The East out West
So, I’m back. I thought I might treat readers (if there are any left) to some holiday snaps from my recent trip to a corner of the North American continent. Before you groan and surf away into the sunset at the thought of this, I’d like to reassure you there are very few and none of them feature me. Rather, in keeping with the theme of this blog I decided to post a few pictures that relate to the East Asian diaspora in the US.
First, a shop window from the ‘International District’ in Seattle, apparently the only multi-ethnic Asian-American neighbourhood in the United States. I visited the excellent Wing Luke Asian Museum and ate good Vietnamese food at a restaurant a couple of doors away.
The window of this Chinese shop has no less than three posters advertising the Korean historical drama Taejanggûm, shown on MBC last year. Strangely I only noticed this when I looked at the pictures on my computer.
More tomorrow.
“out West”?
Such naked Eurocentrism!
Comment by oranckay — September 15, 2005 @ 5:29 pm
Ooops… I’m just off to whip myself soundly for this error.
Comment by kotaji — September 15, 2005 @ 10:33 pm
Actually observations about use of the term “out West” is helpful in American sociology.
White people came from Europe, mostly before air travel, so most arrived in the Eastern US first and only later moved West. Hence, while not always the case, you can still find white people born and raised in California who say “back East,” while many in the East say “out West.”
My (white) sister was born in Berkeley, raised in Oakland, and now lives in Boston… and she says “out West,” obviously having been influenced by the way people talk there. It’s all the more annoying coming from her and of course I get on her case about it.
I’ve never seen a Californian Asian or black person say “back East.” I have heard blacks California born and raised say “back to the South.”
Comment by oranckay — September 20, 2005 @ 12:28 pm