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| Actually, I've decided not to post any more irrational feedback from people who haven't actually seen the film, especially those who spend way too much time trawling the net for obscure documentary films, ostensibly to wallow in the hatred of some delusion that they have invented for themselves to deal with their sad existences. I think it's best not to encourage them. --- This is the second time a Chinese guy has asked me why I didn't make a film about a Chinese guy marrying a white woman. The reason? Let me make this clear: BANANA
IN A NUTSHELL IS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL FILM. I hope that clears it up. I must excuse myself now, I have no less than 3 phonecalls to make to Chinese male friends who are in serious relationships with 'white' women to tell them to hurry up and make the film "Bananas with nuts: the REAL story". --- Hi there, I have come across your film "Banana in a Nutshell" accidentally through google, being the film buff that I am. I followed the links and found out your website. What confused me is the sort of hostility you and your husband showed to people who sent negative feedback to you. I don't think any of them was trying to question your character, or your husband's character, or the merits of interracial marriage. For the record, I am supportive of interracial marriage. I believe it is the surest way to end racist bigotry. I think what they really are trying to highlight, as your friend Tze Ming Mok brought up in one of her reviews, is the working of Hegemony in all societies, industrial/"Western" or not. Seen in this light, it doesn't matter what really happened in your lives; it doesn't matter what your motives were in shooting this film; it doesn't matter how *you* feel, or how we the commentators feel. Was your husband truly color-blind in courting you, among all women? No one can look into the depth of another man's soul. How would anyone know??? So the crux here is not your relationship per se, or the "intrinsic artistic value" of your documentary; but rather how you presented the story of it on screen. All that matters is what lesson society takes away from your film. It is for the social value of your documentary that we put your film on trial. As W.E.B. DuBois eloquently argued, the artist does not live in a vacuum. His actions bear consequences. Regardless of their aesthetic value, it was utterly irresponsible for black writers from Harlem to write erotically-charged novels featuring African American characters. Why? 'cuz a plurality of white audience would take them as evidence of African licentiousness, etc. The reader whom you hate, and whom you and your husband replied with the basest possible language, had a point when he asked you which culture would the audience identify as "cooler" and "more tolerant" after seeing your film. Is there any question, whatsoever, at all, that your average white New Zealander would walk away from the theater, with broad smugly grins on their faces, thinking "jesus what a bunch of buck-toothed nerdy chauvinist uber-conservative unpleasant backwater heathen chinks her folks are! Oh how adorable this little China girl is, being all assimilated..." Honestly, at this point my own stomach begins to churn. Chinese parents racist. Fine. What about Kiwi parents? What if their little blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl decides to marry a "heathen Chinese"? Why was it that big of a deal that your parent would ask that your then boyfriend learn to master Mandarin? Eh? Think about it. Had a Chinese boy been dating an Anglo-New-Zealander, what would her parents think if he doesn't speak "Engrish"? I bet you wouldn't score at any Kiwi film festival had you made something along the lines of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." So much for your open-mindedness, Madame Director. I rest my case. You will be rewarded by your society of kiwis, for being their instrument of Hegemony over the rest of us "colored" folks. Thank God I don't live in Australasia. ??? P.S. I request that you do not disclose my email address. Moreover, the "Engrish" of your "prominent NZ commentator" was terrible. ("it is about time you laid off her" wtf- what kind of a grammar was that? Eh?) (the reply email) Hi ???, Thanks for taking the time to out down your views in writing. I'm guessing by the PS that you are OK with your feedback (minus email reference and names), and further correspondances being published on the website? Your mail reminds me of what the person who first started this 'negative feedback' said to me (let's call him 'W') when I actually met him - W said that I was an artist and that I shouldn't care what he thought. I replied that of course I cared what he thought, being so spiteful in his abuse and ill-informed with his views (it turned out that he hadn't seen the film at all, he'd just read about it in the festival programme and dervied his own meaning from it). I promised to him that I would try and get a thicker skin, which I'm working on. As to one of the points you make, I'll agree that the artist does not live in a vaccum, but I believe that at the same time, if their work is meant to be subjective and the artist does not do what is true to him or herself, then that piece of work is without value. Every piece of art is different, and I rally against the idea that every single creative thing anyone wants to do has to done with a sense of 'social duty'. I still maintain that the film came from a true thought and emotion, and I find this is very important to the work itself. I find your views on 'social value' being the only value, and putting my film on 'trial' limited, and frankly, alarming. Were I to anticipate all the possible social or cultural readings of any film I make (and I've learned that I cannot, because people derive meaning from the context of all plethora of personal experience, things that I, in all my naivety, have not even considered); and were I duty bound to 'do right' by the social climate through my work, I would be frozen as an 'artist'. I would never make anything, for fear that it would be taken the wrong way, for fear that someone might derive some other sort of meaning from it - for instance, that in the mere act of documenting this event in my life, I was somehow supporting the hegemonic cultural views - that being a 'little China girl' would render my views and cultural identity so completely facile that it would actually enforce the social position of all those whiteys who are trying to bring us down (I'm an Uncle Tom, obviously - that's what little Chinese women who fall for big-nosed whiteys are, through and through). Forgive