention (except for New Zealand First of course but... etc). Thanks to Idiot/Savant for the nudge, and for pointing out that Brash's speech openly admits that National's immigration policy is based on fear and resentment. Here's the dishonesty in a nutshell: the speech talks around those popular fears and resentments, bending itself into this awkward yet quite explicit position: 'The facts don't support the level of fear and resentment that exists, but we will respect the power of those prejudices, and make policy centred on the prejudice, not on the facts.'
Here's a great bit where they try to position themselves as 'moderates':
New Zealand First too often appeals to crude prejudice.
'...but we appeal to crude prejudice at just the right frequency. You know... sometimes. Like... now!'
You know - I really think he's arsed it up with the Asians now. He thinks he has us in the bag, but for chrissakes, he must have only been talking to a few of us. The really rich, white ones.
Look at the all the Asians he doesn't like:
1. The ones who spit
We do not want those who insist on their right to spit in the street..
Yeah, that big 'Right to Spit' rally the other week was a doozy. Mainlander? Spitty. Singaporeans though, you're okay. You've had spitting beaten out of you by the Singaporean Government.
2. The ones who don't do well in school
We recognise that immigrants ...can often become productive and self-supporting members of the community... The educational achievements of Asian students in our high schools prove the point.
But the artists and the skaters and the plain old lazy-bums who don't give the white kids math-inferiority complexes? Bugger off. Oh, hey look at the next sentence. "Even refugees... can often become productive members of the community." Wow! Amazing! But if they're an illiterate Somali mother of eleven with post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic machete-injuries... come back when you and your two surviving children can ace those Cambridges! Oh hang on, that's a violation of the principles of the Refugee Convention - Whoops! Quite a pain that international norms of Refugee Protection are centred on protecting the most vulnerable people in the world, rather than skimming off the most productive and skilled members of nations collapsing into war.
3. Malaysians.
What makes Don Brash think that Singaporeans are popular anyway? Note to National Party: there are way more Malaysians in New Zealand than Singaporeans... and Malaysia threw Singapore out of Malaysia.
4. The ones who can't find a job within the first two years ...because of the ingrained xenophobia proven time and time and time again to shut skilled non-white migrants out of the job market for not just months, but years.
We will extend the benefit stand-down period from two years to four years... A four-year benefit stand-down period sends a clear message to those people with inadequate family sponsorship and insufficient skills.
You know what? Skilled-migrant category immigrants on the dole are not on the dole because they don't have sufficient skills.
5. The ones with high-grade qualifications who are seriously underemployed ...who have been driving taxis and working in factories for years, slowly losing their self respect and their faith in the New Zealand people - and who then move to Australia and are immediately employed in their field of expertise. Which is generally not taxi-driving, nor can-stacking.
We will introduce a four-year qualification period of Provisional Residence for all new migrants.
You want to put these people on PROBATION?? Don't you freakin' realise that it's NEW ZEALAND that's on probation here? They already know that New Zealanders don't trust them in the workplace. To be told that New Zealand doesn't trust them to even be residents is just the final insult. It's remarkable that throughout this 'moderate', Asian-wife-loving speech, I can find no mention whatsoever of support for regional employment-focused migrant resettlement strategies, or working to reduce employer-discrimination and promote culturally diverse workplaces to take advantage of the massive underused migrant skill-base. NONE.
6. Even the ones who are stinking rich, but who can't establish a profitable employing business straight away and need to go back to Taiwan for a bit ...because these things just aren't that freaking easy, even when you take the ingrained xenophobia proven time and time again etc. out of the equation.
We will require business migrants to create at least two permanent full-time jobs for non-family members.
7. ME. I said this was personal, didn't I.
we want immigrants who will be Chinese New Zealanders, or Pacific Island New Zealanders - not New Zealand Chinese or New Zealand Pacific Islanders.
Apologies in advance to polite Public Address readers.
Really. I'm really sorry.
And uh ...sorry in advance to Le Jan (I think that's her name), who knows my Singaporean 'aunties', and my ma almost went with her to the Ellerslie Flower Show one year but then didn't, and I'm sure she's a very nice person.
And sorry to those who can read Chinese.
No, really, sorry...
But...
FUCK YOU Don Brash. HOW FUCKING DARE YOU TELL ME WHO I AM ALLOWED TO BE???? FUCK YOU AND THE SINGAPOREAN CHINESE NEW ZEALANDER YOU FUCKING RODE IN ON!!!!
AAAARRRRRGHHHHH! 操你妈的臭屁股!!! 操你爷爷的骚屁眼!!!! 操你八辈子祖宗!!!!
