Need a topic for ASAM Studies class project

[gosu22]

I need come up with a topic for my Asian American Studies class.

I'm having a hard time coming up with some topics.

I've chosen to do something regarding import car culture as it pertains to Asian Americans.

Someone gave an example like, "Women of Import Car Racing" or something similar, but I'd like to see what else there is, because I honestly just don't want to write about that.

What topics do you think is broad enough for me to write about regarding Asian Americans and import car culture?

"In your exploration of this topic, you want to identify objects, symbols, and ideology that make it uniquely (or not) Asian American... think about what links people together in social groups... we know that cultural phenomena doesn't just pop out of nowhere, what are reasons that your topic exists? who does it serve, why is it sucessful?"

[ALTRNTV]

Write about the dumbasses who are Asian American who street race
in their jaYDeEem tYte import cars.

[gosu22]

Write about the dumbasses who are Asian American who street race
in their jaYDeEem tYte import cars.

I was thinking about it. Like, straight up be like there are dumbasses who street race with the question being, why do they do it?

Why do Asian Americans street race? Why don't they go to the track? How much money have they spent? What class status are they? They can go to the track, yeah, but they might feel it's easier to find competition in the streets. It might be more accessible to them.

[Vision Garage]

Why the FUCK do people always want to write about car culture?

For fucks sake, the asian culture has more to it than imports.

American's coping asian styling in design, products, their boom in technology.

Here's one for you that involves asians.

GM Bailout, Honda's prospering.

-Soooshi

[ALTRNTV]

Why you helping him Cheat? :keke:

[Vision Garage]

I was thinking about it. Like, straight up be like there are dumbasses who street race with the question being, why do they do it?

Why do Asian Americans street race? Why don't they go to the track? How much money have they spent? What class status are they? They can go to the track, yeah, but they might feel it's easier to find competition in the streets. It might be more accessible to them.

I understand your class is Asian American Studies, but you're stereotyping the shit out of asians.

White people race too. It applies to them just as much as it does asians.

Focus on things that really apply to Asians and contrast it to the American 'counterpart'.

One example i used was business ethics of Asians as compared to Americans. 12hour workdays, 6 days a week.

-Soooshi.

Simoun, I just want there to be some spark of hope for future generations. Can you imagine EVERY FUCKING PAPER/FINAL on Asian Street Racing EVER?

It's almost as much as letters to Santa.

[!Zar!]

Why the FUCK do people always want to write about car culture?

For fucks sake, the asian culture has more to it than imports.

American's coping asian styling in design, products, their boom in technology.

Here's one for you that involves asians.

GM Bailout, Honda's prospering.

-Soooshi

Not really.

Americans start it.

Then the asians start catching onto it.

They put their flair on it.

Then americans start catching onto what the asians are doing.

Then the cycle starts over agian.

You can't give all the credit to any particular asian country.

[mkiv98]

great. what a way to make us look stupid.

if you were in an african american studies class would you write about how much your people likes selling drugs? all your topic makes me think of is a bunch of criminals and losers like in the fast and furious. and if you ever go out to an "import car race" it is a bunch of thugs carrying guns around in their cars fixed up with stolen parts.

and what the fuck is import car culture? does anyone else get annoyed at the phrase "import car?" what about someone that likes racing his mustang and is asian american?

how about something about how asian/asian-american parents often pressure their kids to go towards certain careers (in other words, they don't let their kids choose what they really want to do, like architecture or some humanities). many of them pretty much condemn anything other than a doctor, engineer, or other stereotypical asian study.

for example, almost 50% of students at uc berkeley are asian, yet it is obviously different in terms of racial makeup when you sit in an engineering class and when you sit in a political science class.

[!Zar!]

How about why the ABC's learn what a brazillian is, while a fob girls cooch looks like a chia pet.


But for a topic, you could talk about sexuality in japan, and how it differers from americas.

I do agree with the above. You're a fucking failure if you try to put together a paper about import cars.

[VQMaxFan]

So wtf is this "import car culture" I didn't know there was a culture that goes along with import cars.

hard parking or some shit possibly? Lol

It looks like you are really paying attention in your Asian American Studies class.

