I'm forcing myself to read "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." My friend gave me a hard cover version of the novel and insisted that I read it. So I dutifully begin reading it even though I'm well past the age of its intended audience. I then encounter a rather interesting comment on the first page of the prologue. The novel casually mentions how in Korea, "people sometimes eat dogs."
Yes, I'm aware that I am perhaps too prone to the hyper-PC, liberal, knee-jerk reaction.
I can think of two other occasions when I've encountered first-hand various references to Asians eating dogs (excluding TV & movies).
One was when my family and I were vacationing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. There was a Christmas show we were watching, where there were songs, dance routines, and skits. Among the skits was a particular comedian who mocked Mexicans (not Hispanics, just Mexicans), blacks, and of course, Asians. With respect to Asians, the very original and profound comedian mentioned an "oriental cookbook: How to wok [walk] a dog." Get it? The white folk sitting near my family laughed uncomfortably, my immigrant parents didn't get it, and so I could only shoot a look to my brother who gave me the same look of disbelief.
The second time was when I was scanning documents in a cubicle at a New York law firm. The secretary on the other side of the cubicle wall was chatting with an attorney. The attorney was mentioning how her sister was going to do the Peace Corps in China. As the attorney walked away from the secretary's desk, the secretary blurted out, "Just make sure she doesn't eat dog!" to which the attorney laughed and suddenly spotted me, the conspicuously Asian girl hidden behind the cubicle wall.
Am I being hypersensitive? Perhaps. I should be grateful that I'm not being called chink, gook, ching chong on a daily basis; that I'm not beaten or raped because I'm oriental; that I have the same rights as a white American. Perhaps that should be enough for me. But for some reason, it isn't.
Nonetheless, I continue to read "The Sisterhood." After all, the friend who highly recommended it to me is herself Korean. And if I were immobilized with dismay every time I encountered some remotely racial stereotype, I'd never get anything done.
2 comments:
I was appalled when a friend of mine told me he'd eaten dog while teaching english in Korea.
They still eat dog in Vietnam. That's the only part I worry about if I ever go there. I don't think I can handle seeing them in their cages beside the stove.
My brother often jokes (distastefully) about taking my dogs if ever I didn't want them anymore.
I suppose that the dog-eating Asian is one of those occasionally true stereotypes. Undoubtedly some Asians will defend eating dog and criticize other culture's imposition of their morals on Asian culture. Though I disagree with it, I can respect certain cultural differences. I just don't appreciate how certain Americans treat those differences.
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