me for being sarcastic, but I just find it so interesting when you say you support interracial marriage - except my case, when it's some kind of hegemonic victory, despite the fact that the film was made through and by a Chinese woman. To set the record straight - do I think my film makes western liberal culture 'cooler' and 'more tolerant'? Truly: No. Why? Because that is not what the film is about. The film does not deal in some kind of patriarchal 'competition between cultures' that W suggested it does. I should have known W was masculine from the start. Like W, I take it that you haven't seen the film either - I'd be surprised if I was mistaken. All signs point to another person who derives their *own* meaning from the press around a film without having actually experienced the film for themselves. Again, to set the record straight: did I want to demonise my parents? Never, ever, ever. I love them, and I want them to love me. When I say this and people continue to tell me I'm either lying, or that I'm spitting on my culture and my family, I take it personally, because they are taking it personally too. They are reading my work through the lens of their own world view - which is perfectly fine, until they assume that it is a generic lens that everybody sees, and accuse me of all sorts of social irresponsibility. Would it help if I told them white Kiwi folk who'd seen the film never even considered feeling 'smug' about their own 'cool, tolerant' culture? Probably not, because some people just can't consider that their own reading of the film might be a subjective as the film itself. As for your charge of hositlity - well, I'd be the first to admit I'm flawed. I don't know about you, but when a complete stranger directs unbridled and unsubstantiated insults at one of the people I love most in this world, I get defensive. I wish I were some kind of wonderful monk, but I'm not. I have feelings, and I get hurt, and I react in ways that I don't believe are completely surprising. Should I take the moral high ground? Probably. I'll try to work on it (I'm not being facetious here, either). Maybe one day I'll be able to ignore little sideswipes like "Thank God I don't live in Australasia". The old me would probably have written something like "I don't know anything about Masschussetts, and I'm less likely to care now", but maybe I'll hold off this time (OK, now I'm being facetious. You gotta allow a "little China girl" her fun). Anyway, I do thank you and W for opening my eyes to these issues. It's all been very enlightening. Not completely pleasant, but I guess, as W insisted, it comes with the turf. I guess I should be slightly glad that I made a film that ignites such discourse. Regards, Roseanne. --- OK, so I just had to post this - the lady who sent it to me isn't going to reply to me, so for once I'm going to flaunt my rule and post it without her express permission because I think it has a right to be seen- the point being - there are some scary people out there. So far, I've only had 3 negative feedbacks to the film, and two of them have been from ethnic supremacists. This one is obviously a whitey. I've managed to sort of get a thicker skin, but I am flabberghasted someone who felt like this would take the time to let me know how she felt! How seriously I took it is reflected in the ask-for-permission note I sent her: Thank you for you thoughts on us Asian succubi. It's obvious all we want to do is pollute the pure white line of the whole world. I can only guess you found this email through the 'Banana in a Nutshell' website. Would I please be able to get your permission to publish your letter in the 'feedback' section of the website? More whites need to be warned about us inferior Asian chicks who ensnare hapless white men! I will remove your name and any references to actual people. Well, except the references within the feedback she has pasted, which is public anyway. All I mean is, I haven't posted her name. Anyway, you gotta laugh. Otherwise you'll cry. Because if you think about it too hard, humanity might be doomed. Onward with the feedback! Hi! You asian women simply throw yourselves at white men! Is it because your own are little, unsexy , timid feminine nerds????? The following is a fantastic post I discovered on the net regarding asian females (you people really do have an inferiority complex!!!!!!! :( "I
am the real deal. I lived and worked in Asia from 1988-1991. I worked
as a translator and a teacher. I lived with a Chinese family as well.
Indeed, I could hardly pass a day on any job where I wasn’t approached
by a Chinese asking me to set them up with a white. Who did they think
I was, “Miss Lonely Hearts?” Some gatekeeper to a vast storehouse
of white singles? Sheesh, if I had that type of access I would throw
open the doors and invite all single whites to come in and find a honey.
No exaggeration though, this “match-maker” stuff went on
constantly. My own landlord invited his brother-in-law to move in, for
the purpose of trying to marry me into the family. He wasn’t too
thrilled when I wouldn’t get with the program. Mr. “Shen”
as I refer to him acquired citizenship in SA (before Mandela took over)
for the purpose of moving his family into a white territory. He would
talk on and on about how superior the white/Asian children were, about
how his grandchildren would look, and how his kids would play at the
homes of whites, making great new friends they might marry. The installation
of the "Financial
success in Asia means go buy yourself citizenship in a white country,
get white spouses for your kids, brag to your friends with pictures
of “white?” grandchildren, call your family white. As a
translator people would approach me to fix documents for them so they
could immigrate for this purpose. A very alien way of thinking, to be
sure. I ran into this scenerio constantly. Believe it, they think that
the ultimate success is to make your family white, by marring white
yourself or getting white marriages for your yellow kids. Asians are
very aggressive in this pursuit. Even after I returned home I would
happen on to it. I was cashiering at an eatery once after I returned
(since I had gone back to school to take a different degree). In line
an Asian was draping herself on some poor white guy trying to order
his food. He had originally ordered to eat in-house, but was put off
by the Asian throwing herself on top of him. He asked me to wrap his
food up and waited safely outside a side door. I was only too happy
to assist him in his escape. I sated a white man who had once stayed
in Hong Kong. He would complain to me about this neighbor who would
wait like a dog outside his front door day or night for him to get home.
