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CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS

In this chapter, I will explain the result in my analysis. The discussion in

this chapter is divided into two sub chapters. The first sub chapter is the

description of what happens in Ryan‟s video. It explains the story and mise-en-

scene of each video. The second sub chapter is the stereotypes he presents in the

video. It explains how Ryan Higa represents himself as Japanese American and

what stereotype of Japanese American man being challenged in his video.

„How-to‟ is one of the series in Ryan Higa‟s YouTube channel, „nigahiga.‟

In this series, the story is about telling the viewers how to do something and Ryan

presents some steps to do it. His role is presenting some steps related to the theme.

There are 8 „how-to‟ videos in 2012-2014. The duration of the videos are varied

from 3 to 8 minutes. These videos present some stereotypes challenging of

Japanese American man.

There are 8 „how-to‟ videos uploaded in 2012-2014, as follows:

 How to Spot a Pothead

 How to Sing Like Your Favorite Artists

 5 Steps to Be Badass

 How to Get Girls

 How to Survive a Horror Movie

 How You Know If You Had ADHD

 How to Stay Positive

 How to Be Rapper commit to user

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I analyze all of the videos except for “How to Survive a Horror Movie”

because it has different format from the other videos (it is made in cartoon format,

so we cannot see Ryan‟s expression in delivering the story). The series always

begin with an introduction about the theme. After the introduction, he presents the

step one by one by giving an example act. Ryan usually plays the main role of the

act with the some other supporting roles. The ending is about the conclusion of

the theme. It is not always succeed, but it is always entertaining. He has great

words to conclude the video and seems to be very serious about it. But he covers

it with jokes and being comedic again.

A. The descriptions of what happens in Ryan‟s “how-to” videos

I will start the discussion in this chapter by briefly sharing the main story

of each video first.

 How to Spot a Pothead tells us whether someone is pothead or not.

Pothead is someone who believes any problem can be fixed by smoking

marijuana (as cited in

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pothead). Ryan acts as

someone who is addicted to marijuana with long thick hair, sleeveless top

and jeans as seen in the figure 1. He is helped by another actor who acts as

someone who is treated from smoking marijuana as seen in figure 2.

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Figure 1

Ryan acts as a pothead.

Figure 2

The extra acts as a pothead.

 How to Sing Like Your Favorite Artist a tip for the viewers to sing like

some famous artist. Ryan acts as a professional singer who teaches the

viewers by mimicking the artists. The artists who are being mimicked in

this video are famous artists in America such as, Justin Bieber, Nicky

Minaj, Justin Timberlake, etc. He wears jacket and sits on a sofa. He

speaks like he hosts an entertainment show with soft tone and friendly

aura. The figure 3 below shows Ryan character as professional singer.

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Figure 3

Ryan acts as a professional singer.

 5 Steps to Be Badass tells about someone who was left out by his friends,

changed into someone who is rough and rude. In this video, Ryan wears a

leather jacket and jeans. He makes his tone voice lower and tougher. He

presents the video by standing with his arm crossed, makes a tough

expression in his face and speaks with stressing in his words, indicating

that he is really a badass. The figure 4 below shows his character as badass

in this video.

Figure 4

Ryan acts as badass.

 How to Get Girls presents some steps to be acquainted with girls. This

video is about his life experience. He shares some tips he found to the

viewers. He does not act to be different character because it is his personal

story. The point in this video is on the example scenes. The scene takes

place in a café with darkcommit background. to user The lighting is not that light and

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there is a table, plants and painting to match the real café as we can see in

figure 5. For the costume, Ryan wears shirt and acts with an actress in a

red dress.

Figure 5

Ryan approaches a girl in a cafe.

 How You Know If You Had ADHD is a about how to know if someone

has ADHD or not. ADHD is Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

This video is like personal vlog, sharing his personal experience. He acts

as himself, so there is not necessary to put any specific outfit and make up.

He sits down and talks to the screen like he talks to the viewers in front of

him. He gives some example in many scenes. It is like showing to what he

imagines in his head, so that the viewers are easier to understand the

meaning of the story.

