Cary Darling
©2005 Knight Ridder Newspapers
June 9, 2005
Revolutions aren't always ignited with an explosion. Sometimes they start slowly, where metal meets earth in the flying dirt of new construction.
That may have been what Japanese department store magnate Yasujiro Tsutsumi was thinking on that warm October day 45 years ago in Los Angeles where he broke ground on Seibu, a multilevel monument to Asian retailing just a short throw from Beverly Hills. These were the days when U.S.-built iron bullied the highways, Ken and Barbie ruled in toyland, and chow mein conveyed wild exoticism.
Seibu ultimately failed, but Tsutsumi's temporary beachhead on the shores of American consumerism signaled what was to come less than a half-century later: Americans can't seem to get enough of Asian culture. From movies to TV, comic books to videogames, and food to fashion, Asian ideas are invigorating our cultural mainstream.
So in today's LA, Asian-American Eric Nakamura, 35, can succeed, if on a smaller scale, where Tsutsumi couldn't. His Giant Robot 'zine, dedicated to all things Asian, has mushroomed from photocopied passion to slick success, retail stores/galleries in LA, San Francisco and soon New York City, and an LA cafe called gr/eat. Nakamura is as surprised by what's happened as anyone.
"In the beginning, the magazine was a hobby," he says. "All the stores and stuff, I would have never guessed that would have happened." But Nakamura's accidental fall into the slipstream of American pop culture is being echoed by others with more of a deliberate plan: Asian films such as "The Ring," "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers" strike multiplex gold while American producers remake other Asian hits, such as "The Grudge," this summer's "Dark Water," and next year's Martin Scorsese-directed "The Departed," a retelling of the Hong Kong hit "Infernal Affairs," this time with Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg. In fact, one estimate put the number of such remakes in the works at 24.
Meanwhile, big Hollywood movies like "The Matrix," "Star Wars" and "Kill Bill" bear an unmistakable Asian influence; South Korean films such as "Old Boy" and the work of Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai ("Happy Together," "In the Mood for Love"), whose "2046" opens in August, dazzle the arthouse crowd; MTV is getting ready to launch three new channels aimed at Asian-Americans; the Japanese animation styles of manga and anime have given a shot in the arm respectively to the comic-book, TV cartoon, and toy businesses; yoga and martial arts have become commonplace American leisure activities; Japanese designers from Issey Miyake to Commes des Garcons have influenced the fashion world; and Asian food - from boba (or bubble) tea to kimchi - continues to rocket in popularity.
"The culture is huge, but in entertainment culture, what are the popular movies looking like? What's the popular animation? It's been deeply impactful on every level," says Sean Akin, executive producer of the Cartoon Network's "Toonami," a four-hour block with, thanks to the likes of "Zatch Bell, Duel Master" and "The Life & Times of Juniper Lee," a decidedly Asian bent.
While there's long been some cultural crossover - from the mah-jongg craze in the early 20th century and the 1963 Kyu Sakamoto pop hit Sukiyaki, to the original 1954 "Godzilla" and the movies of Akira Kurosawa - the current upswing in interest in Asian pop culture can be traced to the '60s, when Japanimation exports such as "Speed Racer," "Astro Boy," "Kimba the White Lion" and "Gigantor" began to alter the look of children's TV.
The trickle surged to a wave in the next three decades with the emergence of Bruce Lee as a global youth icon and door-opener for Jackie Chan, Jet Li and newcomer Stephen Chow; the introduction of the first-generation Atari, Nintendo and Sega videogame consoles; the ubiquitous success of Hello Kitty merchandise; the surfacing of "Fast and the Furious"-style street-rod car culture; and the multimedia sensations of "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," "Transformers," "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers," "Pokemon" and "Yu-Gi-Oh." These last revolutions in kiddie culture led to the success of the current prepubescent preoccupation, "The Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi Show," the Cartoon Network's leading series among the 6-11 set and inspiration for Mattel's newest toy line, hitting stores in August.
Simultaneously, Japan became an economic powerhouse, with South Korea, Taiwan, India and China following in its footsteps. Travel, immigration and business ties meant increased cultural awareness.
