Cowboy Vs. Samurai

“The way of a warrior does not include other ways, but if you know the way, you will see it in everything,” Miyamoto Musashi. Roughly a thousand years ago, two elite groups of warriors arose amongst those in the eastern hemisphere, the samurai and knights. Although on different continents, both factions showed infinite similarities. As demonstrated in history, the similarities between samurais and knights immensely outweigh the differences.

"Hollywood typically restricts its portrayals of Asians to a limited range of clichéd stock characters" (Restrictive Portrayals [RP], 2004). Examples of the common roles that Asian Americans play in movies are martial artists, Indian cab drivers, television anchorwomen and prostitutes (RP, 2004). Even if most Americans do not buy into these images because they interact with many Asian Americans who do not fit the stereotype, the areas of concern are those parts in the United States where there isn't a sufficient Asian population (Wu, 2002). Since many Asian people do not surround these Americans on an everyday environment, it is a safe assumption that they will draw their judgment of Asian Americans from how they are portrayed on film and television.

Lee faces the influence of environmental pressures from the weight of being the son of immigrant parents hired to construct railroads. Despite his attempt at assimilation into American culture through removing his queue, speaking English, and donning American clothing, “To the so-called whites [Lee] was still a Chinese, but an untrustworthy one; and at the same time [his] Chinese friends steered clear of [him]” (Steinbeck 162). Lee was considered far too American for the Chinese, yet far too Chinese for Americans. Consequently, Lee spent much of his life speaking pidgin and kept his queue to blend in to the preset image Americans had of him, sporting “His long black glossy braided queue…[which]hung over his shoulder and moved rhythmically against his chest...He wore narrow cotton trousers, black heelless slippers, and a frogged Chinese smock…[and] hid his hands in his sleeves...as most Chinese did in this day” (Steinbeck 159). By adopting the language and mannerisms of the typical Chinese immigrant, Lee disguised his true identity for the sake of achieving a sense of acceptance within society. He recognized that although this method would not solve his issue, it was a way of feeling powerful in a society that dominated his culture and removed from him his identity. He makes the point that when conversing with most Americans, “Pidgin they expect, and pidgin they’ll listen to. But English...they don’t listen

The Term “yellow” is ironically crucial to the reader’s perception of why the main character, Danny, is so fearful of his ethnic identity. Even though Danny cannot escape his “Korean-ness”, he instinctively insists upon rejecting his ethnicity, pursuing a “colorless”, life in America. Don Lee’s short story, “yellow”, illuminates the struggle of Danny, whom like many later generational Asian Americans attempts to assimilate into overall American culture, only to be constantly rejected. One’s ability to consume and digest this cultural dismissal can determine their ultimate mindset, this concept is highlighted by the conversation between Danny and his wife Rachel, “No stereotype is innocent” (Danny to Rachel), she replies, “Racism’s not the problem. It’s you” (pg. 249). In this instance, it can be realized that it is both society’s as well as Danny’s perception of his Asian identity that are misguided. Due to American society’s racial insensitivity, Danny finds himself filled with paranoia, unable to trust those around um, and even himself. It is only through eventful encounters/relationships that Danny may overcome his fear of “yellow”, seeing not only color but the humanity behind it.

In the play “Trying to Find Chinatown”, David Hwang makes it possible to turn Asian stereotypes backwards. Benjamin, a Caucasian from the mid west, and Ronnie, an ethnic Chinese from New York City, are both "Chinese" differently: Ronnie is genetically and ethically Chinese; Benjamin is Chinese because he has been raised by Chinese parents, since he was adopted as an infant and nurtured in a Chinese household. Truth being, one can discuss that Benjamin, rather than Ronnie, shows more stereotypical "Chinese" attributes than Ronnie does.

