Secret Asian Man
Encyclopedia
Secret Asian Man is a syndicated comic strip
written and drawn by Tak Toyoshima
and published in Boston's Weekly Dig, Metro Silicon Valley, San Jose Mercury News
, RedEye
, Nichi Bei Times, AsianWeek
, Georgia Asian Times, The Everett Herald, and on the internet.
The strip has appeared weekly since 1999 and covers the author's biography and Asian American issues
. Secret Asian Man often centers its discussion on what it means to be "Asian American," as well as other race and ethnic-related issues. Toyoshima's work is often hailed for its stereotype-breaking content, although others have criticized it as doing the exact opposite. Its title is a pun
/mondegreen
referring to the song "Secret Agent Man
" or the TV series Secret Agent Man. "Secret Asian Man" was picked up for syndication by United Feature Syndicate for its daily run, which ran from July 16, 2007, to September 19, 2009.
All issues of Secret Asian Man feature Osamu "SAM (Secret Asian Man)" Takahashi, who is a Japanese American
artist modeled after the author. SAM has three major friends: Richie, a white man; Charlie, a black man; and Grace Patterson, an East Asian American who was adopted by white parents. Along with them, SAM also has a cynical and sarcastic spiky-haired cousin named Simon. SAM's wife Marie is Italian, and they have a son named Shintaro, and a newborn son, Bob.
"I'm Asian" advertising was misguided, because SAM identifies as an "Asian American" instead of just "Asian". SAM believes the Asian American entertainment awards superfluous, because Asian Americans should get entertainment awards in the regular entertainment awards ceremony. SAM pretends he's an Asian fob
with no English language skills to avoid talking to someone which brings up the issue of Asian American
s being perceived as foreign by some people.
SAM portrays the atmosphere of pan-Asian restaurants as a comical combination of elements from different Asian cultures. SAM believes Asian Americans are the targets of spam e-mail because they are marked with Asian last names. SAM would like to see more movies with an exclusive Asian American cast. Similarly, SAM was thrilled to see AZN TV which was a pan-Asian television network. SAM believes the United States' media lowered its standards for respectable portrayal of corpses during the Asian Tsunami. SAM would like to see more Asian male porn stars and anchormen with women of different races. He also would like to see more Asians in sci-fi flicks. SAM meditates over the relationship between an Asian identity and an American one. The Asian part of his identity he considers practically meaningless, because of the diversity and distinctness of people it includes.
s". The comic strip portrays the magazine "Oriental Trading Company" to be non-Asian in nature and highly commercialized. SAM discusses the identity issues faced by Korean adoptee
s. SAM mentions the way East Asian Americans in United States cinema have been historically portrayed negatively. SAM mentions Hollywood's inconsistent casting of different East Asian ethnic groups for East Asian roles which feature a specific ethnic group. SAM is very proud to be of East Asian ancestry.
SAM questions whether other cultures have an equivalent to interconnectedness of Buddhism
and Shaolin martial arts
. SAM is also proud of chop sticks, East Asian martial arts, anime
and East Asian noodles. SAM believes black men and white men are considered better sexual partners to white women by Americans than East Asian men. SAM believes William Hung
positively represents East Asian Americans because he is gutsy.
or Japanese
in nature. A commercialized product mentioned is the Newman's Own
teriyaki sauce. Someone stereotypes SAM as being knowledgeable about manga
, anime
and martial arts in a comic strip due to his Japanese ancestry. SAM brings up the unfairness of World War II
hysteria and Japanese internment camp
s. He lists funny examples of English to Japanese mistranslations
in Japan. SAM highlights how some Chinese American
s, Vietnamese American
s and Korean American
s are racist against people of Japanese descent, because of the atrocities of World War II. SAM portrays Japanese Americans to have an innate knowledge and preference for all things Japanese. SAM believes Japanese Americans are stereotyped as ninja
s, geisha
s and Buddhists. SAM celebrated the passing of the Japanese American
actor Pat Morita
. SAM considers both the atom bombs dropped on Japan at the end of WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor
to be cowardly.
s who were deported under the Mexican Repatriation Program. Another of SAM's ideals is that the United States' movie roles which are not race-specific should be given to non-whites more often. SAM highlights the way ethnic groups put people of great accomplishments on a pedestal if they are of the same ethnic background. SAM believes race-centered organizations are usually too narrow in their scope and exclude others, creating the racism they seek to stop. Secret Asian Man also remarks on the way people only rally to fight racism when it is against their specific group of people. Events of global unrest, from SAM's point of view, bring all people together and dissolve the racial barriers between them. SAM believes sporting events which pit different nations against each other lead to racism. SAM also thinks white is considered normative in discussions on race in the United States and the term "ethnic" is only applied to non-white ethnicities. SAM portrays racially-based affirmative action to be racist and unfair.
