Angry Asian Man' aims to trump stereotypes

Scholarly blogger deals with cultural fallacies, ethnic misconceptions.

When you think of an angry Asian man, the image of a ninja wielding formidable weapons comes to mind. The stereotype isn’t far from the mark when you visit “Angry Asian Man,” a blog run by University of California, Berkeley alumnus Phil Yu.

“The name of my blog is provocative and scary,” said Yu. “It’s different from most people’s idea of what an Asian person is supposed to be. Most Asians in this country are not seen as people who are willing to rock the boat. We’re seen as meek people who just let things slide, but that’s not true at all.”

At a panel in the Texas Union on Thursday, Yu and Nhi Lieu, a UT American studies professor discussed Asian-American media representation and identity in America, as well as the influence of Yu’s blog on the Asian-American community.

Yu started his blog nine years ago as a place to express his own opinions on Asian-American issues.

“I thought I’d just have a couple of casual visitors at first,” Yu said. “Now, my blog is a place people visit to seek information and current events related to a specific community.”

Austin resident Katie Mahoney said she has followed Yu’s blog for two years now because he addresses sensitive issues that other blogs do not.

“He writes about race and racism without hesitation,” Mahoney said.

Yu uses his blog to mobilize his readers behind specific causes, such as Asian representation in Hollywood.

“I sometimes feel powerless to confront things in real life, but you can evoke action through the Internet,” Yu said.

Lieu uses the blog as a model for teaching her class on Asian-American pop culture. Her students learn about race and how it influences types of media, such as film and television. Lieu studies how cultural groups construct their identities and how they engage in that culture while living in America. In terms of representation in the media, Lieu said Asian-Americans are nearly invisible.

“Sometimes there are no stories about Asian-Americans in national news for weeks at a time,” Lieu said.

Yu considers himself an activist and builds on the work of other activists to show how racism is still alive. Lieu and Yu said more stereotypes associated with Asian-Americans have emerged, including the image of Asians as “crazy” after the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. Arab-Americans have also been targeted, Lieu said.

“It’s sometimes frustrating hearing about hate crimes and discrimination because you would think we would be over racism in this country by now,” he said. “But we’re not even close.”

Source: Daily Texan Online