Living On Tokyo Time

By 1989, I had decided to leave Ohio and I moved to Los Angeles. Looking back, I can see that I was motivated by a desire to 'find my people',  to be an Asian Kunta Kinte (from "Roots") and be reunited with my 'tribe'. What I didn't realize was that no such 'tribe' with its own heritage and sense of tradition exists. (More on that in another post.)

I managed to connect with some Toisan who like me were born of Chinese immigrants, who had grown up in Chinatown and were still attending the First Baptist Church in Chinatown, and in the initial conversations I had with them, one question/topic stuck out: "Have you seen the movie Living in Tokyo Time?".

The movie was a romantic comedy about a Nisei (American born Japanese) aspiring rock musician who agrees to marry a Japanese immigre who would otherwise be deported because her visa had expired. While the movie explores the culture clash between Japanese and American culture, the dynamics were such that it struck sympathetic chords in the souls of most Asian American males I knew at the time who like me were struggling with what it meant to walk with one foot each in a different world.

I began to follow filmmakers like Wayne Wang ("Chan Is Missing", "Dim Sum (A Little Bit of Heart)") whose movies depicted Asian American culture as well as filmmakers such as Ang Lee ("The Wedding Banquet", "Eat Drink Man Woman") in an effort to be more connected to my Asian heritage. I even began collecting DVD's of all the movies made by martial artists Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Jackie Chan.

Sadly, Asian American males in mainstream media by and large still fit into one or more of the following categories:

1) We speak with an accent;
2) We know martial arts or belong to a gang;
3) We pursue an alternative lifestyle;

Because of that, there's a huge desire within most Asian American males to see Asian American males depicted as we actually are in mainstream media because many feel trapped by the general misperceptions of Asians in America. This desire is probably even more heavily stoked by America's readiness to embrace the stories created by Asian female authors such as Amy Tan whose movie "The Joy Luck Club" is universally hated by Asian American males as the movie depicts all Asian males in a poor light, while the only successful marriage of a Chinese female is to a Caucasian American male. 

The TV sitcom called Fresh Off The Boat was originally created to chronicle the boyhood experiences of famous restauranteur/chef Eddie Huang and a Taiwanese friend in his 40's asked me with no small amount of excitement if I watched the show as it depicted Eddie Huang's adolescence. I watched the first couple of seasons but the direction of the series (geared towards retaining non-Asian viewers) became a disincentive for me personally and I didn't become aware that the series had ended until over a year had elapsed. Still, I should acknowledge that the depictions of an American Asian family and the coming of age of American Asian males to be something many Asian males wanted if not needed to see in American mainstream media - as long as they understand that their own story need not mirror those of any of the characters in the series. This might even need to be more necessary for non-Asians who see one show or movie and imagine "I understand Asians now" when they still really don't - yet.