Flatland
- Episode aired Oct 2, 2012
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1.11 Flatland by Lauren Yee: Amusing piece on cultural identity
Flatland is a rather amusing little piece as it focuses on culture and cultural identity within America but does so in a way that is quite funny in how it does it. We join a classroom where a student is speaking to an unseen class because it is Pacific Asian Person month or something like this, and he is presenting on his culture to the class. From the outset though it is pretty clear that he himself is not overly different from the many other hip-hop inspired youth and his connection to his cultural is something that he knows is probably important but yet at the same time he doesn't really seem to know why it is.
I found this quite funny but also quite honest because it did ring true that the young man is full of the slang and bravado of his peers, but at the same time feels the pressure to somehow be something different and exotic even though really he is now just the same as everyone else even though some aspect of his family comes from somewhere else. As a topic it is interesting because it speaks to the nature of integration while also feeling like there should be more than what is happening right now – but it is America, and history and the past is not really something that is part of its makeup. Wu delivers this very convincingly and with good timing to show his character pulling back now and again, making the most of the uncertainty in the words and character.
I found this quite funny but also quite honest because it did ring true that the young man is full of the slang and bravado of his peers, but at the same time feels the pressure to somehow be something different and exotic even though really he is now just the same as everyone else even though some aspect of his family comes from somewhere else. As a topic it is interesting because it speaks to the nature of integration while also feeling like there should be more than what is happening right now – but it is America, and history and the past is not really something that is part of its makeup. Wu delivers this very convincingly and with good timing to show his character pulling back now and again, making the most of the uncertainty in the words and character.
- bob the moo
- Oct 4, 2014
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