YouTube Trying to Fix What "Ain't Broke"

by 8RG

We're not pleased to see that YouTube has removed our 'Friends' module (apparently this is part of the new 'upgrades' which we are avoiding as long as possible). Our purpose for having these modules visible on our page is to help others locate and support new creative artists, visionaries, histories, experiences, perspectives, opinions etc. from the Asian community.

By removing the public module and channel icons from our front page against our will and replacing it with what seems to be a clunky invisible 'Contacts' list in our 'Inbox', YouTube has destroyed what we consider to be an important networking tool in our efforts to bring more positive exposure to those in the Asian community who are working so hard to be seen.

So far, our 'Subscribers' module has survived these recent changes. Though there are no plans in the near future to create our own videos (though that may change down the road as we continue to grow), feel free to subscribe to our channel if you wish your own channel avatar and link to be more easily available to anyone who browses our pages. And of course, we attempt to subscribe ourselves to as many Asian related channels that we stumble across as we can.

We get frustrated because we feel that we have to spend as much time attempting to overcome or work around regular glitches, adapting our pages to the unexpected 'upgrades' which alters everything that we thought we had set just the way that it would work best for our purposes, or relearning where all of the functions have been moved after each 'change' as we do seeking out new Asian related information to share with others. It is even more frustrating when functions and tools that we used regularly because they best served our purposes for existing are removed completely and there is nothing that we can do about it.

Thanks for your patience and we apologize for the changes that we really have no control over...

Reorganizing

by 8RG

Now that we have quite a lot of content plugged in (although not even close to how much more is out there), we want to take some time to reorganize the sections to make it somewhat easier to locate what you might be interested in the most. This might be a slow process, and imperfect because sometimes it is difficult to put a label on what, for example, a specific performer does. Or that performer might dabble in many different things. We will be doing the best that we can, but we do hope that during this process you will indulge us with your patience.

We are also aware of the complexities involved with determining the criteria and definitions of any human subgroup. Though we would love to be able to create a site that reflects and represents all of the amazing variety that exists globally, we recognize our human fallibility and limitations (time, money, knowledge and so on). Forced to be realistic, we have fine tuned our focus to only certain groups that reflect what is commonly thought of as 'Asian' by North American definitions. This does not include every culture of Asia as a continent though we know that every person who can trace their lineage to that portion of the world is technically 'Asian'. We also know that other Western countries, such as England, have a different definition for 'Asian'.

But for our purposes on this site, we are mainly concentrating on those cultural roots that center around (roughly) East and South East Asia and to some lesser extent the Pacific Islands. We also recognize that 'race' is a wobbly edged subject as well, and that using the term 'Asian' automatically begins its own series of debates. Language, being as dynamic as it is, is always in flux. We do not have a perfect definition for the groups we are attempting to reflect here, and can only suggest that the patron who visits this site will hopefully, over time, develop a feel for where we are trying to go.

There is no desire to offend those subgroups who can by a greater definition also consider themselves to be Asian, yet are not represented here. We do encourage others with an interest to consider the idea of creating sites of their own that can expand on what we started here by reflecting those groups that we have not included. We would certainly be happy to link to such sites in the future.

For those personalities, performers, innovators, etc. who feel that they fall into our rough parameters of 'Asian' for the purposes of this site, and who would like to be included in our links, please send us your information at our Facebook location (the link is at the top of this page). We have a discussion area there where you can tell us everything that we need to know to include your work. That would also be the best way to send us information on any corrections that we need to make, tour information, upcoming releases or anything else you feel we should know.

The Beginning

by 8RG:

Welcome to the blog attached to '8 Red Gates'. We have several online subsites but are still working on the main site itself (8RedGates.com).

If you want to visit the various places we've nested on the internet I'll provide the links here:

8RG Twitter

8RG MySpace

8RG Facebook

8RG YouTube


I guess I should take some time here to explain how this began, what we are trying to accomplish, what our motivations are, etc. Settle in - though I am just starting - I suspect this will turn into a long post full of twisty bends.

Though the actual claiming of the URL for 8RG didn't happen until September of 2010, the energy behind the idea had been building much longer. In my individual case it is a lifetime of interest in creating positive social change that eventually solidified into something tangible as I aged. Do I have all of the answers? Absolutely not. Do I think I have some ideas worth considering? At least enough to make this attempt. Pretty simple really - and time, I suppose, will decide how right or wrong some of these things are.

We're building this slowly - mainly because we are currently limited by my web site knowledge (which is dreadful) and my personal financial pockets (which are shallow at the best of times and mostly full of lint).

At the moment I have two talented young folk pitching in where they can do so... a young woman in the Midwest of America and a young man in Singapore. As I am in the Deep South myself, we are quite spread out - but still determined to give this our best shot. Luckily for us, the internet makes our collaboration possible.

I am a bit older myself. I have a voracious appetite for books that developed in my earliest reading experiences. Of those, my favorite subjects during my childhood were mythologies from around the world. I gobbled them up at every opportunity. This alone, I believe, opened up my inner world when my brain was still very fresh and flexible. I developed a very independent outlook and my moral compass was much influenced by the exposure.

I also have memories of a man who visited with some movies on reel to reel (known as 8mm, perhaps, but I'm no expert). I don't know now if he was a neighbor or a family member or some traveling movie projector salesman - that part of the memory is long gone. I can't even pull up a face. I must have been very young.

We didn't have a screen to show them on, so we strung up a white bed sheet. In my hazy recollections, one of the movies at least, maybe two, were Akira Kurosawa films (another I'm pretty sure was 'One Million Years B.C.' which my dad quite liked - I wonder why - *cough*  Raquel Welch  *cough*). 'The Hidden Fortress' is what I recall from this side of the event, though I am aware of the fallibility of the human brain and how easy it is to get old memories twisted up over time.

