I laughed out loud for the first time in a while watching a youtube video of an Asian comedian.
And, it inspired me to think about how I would tell my story if I ever became a comedian. How can I make my story funny? Would it even be possible?
I mean, I am a Japanese American born and raised in New York...
By the way, when I disclose this to most Japanese people, their immediate reaction is "kakkoi!", which means "that's sooo cool!" and my reaction is "wow, you are so lame, so brainwashed, just like most of the Japanese after WW2, how original is that."
Of course, I don't tell them straight to their face, because it's not very "Japanese." To be up-front is almost a crime.
I struggled with this concept of "being Japanese" and tried hard to meet the criteria.
Whenever I spoke out my views, both my mother and my Japanese best friend criticized me for being "too American." I was dumbfounded. Well, what do you expect? But I read between the lines and learned to stop expressing my views and just went along with others.
It seemed to work out within the Japanese community but I became practically invisible in American society.
Instead, the Japanese way is to talk behind each other's backs. That's why we look polite, but there is an apparent fakeness to it.