The Occidental Tourist

Myrna Adele Williams, from Radersburg, MT!

A Global Village

New Yorker PAULETTE GODDARD as an Indian/Canadian half-breed in North West Mounted Police (1940)

Czech FLORENCE MARLY in (we think) the Argentinian Western El idolo (1952)

Brooklyn-born, Norweigan-raised SIGRID "The Goddess of the Fjords" GURIE as an Algerian gypsy in Algiers (1938)

British BINNIE BARNES as a Chinese shrew in The Adventures of Marco Polo (1938)

Isn't Hollywood's open-mindedness refreshing?

The Pearl Buck Stops Here

"The carra rirries are in broom again..."

Icon

Have You Met Our Mother?

I'm an Indian, Too

Two Wongs

...one white.

Love Them Long Time

We love, honor, and worship at the shrines of Miss Teal Joy, Pat "Miss Pony Tail" Suzuki, and Miyoshi Umeki; but with all due respect, were there any more fantabulous Asian divas than The Kim Sisters?

We didn't think so.

Fancy Miss Nancy

Flower Drum Song (1961)

Fabulastic Thombeau and That Darn Dray are just too clever; our latest Mystery Guest was the lovely star of The World of Suzie Wong (1960) and Flower Drum Song (1961), Miss Nancy Kwan, whom we patently adore.

In typically shortsighted fashion, Hollywood must have been asking themselves, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Nancy Kwan? After the initial hoopla surrounding Suzie Wong and Flower Drum Song died down, there were scant opportunities for Asian leading ladies. There were even attempts to "change" Nancy's image; she made an alluring French ye-ye girl...


...but was less convincing as Yvette Mimieux's doppelganger.


Kwan's mentor, producer Ray Stark (to whom she was under personal contract), protected her interests as much as he could: interestingly, Nancy's roles in Honeymoon Hotel (1964) and Arriverderci, Baby! (1966), two glamorous if inconsequential sex comedies, did not specify her characters as being Asian. This could have been a turning point in her film career (not to mention film history), but after her association with Stark ended, Hollywood backpeddled and handed her such decorative roles as "Nurse Tomiko Momoyama" in a (God help her) Doug McClure vehicle, Nobody's Perfect (1968), and "Yu-Rang" (geddit?) in The Wrecking Crew (1969), the last of Dino's smarmy Matt Helm spy spoofs.

The Wrecking Crew (1969)

The sad truth is, there was simply no place in Hollywood for a beautiful, glamorous movie star who happened to be Asian. Like Dorothy Dandridge before her, Nancy Kwan was hailed as a superstar in her first major films; and then found that there were no more roles being tailor-made for the ethnically-specific box she was confined to.

Still, La Kwan was Hollywood's first bona fide Asian leading lady, so homage must be paid. Had she come along a few decades later, perhaps she would have become the superstar she should have been. On the other hand, since she's been Hollywood's only bona fide Asian leading lady since the 1960's, times haven't really changed that much, have they?


Visit Nancy Kwan's official website here.

The Occidental Tourists

The Carra Rirries Are in Broom Again

TURHAN BEY & KATHARINE HEPBURN IN DRAGON SEED (1944)

Me Velly Pissed

THIS IS NOT YOUR BLOGGER.

I wouldn't exactly call myself "docile," but it takes a lot to piss me off. I mean really, truly get me riled up, not merely annoyed for an instant. (I may appear as if I'm actually upset by the guy wearing his baseball cap inside the four star restaurant, but trust me, it'll pass.)

Anyway, I was at the convenience store today, attempting to buy a lottery ticket. I approached the counter; the clerk working today isn't someone I'm buddy-buddy with, but we know each other by sight, and I always smile and say "please" and "thank you" when I interact with him, or any of the other fellows who work there.

"I'd like one Quick Pick on the Mega Millions, please." (A girl can dream, can't she?)

He responded with something absolutely unintelligible. I looked at him in utter confusion, and he then said something else, also completely garbled to my ears. Finally, a third time, he said, "Konichiwa!"

Ah.

He'd been trying out his various Asian dialects on me.

"No," I said firmly.

"No? I didn't get it?"

"No. You didn't get it. One Quick Pick on the Mega Million, please."

I was really annoyed, and I'm sure my face registered my displeasure, but I kept my tongue in check. Maybe, I thought to myself, he just thought he was being friendly and chatty. Maybe he doesn't realize how tactless and how...well, racist he's being.

I don't go through my day with the Race Chip on my shoulder. Honestly, I hardly ever think about it at all. For all you disinterested readers out there, I was born in Seoul, adopted when I was 2 months old, and forget that I'm Asian at all until I occasionally catch a glimpse in the mirror. I'm something of a mutt, which I like; I don't identify as specifically "Korean," and have been mistaken for everything from Thai to Filipino to -- I swear -- African American. Honest to God. But that's another story.

Anyway, my point is, I'm not hyper-sensitive to the whole race issue. I think Mr. Moto films are adorable. My Korean dry cleaning lady's accent cracks me up. Japanese tourists frantically snapping photographs of their dinner entrees at expensive restaurants tickle me. I've been known to say, "Me love you long time." (Jokingly, I must add. Not as a pick up line. Or a thank you.) Stereotypes exist because they have a basis in truth. I trust in my own individuality to quietly counteract those stereotypes one idiot at a time.

So, as I say, I'm not a militant, confrontational Asian warrior looking for battle with the first ignoramus I come across. I gave this convenience store clerk the benefit of the doubt. When he returned with my lottery ticket, he had a smug grin on his face, and continued to speak to me in pidgin-Asian-whatever language. So much for trusting in basic human decency.

I just left, seething, silently promising myself to never patronize them again. As I left, I wondered two things: Should I have made a scene, and called this idiot out on his racism? (Being Haitian, I'm sure he wouldn't have appreciated any derogatory comments made towards his race or country.) And, more disturbingly, would I keep my promise to not use the store's services again, even though it would mean going out of my way to use a different store?

Life should be fabulous. I hate it when assholes make it complicated.