Have You Seen SAY BOK GWAI 死白鬼
The identity of Asian American had always interested me after moving to San Francisco. In New York where I lived before, cultural merging was certainly also appearant but some how it didn’t strike me as much. Perhaps it’s because one, the city size of San Francisco highlights this urban issue more intensely; second it’s the frequent presence of older generation of Asian migrants and young Asian American descendents. Old migrants and their young descendents play major roles in this city scape and the two generation contrast vividly in their culture and ideological value.
But last week, Say Bok Gwai 死白鬼, a San Francisco based Chinese American heavy Punk Rock band gave me another perspective of the Asian American identity. I went to their show on Thursday in Red Devil Lounge, as part of the Asian American Music Showcase. Two members of the band are Alex Yeung and Andre Custodio. Alex often sings in Cantonese even in front of mostly American audience, with lyrics on racism and Chinese American identity. This is lyric from one of their song, which you can find on their myspace page:
Chinese Racism
Discrimination like it was in the past
Not only white demons not only black demons
Chinese racist toward Chinese