I know that I've since seen 'The Hidden Fortress' at least a dozen times, so it would be very easy to get all of that confused now that my synapses grow more raggedy by the day. It could have been another movie but my mind has filled in the blanks with the Kurosawa movie. I'll never know at this point - the memory for me has become set.

I don't even think it had subtitles that night, it seems like we just watched the images without understanding the dialogue and talked about what we thought was happening. But it was still very exciting. At least I thought it was.

Not long after I graduated high school, I obtained my very first VHS player. Having grown up poor, I had never enjoyed the luxury of having cable access when it first came out, though I was aware of it and occasionally had a taste or two at a friend's house. Until I was on my own, it was just the 4 basic channels in my household (with a major bit of excitement the day a 5th channel appeared)!

This first VHS player was magic for me. Though there were only small hole in the wall video rental places at that time, I quickly discovered my first two shelves of International movies. With subtitles. I was a happy lass that day. I watched and re-watched those films many times. They were mostly French and German films, I think, but Kurosawa was there as well. Some time later I ran across a copy of Yimou Zhang's 'Raise the Red Lantern' and it quickly became a favorite.

I even encountered my first anime at one of the tiniest of those shops that was located near my older sister's house. It turned out to be a re-edited and dubbed Hayao Miyazaki film, though I didn't know it at that time. I just fell in love with the animation style (but questioned the box art since it didn't seem to relate to the actual movie). It was called 'Warriors of the Wind'. I later learned that the original is called 'Nauisicaa of the Valley of the Wind' and is considered a masterpiece.

I rented it so many times that when the shop owner decided to retire the tape he called me to see if I wanted to buy it. Which I did. And I still have it (though I no longer have a player).

   
I also learned later that Miyazaki was so upset that the American company had altered his film that he rejected further attempts to release his movies here for quite a while. But now I have a DVD copy of 'Nauisicaa' where I can view the movie as he intended, and also in the original language which I prefer. That has made me quite happy after so many years of waiting.


But I am off on a tangent, which is a very bad habit of mine.


The first sprouting of seeds related to this project (which were planted throughout those younger experiences) began during a series of late night conversations over beers with a friend from Seoul. This must have been around 2002 or 2003 (though I could have that wrong - time seems to run together over the years). The talk was the usual rambling kind that meanders here and there and everywhere during long evenings of excellent company, but much of it touched again and again on Asian issues - in relation to both native and Western perspectives - Asian and non-Asian. A good many of my personal feelings and beliefs firmed up in those conversations.

At some point after that I began to scribble notes to myself and eventually collect them into a folder. There were possible names and some rough sketches of logo ideas in there. There were vague outlines of what I thought was important and what I hoped to accomplish. But as is often the case, real life gets in the way and the folder wound up sitting idle on a shelf.

Meanwhile, I made a few more journeys around the sun and some connections with various online communities. Through those I met folks with similar perspectives on various things and began to express my thoughts on these matters. As someone who started out in life fairly introverted (and I still fall back into my reserved nature easily and often), there was a long slow warming up period. But over time I found myself involved to increasingly greater extents.

There came a moment in 2010 when I revisited that dusty folder full of notes and realized that there might be something worth pursuing there. So I looked through the possible titles I had listed and chose the one that had long been my favorite, found that it was not yet claimed and snapped it up.

Web building is often a mystery to someone like myself who did not cut my eye-teeth on computers. I am the first to admit I am an online bottom feeder - the lowest of the low in the internet universe. I am often baffled by even the languages that people speak now in the arts of Cyberia. I am muddling along at a snail's pace trying to sort out how to take what exists in detail in my mind and recreate it on the web. I suspect these early stages will be laughable later...

As an artist - if only I could paint it and scan it  - like I did with the logos and backgrounds (along with a little photoshop help - which I also stumble through blindly)...

Money being the other complicated roadblock - the main site may be a while launching.

But here is the motivation:

We (my young friends and I) do believe that the interest in the West for Asian arts and aesthetics have been growing into an 'Asian Renaissance' for over 20 if not over 30 years. Probably even longer if you start looking at every single step forward in history.

Just one example would be language combined with 'study abroad' programs. 15 years ago I would still hear from college students that they were learning French or Spanish and that they wanted to study in Europe. Now, it is not unusual at all to hear Western students say that they are studying an Asian language and that they intend to live in China, Japan or South Corea for a few years. Sometimes they even mention that they intend to extensively travel throughout Asia.

There's still a long way to go in positively changing perceptions of the Asian identity in the West, however. A lot of energy required to break through the stereotypes. Real and lasting change comes slowly over time - with repeated positive exposure. And there are probably many ways to accomplish some of those changes.

Some of our goals with 8RG include building supportive audiences for Asian artists and performers in the West. Whether they are native to an Asian country or of Asian descent in a Western country - we want to provide an easy way for the Western mainstream to discover these artists and develop a hunger for more.

We also want to recover elements of Forgotten History in relation to the Asian experience. For example, most Americans are aware of Ellis Island and its role in American history. But many of those same people, even if they are of Asian ancestry, have no idea of where Angel Island is or why it is important.

We want to inform more people about what events there may be in their local areas, what organizations are working to improve the community, what websites are already building bridges, what resources are available, and so on. We want to share information about the history and heroes of Asia.

We do believe that over time and with regular exposure, the Asian aesthetic will be normalized as a welcome and expected part of Western communities. We want to help build that respectful relationship between Eastern and Western cultures and Asian and non-Asian peoples.

Again, we don't have all of the answers, but we want to try some that we think are possibilities. We're not fancy people, but we are sincere and committed to true social change.