{"id":9430,"date":"2016-04-07T15:57:03","date_gmt":"2016-04-07T15:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/?p=9430"},"modified":"2016-04-07T18:26:23","modified_gmt":"2016-04-07T18:26:23","slug":"run-ways-insult-asians-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/run-ways-insult-asians-yet\/","title":{"rendered":"Have they run out of responses to Trillin yet? Never."},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/section>\n

Photograph from A Day in the Life of Asian Pacific America<\/a> by Cynthia Tom<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n[space size=’75px’]\n

Let us count the ways. In the last year alone, there was Michael Derrick Hudson<\/a>, that horrible meme of Darsh Singh<\/a>, the Oscars<\/a>, Emma Stone in Aloha<\/i><\/a>, and many more that we’re forgetting at the moment. But now, the New Yorker has published Calvin Trillin’s poem “Have They Run Out Of Provinces Yet?”<\/a>, which laments upon an uber-orientalized China from a patronizing white gaze:<\/p>\n

“So we sometimes do miss, I confess,
\nSimple days of chow mein but no stress,
\nWhen we never were faced with the threat
\nOf more provinces we hadn’t met.”<\/p>\n

Where to start? There is, of course, “the trend in poetry of nostalgia for a white planet that this poem perpetuates,” as a response in The Stranger<\/i><\/a> calls it. While American cuisine is allowed to exist in all of its complexity (from Minnesotan Hot Dishes to Soul Food to Barbecue to New York Bagels), Asian cuisines have a long history of being clumped together as “Asian” and “fusion” food. It might seem that this poem breaks from this trend in highlighting the culinary traditions of different regions in China, but by depicting this as a source of “stress” or a “reason to fret,” it turns the diversity in Chinese cuisine into a negative.<\/p>\n

Perhaps Trillin intended to poke fun at folks who are sick of all those soup dumplings (because let’s face it, who is ever sick of soup dumplings?!), but his irony falls flat–it feels tired and clich\u00e9d. What’s more, as Jenn Reappropriate so wittily points out, the irony itself suggests that our cuisines only exist to be “reprocessed” into “a foodie’s troublesome adversity,” as opposed to, you know, feed the people who call it comfort food? Our cuisines are not culinary tourism. <\/p>\n

Calvin Trillin has since responded to the controversy in The Guardian<\/i><\/a>, saying it \u201cwas simply a way of making fun of food-obsessed bourgeoisie\u201d and that he’d similarly mocked French cuisine. Author Monique Truong, in a Facebook post, astutely pointed out, “In the U.S., French food and Chinese food do not have the same history, context or status because the French and the Chinese have never been treated the same by this country.”<\/p>\n

The upside to this ill-advised attempt at poetry is that it has inspired a plethora of poetic responses from Asian Americans. Reappropriate.co has one entitled “Have They Run Out Of White Tears Yet?”<\/a> and Angry Asian Man published one by Timothy Yu entitled “Have They Run Out Of White Poems Yet?”<\/a> Luisa A. Igloria wrote “Have They Run Out of Tasteless White Yet?”<\/a> in Via Negativa.<\/p>\n

And so we’d like to present our (brief) anthology of “Have They Run Out Of Responses to Trillin Yet?” The answer is: NEVER.<\/p>\n

PRESENTING<\/h4>\n

Have They Run Out Of…<\/h1>\n

Pumpkin Spice<\/a>Franchises<\/a>White Poets<\/a><\/p>\n

Yet?<\/h1>\n

Also, read on for community responses<\/a>. We’ll be updating them as they come in.<\/p>\n

Have They Run Out Of Pumpkin Spice Yet?<\/h2>\n

By Eddie Huang<\/h3>\n

Originally Published on Twitter.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Have they run out of Pumpkin Spice yet?
\nIf they haven’t we’ve reason to fret.
\nLong ago, there was just pumpkin pie.
\nBut they coffee from Starbucks they drank,
\nMaking our green teas strictly pass\u00e9.
\nLattes were the song that we sung,
\nThough the Pumpkin Spice burned through your tongue
\nThen home goods got in the loop,
\nwe burned candles that smelled like Pilgrims’ eau
\nThen Cronuts, the creation of Ansel,
\nruined the lives of interns from spring to Norfolk
\nNow as each new iteration appears,
\nIt brings tension, increasing our fears:
\nCould a place we extolled as a find
\nBe revealed as a pumpkin behind?
\nFrom where do their spices hail?
\nSome factory straight out of hell
\nFor surely it’s not from a pumpkin
\nOr China or the African continent.<\/p>\n

Because we know what we brought and we know where it’s stored
\nNot on their shelves or “ethnic” wards
\nIn the heart and the home where they can’t take our ways
\nSafe from Seamless and Calvin’s gaze,
\nAll of our spices and provinces safe.<\/p>\n

