Daily News Record - 11/8/07

Cartoonist Aims To Push Asian-Americans Into Mainstream
Toyoshima Wants To Break Stereotypes
By Kelly Jasper

HARRISONBURG — Humor, says cartoonist Tak Toyoshima, is universal. “If you make someone laugh, you’re halfway there.”

Why, then, Toyoshima asked, can’t a comic strip be a tool? A means to address universal issues like racial stereotypes or cultural differences? Toyoshima asked that question while speaking to a crowd of more than 50 at James Madison University Wednesday night.

He’s the creator of the comic strip “Secret Asian Man,” which aims to do just that, all while drawing a laugh or two.

The star of this strip? Osamu “SAM” Takahashi, a second-generation Japanese-American.

He, like his creator, is a cartoonist living in a city amid all walks of life. He’s a married father of one, and a member of an Asian-American cultural club.

SAM, or “Secret Asian Man,” as Toyoshima nicknamed the character, is loosely based on his own life. Yet, in the comic, our protagonist is also painted as a struggling artist. Toyoshima isn’t; not anymore.

This summer, his strip became the first nationally syndicated comic to feature an Asian-American lead character. The strip is distributed weekly by United Feature Syndicate, which has a circulation of more than a quarter million readers.

Toyoshima came to Harrisonburg this week to speak during Asian Culture Week, a five-day celebration sponsored by JMU’s Asian Student Union.

His comic was first published in 1998 in a Boston arts magazine. Toyoshima lives in the city today with his wife and son. He’s also the art director for Boston’s Weekly Dig.

Like SAM, Toyoshima says he’s a member of a “frequently marginalized group.” Daily life presents unresolved issues of race, gender and orientation — a whole “cultural minefield” that Toyoshima hopes he and his character navigate with optimism and wit.

“We all belong to groups,” he said during a presentation and question-and-answer session nearly two hours long. “Marginalization is a universal feeling.”

The mainstream, he says, portrays a narrow, stereotypical view of Asians, if they’re portrayed at all.

History classes, too, are often culturally narrow, Toyoshima says. He asked the audience what they learned about Asians in class.

“Internment camps,” the first answered. Others followed: “Pearl Harbor. Communism. Vietnam.”

It’s an incomplete picture, Toyoshima says. He encouraged students to talk, learn and teach others to break down ignorance and stereotypes.

“I try not to preach. I try not to tell you how to feel. … But I am going to ask questions.”

He turned to the Asians in the audience to specifically ask, “Are you happy with the way things are in the mainstream?”

Toyoshima isn’t. “It’s about getting faces out there.”

But then again, he says, “If you think too much about your agenda, it’s going to get in your way.”

He is, after all, a cartoonist. He can’t help but go for the joke.

“Britney Spears is mainstream. Will we ever have an Asian-American Britney Spears? Do we even want an Asian-American Britney Spears?”

Contact Kelly Jasper at 574-6273 or kjasper@dnronline.com.