Random: Two Authors’ Posts, Bruce Lee, Kung Fu and Musical Films

One of the best – and funniest – contributions to 8Asians.com I read in a while. Written by Tina Tsai, author of debut teen kung fu romance novel The Legend of Phoenix Mountain [GoodReads with a link to first six 'free' chapters].

• The Love Boat: Exciting and… Taiwanese?

Tsai’s description of her YA romance novel amuses me:

Her debut novel The Legend of Phoenix Mountain is a teenage American kung fu romance inspired by eastern philosophy, Asian mythology, video games, anime, and martial arts movies.

I wouldn’t read it, though. I had enough kung fu to last me a lifetime. Thanks, oldest mite.

Well, I have never been that into martial arts of any kind. I think it’s a reaction to my two uncles – and again later, three of my older brothers and again, youngest brother and now, my own son – being obsessed with all things Hong Kong and Chinese martial arts films. I think that makes it the entire thirty-six years of my life being forced to witness some sort of martial arts one way or another through films and in real life (those relatives’ attempts were hilariously bad, including my own son’s… sorry, mite!).

It’s quite endearing to see how Bruce Lee was an hero to each generation in our family. He appeared so often that I admit I gave him a nickname: the Phoenix of the Family. When the older generation eventually forgot him, the next generation would discover and worship him, just like the last generation, until they grew older enough to forget him. Then he returns via the latest generation.

It’s quite odd, really. I did wonder if the oldest mite’s own child would fall for Bruce Lee as well. If he or she does, it’d make him or her the fourth generation.

Another good post from a YA author: Neesha Meminger at Diversity in YA, talking about YA South Asian romances:

I wrote Jazz in Love because I wanted to write a YA romance featuring South Asian teens. And, truthfully, it amazes me that there aren’t more like it in YA. South Asian teens grow up steeped in romance with Bollywood films and angsty love songs. For those not familiar, Bollywood is a combination of “Bombay” and “Hollywood” and is used to depict the thriving Hindi film industry in Bombay.

I started watching Bollywood films when I was about seven or eight years old. They were innocent, for the most part, since the no-kissing censors took care of any inappropriate sexuality entering my radar (not counting the deep tongue action on prime-time television on a regular basis on American and Canadian networks), and there was no real violence in any of them (plenty of fake fight scenes though). Over the years, Bollywood films have come far closer to the types of films Hollywood produces, but they will never lose that covert sexuality and innuendo and romantic angst that is Bollywood’s signature.

[click on a link below to read the rest]

• Neesha Meminger on South Asian YA Romance

I generally don’t watch ‘Bollywood’ films because I’m basically not a fan of musical films. I do like dance-only films, but singing and all that? Nah. Not for me.

The blame is all on an aunt who dragged me to cinema to watch her favourite old Hollywood musical films. I think I saw Seven Brides for Seven Brothers six times. Hated it each time. The mere sight of Howard Keel (as Adam in SBFSB) still pisses me off.

I still nurse a psychological hatred for The Sound of Music, Meet Me In St Louis, The King and I, My Fair Lady, Calamity Jane (this is the film that inspired my hatred for the “you have to have a proper make-over to be sexy, lady-like or feminine to get your man!” trope), and anything that stars Bing Crosby (and his damn pipe), Deanna Durbin, Judy Garland, Irene Dunne, Gene Kelly (he’s a dancer, true, but his smirk still annoys me so much) and Shirley Temple.

The only films that survived these tormented childhood years are West Side Story (mostly dancing, which makes it tolerable), Bugsy Malone (I fast-forward a scene that has heroine Blousey Brown as the centrepiece), and anything that stars Fred Astaire (he’s more of a dancer than a singer, thankfully).

Actually, I saw Bugsy Malone a couple of years ago for the first time in years. I was a bit startled when I listened to the lyrics during this scene:

Unsurprisingly, it went completely over my head when I first saw this.

Hm… I feel quite bad for picking a bad Bruce Lee photo. Here’s the better one:

I find it fascinating to see how many people refer Bruce Lee as ‘Chinese actor’ when in reality, he was an American-born actor. Some pointed out that he was raised in Hong Kong, which makes him ‘Chinese’. I never understood this kind of thinking because according to his autobiography and biographies, Bruce Lee was raised in both countries so what’s the deal with that? I mean, author Phyllis A. Whitney, for instance, was born and raised (until she was roughly thirteen years old) in Japan but almost every critic refers her as ‘American author’.

Or actors like Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Naomi Watts, Keifer Sunderland, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bob Hope, Angela Lansbury, Elsa Lanchester (Bride of Frankenstein),  Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison, Tyrone Power Sr, Tim Curry — they all were born in England. By their reasoning, we should refer these actors as ‘British actors’, but we don’t.

I think that’s partly why I’m annoyed with – when I read film reviews of Never Let Me Go – all these incorrect references to Kazuo Ishiguro as ‘Japanese author’ instead of ‘British author’ (he grew up in this country since he was four years old).

Lee was mixed race as well, which very few seem to realise.