Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

A vile article from Ying Chu in women’s magazine Marie Claire, The New Trophy Wives: Asian Women, features the salacious teaser: “Rupert Murdoch has one. So do financiers Vivi Nevo and Bruce Wasserstein. Why are the West’s most powerful men coupling up with younger Asian women?” Chu claims that a “curious cultural ripple” has been created by celebrity marriages between western men and Asian women:

Were these tycoons consciously courting Asian babes? Do any of them qualify for the unnerving “yellow fever” or “rice king” moniker? It’s unsavory to think so. But after two or three failed attempts at domestic bliss with women of like background and age, these heavy hitters sought out something different. Something they had likely fetishized.

Like almost all classic racism, the author exhibits her own prejudices prima facie. I’ll attempt to list them here:

• Women are objects to “have” or “collect”
• Asian women are exclusively objects of fetishism
• Asian women are a “more valuable” commodity than American women

We can attribute most of the tastelessness to the author’s own perception of what it’s like to be an Asian woman in America. It seems that the men she’s dated have reinforced the “omnipresent and often entertaining” sexual stereotyping of Asian women:

Sure, I’m petite and was in fact born in Shanghai, but — to the shock of more than one guy I’ve gone out with — I’d rather down an icy beer and burger than nurse bubble tea and eat dumplings while massaging his back with my toes.

The point of globalism and the 21st century is that our generation is a new fresh generation. We have internet, we’ve seen people of all races and cultural backgrounds. Many of us have attended college and learned about far away places that a mere hundred years ago would have been a page in the encyclopedia, and impossible to travel to. We can throw off stereotype and challenge it, discarding labels like “Asian Trophy Wife”. An interracial couple is just two people in love.

I agree with Latoya Peterson at Jezebel, who writes that “the article is a scattershot bunch of ideas, culminating in nothing.” See also Asian Women Aren’t Just Fetish Objects and 8 Asians take.

Update: Check out the comments on the original article, some are really quite amazing:

Dear Editor: I applaud you for publishing ads with Asian models and running an article highlighting the attributes of Asian cosmetics and culture in an attempt to balance out the derogatory assertions and stereotypes made in “Trophy Wives”. Maybe next time, you can have an African writer address the topic of Educated African Americans with the header “Uncle Toms”. I’m sure your talented staff will find a way to rationalize it, and pass it off as not so bad.

Why? Why go through all the trouble of going to Japan, learning a very difficult language, and hooking up with an Asian girl? Why not just marry Mary Anne from the back hills? Because some people just like something different is why. Most people may love their iPods, but there are a few renegades who love their Zunes.

Marie Claire, This article is not edgy, it is not bold, and most importantly, it is not based on facts. This article is a racist tirade aimed at inter-racial relationships and loaded with ignorance. How could you publish this? What kind of editor would let this article enter the pages of your magazine? I’ve noticed there are many “high powered men” that have brunette wives, does that mean that men have a “fetish” for brunettes?

Is this all we can expect from a supposedly urbane NYC-dwelling educated woman? Ying, you’ve revealed too much of your personal identity issues here. This piece sounds like it came from your diary. Editors, this is the kind of drivel you publish under “Sex and Relationship Advice”? If these things were said in real-life conversation, it would induce silent stares and ridicule amongst the uncomfortable parties.

The LA Times had an article recently that’s worth checking out: Beijing loves IKEA — but not for shopping. It highlight some of the differences between Chinese and American culture, where malls are places to play rather than shop, and the wonders of a Swedish furniture store are more like Disneyland than a foreign K-Mart.

Every weekend, thousands of looky-loos pour into the massive showroom to use the displays. Some hop into bed, slide under the covers and sneak a nap; others bring cameras and pose with the decor. Families while away the afternoon in the store for no other reason than to enjoy the air conditioning.

Purchasing anything at Yi Jia, as the store is called here, can seem like an afterthought. “It’s the only big store in Beijing where a security guard doesn’t stop you from taking a picture,” said Jing Bo, 30, who was looking for promising backdrops for a photograph of his girlfriend.

In the IKEA at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada I fondly recall a ball playpen where children could be left unattended (well supervised by IKEA personnel) until their parents returned from shopping. In China, IKEA itself is the playground.

The popular US sport of sexting is becoming illegal in China, with Henan province instituting harsh penalties of 10 days in jail and a fine of 500 yuan. According to Penalties ordered for dirty texting in China Daily, the new law is to curb text message spam, banning “sending an erotic, insulting or threatening messages, which interrupt receivers’ normal lives.” Zhang Kai, 26, was quoted as being pro the measure:

“I’m totally for the rules. It’s uncomfortable to get dirty text messages from male friends and even more gross when they are from strangers. But I’ll take them as jokes and reply if they are from my female friends.”

Members of the communist party in Shenze country in Hebei have been diligent in stamping out ‘inappropriate’ text messages:

“Obscene information not only harms the people’s soul but harms the people’s morality as well,” it quoted the party rule as saying. Since July 10, Shenze party officials have held 480 meetings to discuss the harmful effects of obscene messages.

In the United States of America, sexual harassment via text message (or any other method) is already illegal, because it’s harassment. So, a law specific to the deliver of the harassment is not necessary. However, if in China text message spam is growing problem (as say MSN spam is here), then something like this would be useful in shutting down mass spam enterprises.

There’s an Apple Store coming to Beijing. The three-story building is being designed by US architect Ben Wood, who runs an architecture firm called Studio Shanghai:

Beijing’s second official Apple store will be built on Qianmen Street, just blocks away from Tianamen Square. It will open this fall.

I wrote previously about buying faux purses in Shanghai, but another great fake good I bought was a leather “Prada” wallet. I needed a wallet to replace my aging and small genuine Kenneth Cole, since it couldn’t really fit all of my credit cards. So, when we ran into a small stand on the streets outside of XiGong area, I bought one for 25 RMB:

As you can see, it’s very pain. There was another wallet identical in every way, except the bottom right corner read “Gucci” instead of Prada. Nice way of differentiating the products! Mass production for the win…

However, this wallet is quite large. It can hold 9 cards, plus 1 ID, and pockets for miscellanies. There are two billfold sections for holding dollars / receipts / etc. Anyway, for $3.66, I think it’s a fair deal!