Ahem. Oh, and you have a pretty green hat.
I am not a 'Chinese New Zealander'. I don't have any problem with people who do identify as such. How you feel is how you feel. The phrase 'Kiwi Asian' kind of makes me cringe, but those KAC Cats have a right to be who they are, and to be happy with it. It's just not who I am. I'm New Zealand Chinese, Chinese is the noun, New Zealand is the adjective, and I see myself as a member of that particular branch of the diaspora that exists only through having been made in New Zealand. And if you're in the business of telling people who they shouldn't be, what they shouldn't feel about their ethnic identity, and what they're not allowed to call themselves, well fuck you. Hell yeah I'll spit all over your street, see if I don't, I'll spit you out before you can spit me out.
Sorry if this makes me seem unexpectedly and foully partisan. Maybe all the other parties' immigration policies are just as bad - who knows? Though you can see why I barely have the stomach to look now, right?
You have a pretty green mushroom cloud | Aug 08, 2005 10:06
Hiroshima Day on the weekend, 8-8-88 massacre anniversary today, 70 million dead Chinese people bugging me to finish writing that Jung Chang feature... Obvious outlet: learn how to tell warmongers and dictators to f*ck their mother's stinky c*nts in FOUR Chinese dialects!
I happened upon this invaluable resource just yesterday, while overloaded with historical tragedy. Much of the Mandarin I was already familiar with - but good lord, is Mandarin swearing totally pussy compared with those gutter-dialects of the Southeast or what. Comparing the vocabulary, it reminds me of the time I studied kung fu but could only shout my 'counting-to-ten' drills in Mandarin for the first few weeks, projecting the fearsome impression that I was inviting my opponent to a tea-garden to listen to some light opera, rather than threatening to pummel their face in. Now I know that the implications of saying 'you have a pretty green hat' to an adult man in Mandarin are utterly deadly.
Meanwhile, those Cantos and Hokks trade pretty hats and cursing families unto the 18th generation for good old infinite variation on: 1) things that can be fucked and 2) grades of unpleasant pussy. Now I can enter Hong Kong with my head held high.
Downtown commemorations: Matt Donaldson's anti-nuclear billboard design is up near 97 Cook St; Burmese refugees are remembering the Rangoon massacre of students and others by the military, opposite Britomart between 5pm and 7pm today. Here's my review of Mao: The Unknown Story that was in the Dom the other month if you feel like compounding the misery.
Nominations open for the Asian Freedom Slag Awards | Aug 04, 2005 09:52
Are Public Address readers bored yet of election talk and national identity discourse? I mean... national identity?? SNORE! Back to what you really come here for: Hot Asian chicks flashing their crotches and talking about their sex lives... for, like, democracy and stuff. Totally.
The Reporters Sans Frontières Asian Freedom Blog awards have been publicised on this site before. This trash-talking INXS-idol-humping blog has, itself, been bizarrely designated an Asian Freedom Blog on the site of an actual Asian Freedom Blogger. But more fittingly, Yellow Peril today commemorates Amnesty International Freedom Week by opening nominations for the Yellow Peril Asian Freedom Slag awards.
Human Rights Watch has disseminated its I Blog for Human Rights logos throughout politically-conscious cyberspace. I encourage you to acquire the full set of accompanying I'm a Slag for Human Rights logos, and to take the new Yellow Peril Which Asian Freedom Slag are you? test.
These are my four nominees, all Chinese or from the Chinese diaspora - please write in with your own sub-regionally-focused or ethnically-clustered nominations.
The Yellow Peril Asian Freedom Slagroll:
Sarong Party Girl (Singapore)
Here in New Zealand, her blog would have been just another postfeminist diary of a fairly smart and very slutty teenager. With the occasional 'arty' soft-focus titty-shot. Ho-hum. What happened? She's Singaporean. The cleancut online citizens of the Lion City freaked out. They were concerned for her parents, very concerned. They gave themselves RSI and exceeded her bandwidth, by exercising that rigorous, upright concern. They also called her ugly, denigrated her breast-size, and hate-mailed her for criticising the sexual prowess of Asian men. Basically, it was a failure of intelligent discourse, despite her very classic liberal call to arms which failed to strike a chord:
"If you're just going to call me a slut, just don't bother. I rather be a slut then an idiot with a tight wedgie up my ass. You're just spamming up the comment feature. I'll try this bloody thing for a few days and see if people actually bother to say anything worthwhile. If they don't, then it really kinda defeats the purpose. You are completely welcomed to disagree with me, but you better have a good reason to do so, and you should do it nicely. Otherwise, go shit on your own blog and leave the people who actually have something worthwhile to say, alone.
