Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 10

this week,the last week of this blog, i made a comment on one of the blogs

http://lapiecebypiece.blogspot.com/2012/11/week-5-sawtelle.html



I really enjoy reading your blog post. You demonstrated sawtelle area very detail. I actually live in here (Olympic and sawtelle blvd) so this is the area that I am very familiar with. As you mentioned, Los Angeles is a city that has multiple centers. Sawtelle is an area where we can see mostly Asian (Japanese American) people. Two plazas mainly create the central of this area, which contains lots of Japanese restaurants. Compare to little Tokyo where I just went few weeks ago, sawtelle is younger and smaller than little Tokyo. There is no historical architecture. Furthermore, I agree that a city has multiple center makes people more used to stay in a city because everywhere is different, no matter food, scenery, culture , etc. everyone can find a place to feel comfortable with.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 9

This week, I am going to combine Little Tokyo in downtown LA with one of the article that I read in Los Angeles Times, “Japanese and Koreans learn to live together in harmony in L.A.'s Little Tokyo”.

I went to downtown LA to meet my friend, Amy. We decided to go to Little Tokyo to have dinner. Little Tokyo is located in downtown Los Angeles. It is a major cultural, historic center for Japanese American. The history of little Tokyo can date back to the 1880s. Little Tokyo has Japanese American National Museum where shows the history of little Tokyo. There are also numerous Japanese restaurants that cater people who love Japanese cuisine. Such as ramen, sushi, shabu-shabu, Japanese curry, etc. we chose one of the famous restaurants in little Tokyo—DAIKOKUYA Ramen. I have been to this place couple times, this place is so popular that you have to wait literally at least one hour to have a seat. Since we were waiting for our seats, we walked around Little Tokyo and got some groceries in the Japanese market. After we got our seats (1.5 hours), my friend and I both ordered the most popular dish in DAIKOKUYA-- Daikokuya Ramen. The noodles were cooked to the perfect texture and the broth was rich, creamy and earthy. The pork was tender and savory. The ramen tastes so good that it worth the wait!!

the view of little tokyo

DAIKOKUYA Ramen(everyone is waiting..)

so declicious! yum yum

After I came back from little Tokyo, I read an article in LA Times, “Japanese and Koreans learn to live together in harmony in L.A.'s Little Tokyo”, which is talking about the conflict between Japanese and Korean. In the contents, the Japanese complained that, "They smell of garlic." "They don't follow the rules." "They are going to take over." On the other hand, the Koreans, "The Japanese are snooty." "They don't greet you in the elevator." "They disdain Korean culture." "They're trying to push us out." Those comments are stereotypes between Korean and Japanese people. More and more Korean related stores are moving to little Tokyo; for example, Korean restaurants and Korean markets. It leads to more and more Koreans extend their living area, from Korean town to little Tokyo. Due to more and more facilities in Koreantown are overcrowded and Koreans feel more comfortable in an Asian environment than a white or a Latino one.  However, due to the historical factors, Japanese and Korean do not welcome each other. There is an example that fully conveys the conflict between Japan and Korea. Kim, as a Korean in japan, he always felt isolated; however, when he returned to South Korea for military service at 23, hoping to find a full sense of belonging, he said he was derided as a "half-Jap," beaten up and verbally abused every day in the army. 

In class, we have learned that we can define race into two different approaches: biological approach and cultural approach. In this case, both Korean and Japanese are Asians. So in a biological approach, we can say that Korean and Japanese are the same race. However, in a cultural approach, which saying that race is a cultural symbol. In this approach, they are a different race. As the professor mentioned in the lecture, “cultural signifier”, like hairstyle, make up, gesture, etc. these are some of the example that can explain people from Korea and Japan are different.  From the article, it is easy to see that even they are all Asians, these two groups of people could not live with each other happily before the policy changed, and it is interesting that this happened in downtown Los Angels little Tokyo.  Nowadays, people are trying to live peacefully with different cultures and races. In this case, understanding the difference and compensating each other are ways to learn to live together in harmony in L.A.'s Little Tokyo. 

