David Brooks hits another one out of the ballpark in his article about Mitt Romney: The Crowd Pleaser.

In the article, Brooks talks about how Mitt Romney rarely talks about his roots, where he comes from, or his family history. Mitt never had an industry that he fell in love with, choosing instead to invest in diverse industries and to specialize in “management of management.” Mitt seems to be pure marketing and sales, and many people, including conservative pundits, think that maybe that’s all there is to him.

But outside of the political talk, I found interesting Brooks’s discussion of David Riesman’s “The Lonely Crowd.” I hadn’t heard of the book, but this was very interesting:

The agricultural economy nurtured tradition-directed individuals. People lived according to the ancient cycles, customs and beliefs. Children grew up and performed the same roles as their parents.

The industrial era favored the inner-directed personality type. The inner-directed person was guided by a set of strong internal convictions, like Victorian morality. The inner-directed person was a hardy pioneer, the stolid engineer or the resilient steelworker — working on physical things. This person was often rigid, but also steadfast.

The other-directed personality type emerges in a service or information age economy. In this sort of economy, most workers are not working with physical things; they are manipulating people. The other-directed person becomes adept at pleasing others, at selling him or herself.

There’s probably a great deal of truth in this. A few weeks ago, I blogged about What Cultures Value, saying that Koreans value diligence and consistency among other things, while Americans value entrepreneurship and salesmanship. This might make sense in Riesman’s/Brooks’s context, as America is mostly a service economy these days, while Korean remains an industrial powerhouse.

This looks like an interesting book. It even has its own Wikipedia entry, which says:

Riesman’s book argues that although other-directed individuals are crucial for the smooth functioning of the modern organization, the value of autonomy is compromised. The Lonely Crowd also argues that society dominated by the other-directed faces profound deficiencies in leadership, individual self-knowledge, and human potential.

(pic from here)

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I had a long discussion with an Asian American friend today whose religious view are similar to mine–i.e. they’re not existent. She asked me what I though of Jeremy Lin, and I said that his accomplishments are great for Asian Americans. I asked her what she thought, and she said she couldn’t get over the Christian thing. Normally I’d have to agree, but man, I may have to convert after the video above. As my old pastor said, “Can I hear an amen?”

By the way, this was the top link for “Jeremy Lin” on my google search: Asian Americans energized in seeing Knicks’ Jeremy Lin play.

(Thanks, Danny! I too had no idea he had dunking in his arsenal!)

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Seeking Asian Female Trailer from Seeking Asian Female Documentary on Vimeo.

Got this from Alpha/Mojo. I couldn’t tell if it was real or acted, but it looks like it’s real. It’s premiering at South by Southwest. As much as I question supporting this kind of thing, it does look from the trailer that it will work out fine. Dude seems nice enough. Older, but nice enough.

Here’s the description from their website:

Seeking Asian Female is an eccentric modern love story about
Steven and Sandy – an aging white man with “yellow fever” who is
obsessed with marrying any Asian woman, and the young Chinese
bride he finds online. Debbie, a Chinese American filmmaker,
documents and narrates with skepticism and humor, from the early
stages of Steven’s search for an Asian bride, through the moment
Sandy steps foot in America for the first time, to a year into their
precarious union. Global migration, Sino-American relations and the
perennial battle of the sexes, weigh in on the fate of their marriage
in this intimate and quirky personal documentary.

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This isn’t a formal review, but if it were, I’m not sure how I’d categorize it. Hornby uses sharp language, and his writing is infused with that cheeky British humor that Americans love. The book, through the character of Will Freeman, captures the slacker culture that was big in the 90′s–and even bigger now. Marcus, the boy whom Will befriends, was intriguing because of the numerous issues that came his way. Overall, a fun read.

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It was absolutely delicious. I was, however, surprised that the Sriracha sauce isn’t as spicy after cooking, and I wish I’d put in that “Asian chili flakes” that Kai said would “burn your ass.” The older I get, the more I find myself craving extremely spicy food.

Anyway, the Superbowl is known a lot for its commercials, and in keeping with the tradition, GOP Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra ran the following ad saying that his opponent was spending too much money and borrowing from China. It depicts a Chinese woman riding a bike in the rice paddies and telling Americans how China is reaping the benefits of jobs and money from bad American policy. “Your economy get very weak, ours get very good.” Yeah, watch out for those Chinese women in the rice paddies–they’ll give you an earful about politics and economics if you let ‘em talk! Actually, I’m not sure what a woman in the rice paddies is talking about anyway…are the Chinese stealing jobs from American farmers growing rice in China?

The actress is clearly an American without an accent, but in keeping with the tradition, she’s gotta fake one. And this is one of the worst Chinese accents I’ve ever heard. Alexandra Wallace had a better accent.

Oh well, logic was never the forte of some of these politicians–at least not when talking to the American people. Hoekstra, according to his Wiki, is an immigrant himself, born in the Netherlands. So he can’t be racist! Err..right.

On a happier note, some black ministers in Detroit have gotten involved and have called on Hoekstra to apologize. At least Hoekstra is bringing the minorities together.

“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”

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According to the NY Times,

Jeremy Lin, whose unusual résumé is more well known than his game, emerged as the Knicks’ momentary savior, packing the box score with career highs and leading his team to a stress-relieving 99-92 victory over the Nets.