 How to Stay Positive is giving out some steps to always have positive

thinking. It is also a video about his owns experience. The example scenes

are played with other actors with varied situations.

 How to Be Rapper is about to be rapper. He acts as rapper in this video.

He is called R-Dizzle in this video. This is the character he always uses in

the hip-hop themed videos. He has used this character since 2007. As seen

in the figure 6 below, the setting is supposed to be in the musical studio commit to user

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with dark and blue light on the background. There are two screens behind

him with some music stuffs in it. He wears snapback and headphones and

waves his hands like a rapper every time he speaks.

Figure 6

Ryan acts as rapper.

There are 2 kinds of „how-to‟ video that Ryan made. The difference is

about the role of Ryan in the video; he acts as expert and he acts as himself. When

he acts as experts, he dresses up as the profession like what I have mentioned

above. He matches the costume and setting to the theme. It shows that he really

want to make the viewers believe that he is trusted enough to presents the steps.

When he acts as himself, he shares his personal experience and does not care

about the costume and make up. The setting of this kind of video is mostly in his

bedroom. The bed is always the background, with black or grey blanket. There are

some plastic plants in the room and contrast with the white wall in the room.

There is also a blue painting, black curtain and white night lamp which make a

point in the room. His outfit are always casual and not indicating any profession.

He just wears plain t-shirt and trousers. He is also not applying any make up on

his face. He just acts natural like what he always does in everyday life.

The video always starts with introduction to the theme. Ryan explains

what the video is about. He matches his figure behavior to the theme when commit to user

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explaining it. For example in the figure below, taken from „How to Sing Like

Your Favorite Artist,‟ he sits in a sofa with some pillows in his sides and starts the

video by:

“Welcome. I’m Ryan Higa, professional singer and vocal-stiloliger-izer-

ist. And today I’m gonna let me teaching you how to sing like some of your favorite artists. As much as you think you can’t sing, or as much as you know you

can’t, you can’t. Yet. But by the time you finish this video, with enough working effort, one day. You might, be able to sound like. Thiiiiiisss..”. And he ends it with screaming in high pitch, shuts his eyes and makes a gesture

like a singer who sings high pitched notes.

In „5 Steps to Be Badass,‟ he does not say anything in the first two seconds

in the beginning of the video. He is just standing and looking to the other way

with his arm crossed. He said “Oh, Hello there. I didn’t see you coming. My name

is Ryan Higa also known as Ryan. But you can call me Ryan Higa for sure. And

I’m professional badass.” To support the character, there is an exploding effect

after he says „professional badass‟ as we can see in figure 7. Even the setting is

just in his room, he can deliver the badass character well with his gestures.

Figure 7

The exploding effect supports the theme of the video.

The only video with different opening is „How to Spot a Pothead.‟ The

opening is a warning that no law breaking things is used in the video. And what

makes this video different is that there is no host. He presents the theme by giving

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a written explanation of it. The narrator speaks in a low voice and slower than

what Ryan usually does.

After the opening, Ryan explains the steps of the related theme. He always

put an example in each step and presents it with some comedy. He dresses up as

another character related to the example presented. The setting of the example is

also adapted to the story. For example as I explained before, in „How to Get Girls,

the setting is in a café. The other example is in „How to Spot a Pothead,‟ as seen

in the figure 8, he is smoking weed outside of the house with 2 people fighting

behind him. It indicates that a pothead lives in a rough environment because he

can smoke weed freely outside and people does not really care with the criminal

act as we can see in figure below.

Figure 8

The rough environment supports the theme of the video.

The content of the video is always funny and full of humor, and so does

the ending. Sometimes he ends it seriously with some motivating and aspiring

words. The editing on each video is always great. There are many effects and pop-

up words in the scene. The background music also supports the scenes. Ryan has a

specific background music that he uses in mostly of his videos to indicate a

changing scene.

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B. The stereotypes that are presented by Ryan Higa in the videos

It could be argued that Hollywood rarely claims that the characters in its

films are meant to be taken literally (and therefore seriously), or ever meant to be

representative of entire social groups (Ramirez-Berg, 2002). Asian character often

represented as “alien” to American (cannot be assimilated to American culture).