Have They Run Out Of Franchises Yet?<\/h2>\n

By Craig Santos Perez<\/h3>\n

Originally published on Facebook<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Have they run out of franchises yet?
\nIf they haven\u2019t, our health has reason to fret.
\nLong ago, there was just A & W.
\n(Long ago we were easy to seduce).
\nBut then burgers from White Castle came,
\nMaking A & W strictly passe.
\nWhiteness was the anthem that we sung,
\nThough the racism could burn through our tongue.
\nThen when McDonald\u2019s got in the loop,
\nWe scarfed Big Macs whose patties were goop.
\nThen DQ, the acronym for Dairy Queen,
\nCame along with its curled, soft-serve ice cream.
\nSo we thought they were done, and then
\nA new franchise arrived: Burger King.
\nThen nutrition was a fraction of meagre
\nFor those eaters who had eaten Carl\u2019s Jr.
\nAnd then Wendy\u2019s and KFC gained fame,
\nPlus some others–too many to name.<\/p>\n

Now, as each brand-name franchise appears,
\nIt brings diabetes, increasing our fears:
\nCould the America extolled as our destiny
\nBe revealed as a franchise of cruelty?
\nSo we sometimes do miss, I confess,
\nSimples days of white bread but no sickness,
\nWhen we never were faced with the threat,
\nof more settler foods we hadn\u2019t met.
\nIs there one tucked away in Monsanto?
\nWill they soon be serving fast GMOs?<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: Contains strong language.<\/h4>\n

Have They Run Out of White Poets Yet?<\/h2>\n

By Franny Choi<\/h3>\n

Originally published on Franny Choi’s website<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

Have they run out of white poets yet?
\nIf they haven\u2019t, we\u2019ve reason to fret.
\nLong ago, there was just Billy Shakes \u2013
\nother white people\u2019s stories he\u2019d take.
\nBut then Ezra looked toward the East
\nto spice up his post-War can of meat,
\nsaid he wanted to bridge East and West
\n(but it\u2019s shoddy translation, at best).
\nAnd then Kenny Rexroth got prize winnings
\nfor translations of Japanese women.
\nBut surprise! It was all a big game
\nfor ol\u2019 Ken to get unearned acclaim.
\nThen Araki-so-called-Yasasuda
\nturned out to be Johnson, and you\u2019da
\nthought that that\u2019d be the end of the story,
\nbut more white poets wanted more glory.
\nM.D.H. couldn\u2019t get his poems placed,
\nso he took on Ms. Yi-Fen Chou\u2019s face.
\n(Not to mention Vanessa and Kenneth \u2013
\namong recent fuck-ups, they\u2019re the zenith.)<\/p>\n

Now along bumbles \u2013 what\u2019s his name? Trillin?
\nFigured it\u2019d been a while, so he\u2019d fill in
\nfor the other old crusty white croutons
\nwho ran out of nice flowers to muse on.
\nTo be fair, Calvin didn\u2019t pretend
\nto be aught but himself: a sad send-
\nup of Dr. Seuss decked in his finest
\nanti-Asian regalia, minus
\nany interest in speaking to those
\nwho don\u2019t share his tax bracket or clothes.
\nWe thought after Yi-Fen we\u2019d be set
\nwith this shit but I\u2019m willing to bet
\nsoon we\u2019ll find one we still haven\u2019t met.
\nHave they run out of white poets yet?<\/p>\n

If you’ve got your own poetic response, please link to it, or write it, in the comments. If you want to submit it to us for consideration in our anthology, please email apac@si.edu<\/a>. What do you wish they had run out of? Let us know on Twitter #HaveTheyRunOutOf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Community Responses<\/h2>\n

Have They Run Out of Regret?<\/h3>\n

By Nancy Yao Maasbach<\/p>\n

Have they run out of regret?
\nIf not, I really do fret.
\nLong ago, there were unjust reasons.
\n(Long ago, there were also treasons.)
\nBut then the exclusion was repealed,
\nMaking prejudice with zero zeal,
\nMelting pots was the meal du jour,
\nThought my identity seemed no more.
\nThen when Yao Ming hit the basketball floor
\nMy surname pronounced with knowledge and lore.
\nThen Lucy, the femme of the future,
\nCame along with her own sense of allure.
\nSo we thought we were finished, and then
\nChris Rock presents our \u201conly\u201d Oscar men<\/p>\n

At least our food is respected we said,
\nThey all seem to choose it over white bread.
\nBut then we realize we can change our lot,
\nTo be a part of a vibrant mosaic not melting pot.<\/p>\n

Now, as each joke continues to sear,
\nIt\u2019s time to call for a stop to the jeers
\nCould a place we call home revert?
\nBe revealed as a land of jerks?
\nSo we sometimes do miss, I confess,
\nTo have clarity at its best,
\nWhen we knew we were hated, considered a threat
\nInstead of this crap of subtleness met.
\nIs there room for Calvin Trillin\u2019s bull?
\nHas my country remained provincial?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Calvin Trillin published a poem in the New Yorker called “Have They Run Out of Provinces Yet?” Asian Americans respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9430"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9457,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9430\/revisions\/9457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/now\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}