She didn’t get the "Now your comment, “If there’s anyone chasing anyone, it’s horny white males chasing asian girls.” Okay, now read the first paragraph of my previous post again. What was my suggestion in that comment? Try to connect the dots,—here I’ll help. What you are witnessing is simply Asiaphiles acting the very way I suggested. They get their freedom of association, and by them going to Asia white separatists like me get freedom of non-association. Hopefully they remain there permanently and take their like-minded brethren along." "Our
biggest problems are a runaway immigration policy unfavorable to whites
and a multi-cultural society denigrating the very whites who conceived
its best qualities and are expected to keep the machine running. With
these points in mind I say that Asian immigration is a DNA threat that
could extinguish whites. I say this from the standpoint not of a white
woman trying to find a mate (after all I am married to a white man)
but as a white parent trying to raise white children. My sons in particular
are having to grow up in a society that will seek to instill in white
guilt and shame of their own people. They will be last for consideration
for jobs in companies made successful by white males like themselves
and at schools founded by whites males like themselves. This same multi-cult
society will try to turn them off of white women. What to do? Turn off
the tv? Done. Would that that alone would be the solution! Homeschool?
Perhaps. But even if I take these measures the boys still have to live
in a country where they are increasingly persona non grata (personae
non gratae?) yet pay all the bills and hand off all achievements to
greedy non-whites, including Asians. It is the Asian thirst for miscegenation
that puts the boys under special threat in a society endeavoring to
fill them with self-hate and guilt. They may be brainwashed to be ashamed
of all things white, including women, only to be "Next year we will be buying a new home. Knowing Asians as I do I don’t even want to buy one in a neighborhood. The H-1 B and L-1 visas bring swarms of them here and they never go home. I sure don’t want to chance getting a neighbor like Mr. Shen. As soon as he’d set up housekeeping he’d send his yellow daughters to chase down my white sons. We will be looking for a farmhouse with acreage so we don’t have to deal with this problem." "But as we are ever more overrun there will eventually be no place to go. Real separatists like me who just want to keep white culture and people alive and who know that mixing only kills our essence. In effect we have no space, no place, no voice, no choice. Sorry if it doesn’t sound nice, but Asian babies would ruin hundreds of generations of my wonderful white family. Let them stay in Asia with the white men who love them please! We are out of room!" My feelings exactly!!!!!!! --- The
correspondance below is unabridged. Hi Roseanne, *** Hi there, *** Hi Roseanne, *** *** (a parallel email from Stephen) I just finished reading an email you sent Roseanne regarding some thoughts you had after watching Banana in a nutshell. While Roseanne is basically kinda pissed at you for making some fairly bold yet amazingly moronic comments, I'm more philosophical about the whole thing. When I fell in love with Roseanne, the fact that she was of Chinese ethnicity was a complete non-issue with me, far from being what I set out to do. Hopefully thats clear now. But I can draw a picture if it will help explain it better. Quick question: Are you, or have you ever been in love? And are you, or have you ever been married? I'm lucky enough to be both, the former for 9 years and still going strong. Everything else, such as Roseanne's skin colour, (my skin colour - ok ok that did make me laugh, well done on that score, perhaps I should get more sun) at this point is irrelevant. Stephen. *** Hi Roseanne, *** (from prominent NZ commentator, CCed by her) I've
had enough of this. Please stop copying me in with your drivel emails.
Speaking as a European, my answers to your questions below are *** (in response to Stephen's email) Hi Stephen, *** (from prominent NZ commentator, CCed by her) Dear [***], You are completely insane. You are also embarrassing the Chinese communities with your nutty spamming around (to Pakeha people no less) of your paranoid, frothing, racist correspondence, indeed, embarrassing us far more than Roseanne's documentary ever could. If you ever had a point, its validity has been completely swallowed up by your monstrous bitterness. There is something very wrong with you - we can only assume it is related to some kind of traumatic incident in your upbringing, which is sad. I advise you to seek therapy. Otherwise, please just fuck off, shut up, and stop losing face for you and your family (I mean, why bring your daughter into this? That's just shameful and in bad taste). *** Hi, It's evident from your hate-laced personal attacks that you are incapable of rational discussion. You are truly one of the most spiteful and deluded people I've ever had the misfortune to correspond with. It's people like you who are responsible for the evils of this world. I really feel sorry for your daughter, who it seems you are indoctrinating with your warped world view. I would be pretty stupid to continue a discussion with you, and to ensure you don't try to poison this inbox again, your email will be automatically junked from this address. from Roseanne. The End (phew!). |