Blog #4 - San Francisco and Anti-communism

Now in this week with me, Eric and the continued exploration of Fashion, I decided to try something new, instead of the usually rambling/discussion about the readings I went to San Francisco Chinatown, the tourist one and look around at the clothing stores. Several Things I noticed in Chinatown is that it is one place with a weird conglomeration of styles from traditional influences to more modern and international influences.



Now moving on to another subject, now I am familiar with the power of ideology and the ability of people who are so caught up in a cause that they forget everything else. Now in article “Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History from an Art Exhibit: An Unfinished Story: A Tribute to my Mothers” where the fervor of Anti-communism is sometimes an excuse for behavior that sometimes has no logical sense or perhaps a loose rationale. In the case of the artwork mentioned, the “Connections” where there are innocent attentions could be interpreted as something else.

I personally am a proponent of First Amendment rights for everybody, even to those I do not agree with. If only for the reason of not being a hypocrite and claiming that I have the right way of thinking just like they do. I am reminded of a video I saw in a previous class, where a bunch of young teenagers protesting McCain's use of the work "gook" claiming themselves as "American Gooks" and they were yelled at, to which the older community protested back, claiming "gook" meant "communist" and that they were a menace to the community. Now the term gook does not mean communist, it was never used that way, I believe the communists were called "Charlie" by the US military. However the threat these students had against the mindset of the Anticommunist Dogmatists was real and they in order to justify their way of thinking lash out.

Now I have never really seen or heard of this kind of action in my own community. Even when I was visiting San Francisco during Taiwan's Independence Day in front of the PRC and no protesters in sight.

Compact Challenge Update:
While I have yet to bend to temptation, but I have been very tempted to use a gift card I was given for Christmas, but have yet to spend. However every other aspect of my needs have been et with either used, borrowed or of course the necessary new items that are allowed by the challenged so nothing new there.

Eric Keng

Entry # 4

WORKS CITED

Valverde, Kieu-Linh Caroline. “Creating Identity, Defining Culture, and Making History from an Art Exhibit: An Unfinished Story: A Tribute to my Mothers’.”

http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Bu-Dr/Chinese-Americans.html