Pham is Vietnamese. He's invited several friends to his Tukwila townhome that Friday to pre-funk before going out to one of their favorite Seattle clubs: Venom. All the 20-somethings pre-funking at his house are also Asian—most of them Vietnamese or Cambodian.
Now there is nothing wrong with this part but I would like to note that the group Erika is portraying are southeast Asians. Outside of the whole "What about the other guys?!" issue, I also find this just reinforces some nasty stereotypes on this group. Unlike east Asians (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) which generally have the stereotype of being lame mathematicians, southeastern Asians have more of the stereotype for being wild and lose. Blame this on the sex tourism within southeast Asia and the dominance of this group in pornos.
The gaggle of girls at his house could easily pass for sisters—sorority sisters, anyway. They're wearing strikingly similar dresses from Forever 21. Two of them—identical twins—look like they're in middle school, but are actually 20. They plan to get into Venom by waiting outside the club for a friend who's already gained entry to return with the IDs of those inside. (It can get so crowded at the rope that the bouncer won't notice an ID is being used twice.)
Nightlife photographer Luis Ongpin of streetpaparazzi.com, a local Web site devoted to photos of club-goers, often witnesses the operation go down while shooting at clubs like Venom and the War Room. "One Asian girl brings 10 with her. And to people that don't know them, they look similar enough to pull it off," he says.
First of all, what the hell is Erika thinking when writing this? Does she want these people to get in trouble? This is just irresponsible. If you read the comments in the article, Luis Ongpin actually comments and is not very happy. Second, what is with this whole "they all look young!" and "all look alike!" crap?
. The 22-year-old, whose cousin is married to the ukulele-strumming Nguyen, dons high heels and a skimpy purple get-up that stretches down to her mid-thighs, which she admits is actually just a long shirt. Mom just graduated from Seattle University, and is putting her job search on hold so she can enjoy one last responsibility-free summer.
Why is Erika sexualizing all the girls here? Is this to attract the white male audience or something?
"I have some white friends who won't even go [to Venom]," Mom says, laughing. "It's too Asian for them. For us, it's like family. Everybody knows each other there."
What the hell is "too Asian"? Do people run around eating kimchi by the gallons? Are there giant mecha robots as decoration? Are there posters dedicated to Ho Chi Minh? No seriously, I don't get it.
"Asians are like neon tetra fish—they travel in schools," Truong says. "You always see masses of them together. Once you get the group leader to come, you get the entire group. Then you get the friends of people in that group, and so forth."
... What the fuck?! Yes, I know Asians do generally travel in groups but then again so does everybody else. There is nothing unique or Asian here. Not to mention it just reinforces the whole "Asians have a group mentality!" stereotype.
"A lot of Asian-Americans that you see out there don't go to a four-year university or have a scene they really fit into," Ho explains. "They aren't going to frat parties or dive bars or sports bars. But many of them have been born and raised here, so they're incredibly in tune to the city. The club is a good comfort zone for them to go out with other Asian-Americans."
Really? I guess the explains the numerous Asian fraternities and sororities around UW. Or why I see several in places like Earl's on numerous occasions. Not to mention, clubs are not the only "Asian" night places they like to go too. I know several nightplaces around the Ave where the Asian population generally goes too that are not clubs. Why don't we talk about BBQ Chicken instead?
The girls begin sucking on Blow-Pops the bartender gave them, and then get up and start dancing with the sticks hanging out of their mouths. It's like a weird fetish-porn video.
If someone showed me this article without giving me any information on the author, I'd swear it be some white guy with an Asian fetish. Seriously, why is everything these Asian girls do being so hypersexualized?
Sab, like a majority of the clientele, hits up Venom on weekends because she's seeking the company of other Asians—not the people who fetishize them. Pham's circle arrives at and leaves the club together. It's like the Asian version of No Child Left Behind.
First of all, what the hell does Erika mean by NCLB? Is this another point about Asians looking young or something? Or is she thinking about "No Man Left Behind"? Second of all, has Erika actually been clubbing before? This is not an "Asian" thing. Its a universal rule among club goers. Everyone stick together, dance in a circle and leave together. Its a basic safety rule to make sure your drunk female cadre is not getting raped in the bathroom.
The patrons, most of whom are Filipino or Vietnamese, crowd the understaffed bar or thrash about on the dance floor.
Erika, "thrash dancing" is a type of moshing done at hardcore concerts. I doubt these people are listening to hardcore metal. Please be careful with your use of wording from now on.
And dear god, why is this article so long? Why did we have to go through that one page of how they drink and whine about people wearing similar clothes? Why didn't the editor make sure this article had a point?
many of them possessing that telling red-faced glow as they kneel over family-sized portions of greasy Chinese fare to soak up the booze in their bodies.
Oh god, now she brings up the "greasy Chinese food" stereotype. Chinese food is not anymore greasy then any other food; that Panda Express crap is not Chinese food. I seriously feel bad for these places mentioned in the article, especially the Purple Dot. I've been to the Purple Dot and none of the food is "greasy" and is actually fairly high quality. They serve Peking Duck for god sakes.
Of course, I could have saved all you and me the trouble of this by simply linking to this article from the Stranger that pretty much sums up the major issue we have with this article. And I do not care about what race Erika is, I don't believe in privilege politics and it does not change this article is garbage.
Yuck...Erika Hobart is Japanese American. It is very typical for Japanese people to look down other Asians and look up Americans. I wonder where she got all of these kinds of thoughts? Parents? School? Her writing is so outrageous..What the hell she was thinking about?
ReplyDeleteDoes she think Japanese is number one in Asia? Well, if she thinks Japanese is number one, I am not amazed, because many Japanese think that way. But if she has an American parent, I would actually expect she has more objective view on herself as a Japanese and on others. This writing just show how shallow she is, and that she has very limited knowledge about Asian culture and thoughts. She does not have any rights to write about Asian. Perhaps she should learn how other Asians, or even Americans think about Japanese . Narrow minded.
Erika Hobart should not call herself a writer .
ReplyDeleteShe is morally low and lack of knowledge. Very unreliable person.
I agree that this article is completely a nonsense and a trash. While reading the article, I can't stop thinking about what kind of person Erika Hobart is. For me, it seems that all of this has something to do with Erika Hobart as a person. It seems to me that Erika Hobart is lack of moral standard and common sense. I even think that probably Erika Hobart's other writings are also nonsense and unreliable. Probably Erika Hobart needs to start thinking about doing something else other than writing.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this article is completely a nonsense and a trash. While reading the article, I can't stop thinking about what kind of person Erika Hobart is. For me, it seems that all of this has something to do with Erika Hobart as a person. It seems to me that Erika Hobart is lack of moral standard and common sense. I even think that probably Erika Hobart's other writings are also nonsense and unreliable. Probably Erika Hobart needs to start thinking about doing something else other than writing.
ReplyDelete