“Asians Arts Museum” Parodies SF Asian Arts Museum Samurai Exhibit

Being Asian American is hard, but can you imagine how much more complicated it is to be an Asian American BLOGGER? And life only gets harder each moment with the sheer amount of Asian American news that you have to read, digest and write about. Asian Americans in the health care crisis! Another politician running for mayor! Hollywood portrays Asian Americans in a negative way yet again! *Cue world’s tiniest violin*

So at times, we get confused. It’s understandable. We here at 8Asians naturally view everything Asian-related with a serious and critical outlook, even when it’s not really meant to be. Joz’s 6’4″ cousin is signed to Ford Models: what does this say about the cultural stereotype of emasculated Asian American males in US pop culture? Wait, he’s just a hot guy? No, there has to be more meaning behind this!

This train of thought can lead to fun times on our internal email list, especially when Ernie suggested that someone covers the “Lord, It’s The Samurai” exhibit — which includes a section on Samurai man/boy love — at the “Asians Art Museum.” To which, this exchange occurs:

Efren: Honestly, isn’t this a parody/response from the real Asian Art Museum exhibit about the Samurai? I don’t think this is from the museum.
Ernie: From what I can gather, it doesn’t look to be a parody.
Efren: Actually it is. This is the real page Asian Art Museum’s samurai website: http://www.asianart.org/Samurai.htm The parody is asiansart.org, not asianart.org.
Ernie: Damn. To quote Moye, “samurai pnwed.”

Oh snap! I’ve seen people get tricked by sneaky ninjas, but samurais bring this to a whole new level.

On a more serious note, the Asians Art Museum (where “Asian still means Oriental”) showcases a creative method of protest against what many assume to be a well intentioned exhibit, The Lords of the Samurai, at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Who knew that the history of samurais could evoke the disdain of today’s critics? We all may not find the parody site to be humorous, but it’s refreshing to see a unique approach to how our community can objectify our own culture for the public.

With that said, I’m off to iron my Gothic Lolita outfit.

[EDITORS NOTE: A follow-up interview has been posted here.]