Danny ChaiAnother BLT note, kinda. Maybe tangentially at best.
I didn’t think the movie was about rebellion. I think it was primarily about boredom and ennui. But whatever, that’s not the crucial point. The reason I think it’s interesting is because I don’t think it’s an anomaly. I mean, the violence and the extent to which they went sure it’s an anomaly. But what I mean is, there’s something in Asian-American youth culture nowadays with flirting with danger and being cool that I wonder about.
Like Dave has said this many times but look at pictures of our generation as teenagers / college students and you see a bunch of dorky nerds. Look at pictures of Asians kids/students today and they’re all “cool”. I just find that odd. And there’s something that goes along with the “cool” thing. Yeah, murders are the anomaly. But like, people in LA could tell you about the gangs and whatever in K-Town. Kevbo could tell you about people at his high school who broke in to the offices to steal exams pretty much just for the thrill. There was actually a case when we were in high school about this Korean guy who shot and killed a friend by accident, also from Kev’s school I think. Jieun’s ex and several other friends she had went to jail. Stuff like that.
I dunno, it seems to have something to with a critical mass of Asians I think. In places like LA and Lynbrook. It’s actually happening in Houston now also. Once you get that mass, you get a “cool” Asian culture. And once you get that, you get a host of problems. Not murder, but problems nonetheless.
The way it comes together for me is this. I’ve realized that the things I value, like good education, whatever, other Asians value also. So I’ve pretty much conceded that wherever I end up, there are going to be a lot of Asians there. I dunno, maybe I’m wrong. But like, when I see Asians taking over places like Redeemer and every good school in the Bay Area and Houston, that’s just the feeling I get.
So they’re going to have to face that “cool” Asian culture. How are they going to deal with it? Are they going to fully embrace it? Will they resist the negative aspects of it? I dunno, it’s something I just wonder about now that kids are something we actually talk about.
And I don’t know what the solution is. I can only come up with 2 things, both of which I’ve mentioned before. One, friendships are key, so I want to make sure my kids are friends with kids of friends who I think will be decent parents, instilling decent values. So like, it’s fairly important for me that my kids play with the Hsu kids, assuming Lorraine’s gonna raise them. They’ll hopefully have decent values. But yeah, that’s something you can’t really control that much.
The other thing is Jesus. But I dunno, even with that, there are tons of churches I know in the Bay Area and Houston where the youth group kids just turned out all screwed up. So what do you do about that? I dunno, it’s just something I think about.
Is this even related to BLT at all? No clue.