|
a penguin of very little brain
|
|
|
| cultural appropriation: what's left behind when you're done with your fun |
[Aug. 25th, 2008|03:00 pm] |
I saw an auntie on Saturday night. She was attending a work function in the hotel in which we are staying, so she was all dressed up with pretty clothes and painted toe nails and a diamante swastika pendant on a chain around her neck, because she is Buddhist.
The bus I've been catching from the hospital meanders down Dato Keramat and past a building with a swastika carved into its face.
Coffins are draped in a silk covering, the covering patterned with swastikas; shops sell sparkling, multicoloured swastikas; cast iron swastikas form the shapes in fences.
The thing about cultural appropriation is that maybe you think it's fun, or just a symbol, or whatever, but sometimes it leaves a legacy that means this religious symbol is pretty universally equated with white supremacists and hate crimes (and Nazis) in the West. This is interesting, though, because I would suggest that Jesus' cross has also been co-opted by white supremacists, but the image of a crucifix doesn't inspire that visceral, gut reaction. Well, not as much, anyway.
Anyway. Cultural Appropriation: stop stealing other people's stuff. You might think your appropriation is harmless, but have you asked? |
|
|
| i got lost in the sound |
[May. 2nd, 2008|06:52 pm] |
The punchline:
At work today, I found myself involved in a conversation which included Will saying, "Steven's Chinese, of course he likes fried chicken!"
Some backstory:
We have developed this theory, one supported by about ten of us of Chinese descent, by way of Malaysia. This might taint our research somewhat: perhaps the fried chicken theory applies only to Chinese-Malaysians, rather than Chinese people in general; or it might apply to people from South-East Asia.
When Davyd and I had our second wedding feast in Penang, course number three comprised of a vegan fried chicken dish; when we have catered meetings at work, a lack of KFC is always met with protest. My colleagues, who don't understand the vegetarian thing, have tried Utopia's mock fried chicken - it's fried chicken, it has to be sampled (The verify that it is delicious).
And so:
I sort of wish I had left the punchline to float in the ether, so you had no idea what I was talking about, but you can feel free to weigh in on the issue. Obviously I no longer eat fried chicken and I don't want to, but my word do I miss it, sometimes, and the mock fried chicken was so good.
But:
It's still racial stereotyping when you do it to yourself. But that doesn't mean other people get to make the same jokes. |
|
|
| lions |
[Feb. 8th, 2008|08:44 pm] |
As we stepped off the bus I turned my head; I could hear the drum beats in the air, that familiar sound that means a lion is dancing, for heads of lettuce and for money. The lion dances to bring good fortune and luck, and dances to the beat of the drum and the echo of the gongs in order to scare away the bad spirits.
As we walked, the drums grew louder and faster until it was clear that they were finished, that the lion had done its exorcism and eaten its ang pao, and we saw finally the lion itself, a beautiful red one with white through it, and the dance never changes but equally it is never the same, and it never fails to thrill me, to hear that beat in the air. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| |
|
|