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
written and drawn by Tak Toyoshima
Tak Toyoshima
Tak Toyoshima is an Asian American art director with the Weekly Dig and the author of the comic strip Secret Asian Man....
and published in Boston's Weekly Dig, Metro Silicon Valley, San Jose Mercury News
San Jose Mercury News
The San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
, RedEye
RedEye
The RedEye is a daily publication put out by the Chicago Tribune geared toward 18 to 34-year-olds. RedEye was created due in part to the loss of readership among young people of the Chicago Tribune and other major newspapers...
, Nichi Bei Times, AsianWeek
AsianWeek
AsianWeek was a widely circulated publication of Asian American news, across all Asian ethnic groups, providing coverage of Asian-American issues such as the killing of Vincent Chin, Asian American college admissions, and quotas on Chinese students in competitive San Francisco examination schools...
, Georgia Asian Times, The Everett Herald, and on the internet.
The strip has appeared weekly since 1999 and covers the author's biography and Asian American issues
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
. Secret Asian Man often centers its discussion on what it means to be "Asian American," as well as other race and ethnic-related issues. Toyoshima's work is often hailed for its stereotype-breaking content, although others have criticized it as doing the exact opposite. Its title is a pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
/mondegreen
Mondegreen
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase as a result of near homophony, in a way that gives it a new meaning. It most commonly is applied to a line in a poem or a lyric in a song...
referring to the song "Secret Agent Man
Secret Agent Man (song)
"Secret Agent Man" is a song written by Steve Barri and P. F. Sloan. The most famous recording of the song was made by Johnny Rivers for the opening titles of the American broadcast of the British spy series Danger Man, which aired in the U.S. as "Secret Agent" from 1964 to 1966...
" or the TV series Secret Agent Man. "Secret Asian Man" was picked up for syndication by United Feature Syndicate for its daily run, which ran from July 16, 2007, to September 19, 2009.
Characters
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
artist modeled after the author. SAM has three major friends: Richie, a white man; Charlie, a black man; and Grace Patterson, an East Asian American who was adopted by white parents. Along with them, SAM also has a cynical and sarcastic spiky-haired cousin named Simon. SAM's wife Marie is Italian, and they have a son named Shintaro, and a newborn son, Bob.
Asian American issues
The comic strip deals with Asian American related issues. The comic strip believes Asian American history is not understood completely by the United States at large. SAM believes McDonald'sMcDonald's
McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants, serving around 64 million customers daily in 119 countries. Headquartered in the United States, the company began in 1940 as a barbecue restaurant operated by the eponymous Richard and Maurice McDonald; in 1948...
"I'm Asian" advertising was misguided, because SAM identifies as an "Asian American" instead of just "Asian". SAM believes the Asian American entertainment awards superfluous, because Asian Americans should get entertainment awards in the regular entertainment awards ceremony. SAM pretends he's an Asian fob
Fresh off the boat
The phrases Fresh off the boat , Off the boat , or just simply Boat; are terminologies used to describe immigrants that have arrived from a foreign nation and have not yet assimilated into the host nation's culture, language, and behavior. Within some ethnic Asian circles in the United States, the...
with no English language skills to avoid talking to someone which brings up the issue of Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
s being perceived as foreign by some people.
SAM portrays the atmosphere of pan-Asian restaurants as a comical combination of elements from different Asian cultures. SAM believes Asian Americans are the targets of spam e-mail because they are marked with Asian last names. SAM would like to see more movies with an exclusive Asian American cast. Similarly, SAM was thrilled to see AZN TV which was a pan-Asian television network. SAM believes the United States' media lowered its standards for respectable portrayal of corpses during the Asian Tsunami. SAM would like to see more Asian male porn stars and anchormen with women of different races. He also would like to see more Asians in sci-fi flicks. SAM meditates over the relationship between an Asian identity and an American one. The Asian part of his identity he considers practically meaningless, because of the diversity and distinctness of people it includes.
East Asian American-specific issues
Many of the racial issues labeled under the umbrella of "Asian American" are in reality only East Asian American issues or themes. It portrays whites as grouping all East Asian Americans as "Chinese AmericanChinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
s". The comic strip portrays the magazine "Oriental Trading Company" to be non-Asian in nature and highly commercialized. SAM discusses the identity issues faced by Korean adoptee
Korean adoptee
A Korean international adoptee or KAD is a person who was adopted from South Korea through the international adoption of South Korean children as a child and raised in another country, often by adoptive parents of another race, ethnic background, and culture.-Historical context and the impact of...
s. SAM mentions the way East Asian Americans in United States cinema have been historically portrayed negatively. SAM mentions Hollywood's inconsistent casting of different East Asian ethnic groups for East Asian roles which feature a specific ethnic group. SAM is very proud to be of East Asian ancestry.
