Memoirs Of A Hot War

Ms. Zhang ZiYi, she of the hot crouching potato...

Hot Asian Babe Causes Stir

I found this article on Google news today. In it was this exploration of the new movie 'Memoirs of a Geisha':

The opening of the new movie, "Memoirs of a Geisha," for example, has stirred controversy in China because one of the country's best known actresses, Zhang Ziyi, stars in a movie that is essentially about Japan and its culture.

"The debate over Zhang's role in the film first started online, perhaps with a photograph of Sayuri and her lover, The Chairman (Japanese actor Ken Watanabe), cuddling and kissing," reports the China Daily. "That set the tongues, especially in Internet chatrooms, rolling. "

"'Why did Zhang accept the role of a Japanese 'prostitute?' 'Why did she allow a Japanese man on top of her?' These are some of the more common questions asked in the chatrooms. The responses were equally strong, the gist of which would be: 'It's an insult to national pride.'"

If that was going to cause a wound to the National Pride, what about this photo-shoot she undertook for FHM? You'd think the thought of a million pubescent boys around the world ogling her spread-legged-pose would be much worse.

I mean, that'd hurt me real bad in the national psyche too... not. LOL.
The real joke? She's native of Taiwan, and the last I checked they didn't really think of themselves as part of Communist China.

By The way, the makeup job on that FHM shoot is horrible. I almost couldn't recognise her. She's been tarted up to look like what a Westerner thinks an Asian woman ought to look like. It's always like this with makeup; Lucy Liu always has to be made up to be a self-parody too.

Even less edifying, the article had this section:

On larger issues the political language of normally polite Asia has become unusually blunt.

When Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last month paid his fifth visit to the Yakasuni shrine where several World War II war criminals are honored, the People's Daily in Beijing ran a story quoting two European analysts describing his move as "stupid."

In response to the continuing controversy over the shrine, Asahi reports that members of the Japanese parliament are proposing a new shrine to the dead from all of Japan's wars that would be less offensive to China and South Korea.

Yes, less offensive to China and Korea; two nations which couldn't defend themselves from the West a mere 60 years ago. But boy, is 1930s style nationalism the vogue now.
For heaven's sakes, many Japanese soldiers died defending Chinese and Koreans from the Russians in 1904-1905. Nobody in China and Korea talks about that these days - would that be because the truth of their weakness and lack of foreign policy at the time be an even greater wound to their national pride?

As for this racist business of "How could she play a Japanese prostitute, it wounds our national pride", why beat about the bush when you're playing with race card? heck, lord only knows how they'd feel if they knew it insults the Japanese to cast a Chinese woman as a top class courtesan. Spielberg was amazingly insensitive there, but that's not surprising coming from the Jewish American baby-boomer director.
But you don't see the Japanese media writing about that; they're probably waitng to laugh at the movie tho'. :)

The rest of the article covers the granddaughter of Hideki Tojo who is obviously still flying the flag for the 'Greater East Co-Prosperity Zone'. The latter-day incarnation of which we call, APEC.

But other Japanese are increasingly unapologetic about past. The granddaughter of Gen. Hideki Tojo, one of the most notorious World War II war criminals, has emerged as an influential Japanese political commentator, notes a piece in the Asia Times.

Yuko Tojo says her grandfather, the man who ordered the Pearl Harbor attack, led a "war of freedom" in Asia. "Essentially he was a kind man who loved peace," she said. "He was defending his country against foreign aggressors. His greatest crime was that he loved his country."

Yuko Tojo, says author David McNeill, "articulates a set of views that resonate in a country floundering since the end of the Cold War and spooked by the rise of China," where the desire for "a more muscular, independent foreign policy backed by a strong military" is growing.

Several Japanese commentators call for moving away from the principles of the country's pacifist constitution. They endorse the Oct. 29 military agreement between Japan and the United States that calls for increased cooperation between the two countries.

"Japan needs to face up to the fact that the Cold War is not yet over in Asia and that new risks are increasing," says the Japan Times. A business leader writes in the Daily Yomiuri that "Chinese military power is undoubtedly a threat that must be squarely faced."

The U.S.-Japan military agreement, replied a commentator for the People's Daily last week, displays a "Cold War mentality that goes against the trend of the times." By mounting "the war chariot of the United States," Japan "will not make itself more secure, but instead will harm its long-term national interests."

What a drag.
Hideki Tojo's granddaughter is obviously too invested in recovering the lost honour of her grandfather; the same idiot general who penned the document imploring Japanese soldiers not to be captured but to die. He's certainly one buffoon Japanese history could have done well without. If she is indeed a patriotic as she presents herself, she might want to reconsider this line of reasoning and denounce her grandfather first.
Everyday, the Idiots are seemingly everywhere. Sometimes they come with 'names'. *Ugh*

Now, before you go away thinking I am sinking in to despair, one of the links goes to this article by one Zou Hanru at the China Daily.

Let us remind ourselves that it's not so easy to hurt China's national pride. But we will come to that later.

First, let's deal with "Memoirs" and Zhang's role. The accusation against Zhang reminds us of some Chinese actors who played the "bad guys" in films in the 1950s and 1960s. These dedicated professionals were not only married to the art of acting, but also were perhaps model citizens. But they were persecuted all the same by some misdirected people during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

The people, unjustifiably angry with Zhang today, are committing the same mistake as their predecessors. Apart from mistaking geishas for prostitutes, they have also failed to distinguish between acting and real life.

It's Zhang the actress, not Zhang the person, who kisses and cuddles Watanabe to bring Sayuri's character to life. And it's exactly what Konstantin Stanislavsky required actors and actresses to do in his "method" school of acting: reaching "believable truth" through "emotional memory."

Vsevolod Meyerhold disagreed with Stanislavsky's "method" and devised his own "biomechanic" mode of acting, seen in films such as "Strike" and "Battleship Potemkin" of the great Sergei Eisenstein. It's true, Jerzy Grotowski and Antonin Artuad wanted an actor to resent the complete psychological and emotional essence of his being in front of the spectators. It's also true that Bertolt Brecht wanted his actors to create a distancing effect: to merely demonstrate the actions of the characters they portrayed, rather than to identify with their roles.

The acting method or mode may differ, but the actor could be played by anyone.

China and Japan share a long history and, from Buddhism to scripts, our culture has greatly enriched theirs. This history also has its dark chapters, especially the years of Japanese occupation and their atrocities.

But we also share an economic past and present, with the two of us becoming increasingly interdependent. This should logically lead to increasing cultural exchanges. And "Memoirs" somehow provides a chance to serve that purpose.

Outside China, "Memoirs" has created a controversy of a different kind. Why did Marshall cast non-Japanese actresses in the roles of geishas? (Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh plays the guiding mother figure, Mameha.)

Spielberg and the other two co-producers have responded with another question: "Should the historical turbulence between China and Japan prevent her (Zhang) from being cast in roles she completely commands with elegance, talent and grace?" The instant reaction to Spielberg's question would be "yes." But we will change that once we think of it as a cultural exchange that can help heal historical wounds.

Coming back to national pride, many may again question that if it's not feeble enough to be hurt by Zhang's portrayal of a geisha, how can cultural exchanges heal the wounds of history.

Well, our national pride is born out of rich history and civilization, our heritage, our culture, our scientific, technological and economic advancements. National pride should suffer if evidence points to any of them not being true.

A Zhang Ziyi and a Gong Li playing the role of a geisha can, and should, never be a matter of national pride or shame.

It's acting, and as Brecht said, action reveals the character, not the actor.

So there are sane voices out there in the wilderness of Stupidity.