Lin scored 25 points, nearly doubling his previous career high, and finished with 7 assists and 5 rebounds, energizing a Knicks offense that desperately needed a boost. He outscored his celebrity teammates, Carmelo Anthony (11 points) and Amar’e Stoudemire (17 points), and outdueled Deron Williams (21 points), the Nets’ All-Star point guard.

The entire article is about Jeremy. This guy could go far.

Edit: Just saw this:

Great video. But WTF kind of sign was that Asian guy in the audience holding up?

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I thought this was a joke when I first saw it: African Americans in Dallas Target Korean Business. According to the article,

The customer, complaining that the price of gas at the station was much higher than at other stations, demanded he be able to buy gas by smaller amounts than what the owner set as the minimum sales unit. The owner refused and told him to go to another station, to which the customer responded by telling the owner to go back to his country. The owner responded by telling the customer to go back to Africa.

That triggered a boycott of the gas station by the black community in the region, followed by them speaking out against Korean and other Asian immigrant communities.

So the black customer told the Korean owner to go back to his country, the Korean responded by telling the black customer to go back to Africa, and now there’s a boycott? I thought maybe I was only getting one side (the Korean side) of the story, so I googled it, and no, it seems like everyone agrees on what went down.

I agree that many Korean businesspeople have no respect at all for the communities in which they open stores. But c’mon! I mean, really, if you’re a minority who tells another minority to go back to his own country, is it all that surprising that he might say the same thing to you? If you punch a guy in the face and he punches you back, can you accuse him of being violent?

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bigWOWO rating: Popular Fiction Gold

The problem with fiction reviews, especially with popular fiction, is that the reviewer can only give away so much without ruining the ending. As a result, I read American Dervish and expected a simple story of unrequited love and betrayal. Instead, it was much more. Ayad Akhtar uses this story not only to describe forbidden love and lust, but also to describe what it is like growing up Muslim. Check out this video where the author explains why he wrote it (he uses the “love story” description himself):

“American Dervish” Video Statement from Ayad Akhtar on Vimeo

The story is about a young Pakistani American man named Hayat Shah who reflects on the death of his mother’s oldest friend Mina from Pakistan. Mina comes to live with Hayat’s family, and she shares the Muslim faith with the young twelve-year-old Hayat, who embraces Islam and finds himself in love/lust with his Aunt Mina. Mina herself falls in love with a young Jewish doctor, and Hayat responds with a act of vengeance that destroys the lives of everyone involved.

I couldn’t put this book down. It was 352 pages, and I finished it in two and a half days. Akhtar wrote a very brave novel. Not only does it tell a story of forbidden lust in a coming-of-age story, but he uses the story to recount what it’s like growing up Muslim in America–a story that we hardly ever hear, even though it is as relevant as it has ever been. Growing up exposed to hypocritical religious fundamentalists myself, it was eye-opening to read a similar perspective from another religion. I’m sure people will read this and think, “No way, that can’t be how it really is!” but I hope people will read with an open mind. Check it out!

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David Choe

Man, this Facebook IPO is going to be making some people a lot of bank. Check out this Times article here: From Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches. The guy pictured above is David Choe, a graffiti artist who painted the walls of Facebook’s first headquarters. For Mr. Choe’s artistic services, Sean Parker offered to pay him either thousands of dollars or Facebook stock. Choe took stock instead of money. His stock is expected to be worth upwards of $200 million after the IPO.

Although Mr. Choe initially led a rough life including run-ins with the law, he is wealthy even without the Facebook offering. (It is unclear whether he sold any portion of his Facebook holdings on secondary markets.) Now a very successful artist with gallery shows and pieces exhibited in major museums, Mr. Choe declined requests to be interviewed for this article; he said he wanted to maintain his privacy. He has, however, published an obscenity-strewn book of his art, “David Choe,” which includes images of the multimillion-dollar murals at Facebook.

Mr. Choe’s page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Among the images of his graffiti, there is a trail of images of him partying with scantily clad women and spending large amounts of money on alcohol. In recent weeks, Mr. Choe promoted photos of a $40,000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot, he boasted, costs $888.

And who says art isn’t a lucrative field?

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Oh wow, I had no idea American Pastoral won the Pulitzer. I think I must have read an earlier edition before the prize was awarded.

American Pastoral is a story in two parts. The early part is a first-person narration by a character by the name of Nathan Zuckerman, who recounts his young life and infatuation with an older Jewish boy named Seymour Levov who goes by the nickname “Swede.” They called him “the Swede” because he had blonde hair, different from the other Jewish boys. He was a star athlete, and Zuckerman, who is now an older and unmarried writer, gets back in contact with the Swede right before a high school reunion. The rest of the book is about the Swede himself and about his daughter who commits an unspeakable crime.

There were many things that I loved about this book. Roth has a great way with language, his ability with dialogue is amazing. I like how he uses dialogue to bring out his characters, putting entire conversations into single paragraphs. It works very well. What others may like most about this book was the way Roth describes the assimilitive process of his Jewish characters, how the Swede is trying to make it even after being a star athlete turned successful businessman, and how his daughter Merry has become the most American of Americans by rebelling against everything she has been taught. Roth is an amazing storyteller.

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