This is reflected in the media by the disproportionate number of unacculturated

Asian characters speaking with foreign accents (as cited in

http://manaa.org/?page_id=543). In Ryan‟s videos, the stereotype of Asian

American is also presented, but in opposite way. He challenges the stereotypes of

Asian American man, especially Japanese American. One thing that we can catch

quickly in the video is that, he does not speak broken English. He speaks fluent

and fast English. It shows that he has adjusted to the American culture. He does

not even use Japanese language at all. It breaks the mainstream stereotype of

Japanese American.

The setting of his room which he usually uses in the video also does not

contain any Japanese culture there. As we can see in figure 9 and 10, every

cushion in the room is all American style. The bed, properties, and even the white

wall are American style. We cannot find such things like futon (Japanese

traditional bed), wooden wall and paper door. Ryan is not showing any Japanese

culture even in his room.

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Figure 9

Ryan’s bedroom shows a regular American room (1).

Figure 10

Ryan’s bedroom shows a regular American room (2).

Another Asian American YouTuber also portrays the American room

design and do not show their descent culture in their videos, for example, Kevin

Wu (a Taiwanese in his YouTube channel „‟) as seen in figure 11 and

Jun Sung Ahn (a Korean in his YouTube channel „JunCurryAhn‟) as seen in

figure 12.

Figure 11

Kevin’s room shows a regular American room.

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Figure 12

Jun Sung’s bedroom shows a regular American room.

Ryan Higa lives in an American neighborhood as we can see in the figure

13 and 14 below. We cannot find any Japanese style house in the videos. He has

been comfortable with the American culture and been adapted well in the culture.

A research of Japanese American society shows that in general, about three

fourths of the Japanese American sample reported that they lived in the

communities where “none” or “less than 5” Japanese American families lived

(Asakura, Murata, Kawamoto, Nakayama, & Asakura, 2004).

Figure 13

Ryan’s neighborhood shows a regular American neighborhood (1).

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Figure 14

Ryan’s neighborhood shows a regular American neighborhood (2).

As I stated before, I use Brian Cortes‟ research to help me analyze that

Ryan Higa is trying to challenge the Japanese American stereotypes. There are 5

stereotypes that Brian explained as I mentioned it on the previous chapter. I will

only use 4 stereotypes in my analysis that is Perpetual Foreigner, Model Minority,

Asexual Man and Nice Guys. I will not use Generational Rift because it does not

present in this „how-to‟ series. In each video, it does not only contain 1 stereotype.

There may be some stereotypes presented in a video. I will share my findings one

by one.

Perpetual Foreigner

The perpetual foreigner stereotypes can be found in Ryan‟s video easily.

Perpetual foreigner is an inability to assimilate which leads to the view that no

matter how long the Asian American has been in America they are still perceived

as “foreigner” (Cosette, 2013).

According to Brian Cortes‟ characteristic of perpetual foreigner, we can

see that Ryan has been adapted to the American culture. For example, in figure

15, Ryan is trying to be a country singer. As we know that „country‟ is a music

genre originally from the American cowboy life, means that he has adapted well commit to user

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with the culture. This scene can be found in „How to Sing like Your Favorite

Artists.‟ He wears sleeveless, jeans and a cowboy hat and of course a guitar as

property. In the scene, he teaches us how to sing like a country singer. He says,

“Think of the sound when you’re trying to imitate the shot clock buzzer for

basketball team. And now make the sound of your voice crack like when you’re

going to puberty. With those all together, you got country.” this scene shows that

Ryan has been adapted to American culture. He can even act as country musician

well. It is different from what people expected of him as Asian American. An

Asian American write in a website that “the problem in my lived experience is

that these few portrayals end up being what people expect of me, and other

Asian/Americans, too, and they create a kind of cultural identity erasure. When

people look at me, they expect something that I am not — they expect an exotic

other that doesn‟t “belong here” (that is, in the United States)” (Whitney, 2012).

Figure 15

Ryan sings country song in a country outfit.

In terms of American culture, Japanese American has some contributions

to adapt in the culture. Shoji Tabuchi is a famous musician in country music field.

