All Things Asian Are Becoming Us by Rudyard Kipling

There is a line that Rudyard Kipling once quoted. “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” However according to Andrew Lam this is no longer true. Lam says that today the east and the west are commingled and in this country the east is on the rise. Lam uses examples in Hollywood to prove his point. One example is that Quentin Tarantino is planning kung fu movie entirely in Mandarin. Hollywood is remaking Japanese blockbusters like “The Ring” and “Shall We Dance?”
Kung fu, acupuncture, ginseng, incense, Confucian dramas, and beef noodle soup were once thought of as proprietary culture by Asian Americans has now spilled irrevocably into the mainstream says Lam. Lam helps us understand that everyday more and more Asian culture is being brought into our culture. Sushi, Vietnamese fish sauce, and acupuncture are all becoming more and more normal. Three years ago that would not have been true.
Japanese animation is even becoming more popular. Lam says there are more than 20 animated shows on cable channels, ranging from “Sailor Moon” to “Pokemon” to the latest teenage craze, “Kagemusha”, a series about a half-human, half-demon warrior on a quest. Another example that Lam gives us is that “Spirited Away” beat our Disney movies to win the Oscar for best animation in 2003. I personally have never heard of this movie but apparently enough people had heard about it and liked it.
Asian Americans have even been able to be stars in movies. “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “Better Luck Tomorrow” are a few examples. Some Asian stars in Hollywood include Ang Lee, Joan Chen, Justin Lin, John Woo, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, and Michelle Yeow are a few of the most popular Asian stars in Hollywood. Writer Richard Rodriguez once observed that “Each new wave of immigrants brings changes as radical as Christopher Columbus did to the Indians. Lam goes onto say the one cannot diligently practice meditation without considering one’s psychological transformation and the possibility of enlightenment, of spiritual revelation, waiting at the edge of one’s breath. Lam then tells us “A century ago, Carl Jung, a great interpreter of the psychic differences between East and West, described the Westerner as basically extroverted, driven by desire to conquer, and the Easterner as a classic introvert, driven by desire to escape suffering. The introvert tends to dismiss the “I,” Jung wrote, because in the East, it is identified with selfishness and libidinous delusions. To reach spiritual maturity, the I must be dissolved. Many a Westerner, tired of materialism, turns slowly inward in search of spiritual uplift, while introversion and ego-dissolving are no longer consuming Asian quests.”