Gil Asakawa

gilasakawa

Gil Asakawa escreve sobre cultura pop e política a partir de uma perspectiva asiático-americana e nipo-americana em seu blog, www.nikkeiview.com. Ele e seu sócio também fundaram o www.visualizAsian.com, em que conduzem entrevistas ao vivo com notáveis asiático-americanos das Ilhas do Pacífico. É o autor de Being Japanese American (Stone Bridge Press, 2004) e trabalhou na presidência do conselho editorial do Pacific Citizen por sete anos como membro do conselho nacional JACL.

Atualizado em novembro de 2009

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Nikkei View

On “Authenticity” in Japanese food

Por Gil Asakawa
7 Mai 2023

Maybe not surprisingly, I’ve been a stickler for “authenticity” in food—especially Japanese food. I was born in Japan, and I’ve loved Japanese food all my life. I even wrote a book about the history of Japanese food in America, Tabemasho! Let’s Eat! I’m a foodie who takes #foodporn shots of many of my meals. I love all cuisines and seek out new dishes to try. And I try to make sure that the food I like reflects traditional culture, accurately and with respect. That doesn’t mean that I won’t eat “fusion” food—in our moder…

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Eating Together Again for the Holidays

Por Gil Asakawa
3 Jan 2023

It’s been a long, sometimes lonely three years since COVID-19 arrived in the world and changed all our lives. For many of us, this holiday season may be the first since the pandemic shutdowns when we’ll be traveling to visit family once again, and dining with them. (Of course, we didn’t know a historic deep freeze would disrupt nationwide travel over the Christmas weekend….) If we’re lucky, we live not far from our parents and grandparents, and have been able to drive over for Sunday dinners or pick up takeout to enjoy with them this whole time. But if we live …

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Learning about Asian Americans through Pop Culture

Por Gil Asakawa
28 Out 2022

Pop culture can be a mirror that reflects the issues and values of its time—for good and bad. For instance, Hollywood initially embraced Asians, and two of the early film era’s biggest stars were Los Angeles-born Chinese American Anna May Wong and Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa. Anna May Wong is now featured on a quarter; Sessue Hayakawa is probably best remembered today for The Bridge over the River Kwai. But as the 20th century progressed, Hollywood began casting white actors with eyes taped back and “yellowface” makeup on their faces to play Asian r…

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Sake to me, baby

Por Gil Asakawa
30 Jun 2022

Nancy Matsumoto readily admits she’s a lightweight when drinking alcohol. “It’s ironic, that I wrote this,” she says. Matsumoto co-wrote Exploring the World of Japanese Craft Sake: Rice, Water, Earth with Michael Tremblay (Tuttle). It’s the latest in a number of book collaborations, including Displaced: Manzanar 1942–1945—The Incarceration of Japanese Americans and an upcoming book, By the Shore of Lake Michigan, in which she served as editor for a translation of a collection of her grandparents’ Japanese tanka poetry. Matsumoto is a pro…

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I’m so disappointed to see stereotyped snack packaging in my supermarket

Por Gil Asakawa
25 Mai 2022

Racial stereotypes used to be part of the American consumer landscape – everywhere you turned there was a depiction, playful caricature or a ghastly exaggerated image of a person of color on commercials and ads on television or publications, or on packaging on store shelves. But if nothing else, the recent years of anti-racism protests in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and the many Black men and women before him and since, has awakened mainstream Americans and the media and institutions that serve them and let them know in no uncertain terms that racial images are no longer acc…