He has his own theater and being one of the respected Japanese American

musicians in America. Asian American also contributed in hip hop dance culture.

What Asian Americans saw in their community for years was not represented on commit to user

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television until recently with dance competition TV shows where predominantly

Asian American urban dancers exploded into mainstream media. This not only

breaks traditional American stereotypes of Asians being either martial artists or

nerds (Lee, 2013). The other Asian American who has been recognized in

America is Jeremy Lin. He is the first Asian American to play in NBA. #Linsanity

even becomes trending topic in for days portraying that his appearance in

NBA leaves great impact among NBA fans. It shows that Asian American is able

to adapt American culture well. A research of Japanese American society have

result that Japanese American are accepted well in the society. “Concerning self-

evaluation for acceptance by other American neighbors, 92.3% of all generation

subgroups were accepted subjectively, so that we conceived that almost of all

Japanese American adapt very well to the dominant American society” (Asakura,

Murata, Kawamoto, Nakayama, & Asakura, 2004).

Ryan does not portray occupation like what Brian had described. We

cannot see occupation like delivery boy, or a launderer like what we often see in

Hollywood movies. An example of movie which portrays Asian American as

delivery boy is „Finishing the Game.‟ The story follows the struggles faces by

Asian-American actors of the time to meet ethnic stereotypes, and the film

specifically takes aim at the “chop socky” characterizations of Asians and the

“delivery-boy” role carved out for Asian actors (Karim, 2008, p. 2). Asian

launderer character can be found in the movie „The Warrior‟s Way.‟ To challenge

the mainstream stereotype, Ryan acts as a professional. In this „how-to‟ series,

like what I have said earlier, he acts as professional singer, badass and rapper. He

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even acts as dentist on „How to Be Rapper‟ as an example scene like what we can

see in figure 16 below.

Figure 16

Ryan acts as a dentist.

These occupations give a different feeling to what we see in the

mainstream media. Even mostly in this series he just becomes himself, not

portraying a special occupation, but he is able to show that there is no mainstream

stereotype that exists in his video. What Ryan shows in the video is in accordance

with the survey of U.S. Department of Labor in 2011. Asians are similarly well

represented in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) occupations —

accounting for nine percent or more of jobs — in math and science related

occupations, such as computer and mathematical occupations (16.1 percent), life,

physical, and social science occupations (10.8 percent), and architecture and

engineering occupations (9.0 percent) (U.S. Department of Labor, 2011). It is also

match with the research of C.N. Le, 49.1% of employed Asians 16 and older who

work in management, professional and related occupations, such as financial

managers, engineers, teachers and registered nurses (Le, 2015).

Another characteristic of perpetual foreigner stereotype is that Asians

understand Eastern Wisdom. Weick and Putnam explain about Eastern Wisdom in

their article. Generally, Eastern mental development proceeds from an emphasis commit to user

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on virtue to concentration to mindfulness; from grosser to more subtle levels of

mind. Virtue involves changing unskillful states of mind to skillful states and then

maintaining the skillful states. Actions that are motivated by one of the three

mental toxins—greed, hatred, or delusions—are unskillful. Actions motivated by

generosity, loving kindness, or clarity of mind are the skillful antidotes to the

three toxins (Weick & Putnam, 2006, p. 277). According to this, we can expect

Ryan to be considerate to other people.

In „How to Stay Positive,‟ Ryan explain the example to have positive

minds in his own way. As what the title stated, viewers will think that the video is

about wisdom, which will support the stereotype of Asians. But it is not full of

wisdom. He just tells the viewers about the reality. He says even the people close

to him often said that he is pessimistic or having negative thought. For example,

when he is comforting his friend who had been cheated by the girlfriend, he is not

really comforting. He “comforts” his friend with big smile on his face and looks

very happy. And the friends‟ face looks so disappointed and confused. The dialog

is transcribed below.

Friend: “I just found my girl had been cheating on me.”

Ryan: “Hey, that’s wonderful bro. you don’t have to waste anymore time wondering if she’s the one.”