Chapter one in our textbook started to spark many interests that I wasn’t even aware were interests of mine. Whether we decide to look, or are forced to look, the action of looking will always be a social practice. Through this practice, we encourage mass communication of our different cultures along with the influences that sparks the interest to begin with. Thus, there are endless amounts of ideologies associated with looking that it is practically impossible to wrap your head around it all, but once you manage to obtain a grasp, the ideologies are quite interesting. For example, Weegee’s photograph, “The First Murder,” portrays just how certain images can have very different reactions concerning your age or size of experience. Depicted

The difficulty that Ben faces in his own identity is to analyze what it means to be an Asian American male. One of the stereotypes regarding Asian males is that they are sexually inadequate, nonetheless this is not declared until more than halfway through the narrative, when Ben went after a sexual relationship with a white woman (Tomine, 58). For Ben, his ethnic identity lies in his sexual identity. According to the

This is similar to the samurais because

Islam. One word that can trigger a memory of fear, strange rituals, and a sense of general confusion for a westerner. So many ideas and traditions separate the East and the West, yet hardly anyone seems to have the answer that tells us why. Why are they so different from one another? Why do they see each other as inherently wrong, and at times, silly? Eastern and Western peoples often process and understand the world quite differently, especially when it comes to status, and authority. This can be clearly shown by the idea that the West embodies innocence-guilt culture, and the East embodies honor-shame culture.

Did you ever wonder if the samurai and the knights are similar or different? The samurai and knights did have differences but they had more similarities. So they do have less differences than similarities. The similarities between samurai and knights were greater than the differences. This can be shown by looking at three areas which are Social positions, training and armor then the Code of honor.

In the first paragraph, I will be comparing the armor of Samurai and Knights. The Samurai wore masks that looked like monsters designed to intimidate their opponents. Sentence. Sentence.

Wong mentions two people described as a "white businessman" and a "white woman" concludes how Wong is different because unlike a stereotypical Chinese, Wong speaks English with no accent. Another encounter, however, contrasts with the statement made before by claiming how Wong is an example of a stereotypical Chinese because instead of perfect English, the person claims Wong has an accent. The stereotypes are perplexing victims into losing their identities from the doubts they have from contradicting statements. One thing all of them have in common is that they're written by Wong in colloquial diction to convey the importance of stereotypes and how dangerous they are to people that are exposed to stereotypes due to the excessive confusion that leads them to question their own

David Henry Hwang was born in Los Angeles into an affluent, ethnically Chinese family. He wrote the play M. Butterfly in 1988, which broke box-office records and gained numerous honors. The play deals with the Chinese immigrants that placed foot in the United States as a first generation or second generation that had to get adopted and used to the American culture and lifestyle from every aspect and point of view, and having to deal with the possible circumstances, from the aspects such as cultural differences and racial agendas. This play remarkably touches on showing the conflicts between man and woman and shows the possible differences between east and west and more importantly the racial stereotypes. We can see that this play is a brilliant illustration of gender and race that we know as Post-Colonial Drama. This play examines and goes over the perceptions and believes of Western thoughts towards Asian people and focusing more on the stereotypes about their culture and their nation in general.

Depending on what region you had lived in, determined how mobile and defensive you were as a warrior. In order to get deeper, we must first understand what exactly armor is and it’s purpose. Armor is usually a hard metal that people wear in order to defend themselves in battle, or raids. Often in battle, due to the armor’s weight, warriors had to ride horses to travel. These horses had to wear armor as well to protect themselves from enemy swords. If you were to have your horse killed, you had a less likely chance to survive. Samurai's had loosen armor, letting them be more mobile and attack enemies upfront. Knights however did not have great mobility. Knights had more heavier armor than the

This stems from the wholly justified objections of various groups -- in recent years, blacks, women and gays, in particular -- to the ways in which they find themselves stereotyped in the mass media and in everyday speech. (Dyer, 1993) It has been ages that Americans media have defined the Asian images to around the whole world. Many of them that shaped that image usually have little or no understanding of the asian culture, its people and its countries, hence the stereotype.