A Conversation with Sheridan Prasso, the author of "The Asian Mystique" - Part I
Prasso, a former news correspondent and editor in Asia, is currently travelling in our region to promote "The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient". The book covers lots of stuff my sisters and friends and I discuss all the time. I got to talk to the author in a posh Tokyo restaurant.
This is the first of a two-part interview.
On "Asian fetish" and fantasies of a back-scrubbing Japanese girl
As a Japanese woman who's never scrubbed anybody's back, I want to know: What's with the fascination with back scrubbing? It pops up a lot in the book.
I think it's a symbol of a fantasy of what Asian women should be - for Western men. There is the idea of grasses are always greener, you know, if you don't get what you are looking for on your own yard, you'll find it elsewhere. So the image is symbolic of a fantasy that perpetuates in the Western culture.
Geisha trouble?
Now this is interesting.... Blogger Jeffrey Wells writes on "Hollywood Elsewhere" on some trouble concerning Memoirs of a Geisha. (I found this thanks to angry asian man. Excerpts:
Geisha trailer is here
One of my favorite blogs, www.angryasianman.com, informed me of the Yahoo! site where anybody can watch the trailer for Memoirs of a Geisha.
I'm no expert on the prewar geisha world, but even I can say that just a look at the kimono... or the way these Chinese action stars wear them... would be enough to send my mother into a screaming rage.
I'm no expert on the prewar geisha world, but even I can say that just a look at the kimono... or the way these Chinese action stars wear them... would be enough to send my mother into a screaming rage.
He's not going to the Giants
See him smiling? Right, Senichi Hoshino isn't taking the job from the Giants. Yes! Actually, I keep forgetting, but he's still affiliated with the Tigers, who are a different story completely. So he told reporters today that he's staying in some kind of job -- called Senior Director -- at the Tigers. This doesn't bother me one bit. Thank you!
Say It Ain't So, Hoshino -- Say No to the Giants!
Seriously, people. What's this nonsense in the tabloids? I've pretended not to hear it as long as I could. But really, what's with this talk of Senichi Hoshino, the celebrated Chunichi Dragons pitcher and manager, considering an offer to become the Yomiuri Giants manager? I mean, the Yomiuri Giants, his career-long nemesis?
In this world of uncertainty, you're lucky if you have just one thing you want to hold on to, something that keeps you going despite any hardship you might encounter. Something that you can always count on, when you may no longer trust your colleagues, your once-supposedly-lifetime-employers, your best friends, or even your own family.
In this world of uncertainty, you're lucky if you have just one thing you want to hold on to, something that keeps you going despite any hardship you might encounter. Something that you can always count on, when you may no longer trust your colleagues, your once-supposedly-lifetime-employers, your best friends, or even your own family.