Actually, I think it would be really interesting if people generally have intelligent, logical arguments and voiced them here, because now a whole lot of people are reading. And it will be nice to know that we aren't as conservative as the powers that be think we are. And maybe we're ready for a change."
Lainie (Malaysia)
Just across the Straits is Lainie, the dirty-minded lesbian IT-geek-next-door, whose fascination with male porn, adventures in sex-toy purchasing, and fondlings of her girlfriend, are casually chatted into the mainstream in a country where 'sodomy' is still a criminal offense.
"Happy birthday to CJ In honour of the day he was born, I present thee a few paragraphs about some gay porn I watched recently, because born rhymes with porn.
Nah, actually I just happen to be watching porn."
Furong Jiejie / 芙容姐姐 (Mainland China)
Furong Jiejie's closest living conceptual relatives are the Notorious MSG, who brag about their irresistability in an almost identical manner. Haters have called her deluded, ugly and fat. Actually, she's perfectly normal-looking, with a booty and rack that most little Chinese girls would be envious of, let's face it. The virulence of her detractors is astounding. They cannot seem to accept that a normal woman could have such a high opinion of herself, and be this happy with her appearance. Even Malaysian celebrity-blogger Kenny Sia has displayed an astounding lack of appreciation. I thought he had a better sense of humour than that - but I guess no-one disses Xiaxue and gets away with it these days. Did Furong Jiejie spring forth as a fully-fledged ironic-intellectual performance artist from the Republic that irony forgot, or she is une slague savante? Either way, it's pure genius. With a hundred million - yes, a hundred million readers in China, Furong Jiejie is starting to unnerve the far less popular Communist Party of China, who are pressuring her blogserver to marginalise her site. From her Chinese-language site (roughly translated):
Reporter: What is the ultimate reason for your success?
Furong Jiejie: I think I'm different from other people. I have the courage to display my talents. People only have one lifetime - why not reveal your gifts for everyone to see?
And from her Engrish site:
"In your life you cannot find one as lovely as me.
Men have fainted at the sight of me.
I cannot stop to pick them up or I would be late.
Bye-Bye!"
Let a hundred million Furongs bloom.
Bai Ling (Western Diaspora)
Bai Ling is all but indescribable. You may as well just follow the link. She doesn't have a blog, but has her own section of Gofugyourself, THE badly-dressed-celebrity site. She is also the only Asian Freedom Slag in this Slagroll who has actually participated in a genuine democracy movement. And been paid for naked pictures, not just given them away online. So... um. Great?
"My name means 'white spirit,' meaning 'free spirit,' " said Ling, who, wearing a short denim skirt and a stringy silk blouse, was about as free- spirited as you could get while not getting an NC-17 rating.
"In America, I feel I can dance more freely. In China, just the contrary. I feel like I have to be aware of everything."
May as well shortcut some arguments since I really should be writing up my Jung Chang interview (who could have been a Freedom Slag if she'd managed to work more nookie into Wild Swans):
What the hell does being a slag have to do with human rights?
Well, which freedom is more closely related to the civil and political freedoms of speech, thought, conscience, association, and political opinion: Freedom of sexual expression, or the freedom to shop? I think the former. In that regard, Sarong Party Girl is more of a Freedom Blogger than Mr Brown or Xiaxue.
Why is Xiaxue not a Freedom Slag, when she's just as arrogant about her looks as Furong Jiejie, and also rather funny?
She's just not enough of a slag. If she gets sued for libel by a government agency, for example, for bitching about the dress-sense of civil servants, then she'll be a Freedom Slag. Mr Brown dips his toes into the freedom pool every so often, in between shopping, but doesn't get reprimanded, and is also not enough of a slag.
Don't these Freedom Slags perpetuate the three-headed stereotype of Asian women as either whores, Dragon-lady bitch-queens, victims, or a combination thereof?
Probably. Although they also add new stereotypes: exhibitionists, ungraceful heffalumps, freaky kooks, confident mediocrities, and prolific writers.
Aren't Freedom Slags just depressing for women?
What would be considered daring acts of liberated female sexual expression in conservative societies, do seem little more than mundane sexploitation to the residents of the decadent, liberal-democratic West. Oftentimes, it's mundane sexploitation there as well. The true test of a Freedom Slag is the context within which they operate. If they are being admonished by an all-powerful state and vilified by a repressive conservative society for Slag-like activities that are harmful to no-one, then they're a Freedom Slag. If they are just being laughed at, they're are probably merely a garden-variety Slag. When there's potential for disruption in a repressive society, grab it.
Here's to Freedom Week.
Page 5 of 30
Archive