SAM questions whether other cultures have an equivalent to interconnectedness of Buddhism
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
and Shaolin martial arts
Shaolin kung fu
Shaolin Kung Fu refers to a collection of Chinese martial arts that claim affiliation with the Shaolin Monastery.Of the multitude styles of kung fu and wushu, only some are actually related to Shaolin...
. SAM is also proud of chop sticks, East Asian martial arts, anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and East Asian noodles. SAM believes black men and white men are considered better sexual partners to white women by Americans than East Asian men. SAM believes William Hung
William Hung
William James Hung Hing Cheong , commonly known as William Hung, is an American singer who gained fame in early 2004 as a result of his off-key audition performance of Ricky Martin's hit song "She Bangs" on the third season of the television series...
positively represents East Asian Americans because he is gutsy.
Japanese American-specific issues
Many racial issues are Japanese AmericanJapanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
or Japanese
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
in nature. A commercialized product mentioned is the Newman's Own
Newman's Own
Newman's Own is a food company and for-profit corporation founded by actor Paul Newman and author A. E. Hotchner in 1982. Newman received all of the profits from product sales and donated 100% of the proceeds, after taxes, to various educational and charitable organizations of his own selection...
teriyaki sauce. Someone stereotypes SAM as being knowledgeable about manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and martial arts in a comic strip due to his Japanese ancestry. SAM brings up the unfairness of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
hysteria and Japanese internment camp
Japanese internment camp
Japanese internment camp is a term generally used to refer to one or both of the following:*Japanese American internment, the internment of Japanese Americans in the United States during World War II...
s. He lists funny examples of English to Japanese mistranslations
Engrish
refers to unusual forms of English language usage by native speakers of some East Asian languages. The term itself relates to Japanese speakers' tendency to inadvertently substitute the English phonemes "R" and "L" for one another, because the Japanese language has one alveolar consonant in place...
in Japan. SAM highlights how some Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
s, Vietnamese American
Vietnamese American
A Vietnamese American is an American of Vietnamese descent. They make up about half of all overseas Vietnamese and are the fourth-largest Asian American group....
s and Korean American
Korean American
Korean Americans are Americans of Korean descent, mostly from South Korea, with a small minority from North Korea...
s are racist against people of Japanese descent, because of the atrocities of World War II. SAM portrays Japanese Americans to have an innate knowledge and preference for all things Japanese. SAM believes Japanese Americans are stereotyped as ninja
Ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary of feudal Japan specializing in unorthodox arts of war. The functions of the ninja included espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination, as well as open combat in certain situations...
s, geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
s and Buddhists. SAM celebrated the passing of the Japanese American
Japanese American
are American people of Japanese heritage. Japanese Americans have historically been among the three largest Asian American communities, but in recent decades have become the sixth largest group at roughly 1,204,205, including those of mixed-race or mixed-ethnicity...
actor Pat Morita
Pat Morita
Noriyuki "Pat" Morita was an American actor of Japanese descent who was well-known for playing the roles of Matsuo "Arnold" Takahashi on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi in the The Karate Kid movie series, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1984.-Early life:Pat...
. SAM considers both the atom bombs dropped on Japan at the end of WWII and the attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
to be cowardly.
Universal racial issues
The comic strip also deals with broader racial issues. Secret Asian Man deals with the practice of racial stereotyping. In one comic strip, SAM states he is against the practice of racial stereotyping. One of SAM's beliefs is that the United States should give reparations to people for past injustices. He uses the example of Mexican AmericanMexican American
Mexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
s who were deported under the Mexican Repatriation Program. Another of SAM's ideals is that the United States' movie roles which are not race-specific should be given to non-whites more often. SAM highlights the way ethnic groups put people of great accomplishments on a pedestal if they are of the same ethnic background. SAM believes race-centered organizations are usually too narrow in their scope and exclude others, creating the racism they seek to stop. Secret Asian Man also remarks on the way people only rally to fight racism when it is against their specific group of people. Events of global unrest, from SAM's point of view, bring all people together and dissolve the racial barriers between them. SAM believes sporting events which pit different nations against each other lead to racism. SAM also thinks white is considered normative in discussions on race in the United States and the term "ethnic" is only applied to non-white ethnicities. SAM portrays racially-based affirmative action to be racist and unfair.
Further reading
- Interview with Toyoshima in Attitude: The New Subversive CartoonistsAttitude: The New Subversive CartoonistsThe Attitude series of books is a series of anthologies of alternative comics, photos and artists' interviews edited by Universal Press Syndicate editorial cartoonist Ted Rall. The books were designed by J. P. Trostle, news editor of EditorialCartoonists.com. Two sequels and three spin-off titles...
- Interview with Toyoshima in IMDiversity.com
- Interview with Toyoshima in CurrentVine.com
- Interview with Toyoshima in AARising.com