I think it’s really interesting that kids nowadays grow up with common cultures, no matter where they live.
It was pretty surprising to me when I talked to my American friends and found out most of them grew up watching Dragonball Z, Pokemon, Naruto, Sailormoon, and all these other cartoon animations that I grew up with too.
I guess in a way it’s not that surprising, since all the Asian kids have grown up with American cartoons too, like all the Disney movies, Tom & Jerry and the Powder Puff Girls.

The most popular cartoon in my 2-year-old neice’s generation in Korea is Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine, and I’ve heard it’s pretty much the same here too.

More Asian-themed animations are also gaining popularity, as seen in this summer’s Kung Fu Panda, produced by DreamWorks Animation. The Production designer Raymond Zibach and art director Tang Heng spent years researching Chinese painting, sculpture and architecture to help create an authentic feel to the film, and I think they did a pretty good job.

It’s awesome to think that cartoons can create a common background within people all over the world and help them understand each other better.

Harajuku Lovers is singer Gwen Stefani’s brand of apparel, fashion accessories, and stationery launched in 2005. The concept for Harajuku Lovers revolves around the Shibuya, Tokyo area of Harajuku and the four “Harajuku Girls,” Gwen Stefani’s Japanese back-up dancers and entourage (Love, Angel, Music, and Baby).

Unlike Stefani’s other fashion line, L.A.M.B., launched in 2004, which aimed for a more mainstream demographic; Harajuku Lovers instead tends to focus specifically on ‘Kawaiiness’ made famous by the streets of Harajuku in Japan. Kawaii depictions of Stefani and her dancers are common features of the products as is the kanji 原宿 (Harajuku) logo.

I was thrilled when Harajuku Lovers first came out. Gwen Stefani totally succeeded in capturing the Harajuku style, which was big all over Asia, especially in the late 90s. All the school girls grew up trying to mimic the Harajuku style of Tokyo. It’s interesting how that caught on so late in the U.S.

I especially love their watches.

Since then, Harajuku Lovers has become a major brand carried in most high-end urban clothing stores, and is worn by stars such as Teri Hatcher, Nicole Kidman, Ciara and more.

sushi

According to an estimate made by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries,
in 2004 there were approximately:
100 Japanese restaurants in the Middle East
500 in Russia
500~1000 in Oceania
1,500 in South America
2,000 in Europe
and 10,000 in North America.

Japanese Restaurants in the World

Just in America alone, there were 9,000 Japanese restaurants, showing a 205% increase over the last 10 years. Currently, the increase rate of Japanese restaurants is 8.5% per annuum.

Sushi became more popular as America started being more health-conscious. Sushi uses simple, healthy ingredients-seafood, seaweed (nori), rice, and vegetables-carefully seasoned and arranged to satisfy all the senses. Sushi is a perfect food not only for calorie counters, but also for those following more specific nutritional guidelines.

I remember when I was little and my mom made me sushi rolls to take for lunch. All the kids wanted to know what I was eating, and as I explained it was rice rolled up in seaweed, everybody said, “ewwwww!!!” Bt now you’re treated like a caveman if you don’t know how to enjoy a little sushi.

Of course I have to start with Speed Racer, since it’s DVD has been released 3 days ago,
and is a total tribute to the Asian culture.

Speed Racer was originally a Japanese manga and anime, Mach GoGoGo which centered on car racing, and was popular in Japan during the late 1960s.

Mach GoGoGo

The adapted English version renamed it “Speed Racer” and was popular in the U.S. throughout the 1980s and 1990s.
The Wachowski brothers adapted it to film and released it this summer.
One visually interesting aspect was how they used crazy bright colors and computer graphics and mixed in elements of the comics into the scenes. It was very experimental and inspired by Japanese TV game shows which uses those kinds of wild color schemes and uses graphics to make real life scenes look like scenes from a game or a comic.

However, the biggest element that drew excitement from us Asians, is that the movie featured a couple of actors that were actually really popular Korean singer/actors that are also big all around Asia.

The first one is Rain, a solo artist who is huge all over Asia. He won the 2004 MTV Asian Grand Slam, securing top honors in all the Asian countries that broadcast MTV Asia. He has sold millions of records and in April 2006, was named as one of the “100 Most Influential People Who Shape Our World” by Time magazine. He also made it into People’s 2007 list of the “Most Beautiful People” in the world.
Below is a video of him at his 2005 Rainy Day Concert.

When it was first rumored that he was actually going to be appearing in a Hollywood film, everybody thought he was only going to be in it for like, one scene as a total extra.
But his character, Taejo Togokahn, actually plays one of the main roles in the movie, as he first gains Speed’s trust and then emerges as a villain as it turns out that he had planned to use Speed for business issues from the very beginning.

Rain

Another one is Joon Park who played the ‘yakuza driver.’

Joon Park

He used to be the leader of the now disbanded group called G.O.D. (Groove Over Dose), which was quite successful, being one of the few groups to have an album become a “million seller” in K-pop.

G.O.D.

The group disbanded in 2006, and since then, many people have been wondering what he was up to, since all the other members went on with solo careers, and Joon just went over to the U.S. and lived quietly. Everybody was really excited to see him as an actor on Speed Racer.

Speed Racer, sadly, did not get good reviews, but at least it was fun for us to see one of ours in Hollywood. Since Rain is going to star in Ninja Assassin, another movie by the Wachowski brothers, and Joon is going to be in the film version of Dragon Ball as Yamcha, hopefully we’ll see a lot more of them in the future!