Thursday, July 07, 2005
Fight Club in China? Not yet...
My Japanese-American friend Koji, who's currently vagabonding his way through South America, has been into Chinese medicine (TCM), tai chi and that sorta stuff for a while, after being a yoga teacher for years. I shall ensure, as soon as he returns, that he has a blog up and going. I mean: Getting taken hostage by gunmen in Bolivia during a political revolution makes you one of two things: übercool or dead. Sometimes both, if you are Ché Guevara. And my friend sure is not dead yet...
Anyway, I digress. The plan for him originally was to fly from the Americas to China, to a teach-English-to-kids program at Wuhan University. However, the Chinese, as I warned him from personal experience, have their own set of interesting cultural stereotypes. If you want to teach English in China, no, you'd better be white. If you're not, you better have a white sounding name. Because 'real' Americans are white. And somehow Japanese names don't go down that well in China. So while filling out the application form, we decided to get him an 'American' name.
We started with the generic 'Joe'. Not good enough. Went through a whole list of common American names from Abe to Zach. Not good enough, not cool enough, not self-defining enough. Sigh, having our tailored meaningful names from our Asian cultures spoils us, leaving us incapable of comprehending the delightful simplicity of a Bill or a Bob :) Desperately looking around the room for inspiration, I glanced at his Fight Club dvd. Now that's a movie we both adore, so I went 'Hey, how about the name of the Brad Pitt guy in Fight Club? Err...Tyler. Yeah. Tyler Durden!' So the application got sent out under the extremely American-sounding name of Tyler Koji Otsuka.
Readings update:
I read about The Duel by Giacomo Casanova on this awesome blog yesterday and decided I had to read it. Yes, it is the same Casanova who is people love to slur (albeit with a green tint) about his lasvicious and flamboyant playboy lifestyle. But few know about his multifaceted personality, his skills at expression and
language, his lust for adventure and travel. The description of the book renders it begging to be read, and thus it lies next to my computer at work, threatening me with the welcome prospect of skiving off for the rest of the day.
The interesting bit, as I was looking for the book in the dark, damp, musty forgotten sections of the Rice Library, I unearthed ancient treasure, a translation of the The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. My heart started pounding, my breath accelerated at the sight. The legacy of countless B-grade Hollywood movies flows in my veins; the angelic hero who inadvertently lays hands on the accursed manuscript, reads an ill-omened chant and awakens ancient terrors: rag-wrapped mummies with dessicating flesh, sand monsters and giant scarabs. Unfortunately, I think the only things I'll manage to stir up are more roaches and mosquitoes. I seriously doubt that Isis and Osiris have kept up with their English, particularly the American variety.
Anyway, I digress. The plan for him originally was to fly from the Americas to China, to a teach-English-to-kids program at Wuhan University. However, the Chinese, as I warned him from personal experience, have their own set of interesting cultural stereotypes. If you want to teach English in China, no, you'd better be white. If you're not, you better have a white sounding name. Because 'real' Americans are white. And somehow Japanese names don't go down that well in China. So while filling out the application form, we decided to get him an 'American' name.
We started with the generic 'Joe'. Not good enough. Went through a whole list of common American names from Abe to Zach. Not good enough, not cool enough, not self-defining enough. Sigh, having our tailored meaningful names from our Asian cultures spoils us, leaving us incapable of comprehending the delightful simplicity of a Bill or a Bob :) Desperately looking around the room for inspiration, I glanced at his Fight Club dvd. Now that's a movie we both adore, so I went 'Hey, how about the name of the Brad Pitt guy in Fight Club? Err...Tyler. Yeah. Tyler Durden!' So the application got sent out under the extremely American-sounding name of Tyler Koji Otsuka.
It didn't work :)
Readings update:
I read about The Duel by Giacomo Casanova on this awesome blog yesterday and decided I had to read it. Yes, it is the same Casanova who is people love to slur (albeit with a green tint) about his lasvicious and flamboyant playboy lifestyle. But few know about his multifaceted personality, his skills at expression and
language, his lust for adventure and travel. The description of the book renders it begging to be read, and thus it lies next to my computer at work, threatening me with the welcome prospect of skiving off for the rest of the day.The interesting bit, as I was looking for the book in the dark, damp, musty forgotten sections of the Rice Library, I unearthed ancient treasure, a translation of the The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. My heart started pounding, my breath accelerated at the sight. The legacy of countless B-grade Hollywood movies flows in my veins; the angelic hero who inadvertently lays hands on the accursed manuscript, reads an ill-omened chant and awakens ancient terrors: rag-wrapped mummies with dessicating flesh, sand monsters and giant scarabs. Unfortunately, I think the only things I'll manage to stir up are more roaches and mosquitoes. I seriously doubt that Isis and Osiris have kept up with their English, particularly the American variety.
# posted by technophobicgeek @ 9:49 AM 
