Alien Exploration

As I'm reading chapter 6 of Takaki's book and trying to catch up with my classmates, I realize that some things Takaki discusses really haven't changed much. In the second paragraph of this chapter, Takaki mentions that as Chinese Americans became increasingly urban and isolated from the rest of American society, their city communities became places of tourism for curious whites. This subsequently brought about a new industry in such communities - that of taking advantage of the tourism and bringing in money by entertaining the whites, like a circus. The last line of that paragraph says, "Tourism became a new 'necessity,' reinforcing both the image and condition of the Chinese as 'strangers' in America."

I read this and I realized that, despite all of our professed "progress," this view and tourism still exist. People still go to Chinatowns for the food, the architecture, the shopping. And it's not bad to take or give money to a place because that boosts its economy, however the Chinatowns and other ethnic areas of cities were not intended for that kind of industry. They were residential and community business areas. People at William & Mary may try to understand by having Colonial Williamsburg nearby and seeing a lot of tourists, but that's really not the same. Colonial Williamsburg was intended to be a tourist attraction, not an original, normal way of life that ended up being entertaining to foreigners to the community. (Oh em gee, imagine your white self being a foreigner somewhere in your own country! Think about it a second). The ethnic communities were there because the immigrants were forced there, isolated from the rest of white America.

But Francis would want to know where the hope is, so let's slingshot forward with this information instead of being depressed.

I'm not scolding anyone for going to an ethnic area of a city. At times, I'll certainly encourage it - you can get the real food of the culture if you look in the right places, and not the frozen-food aisle American knockoffs. You can get books and other things that would otherwise be hard to find, or would be much more expensive from a huge American name like Barnes & Noble. The thing to change is the view on going. You can't go with the idea of tourism totally taking up your mind. These people are just living their lives and you're visiting the area, it's not their job to keep you amused. It's just like visiting family in another state and going to that town's particular flea markets or whatever - things for the community, not made for outsiders but open to them if they so desire to take part.

The hope is that these cultures are finally starting to get even more integrated into the overall mix of American culture. You don't need to go all over the place to get Pocky, you can now find it in Shop-Rite and Saturday Matinee, Hot Topic, other easily accessible stores. Manga, Manhua, and Manhwa can be found in Barnes & Noble and Borders across the country. While large chains of grocery stores such as A&P and Food Lion still don't carry the best ethnic foods, they're trying, and they're getting better. Shop-Rites probably lead the way there, and I would assume that King's would rank highly as well. While ethnic foods are sometimes separated off from the rest of the store's goods, making them still "other" and "foreign," there's still a start that they're there. Accessibility is one step in the right direction toward bringing in what was "foreign" and making it a part of "home."