Kristof... Ugh...Nobody remembers his NYTimes writings in the 1990's? Nobody here remembers the old, wild, days of SCAA?It's old stuff.He was a New York Times East Asia correspondent.His articles were awful, stereotypical, and aberrantly bad journalism, bordering on the fetishistic. He made wild, off the cuff generalizations about Japan, Korea, China, etc... even though he didn't even know the language.He reminds me of that budweiser commercial, that angryasianman blogged about:['Speaking of commercials, I've been hearing from numerous folks about this Bud Light commercial that takes place in a Japanese restaurant. Basically, the waitress asks a white dude if he wants the "Nagafuki Surprise." The guy claims that he's been to Japan (does a karate chop), so you can't surprise him. When the dish comes out, it's this gross octopus roll that jumps out and attaches itself to his face. And everybody at the restaurant yells, "Surprise!" Wasn't down the foreign exotic Asian thing, but can't say I didn't like seeing the cocky guy getting "surprised."']Hilarious.It's shocking that he's returned to the Times as a columnist. I wonder how that happened. I'll admit his Darfur stuff was good. But given his past history, his motivations are suspect. Maybe he needed to find an issue to make a name for himself.Good effect, but he does still have a past history of being an ignorant, fetishistic journalist with a solipsistic point of view, when he was trawling East Asia. The Times was indeed really culturally, racially chauvinistic towards Asia back then (until their racist Wen Ho Lee witch hunt debacle).

Dear Harry:Taking on Nicholas Kristof and throwing around the "model minority" epithet, in this case, may muddle what could potentially lead to a meaningful dialog on the various issues that Kristof raised in this column: Cultural stereotypes, using/pitting Asians against other ethnic minority groups and, of course, the notion of model minority itself, etc. (Readers and commenters MUST read the column first, I urge!)To begin with, Kristof's "Asian-ness" is almost unassailable, better than most Asians I know. He's married to Sheryl WuDunn, a fellow NY Times’ reporter, with whom he shares the aforementioned Pulitzer for their China’s Tiananmen Square uprising reporting, the prize’s historic first for a husband-wife team. Wu-Dunn, ahem, is Manhattan’s Upper West Side 3rd generation Chinese American. They have lived in Asia and speak both Mandarin Chinese and Japanese. And they are raising two “Asian” kids.I do not agree with everything he has written and reported, but his international reporting, as with the Times’, is better than most in the field. Is there a bias? Of course! Does he need to make a name for himself at this point? Don’t be silly.This column, The Model Students, is not even that very good, one of Kristof’s fluffier pieces. It rehashes (Am in agreement with you here, Harry.) the many things that we, the ever overly-sensitive segment of the Asian American population whose anti-Asian radar is on 24/7, have reacted to, pounced on, pontificated and protested against.http://fbihopopeds.blogspot.com/2006/05/nicholas-d-kristof-model-students.htmlFirst paragraph of the column:"Why are Asian-Americans so good at school? Or, to put it another way, why is Xuan-Trang Ho so perfect? Trang came to the United States in 1994 as an 11-year-old Vietnamese girl who spoke no English. Her parents, neither having more than a high school education, settled in Nebraska and found jobs as manual laborers.”And ends with:If I'm right, the success of Asian-Americans is mostly about culture, and there's no way to transplant a culture…”There is one thing I certainly have beef with Kristof is right there in that last sentence, “culture.” Frantz Fanon, who is often seen as the voice of Black Nationalism even though he was born into a household of mixed African slaves, white and Tamil, as in Tamil Nadu, Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka or Tamilakam, on the Caribbean island Martinique, a former French Colony. Fanon advanced the Cultural Racism theory back in the 60s, which seems to more aptly apply to what Asian Americans in the US are faced with. The gist of it is that in place of race, as in skin color and the Black-White context, cultural differences, real and perceived, are emphasized. More on this in a later piece/comment.As for the subject in his piece, Xuan-Trang Ho, other than her academic achievements, has gone on to study and has written about globalization and Latin American trade and economic policies. Nothing stereotypical about that!However, what seems to be missing is the consensus among Asian Americans, especially among members of the above-mentioned segment of the population, of what constitutes a “model minority” and whether this is ALL bad. Short of anything beyond cultural stereotypes, the many characteristics prescribed seem to fit a good number of us. Look at ourselves in the mirror. Are we part of the problem or the solution? Or both?Thanks for bringing this up, Harry.

I am glad to see some star Asian American Students? Why not?However, there are some claims from the article of Kristof I don't agree with.I think "ambition" is nothing new in this society, especially in America. So, why do you say that Asians excell in school is a result of Confucian culture, rather than the American dream?Confucian culture does respect the scholars. But, is this something unique to Confucian culture??? Doesn't the western culture encourage schoarly achievement?The secret of sucess for the Asian scholars, are not so different from other races'. Eistein says "Pure genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Is Eistein a confucian?

From my memory of what I've read, the most salient examples of Kristof's myopic view of asians concern his Japan coverage around 10 years ago at the NY Times.Here is an example from what I've dug up:New York Times (Sunday, Feb 11, 1996):"Who Needs Love! In Japan, Many Couples Don't"By Nicholas D Kristoff."Yuri Uemura Sat on a straw tatami mat of her living room and chattedcheerfully about her 40 year marriage to a man whom, she mused, shenever particularly liked.'There was never any love between me and my husband,' she saidblithely, recalling how he used to beat her. 'But, well, wesurvived.'A 72-year-old midwife, her face as weathered as an old baseball andetched with a thousand seams, Mrs Uemura said that her husband hadnever told her that he liked her, never complimented her on a meal,never told her 'thank you,' never held her hand, never given her apresent, never shown her affection in any way. He never calls her byher name, but summons her the equivalent of a grunt or a 'hey you.''Even with animals, the males cooperate to bring the females somefood,' Mrs. Uemura said sadly, noting the contrast to her ownmarriage. 'When I see that, it brings tears to my eyes."In short the Uemuras have a marriage that is as durable as it isunhappy, one couple's tribute to the Japanese sanctity of family......"I think, as I remember it, he goes on to describe this tribute to the Japanese family as also involving wife beating.Alot of his Japan articles were as warped as this.

Oh no. Commenter Sonny Le vouches for Nicholas Kristoff's "asian-ness" by mentioning that his wife is Asian-American and that he has "Asian" kids. Isn't that the "I have Black friends so I can't be racist" excuse?