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• Interview with Ken Jeong

  Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009 7:55PM / Standard Entry

  Interview with Ken Jeong. This guy is funny.
  
  
  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xx_EFG0c4RU
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

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• Banana

  Saturday, Sep 12, 2009 10:39PM / Standard Entry

  If my collaborator is reading this, don't worry, I'm not blaming you. You've been a great collaborator so far, but I'm bringing out a discussion because the point we discussed through email has caused me to understand more clearly what my political goals are.
  
  I'm trying to write a story which is about an ABC - or a banana, or a twinkie, if you will - which happens in China. It is a story where the ABC is the protagonist, and the events which happen to her could only happen to her precisely because of who she is, with the upbringing that she had. Her story not only represents her perspective as something of a foreigner in Asia; it also represents connection with the local people she meets in a way that a non-hyphenated American might not be capable of. In that sense, I feel it is a story that can bring people together.
  
  Whether it be in the US or in China or wherever, at present, my political goal is to represent those of us - ABC's - who are in the middle and to share what only WE can share.
  
  Whether in the US or China, our perspective gets swallowed up by the majority. Many of us have thought about how that happens in the US, but what about in the other direction? I don't understand why it is that Chinese Americans think that simply escaping to Asia solves the problem of being discriminated against in the US. For me, the simple truth is that I never feel I fully fit in anywhere, and I don't think I ever will. And I DON'T WANT TO ANYMORE. I'm happy being unique for who I am. I want to be the Chinese-American girl who sits and writes stories at her computer in New Jersey, alternatingly comforted by people who have Jersey accents and missing those damned good layered breakfast sandwiches in Taipei. That's who I am.
  
  But I'm sick of feeling bottled about it. To me, as silly as it sounds, the solution IS FILMMAKING; it IS creating a space where you can exist as who you really ARE.
  
  Please argue with me if you can about the role of ABC's in Chinese film. I admit I haven't seen as many Chinese movies as a lot of people on this site or elsewhere. But the one example I will give is "Big Shot's Funeral" starring Feng Xiao Gang and Donald Sutherland, where there's a side character of an ABC who is actually played by a local Chinese actress. This character is portrayed as being arrogant and spoiled, and her voice is dubbed in by a westerner to make her accent authentically American.
  
  Isn't that as bad as CHARLIE CHAN?
  
  How often do Chinese studios or American studios allow us to remain intact without being swallowed up by the perspective of the majority culture? Never. When foreigners play roles in Asian movies, aren't they still playing into the political and personal goals of the people of the local culture? Why would they give us the money to do so otherwise? Everyone lives to stand up for THEMSELVES, right?
  
  This problem can only be solved BY ABC's. We have resources that other people don't. We may be a small group, but we have the possibility of creating ourselves through film, and we don't take those opportunities because I guess we just don't mind being swallowed up by the machines on either side. Well, I DO. Instead of running from one side to the other, why can't we just more thoroughly stand our ground and be who we are - whether the story is set in the east or the west?
  
  My goal for my first few screenplays is to stand my ground and be who I am, without being swallowed up by either side. I think I HAVE figured out how to do this through story - how to figure out a perspective that takes into account the character's background and upbringing and could only happen to a person made of the elements I understand - that is STILL UNIVERSAL. But the reason I stall and I have problems going forth is because I don't want to give away my personal, most cherished experiences in life, which I have jotted down over 15 years, so that I can be MADE FUN OF by producers on either side who are giving the money and have the final say. If the producers in China want to turn it into a primarily Chinese film, I foresee the protagonist being MADE FUN OF more than being REPRESENTED. If I was to hand it to American producers I wouldn't be surprised if they said, I don't care who you are, let's make the protagonist a white person.
  
  If I recall correctly, when Martin Scorcese wrote Mean Streets, he had to fight tooth and nail to let it be about the Italians he had grown up alongside. These were ITALIAN-AMERICANS. They insisted on making the actors African American at first. I don't know how he fought this and won, thus laying the groundwork for a whole new genre of films. Spike Lee, of course, decided to produce films himself as his only choice toward representing African Americans on HIS OWN TERMS. These are AFRICAN-AMERICANS. I have wanted to do what he did since I was in undergrad - but until this age, I've needed to live and learn more in order to write something that is not only representative - but substantial!!!
  
  According to my stubborn personality, if I could do what Spike Lee did, I would do it in a heartbeat. But I'm not as independent than he is. And once help is needed, the danger of submitting to all kinds of people who have different political goals surfaces.
  
  Open to thoughts if anyone is reading this :) Beat me down for what I don't know. I welcome it.
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• cool video

  Wednesday, Sep 2, 2009 11:14PM / Standard Entry

  
  

  Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfAuFAgHpzc
  

  
  I think this video is really weird but I like it.
  
  
  
  

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• copy-paste l'autre blog

  Monday, Aug 31, 2009 11:17AM / Standard Entry

  Been a little busy lately. Working on two scripts (yes, the same two I've mentioned a couple times since last year, but now real headway is being made! Just had to clear a lot of psychological gunk out of my head first). Some recent co-writing proved to be a lot more fun and productive than I ever thought it would be! Thanks to my collaborator!
  
  In the meantime, I'm going to try to make use of photos I took in Taiwan by copying and pasting old entries from my other blog. Yep, these are pretty old... But I figure this way I can keep up my blogging on AnD without uploading new stuff...
  
  
  Wednesday, June 6, 2007

  FLASHBACK - MOON LADY

  Okay, so here goes. What I've been putting off for a while. Talking about the trip to Taiwan.
  
  My sister and I went to Taiwan to do pre-production for my film, Moon Lady. I sort of made a master plan for the whole thing and then I didn't think too much about it or try to control it. Everything just rolled out, like I thought it would - souls commingling, frustrations spitting and spouting, grudges smearing, tears trickling. We tried not to let it affect us. We are a stoic sort, we Chengs. But it happened.
  
  Here is the "sanhoyuan," a kind of three-sided courtyard, in Linbian. My relatives may have been afraid of me making a mess of someone's house - because everyone kept trying to get me to shoot here. I didn't want to because I saw it as a very typical manifestation of Chinese culture.
  
  That said, this was a nicely preserved sanhoyuan.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  My grandfather, Zheng Yi Po, was a poet and teacher who was invited to Linbian by the man who lived in this house to work in the town. He came from Tainan and lived in this house for a short while with my grandmother and their first child while they were setting up their lives. My grandfather was respected and known in the town. His name is also inscribed in the oldest temple in the town because he composed and carved its calligraphy.
  
  The man who invited him is in the framed portrait on the right side of the interior.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

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• theme song

  Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 9:12AM / Standard Entry

  http://wseoling.xanga.com/audio/d5ba23649882/
  

  
  

  this was the rough recording i did of one part of the ML theme song
  
  
  

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