Salon.com > Asia Society

Margaret Cho: I’d like to be a role model for minority women

Sat, 11 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

From your early days, you often use your family as material in your stand-up — and your mother was the "headliner" in your latest tour. How did your parents and your cultural upbringing influence your career path?

Yes I think so, but what was remarkable was how much it really informed me as a person. I don't know how Confucian I actually am consciously, but it seems to really have affected me because of my upbringing. I'm very drawn to Korean culture and food now that I'm older and have a more secure sense of my Americanness. There was a period where I wanted to avoid Korean things because they felt so close to home, but now I miss my home so much!

What was one of the most memorable moments of your career?

I think when I saw myself on TV performing for Bob Hope's young comedians special. It was probably 1992, at J.J. Abrams' home of all places. Of course he's very famous now, and he was a successful filmmaker even back then.

Behind India’s cultural purdah

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 18:32:00 +0000

My first sense as a young girl of sexual menace came from my Indian grandfather. Let me be clear: He never even remotely sexually threatened or molested me. But he made sure I knew that the world in which I, a girl, was growing up was innately perilous to women.

Screaming reproaches at my dress or my uppity talk, he made it clear that the only way to protect myself from the ever-present danger of men was by conducting and dressing myself with impeccable modesty, by making myself as invisible as possible. He also made me understand that, in the way of a wolf pup, my survival in the world of the alpha male depended on avoiding eye contact or any other sign of a pretense to equal status.

My grandfather was a conservative patriarch who ruled over a household overflowing with women and children: My grandmother, my two then unmarried aunts, my uncle’s wife and their three children. Every one of these individuals literally jumped at his command, fearful of his quick and unpredictable temper. The fear he wanted me to feel — the best way he knew to protect my vulnerable young female self — was confused in my mind with the fear I felt of him, his temper, and his unchallengeable authority.

13 bold predictions for Asia in 2013

Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:30:00 +0000

In the newsroom — or wherever the news took me, over a long career in journalism — mid-December invariably brought reflections on the great events of the year gone by, and prognostications of what was to come. A year ago, just back from a Damascus interview with Syria’s beleaguered Bashar Al-Assad, we wondered just how beleaguered he was, how long he would last, and whether the so-called "Arab Spring" had hit a wall, or was just getting started. We wondered whether Greece would last in the Eurozone — and if it didn’t, would it drag Spain and others down with it? We guessed about troop levels in Afghanistan and levels of violence after the U.S. departure from Iraq. And naturally we wondered — ancient history, now — who would prevail as the Republican nominee for the White House and how he or she (remember Michele Bachman?) would fare when the general election came.

Comedy’s sizzling new hotbed

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:00:00 +0000

OK, fine. Silence is golden, and patience is a virtue, but let's be real: everyone knows laughter is the best medicine. A well-timed joke can change anyone's mood and make the most obscure subject matter engaging. How else do you think The Big Bang Theory has gotten away with Schrödinger's Cat, the Higgs Boson Particle, and all that science for six years? Whether on stage or on screen, comedy is not only an integral part of storytelling but also how many of us in the real world tell the stories of our lives.

Will China finally open up to Hollywood?

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 13:00:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES — A wise old cartoon turtle in Kung Fu Panda advises Po, the portly black and white star of the 2004 DreamWorks Animation blockbuster film, not to fret about honing his fighting skills, but rather to focus on the moment and do his best.

“Yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery but today is a gift — that’s why it’s called the present,” says the turtle.

Hollywood studio executives might do well to heed this mantra when trying to gain further traction in China’s booming movie market. Hollywood films accounted for the lion’s share of the box office so far this year but still face major obstacles as the Chinese Communist Party remains unpredictable in its regulation of the contest for entertainment industry profits. In continuing to limit Hollywood’s reach in China, the Party reveals an equally important part of its agenda — balancing the influx of foreign soft power influence over China’s citizen-consumers.