How about why the ABC's learn what a brazillian is, while a fob girls cooch looks like a chia pet.


That is seriously a better topic than the original.

[turtl631]

Write about newly growing resentment against Chinese Americans now that China is doing so well. I don't feel resentment, but shoot, I'm sure tons of ig'nant Americans do, although this phenomenon might be too recent to find much about.

[mkiv98]

Write about newly growing resentment against Chinese Americans now that China is doing so well. I don't feel resentment, but shoot, I'm sure tons of ig'nant Americans do, although this phenomenon might be too recent to find much about.

hmm I haven't really felt that, but I know it exists (think back to vincent chin case about the japanese auto industry invading in the 80s).

might be this part of the country im in

[TheWayItGoes909]

how about why are dragons important in asian culture?

[mkiv98]

how about why are dragons important in asian culture?
:bow: wat :bow:

how about sriracha hot sauce and how it makes the consumer more likely to commit crimes

[SochBAT]

Asian people are lame.

I'm asian, and i find that a lot of times, Asians are retards.

Asian resentment is actually a REALLY good subject IMHO.

[VROOOM]

Hot cheetos make me go crazy!!!!!!!

[RiversideS13]

"In your exploration of this topic, you want to identify objects, symbols, and ideology that make it uniquely (or not) Asian American... think about what links people together in social groups... we know that cultural phenomena doesn't just pop out of nowhere, what are reasons that your topic exists? who does it serve, why is it sucessful?"

if you write the stupid car paper, you are going to fail because that is stereotype rather than symbol just like above people mentioned

here is a easy one although i never took the course.
i think you should discuss about why Asian American had higher academic achievement than other kind race. if you look up the statistic of good universities, med schools, you will found AA had a very significant portion contribution. Is that because Asian are smarter? NO , this just simply their culture and environment (especially parents) driven them to worker harder and persistent. Does all AA live happily? NO, go research or interview them why are they not happy about their life. by writing this topic, you will have a really strong of evidence of number, examples and analysis.

some significant example is the former CEO/co-founder of Yahoo - Jerry Wang. A Taiwanese immigrant made outstanding achievement

[HyperTek]

hes talking about asian-american, different from asian companies imo.

Import cars is probably one of the biggest trends.. Talk about it being mostly asian in the 80s-90s rocking modded toyotas, datsuns, hondas, then with popularity it expanded to other ethnics. Well thats how I see it.

You can talk about pimmp cars like this during the 80s
kZf6Y7CeI3c

asian-american styling differs from others in vehicle modding in the hay days of the import scene.. and set influences that have expanded to everyone. Same goes for Lowriders and hispanics dating from teh 50s. Shit goes together... People are ignorant to recognize this, its not really documented anywhere, you might jus have to go by word of mouth, esp if your asian you may have relatives who messed around with cars back in the day.

I say you can do it, There was always japanese tuning, who else would have known about this back then? usually having ties to Asia, i dont see who else would have brought the influence over to their own cars.. there was no internet, there was no magazines etc.

One time building a car was respectible... now alot of douchbags think you gotta track/beat it up. No more building it for yourself, you have to impress people =(. I think asian-americans started Hot Import Nights back in 98 long beach? i forget, but HIN is like one of the biggest events, tours nationwide. *i know some people on this forum think show cars is gay if your not tracking it* It was mostly asian populated back then.

[!Zar!]

Meh.

I still think it's fucking dumb to talk about cars for an essay.

"Yeah... my people made the b16. An engine that revs like a lawnmower and has the torque of a snail. And after that, my people decided to make use of a rotary.

Then we talked shit on all the other countries that did motor swaps from different makes.

Now we do it to our import cars."

Nnnnnnnnnnaaaaawwwwwsssssssssss

[HyperTek]

^thats just ignorant man... its not about the cars, its about the trend... people didnt always have internet or media for influence etc... All the more reason to write about it, to prove it to people.

to the OP, maybe post this thread on Japanese Nostalgic Car - Index (http://www.japanesenostalgiccar.com/index.cgi) may get some better responses

[!Zar!]

FYI. That was the whole purpose of that comment if you missed it.

Why not talk about the identity problems that many asian americans face.

You know, REAL info.