"The world, economically and culturally, is a more open experience (today)," says Gil Asakawa, the author of Being Japanese-American and the creative force behind the Asian culture site www.nikkeiview.com. "You can't ignore the fact that in the last 25 years, as the immigrant population has become settled and the younger generation Americanized, they're sharing their culture with their friends."
MTV has taken note of the rising interest as the first channels out of its new MTV World division will be MTV Desi, aimed at South Asians in the United States, and two yet-to-be-named channels geared to Chinese-Americans and Korean-Americans. All will be on the air by 2006.
"At launch, we expect the first people to get these channels would be the immediate target audience. But we are conceiving these channels to be very inclusive," says Nusrat Durrani, MTV World's general manager and senior vice president. "If you're flipping around the dial (and find the Chinese channel), the diversity and creativity of what you'll see, and the universal themes, anyone can connect with them."
Mike Sherman, general manager of KTSF-TV in the San Francisco Bay area, already discovered that. Last year, his station began airing Stir TV, a weekly look at Asian youth culture, ranging from punk rock to skating and fashion. Now producers are looking to syndicate the show beyond Northern California. "We don't look at the target as just an Asian-American audience," he says. "It's more of an urban audience, really."
If American youth has been charmed by the Asian take on movies and comic books, their parents are being seduced by the Asian approach to food and health. "When you look at Asian pop culture, there's a lot that the West has embraced: boba tea, fitness trends, yoga, martial arts and even hybrid cars," Kelly Gilmore, senior vice president of global toys and themed entertainment at Warner Bros. Consumer Products, recently told Brandweek magazine.
Nowhere is this more true than with food, where Japanese sushi, Korean kimchi, Taiwanese boba tea and Thai barbecue have become ubiquitous in urban America. "People were ready to expand their culinary horizons," says Tracey Evers, executive director of the Greater Dallas Restaurant Association.
"You're going to see more regional food coming in," says Jeffrey Yarborough, president of Dallas-based Big Ink public-relations firm and the co-author, along with Dallas restaurateur Annie Wong, of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Asian Cooking." "You'll see more stuff from Laos, Malaysia and Korea."
One company that hopes to bring a more Asian approach to American snacking is Utah-based Tahitian Noni International, which sells products made with juice derived from the Polynesian noni plant. Selling smoothies and teas made with noni, the company opened its first cafe in Tokyo in 2003. It was successful enough to fuel further expansion, including a second Japanese store and another at home base in Provo, Utah. Its next outlet will open in Dallas this summer.
"We'll have a total of nine open this year, an additional 13 next year," says Mike Olsen, cafe department operations director. "The tea industry is just booming, and everyone's concept of tea is changing."
But for all the talk of a maturing, multicultural America, some note that the current interest level is nothing new. "Chinese art helped form the ideas of the Enlightenment. Chinese art helped form the whole Rococo movement," says Sarah Schneewind, who teaches East Asian History at Southern Methodist University. "You can continue right through any aspect of modernism and you'll find an Asian influence."
"The Beatles experimented with Asian music, and Ravi Shankar is a big influence," says MTV's Durrani. "We've had flirtations with Asian culture, but the reason it's accelerated is because technology has played a role. It's easier for us to engage with other cultures."
But for as visible as Asian pop culture is these days, there remains a feeling that America can only stand so much. Asian male actors in Hollywood can kung-fu to the point of exhaustion - they still won't get the girl. "It just shows that racism can coexist within cultural assimilation," says SMU's Schneewind.
And TV shows such as "Grey's Anatomy" and "ER" are set in contemporary, urban hospitals yet - unlike real life - seem to have only one Asian staff member.
"There's a creep-out factor, like 'Oh, my God!,' " says author Asakawa. "Maybe the networks have this sense that Americans really aren't ready to see a lot of Asians."
"They're still dragging their feet a little," says Giant Robot's Nakamura about Hollywood. "At the same time, (at least) there's one character and that's more than zero, which is how it would have been a few years ago."
