Back before the internet, I learned about everything that was important about life by watching television. When I was five, I caught the measles and my mother stuck me in my bedroom, I rigged up a mirror to watch the TV, that week I learned how to read backwards.
I loved The Brady Bunch and Bonanza. The thought of three hunky brothers on a ranch with a cool dad and lots of leather and wood-hewn furniture appealed to my gritty tomboy side. The only fly in the ointment was Hop Sing. I related to Adam's choice of all black clothing, to Hoss's soft side, and to Little Joe's sense of adventure, but Hop Sing was an alien to me.
Who was this guy who talked without conjunctive adverbs? And why did he look like my uncle? Uncle Donald went to the University of Toronto and didn't speak like that. Not even close. I winced each time ol'Hop Sing came into frame. "That is so not me", I would mumble. At school I was lucky to go through with only a few mentions of Hop Sing. Why was I getting saddled with this guy's persona? Somebody out there was having a joke on me and I wasn't laughing. I trudged through high school with the ghost of Hop Sing.
It's not a new issue about Hop Sing with Asian Americans, rather it's an old thorn that has had it's day in the sun and is quickly going the way of land lines. Most people would be hard pressed to even recall the show Bonanza, as time marches on the past is ground to dust and lost to the winds. Hop Sing is just a minor footnote that can be found on Wikipedia, what I found important is now just worth 2.8K of space online.
Ponderosa was revived in 2001 and Hop Sing V.2 lost the pidgen speak and was a healer, as well as the in-house family therapist. Hop Sing V.1 is now just a reminder of that our views of other cultures and races were fodder for comedy, and although it still exists today, instead of just wincing alone we bring it to the attention of others through our online networks - it is enlightenment through the speed of light.
Who was this guy who talked without conjunctive adverbs? And why did he look like my uncle? Uncle Donald went to the University of Toronto and didn't speak like that. Not even close. I winced each time ol'Hop Sing came into frame. "That is so not me", I would mumble. At school I was lucky to go through with only a few mentions of Hop Sing. Why was I getting saddled with this guy's persona? Somebody out there was having a joke on me and I wasn't laughing. I trudged through high school with the ghost of Hop Sing.
It's not a new issue about Hop Sing with Asian Americans, rather it's an old thorn that has had it's day in the sun and is quickly going the way of land lines. Most people would be hard pressed to even recall the show Bonanza, as time marches on the past is ground to dust and lost to the winds. Hop Sing is just a minor footnote that can be found on Wikipedia, what I found important is now just worth 2.8K of space online.
Ponderosa was revived in 2001 and Hop Sing V.2 lost the pidgen speak and was a healer, as well as the in-house family therapist. Hop Sing V.1 is now just a reminder of that our views of other cultures and races were fodder for comedy, and although it still exists today, instead of just wincing alone we bring it to the attention of others through our online networks - it is enlightenment through the speed of light.
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