It shows that not every Japanese American has the same thought of

wisdom. Ryan has his own thought of wisdom. He does not possess any Eastern

Wisdom. He only has „positive thought‟ even though his friends say he is always

being negative. This shows that not every Japanese American understands kind of

wisdom. an Asian American parent write in a website: “I‟m one of the few parents

who does not send their kids to Japanese schools on weekends, and I may be the commit to user

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only parent who does not teach Japanese to his child” and “We need to let go of

them, and offer our Eastern wisdom only when they ask for it” (Suematsu, 2011).

Japanese parents in America usually send their children in Japanese school every

weekend to learn about Japanese language and culture. However, some parents do

not send their children in such school because they think that they can learn the

culture anytime they want. This indicates that not every Asian American have will

to study about Japanese or Eastern wisdom.

Model Minority

The model minority stereotype is a positive stereotype. Asian Americans

are proclaimed as a model minority for academic excellence, affluence, strong

work ethic, freedom from problems and crime, and family cohesion (as cited in

Zhang, 2010). In this case, Ryan breaks what people think about Japanese

American by portraying the opposite way of model minority. The most

characteristic in model minority is academically talented. In the beginning of

„How to Spot a Pothead,‟ he presents a warning with many spelling errors.

Figure 17

The warning sign with many spelling errors.

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Figure 18

The revised warning sign with less spelling errors.

The figures above are written in red fonts with black background

indicating that this warning is something to be noticed first by viewers. The red

fonts are contrasted with the black background, so that the viewers easily notice it

as warning and read it. The Figure 17 shows the spelling errors. It is stated

“WANRING. No druhgs wore uset in teh makin of tis vido. Except fore craak,

shroomz, herowin, peeseepee, snoh, blo, angol dust, kristill methanfetamines, and

not to mention SPELL CHECK.” The revised one as we can see in figure 18 is

shown only a second in the video. He corrected everything but still making

mistake by making the correct word „spell check‟ in the previous scene to be

„speel chack‟ in the revised one. The revised one stated “WARNING. No drugs

were used in the making of this video. except for crack, shrooms, heroine, PCP,

snow, blow, angel dust, Crystal Methamphetamines, and not to mention SPEEL

CHACK.” This scene shows that Ryan tries to challenge the stereotype of

academically talented that he cannot write a warning correctly. Even after he

revised it, he still makes a mistake with simple words. Although the aim of the

scene may be for comedy purpose, he shows us that not every Japanese American

is smart. A research about Asian American in Minnesota found that only 29% of

Asian American students are proficient in reading, only 19% are proficient in commit to user

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science, and only 41% are proficient in math (as cited in

reappropriate.co/2014/08/the-culture-canard-of-the-model-minority-myth-no-

racial-gaps-in-academics-arent-due-to-cultural-pathology/). Many are not able to

conform to this unrealistic expectation and in fact, have the highest high school

dropout rates in the country (Le, The Model Minority Image, 2015).

The other scene showing about the challenge of model minority stereotype

is that he is not free from crime. He can act illegally and break the rules. The

figure 19 below, taken from „How to Spot a Pothead,‟ shows that he is being

arrested by a blue uniformed man with „police‟ nametag in his arm. Ryan‟s facial

expression shows that he is shocked. It indicates that the police arrest him because

he smokes drugs outside of his house. This scene gives us different perspective

that Japanese American is not always abiding the law. Also from the concept

itself, we can see that even Japanese American has a chance to involve with drugs.

In mainstream media, as we often see in American movie, we rarely see this

scene. Usually Japanese American crimes in movies are gangster, gambling and

jewel robbery. Ryan does not present those crimes in this „how-to‟ series. He use

drug as Japanese crime and break the model minority stereotype. In 2014, among

people ages 12 and up, the rate of illegal drug use in the last month was 4.1%

among Asian Americans and 15.6% among Native Hawaiian or other Pacific

Islanders (as cited in www.samhsa.gov/specific-populations/racial-ethnic-

minority).

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Figure 19

Ryan is arrested by the police.

