[英语泛读材料]Beyond Bruce Lee

超越李小龙

欲知美国白人妇女心目中的亚裔男性形象，地位如何，请看这篇文章。

Asian men are very rarely portrayed as husbands, fathers or lovers in television and movies. Most often they are portrayed as gardeners, houseboys, ruthless foreign businessmen, cooks, enemy soldiers, scientists, accountants, gang members or martial-arts specialists who in recent years can't even beat an Italian-American teenager known as Karate Kid. Those few leading roles in films and on Broadway for Asian men are often given to White actors who perform in Yellowface. Almost every major market in the country features Asian-American women news anchors as well as Blacks, Whites and Latins, but no Asian-American men.

Recently I asked my class of 120 Asian-American students at the University of Washington to name a famous Asian-American couple, specially a husband and wife. They could not name one. After some laughable questions from the class as to internationally known architect I. M. Pei's marital status, I asked them to name famous mixed marriages. Of course, nearly everyone named Connie Chung and Maury Povich, followed by "the Black guy on Night Court and his Asian wife" and the late Bruce Lee and his White wife, Linda. Some even offered the Green Hornet and Cato.

Is the absence of an Asian-American famous marriage on the order of a Dr. and Mrs. Huxtable in the pop culture so bad? Does our ignorance mean a willing acculturation and assimilation? Or is there something really wrong with the men? Are our genes ruined by stories of misogynists who bind women's feet and kill newborn girls? Or are we simply not man enough to play ourselves as men? We are not, after all, the Marlboro Man.

Are my students more influenced by pop images of the roles of men and women than I am?

I asked the women in my class, "What's wrong with Asian-American men as lovers or, even more simply, as dates?" According to them we are "nerdy, wishy-washy, domineering mama's boy." That there are contradictions in these descriptions speaks to the nature of the relationship between Asian-American men and women.

One student says she's disgusted every time she sees an Asian man with a White woman, then quickly adds, "I'm not a racist. Plus, he always looks kind of guilty when I'm staring at him."

"Maybe it's because of the way your mouth gets all twisted up in that sneer," I say.

"He's got this look like he's been caught in the car's headlights, and he doesn't know which way to run."

"That's fright, not guilt."

"For Asian boys there's no difference."

"Why do you care?" an Asian-American male student asks her. "You don't go out with Asian-American men."

I search my brain for some chapter in a teaching manual I never read about how to control this discussion.

But the answer is simple. She doesn't know how. She's yonsei, fourth-generation Japanese-American, grew up in the suburbs, has never gone to school with other Asians, has never been around them except in college. She got invited by one Chinese boy to a Chinese Student Association dance but felt out of place. A lot of Chinese girls froze her out because she was a sorority girl, she was Japanese, she was from the suburbs, Japan invaded China-hell, pick any of the above.

My students goes on to say that Asian men have great bodies. She doesn't want to date them, or have sex with them, or marry them. She just like the way they look, that hairless look, that Bruce Lee muscle tone. She hates chest hair and hairy backs. Too bad White guys can't have Asian bodies. She likes going to kung-fu movies likes her Asian men energetic, heroic and strong. Her support of them in this way has something to do with history and uplifting the race. Privately she will put Asian men down as mates, but in public she'll defend them when she hears a non-Asian say some thing racist about them. I wonder if that makes me successful at getting my message across as an Asian-American studies professor.

The discussion turns to men who have a "thing" for Asian women because of some old-fashioned notion about their beauty, their cultural background, their fabled obedience and docility. One student wonders if lack men who have a thing for Asian women are less likely to be racists than the White men who have a thing for Asian women.

Another woman says the best of both worlds would be to marry a White guy and have 100-percent Asian babies "because," she explains, "they're so cute." This statement is a mass of contradictions. Another says White women who marry Asian men also want 100-percent Asian babies. White couples want little blond boys yet at the same time want to adopt Korean girls. American society is a mass of contradictions.

Notes

1.martial-arts specialist 武术专家
2.Broadway 百老汇大街
3.anchor 危难时可以依靠的人（或物）
4.pop culture 大众文化
5.acculturation and assimilation 文化适应和同化
6.misogynist 厌恶女人的人
7."nerdy, wishy-washy, domineering mama's boy." ；俚语表达法，意思为软弱，无决策能力，但却想制约他人的人
8.sorority （美语）大学女生联谊会
9.their fabled obedience and docility 传说中她们具有逆来顺受和易于管教的特点
10.cute 逗人喜爱的，漂亮的

Reading Comprehension

1. The paragraph I clearly states that

A. Asian men do not possess the ability of being husbands, fathers, or lovers in life.
B. Asian men's social roles are different from ones of Americans or Blacks
C. Most of Asian men in US are gang members or martial arts specialists
D. Black, white and Latin Americans play a more important part in social life than Asian men do

2. The author is a professor at the University of Washington, his area of students is likely to be in

A. sociology
B. history
C. political science
D. philosophy

3. As for marriage

A. American women like to get married with Asian martial arts specialists
B. Asian-American men like to get married with white American women
C. there are almost no mixed marriages between American men and Asian women
D. there are very few famous Asian-American couples

4. The questions raised by the author in paragraph 3 imply that

A. the image of Asian-American men should not have so in the minds of general Americans
B. Americans feel it odd that Asian men so readily get acculturated and assimilated
C. Asian Americans carry the genes of building women's feet and killing newborn girls
D. there is something really wrong with Asian Americans

5. The article clearly shows that the author is a (an)

A. Latin American
B. American white
C. Asian American
D. Black American

6. We may infer from the conversation between the author and his women students that

A. the author may be convinced that there is a difference between Asian American men and women
B. the author is going to search in his teaching material for a satisfactory answer
C. the author will continue to discuss the question with his women students until he gets the answer
D. some American women are looking down upon the Asian Americans

7. the author at last appears to have found the answer, it is that

A. the girl has never gone to school with other Asians
B. the girl is a fourth-generation Japanese American and Japan invaded China
C. the girl was invited to Chinese student association but felt out of place
D. All of above

8. As an Asian American studies professor,

A. the author is satisfied with what his students said to him
B. the author finds there is a contradiction in his student's opinion
C. the author does not arrive at a logical conclusion
D. the author feels it curious that his students only like the way Asian American look

9. "...men who have a 'thing' for Asian women..." may mean that

A. some men want to marry Asian women for their conventional qualities like beauty, obedience and docility
B. men like to buy Asian women expensive gifts because their beauty, obedience and docility attract men
C. more black men who want to marry Asian women are less like to be racists
D. the white men rather than to Black men are more likely to marry Asian women

10. The conclusion the article reaches is that

A. white couples should reached is that
B. American women have more contradictions than American men
C. the best choice for a white woman is to marry a white guy and have 100-percent Asian babies
D. American society is full of contradictions

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