Analysis Of 'Who Killed Vincent Chin And Rising Sun'

AMCULT 353 JOURNAL #2 Grace Chan

America has always been a land of hope and possibilities. People coming from around the world has once carried the American Dream settling in America imagining they all would have the equal opportunity to achieve success as well as prosperity through determination and hard work. However, in times of economic crisis and situation where racial relationship was tensed portrayed on films like “Who Killed Vincent Chin” and “Rising Sun”, the ides of American Dream seems to differ among by different individuals and families.

Vincent Chin was a Chinese American man who was a hard worker trying his best to create a better life for himself and his family. He was brought to the US by his adoptive parents.

When Vincent Chin was murdered, Detroit was undergoing massive and abrupt changes which makes thousands of Americans to loss their jobs. Detroit was once a place where people living in small towns came to settle down, bought houses and lived their American Dream. Yet this dream was short lived and was waken up by the import of Japanese car which is a big competition to the American motor company. Due to the market change that caused economic crisis, many of the factory workers lost their jobs and could no longer live their American Dream. Therefore, they blame the Asian American for causing this and turning their hatred towards them, which resulted in tragic incidents like Vincent Chin’s. In Detriot, mostly the lower class blue collar was angry that Asians caused them to lost their jobs and not being able to attain the American Dream. But in LA, it was that of the middle-class anxiety. Peter Smith in the film Rising Sun has once said that “I had gone out looking for a house, hoping to get for Michelle [his daughter]. But housing prices were just impossible in LA… I was never going to be able to afford one.” Since LA has a lot of Asian immigrants who often brought capital and resources when they came to the U.S. , they could buy houses easily and this increased the price of housing market. Many middle class Americans found it impossible to affordable to buy housing there. Economy at that time was

Vincent Chin’s incident marks a historic mark on Asian American history because this provokes Asian American in America to speak up and fight for their rights. This changes the concept of Model Minority Myth because Asians are no longer quiet and obedient but actually they are willing to fight for their rights and authorities. Detroit might have suffered tremendously during the economic crisis but we need to know that there is still hope to renew this city. According to Grace Lee, she saw Detroit as a place and space to begin anew. She meant that she still saw hope and opportunities in Detroit and could change with the goal of creating community. An array of projects was done there hoping to create a more welcoming, understanding and multi-cultural society. Projects like Detroit Summer, Gardening Angels and Earthworks Garden are some hopeful examples that shows the incredible opportunities embedded within Detroit. Detroit Summer is a program that educate students about civil right movements and engage them into community building activities like rehabbing houses and recycling wastes. This has a very positive influence to the community and builds closer relationships in the city. Gardening Angles is a network of mainly African American elders who see vacant lots and started the idea of planting them as community garden for themselves and the communities. Eventually, urban agriculture became popular and led