The concept video of „5 Steps to Be Badass‟ gives us impression that

Japanese American man is not always innocent, or nerd. Asians can sometime be

someone who is rough and always breaks the rules. The storyline of the video

begins with the story of Ryan being nerd and was casted out. He then tries to be a

cool man by leaving his nerdy style and becomes a badass. In the introduction of

the video as seen in the figure 20, he presents an old photo with retro effect

showing him dressing up in a suspender pants and round glasses. His smile

indicates that he is not that happy with his nerdy style and being casted out. He

says “For years I used to be that guy. That guy that people make fun of. For not

being cool enough. For not taking any chances.” The scene followed by another

old photo showing him being shunned by the society as we can see in the figure

21 below. Once again, his smile shows that he is not satisfied with the society.

The story continues with his effort to change himself from being a nerd to be

badass. He does a lot of thing to be badass and it is explained later in this section.

It shows that as a Japanese American, he wants to change his stereotype as a nerd

and even changes himself to be the badass as seen in figure 22. His portrayal in

this video challenges the media stereotype of Japanese American that Japanese

American is not always nerd like what the media represents. commit to user

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Figure 20

Ryan shows himself as nerd.

Figure 21

Ryan is being left out by the society.

Figure 22

Ryan changes himself to be badass.

In order to be badass, he has to do some works and it also breaks the

model minority stereotype. The stereotype stated that Japanese American is hard

worker. In this video, he shows that he is not a hard worker and always chooses

something simpler. In a scene, he gives example that to be badass; he had to be

able to break a brick with his hand. But instead of a brick, he changed it to tiny

wood, changed it again to a roundcommit cardboard to user and the last, he changed it into a

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piece of a paper, and end up tore the paper. In another scene, continuing to be

badass, he had to get workout, but instead of doing it, he prefers to watch people

get workout in television. These scenes do not meet people expectation that

Japanese are always hard working and prefer to choose the easy work.

In the last scene of this video, the last step to be badass is that “Badasses

never follow the rules.” The scene is about two young men who competed in

violating the rules. He presents a scene on figure 23 that he touches a big green

ball with „Do Not Touch‟ warning on it. He does not care the sign and just touch

the ball. The following scene as seen in figure 24 shows another Japanese

American man loitering under a „No Loitering‟ sign. The man in the video is

Ryan‟s partner since his first time started making videos, also a Japanese

American, and known as Sean Fujiyoshi. They represent that Japanese American

can break the rules and even competing in how they beat one and another. Figure

25 shows the scene of the explanation and the dialog transcribed below:

Sean (black t-shirt) : “Yeiyo. Now beat that.” Ryan (blue t-shirt) : “Now what more badass than touching the big green

ball?”

Sean : “You don’t even put your whole hand on it. So, yes it was.” Ryan : “Fine. Watch me, drink and drive then.”

Sean : “You are not even old enough to drive.” Ryan : “Yea. But my future self is.”

Figure 23

Ryan breaks the ‘do not touch’ sign. commit to user

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Figure 24

Sean breaks the ‘no loitering’ sign.

Figure 25

Ryan and Sean argue about who breaks the rule more.

Model minority might have right in a way. There are some Asian

American who success and having high socioeconomic level. But it is not all of

them. There are many Asian immigrants who cannot get a better job in America.

They are forced to work as janitors, waiters, busboys … (Le, The Model Minority

Image, 2015). It is supported by the research of Marlene Kim which states that

“racial bias appears to be a factor in patterns of unemployment and long-term

unemployment among Asian Americans. Compared with similar white workers,

many Asian American workers are having a harder time finding employment”

(Kim, 2012). She added that 48.7 percent of Asian Americans who were

unemployed were without work for more than half a year, compared with 48.5

percent for African Americans. Meanwhile, the rate stood at 42.7 percent for

whites and 39.3 percent for Latinos (Kim, 2012). It means that the model minority commit to user

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has been broken. Compared to other race, Asian American seems to have a hard

time finding a job and they have the longer duration of joblessness once they are

unemployed.

Asexual Man

The asexual man stereotype, like what Brian Cortes described that Asian

Americas is sexually unappealing and devoid of interest in women (Cortes, 2013,

p. 31). In „How to Get Girls,‟ there is a scene that show a girl asks Ryan to kiss

her. The girl in this video is white people. It shows that Ryan wants to break the

media stereotype of Asians as unappealing man. He shows that even he is a

Japanese American, a white woman still like him. The figure 26 below shows

when the girl asks him to kiss her. She points Ryan‟s lip and says, “Kiss me.”