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 8

I went to Koreatown for this week’s blog post with my friend. Koreatown is in the mid-wilshire area of Los Angeles. It has one of the highest population densities of all neighborhoods in LA. Koreatown is known for its concentration of Korean American people. According to the site simplymaps.com, we can see that the Asian population in 2012. In the map, 50%-90% of Asian communities are live in the East Los Angeles area, which consists of koreatown, Alhambra, montrery park, etc.

Koreatown always has delicious Korean food so I was really excited about the restaurant that she was going to bring me to. We went to a restaurant called “chunju han-il kwan”. When my friend and I got into the restaurant; I instantly realized that everyone in here is Korean. Everyone is speaking in Korean. When the waitress gave us the menu, I had no idea which food should I order because the whole menu is written in Korean! Even I tried to ask the waitress, she seemed like she doesn’t understand what I was talking about. She spoke English barely so my friend and me ended up choosing the dish that most people ordered. The food was amazing!!! The food just made my day and I think that’s the reason why this place is always so crowded and its all Korean.

When I did the research in simplymaps.com, it is very surprised that below 20% of people who live in koreatown speak English. And the restaurant I went indeed demonstrates what the statistic shoes in this map. I took a walk around this area and found out that all the stores names are written in Korean and the majority populations in this area are Korean and Latino.

Furthermore, speaking of koreatown, I have always heard that this area has the most crime rates compare to other Los Angeles area. While I was walking along the streets, I can see a lot of homeless people walking and the streets were not clean. There are trashes on the streets and a lot of obsoleted buildings. What surprising me the most is that when I looked up the murder index in simplymaps.com, koreatown has the highest murder index. I think koreatown can also called as “the ghetto” because the ghetto area always has higher crime rate compare to other areas that is not ghetto. Furthermore, I have a friend who lives in koreatown told me that she seldom goes out at night time even she has a car, also the rent of her apartment is relatively lower.

Blogging Social Difference in L.A.: Week 7

This week, I drove my friend to LAX. I took Sepulveda blvd all the way down instead of taking 405 because the traffic is always bad. I didn’t want to risk it and made her miss the flight. After I dropped her, I took the same way back to my place. However, when I was on my way back, I decided to stop by Westfield Clover City shopping mall (It is also called fox hill mall.)and shop with another friend who went to the airport with me. Westfield Clover City just like other Westfield shopping malls, it is a really fancy mall where you can shop almost everything you need, target, bestbuy, h&m, forever21, etc. me and my friend had a good time shopping in the mall. After a while, we are tired of walking and want to grab something to eat to keep the shopping mood. We decided to eat at BJ’s restaurant after shopping. We both ordered pizzas to treat our stomachs. After we have done eating, we kept shopping for a while and drove back home.

After spending the whole day staying at clover city area, it is easy to realize that most of the people who live in this area are black people. From my observations, it seems like there’s a line, which starts from Sepulveda and Venice blvd to differentiate the race. When I was taking Sepulveda blvd all the way down to LAX, the closer to the airport, the environment of living standard is getting worse and worse. And I could see more and more black people in this area. Especially when I was in the shopping mall with my friend, most of the people who shopped in the mall are black people and my friend she also told me that there is a college called ICDC College that most of the students there are black. The whole scenes made me think that why most of the people in this area are black. According to “The Blackwell City Reader”, in chapter 19 “ The continuing causes of Segregation”, the author mentioned that since 1970s, black peoples’ incomes kept rising; however, the segregation wouldn’t have declined. “…because white prejudice and discrimination have persisted in a variety of forms, both overt and subtle, skin color remains a powerful basis of stratification in the united states.”(178) Truly, in America, the skin color is still the major reason that caused segregation. For example, people who have jobs with higher wages are mostly white people, and those people are also more powerful in the society. However, the attitude in black people makes me to this this issue in a different perspective. “If most black people prefer to live in neighborhoods that are largely black, the high level of racial segregation may correspond to black desires for self-segregation and not discriminate or prejudice.”(180) Indeed, if black people fell more comfortable to live in the area where most of the black people live in, it is the self-segregation that makes the whole society become more and more segregated.  Overall, I think those two reasons are main reasons why segregation is still an issue. Although racial discrimination is no longer obviously showing in the society, the skin color is always a big issue that we have to seriously concern about.