Welcome to the first post in my blog: Kevin’s Map of the Universe. It feels quite anti-climactic, sitting alone in my room as I tap away on my keyboard. Because actually, tonight is the eve of a new era for me (kind of like in the movies minus the uplifting score with snowflakes and unicorns and people braiding each other’s hair…). Tomorrow, I begin hopefully the most exciting 7 months of my life.
7:30am, I’ll be starting my 4-week stint with the Trauma service. It’s my elective, which will give me some interesting stories to talk about. People never cease to find new ways to do/say/insert/penetrate inappropriate things at crucial moments. Then I’m off to Norway, on exchange for a semester studying Womens’ health. Now I’m at that stage of frantically learning Norwegian, and it’s funny - I still draw blank when it comes to asking for a loaf of bread, yet I’m well versed in saying: “Are you pregnant?” or “Have you had significant vaginal bleeding?” You know...as you do.
Anyway, so yesterday my friend and I went to watch the release of the new Movie-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named (Cast includes KStewart, RPattz, Taylor Lautner Taylor Lautner’s abs). So during the part where they screen all the trailers before the actual movie begins, I see the trailer for Tomorrow When the War Began. It’s a famous novel by John Marsden, but what caught my attention was this Asian guy who plays a significant role in the movie.
Let’s face it. Asian males are so underwhelmingly represented in mainstream media, especially in Australia. I can’t even think of one TV show/Movie/News Report where the lead role/host/newsreader is an Asian male. Any trivial role that we play is invariably the Joker/Goofball/Emasculated-douchebag, which is ridiculous. Damn, they even got a white guy to play Goku in Dragonball Z. Like, wtf right? So what’s even more surprising is this Asian male starts making out with the lead chick. I wonder if John Marsden actually scripted that in his novel, or perhaps, are times really changing?
I don’t know. Anyway, I should probably go read up on how to clear a C-spine now. Or what to do when a bone is sticking out through skin. Trauma-related stuff. So far it’s been pretty much about chronic conditions in medicine. Hopefully now I get to see the gory side.
Maybe when you're a doctor you should be an authenticity consultant to medical tv shows... ensuring medical accuracy AND appropriate balance of ethnicities :)
ReplyDeleteI (embarrassingly) did read John Marsden in grade 7 when TWTWW was actually cool back then... and yes, there was always an asian guy called Lee. The reason the book was oh so cool was due to one assumed "sex" scene where the main character describes Lee's ...parts. Just thought I'd share that profoundly meaningful piece of information.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it was in the novel. (Surprised you never read it in high school - they were BIG in the nineties.) IIRC he was a Thai/Vietnamese cross (and kept getting annoyed with people who called him Chinese.) He was the main love interest on and off throughout the series, with several really hot sex scenes.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, books are usually way better than TV or movies on a racial front. A lot of book writers actually make an effort towards racial diversity, whereas TV and movies just have some kind of lowest-common-denominator thing going on. Probably because there are more people involved in filming. It probably always works out to the person with the most backward social mores getting listened to.