Another scene in this video that also shows the girl had interest in Ryan is when

the girl asks him to take selfie with her. She says, “Oh. You’re so cute. Can I take

a picture with you?” Figure 27 shows the scene of it.

Figure 26

A girl asks Ryan to kiss her.

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Figure 27

A girl asks Ryan to take a selfie with her.

It indicates that Japanese American man is also preferable for white

woman as she takes the intention to have closer relationship first. There are a lot

of white women YouTubers who talk about their preference in Asian American

man. For example, Channah Sorensen in her video “Why I Prefer Asian Men”

said that “I think the number one thing that attracts me the most to Asian man are

the you guy’s eyes.” Jessica in her channel „jinsain1‟ posted a video titled “White

girls DO like Asian guys.” She said, “They (Asian man) usually has nice smile.

Their smile is really attractive. Let’s see, like guys like KevJumba and Ryan Higa

over under freaking adorable.”

Sex appeal mainly lies on someone‟s face. According to paleontologists,

the dimensions of the region between the mouth and the eyebrows are crucial in

determining how attractive a man's face appears to the opposite sex (Clout, 2007).

The male face is shaped during puberty. Facial features are also important in

sexual attractiveness (as cited in http://www.marykatebrogan.com/male-sex-

appeal-lies-in-face-shape/). Many white women see Asian men attractive by

looking at his eyes and smile. It shows that Asian men can be appealing to white

women and breaking the stereotype of asexual man.

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Nice Guys

Asian man is portrayed in media as nice guys. It shows that Asians are

gentle towards woman and really care to them. But, Ryan often acts the opposite

of the nice guy stereotype in his video. He shows that sometimes he can be very

rude to girls. In „How to Get Girls‟ he approaches a girl by saying “What’s up,

bitch” showing that he is confidence enough in getting the girl‟s heart. Another

rude dialog such as “Hey, you got so big feet” and “Wow. This is amazing. I

cannot ask for better situation. Do you think you would like to maybe... introduce

me to your friend?” make him end up getting slapped by the girl. Another

approach he uses in this video which is transcribed below also makes the girl

irritated with him. He says before the scene that girls do not like pick up line, so

he tries to make something new. It is different from the media portrayal. When the

stereotype makes Asian man as nice guys, Ryan break the stereotype by acting the

opposite way.

Ryan : “If I could rearrange the alphabet, I will put…” Girl : “What? U and I together?

Ryan : “No. I mean I would use those letters, but it will be, U R A… B I T C...

and… H”

In „How to Stay Positive‟ he replies a girl‟s problem with not so nice

respond. The dialog is transcribed like this:

Ryan : “What happened?” Girl 1 : “Somebody stole all her clothes from Laundromat.”

Girl 2 : “Like literally, a hundred dollars worth.” Ryan : “Hey, good for you.”

Girl 2 : “What?” Ryan : “That is a compliment. That means that you really have a good taste in fashion.”

Those examples are proofs that Ryan challenging the nice guy stereotype.

He does not have any sense to becommit nice to guy. user When he tried to be one, he gets

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slapped instead. It shows that Asians are not all nice. Ryan as Japanese American

shows that he can be rude sometime. He is not gentle towards woman. He even

cannot console a woman who has problem. There is a high percentage of domestic

abuse in Asian American society towards woman. 12.8% of Asian and Pacific

Islander women reported experiencing physical assault by an intimate partner at

least once during their lifetime (as cited in

www.americanbar.org/groups/domestic_violence/resources/statistics/Race_Ethnic

ity_Statistics.html). The reason why violence towards woman in Asian American

family has a high percentage perhaps because of its tradition and legacy of male

dominance and patriarchy (Le, Health and Wellness Among Asians, 2015).

Although not every man does violence toward woman in the Asian family and

even though some men are subject to various forms of violence in society, they

can be virulent and horrible depending on the situation and their class position

(Warrier).

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