Not some bull shit about cars.

Something that everyone could possibly relate to and remember in the future.

If an asian kid was in my class and started talking about import cars, I would laugh my ass off till no end.

Why doesn't he talk about the yellow forums and how many asian americans think they are better than everyone alive?

Shit.

[HyperTek]

Why would you laugh if your in an asian studies class and an asian kid started talkin about the roots of import tuning pertaining to how asian-americans where involved in its growth?

If your in an african-american studies class, could you not talk about african-americans involvement in the movement of hip hop?

[mkiv98]

Asian people are lame.

I'm asian, and i find that a lot of times, Asians are retards.

Asian resentment is actually a REALLY good subject IMHO.

oooo this is a GREAT topic.

i sincerely hate why some asian americans feel this way but I think it's a great topic to explore!!

do your paper on this topic, not some fucking "car culture" that is all opinion based.

+1 on laughing at a dipshit that writes about cars. cars are not fucking important...how about a real social issue?

[mkiv98]

Why would you laugh if your in an asian studies class and an asian kid started talkin about the roots of import tuning pertaining to how asian-americans where involved in its growth?

If your in an african-american studies class, could you not talk about african-americans involvement in the movement of hip hop?

The reason is...so what? So what if we contributed to this car culture? I don't see the real importance that it has on Asian-American society. It's just a hobby that some of us share. Did we spur the growth of small businesses and corporations or what? That doesn't really matter either.

This "import car culture" involves everybody, not just Asian-Americans, whereas the hip-hop movement was almost all black. You could also argue that the hip-hop culture was important in terms of identity of a large group of "lost" people that you could link back to the Harlem Renaissance.

If someone told me that fixing up ricers defined us as Asian-Americans, you're going back to stereotypes that are within a car community because just about 1% of AAs that I know give a fuck about my 240SX or any other car on the road. They drive Camrys and Accords if I recall correctly. I know we all love our cars, but in the big picture, I see very little importance in it.

[HyperTek]

majority of the distributors are more then likely asian-americans.... who can speak the language to deal with japan. Majority of the heads at the major companies like HKS, Greddy, Mackin Industries,etc. The parts and products those companies supply influenced tremendously the car enthusiast scene. Im not going against what you guys are saying, I think there is enough information for him to do it.

[vvtisupra]

for my asam class i did stereo types in the media. Media is broad enough to cover topics such as asian imports, exotic women, stereo types in movies etc. Do it its an easy A.

They especially like topics such as "black widow" asian female (evil, coniving etc.), martial arts (Jackie Chan, Jet Li), assexual asian male, white male/asian female attraction (James bond films etc) etc. It makes the paper look better when you look for stereotypes that are more hidden than say, mathematical, quiet, liquor/laudramat owners.

good luck

[HyperTek]

^thats good too, easy A

[!Zar!]

Why would you laugh if your in an asian studies class and an asian kid started talkin about the roots of import tuning pertaining to how asian-americans where involved in its growth?

If your in an african-american studies class, could you not talk about african-americans involvement in the movement of hip hop?

If that's the case, then why doesn't he talk about asian influence in music.

You don't see black people writing papers on Donks.

Yes, we all like cars.

That's why we all are on this forum.

But at some point talking about cars will just make you look dumb.

Not everyone likes/cares about them.

When you write a paper you need to appeal to/appease everyone.

I've written countless papers on ethnicities/cultures.

Never once have I had to write a paper on cars at all.

[RaceBred 17]

Sada Abe. Female japanese killer.

[BOROSUN]

asian american...easy do a subject on cung le.

write story about his past and growing up as a viet american.

then you can talk about his early kickboxing days

then you can talk about his wrestling days and asian in wrestling.

then you can talking about his san shou days and history of san shou.

then you can talk about his mma career, a bit of history on mma, and asians in mma.

you can talk about his acting career also.

his influences to future asian american.

you can also make up stuff like how he was challenge in a chinese underground society and defeated 10 chinese kung fu masters without breaking a sweat. and how he was also a us gov spy who went to china for sanshou tournament to infiltrate chinese classified information.

his info and interview are all over the internet. it's a easy 10 page report.

[!Zar!]

