There was an excellent 60 Minutes presentation on North Korea on Sunday 1/15. We have been at war with them for the last 50 years, and one of the 60 Minutes reporters went to North Korea. Needless to say he had 2 full time official government guides. It was interesting to see the traffic guides, there was virtually no traffic, nor traffic lights,and the guides had no emotion. Most of the people in North Korea cannot even afford bikes. There are air polution problems, but it seems the country is very structured and very clean. They are not allowed to watch foreign TV. They have the 3rd largest army in the world, but they are robotic in nature. My husband asked, "Who does their army remind you of?", and with the robotics, it was definitely the "goose-stepping" of Nazi Germany.They believe an American invasion is coming, and are quite ready to use the atomic bomb. To live in their capital city you must have permission. A tour of the Pueblo, our boat that was captured many yeras ago is $78. U.S. North Korea feels war with the U.S. in inevitable.

I don't think I ever realized how often bits and pieces of Asian culture are in our everyday lives. A few days ago I walked into my living room and my daughter was watching "Americans Next Top Model". I have never paid much attention to the show, but this particular day it caught my attention. The would be models were in Japan. They were meeting Japanese executives, attending tea ceremonies, and finding and dressing in local fashions. The judges panel was primarily from America, but there was one guest judge from Japan. Of the three final contestants, she liked the blond hair blue eyed contestant better than the two African American contestants. Her comment was something like she has the look we are looking for.

More aware? I think so. The day before in the staff lounge I saw a magazine on the table. The cover story was about the fashions coming out of China. I don't have the article with me, but the designer was being compared to Gucci. The article claimed that China was right up there with France and Milan for fashion.

I think I am more aware, and it is a good thing.

Hello everyone,

I heard something new today. I wonder why it was never mentioned by Clay before. It seems too important to be missed. If you have more information in this regard please post it.
I heard that Americans who like to adopt Chinese children travel to China in large numbers. Certain day of the week(Tuesdays) is for those who like to get boys, and another day is for seekers of girls. They show up in certain hotels in large crowds, and there is an amazing competition for adopting Chinese children.

More info please!!!

Have you heard of Kip Fulbeck? He has a exhibit at the Japanese American Museum downtown LA. He collected pictures of Hapa from all over the country to show their beauty and diversity. It is starting to become something that is less derogatory. More and more people are intermarrying and there will be more and more hapas. You should check it out. It's really interesting. He almost wrote various books and lectures.

I have just learned through the events calendar that Obon Festival is coming at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple in Little Tokyo. I have been there a couple of times in the past and I had a good time. One can get to see the temple inside, taste some good food, win some games. Obon is kind of a memorial service for the ancestors of the Buddhist's family. But anybody can pray for their ancestors at the temple. (Not that I was a Buddhist, but Asians are big about their ancestors, and you and I can be too!!) You will find the information in the UCLA event calendar. If you are lazy about it, here it is!

Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple
503 E. 3rd St. LA
12:00pm to 9:00pm
213-626-4200

You can be there for free, but you have to pay for the food and games.
Have fun!

Whether it is an international acceptance of "newly" discovered beauties from all continents or an ageless chase for the "beauty" of the moment, pageants have evolved more recently into the search for the "well-rounded" beauty. Beyond the classic 'beauty with brain' stereotypes, more recent pageant winners have to be above par with social skills and grace that I believe harkens back to the pageants of our forefathers.... Grace Kelley et al. were the social representatives of their gender, their class, their ethnicity, and even their upbringing. In the narrow definition of beauty of the past, the typical fair-skinned, light-colored hair maiden of the Western world was the "unattainable" woman for the masses.... The women in the aristocratic class, or in the academic/high culture world, or in the well-traveled, cosmopolitan lifestyles were the images splashed across media and made contact with people around the world.

As our modern American society truly begins to reflect multi-culturalism, including mixed ethnic offsprings, I know the future generations will live to see their society as real as the diversity of our nation's history. However, will small extreme groups, such as supremist or ethnic cliques, continue to spit their venom of narrowly defined, and exclusive sense of beauty on the majority; or will our short attention span nation ignore the 'why's' and the 'how's' of an multiethnic America's past, and move on to the next 'IT' 'girl'/fashion of the moment?!?

Being of Asian descent, and being male, I often got to see and sense what beauty meant to people both here in America and in Asia. First, when I was younger, it was always Asian-American women/girls dating Caucasian men/boys. Why never Asian American guy with a Caucasian girl that I frequently now see in multi-ethnic neighborhoods?!? What if a girl/woman brought home a non-Asian, non-Caucasian, or even worse non-professional/academic as a date??? or a future husband??? What if she had an 'illegitimate' child, out of wedlock with an unemployed, non-degreed, different ethnicity father??? From the Caucasian male point of view, I know that colonial/imperial/tourism propaganda still promotes Asian women as the pliable, exotic 'beauty' of the 'other'... Ever see ads for Singapore Airlines, or for any film/book/media related to 'Geisha', or fell uncomfortable when seeing how some soldiers treat women in war films or historical epics... With any interracial marriages, did the couple see each other’s ethnicity first, or truly find love??? On the flip side, if Asian couples marry the same ethnic group for the sake for family and Asian tradition, then why does "Romeo and Juliet" speak so much to Asian hearts with similar social restrictions??? Shouldn't true love conquer all???

Second, going back to the idea and imagery of the Asian beauty in the Western world, could we trace back the fascination with Eastern beauty back to the kidnapping of Helen of Troy, or the marriage(s) of Cleopatra, or even the more recent history of 'mail-order' brides and war brides??? If Iman and Beverly Johnson defined 'Black' beauty, and the new Miss Universe (P.Rico) and unfortunately for some JLo and the Latino craze, then who is the Asian beauty of tomorrow??? If you went to Asia a few years back, even Asian cosmetic firms were using Western models for their products... Today???.... And in the future, if 'Asian woman' is to be the new look du jour, will Western women get surgery one day to remove the extra fold on their eyelids, choosing to go for the smooth, wrinkle free eyelids on half of the world's faces??? Are tanning sprays and treatments a new definition of beauty, color on the skin, but then what is the deal with the use whitening creams in Asia to look beautiful? Yes, if you have color in Asia, your parents couldn't afford to keep you in indoor endeavors of schools and professional lifestyles...But in America, if you have 'color' in the suburbs, your parents have the wealth and the modern sense to give you the freedom of the great outdoor life - soccer, baseball, and the backyard pool?! White suburban kids imitating urban lifestyles of hip-hop.... So to be the urban lifestyles of neo-Tokyo??? Can we all visualize yellow Yu-gi-oh hair and tech-savvy, materialistic teens???....

Finally, will traditional Asian-American parents finally see a multi-racial, multi-generational bloodlines in the future? If African-Americans, and in some instances Native Americans have a rich history of crossing ethnic lines in America, and hopefully found peace and happiness in such great unions, then will Asians back in Asia open their minds to such future possibilities as their sphere of influence spreads????

As I have been doing some reading, the question I am asking myself is this? Is China even Communist? Was it ever communist or is it just a continuation of the empires that have dominated China over the millenia? Mao (as Stalin did in Russia imo) acted much more like a despotic emperor than a communist and Deng never really acted like a communist in opening China to a market economy.

One thing seems to be sure. China and its Communist state have followed a similar path that the rest of the Communist nations of the last century have done and they have repressed and deceived their people to hold power in the hands of one or a few.