Write something on Amy Tan.

That alone is enough to help you get started.

[BOROSUN]

snorfest...

how about mika tan instead.

[HyperTek]

if a white guy wrote about mika tan in that class, now that would be funny lmao

[!Zar!]

http://myspace-435.vo.llnwd.net/00425/53/43/425913435_m.jpg

[mkiv98]

how about you write about why there's so many asian-american females in porn and the demographic that buys it, while there are no asian-american males? you can relate it to how american media de-masculates asian-american males

thats a good paper too, and fun to research as well

shit i wish i had this assignment, too easy

[ALTRNTV]

you can relate it to how american media de-masculates asian-american males
I'm kind of a big deal around here though.

[mkiv98]

I'm kind of a big deal around here though.
Some of us definitely are. Not everybody is a weak ass timid nerd. But stereotypes affect us, just the same as when some people look at black people, they think of a criminal.

[turtl631]

hmm I haven't really felt that, but I know it exists (think back to vincent chin case about the japanese auto industry invading in the 80s).

might be this part of the country im in


Well, I'm white so I obviously haven't felt it, and I live in a large Mexican community a few blocks from Chinatown, so locally there isn't anything obvious...but I'm sure there are people out there, shoot, maybe even my parents, who feel some resentment towards the Chinese and their tainted milk, lead laden toys, $$$$, and so on.


To whoever said something about asians being smart/doing well in school...that's a phenomenon of many asians coming to the US for the purpose of education. How maney people can stomach the cost to relocate here if they're not well educated? Mexicans can do it because they just have to pay off a coyote, Chinese sure can't build rafts to get here. Looking at proportions of different races in higher education is far from being a legitimate way of looking at intelligence, or even general cultural trends.

[mkiv98]

Well, I'm white so I obviously haven't felt it, and I live in a large Mexican community a few blocks from Chinatown, so locally there isn't anything obvious...but I'm sure there are people out there, shoot, maybe even my parents, who feel some resentment towards the Chinese and their tainted milk, lead laden toys, $$$$, and so on.


To whoever said something about asians being smart/doing well in school...that's a phenomenon of many asians coming to the US for the purpose of education. How maney people can stomach the cost to relocate here if they're not well educated? Mexicans can do it because they just have to pay off a coyote, Chinese sure can't build rafts to get here. Looking at proportions of different races in higher education is far from being a legitimate way of looking at intelligence, or even general cultural trends.

I'm sure a lot of the mass media promotes that kind of phobia. OMG the Chinese are poisoning our kids with their toys, make deathtrap cars, etc. Yea, I guess they do, but I feel that these stories are blown to a proportion with some kind of less than obvious goal in mind.

As for education, Asians tend to just value it more in our culture. It is often seen as impossible to reach financially (or discouraged based on pretenses of discrimination) or not as useful to other communities.

[!Zar!]

All countries value education more than the states.

[mkiv98]

All countries value education more than the states.
I meant other cultures within our own country here, or those that emigrated to here.

[dynamicck]

I had to write a paper like that. Write about discrimination/stereotype. Broad ass topic, you can start with discrimination towards Asians. From the Chinese Exclusion Act

Chinese Exclusion Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act)

Because of that ACT, many women were forced into prostitution. There was a quota of how many Chinese were allowed. The ratio of men to women in US was 30:1 With a demand for women, quickly turned any women in the US into a prostitute. Supply & Demand. Stereotype that women were "sex goddesses" or "Dragon lady" Men were known as asexual, many men lived together. (so little females, and low wages)

From there, Japanese Internment Camps. How Japanese were pulled from homes, property, even though they have been living here for generations. How US was fighting Germans and german camps, but US still able to have camps in the states. (not exactly same, japanese lived. But civil rights were all taken)

There is very few reminders of what Asians experienced because we are the smallest minority group in the States. It's definitely not explained thoroughly in history books because Asians only represent 4%-5% of the US population. We barely read about what happened to Native Americans, because they make up less than 1%.

If you need more help, you can PM me.

[mkiv98]

lots of good ideas in this thread, but i bet hes still going to find a way to write about the "import scene"

[!Zar!]

"And this is when nissan decided to use their own form of vtech."