Yamaguchi what more do you need than pride

#YAMAGUCHI WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED THAN PRIDE HOW TO#
#YAMAGUCHI WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED THAN PRIDE TV#

In the weeks following her triumph, I became increasingly aware of a wish IвЂ™d long harbored: to be seen - not as a bookish outcast or a sidekick-in-the-making, but as someone with power and potential of her own. The night I watched Yamaguchi win Olympic gold was one of the happiest of my young life.

On the contrary, I was glad the article fawned over her looks as well as her talent, because it was the first time I had ever been encouraged to think of an Asian-American woman as beautiful. I didnвЂ™t know I ought to bristle at the unnecessary catalog of the skatersвЂ™ physical attributes.

Unsure what Yamaguchi herself thought about her potentially historic role, he concludes that her heritage might just turn out to be her secret weapon: вЂњCertainly, deep within her, she is still Japanese - some of her must be - and if she should win itвЂ™s because, while the others have the triple axel, only she has the best of both worlds.вЂќ Or, if they do, they wonвЂ™t let us knowвЂќ). ItвЂ™s the chrysanthemum and the sword - on the ice together, worlds apart.Д¬omparing the two rivalsвЂ™ looks, body types and styles on the ice, Deford calls it a вЂњkickerвЂќ that Yamaguchi, while вЂњtotally of Japanese descent,вЂќ exemplified вЂњthe stylish Western ideal that the stout little Midori is so envious of.вЂќ He mentions the Yamaguchi siblingsвЂ™ вЂњhopelessly AmericanвЂќ interests and seems almost surprised that their parents chose not to open up about the time their families spent in World War II internment camps (вЂњNone of them want to dwell on it anymore. The twist is, though, that if the powerful Ito is Midori, of Nagoya, the delicate Yamaguchi is Kristi, from the Bay Area, fourth-generation American. He battle for the gold and all the lucre it earns sets up a duel between two young women named Yamaguchi and Ito, whose bloodlines both stretch back, pure and simple, to the same soft, cherry-blossom days on the one bold little island of Honshu. Frank Deford describes the rivalry between Yamaguchi and Midori Ito of Japan: That magazine cover occupied a place of honor on my bedroom wall for years.

#YAMAGUCHI WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED THAN PRIDE HOW TO#

Maybe I hadnвЂ™t yet figured out how to be both Asian and American, but Yamaguchi, AmericaвЂ™s Olympic sweetheart, seemed to have found her place. When I saw Kristi Yamaguchi beaming from the cover of NewsweekвЂ™s 1992 Olympics preview issue, I took it as an encouraging sign. In those years there was no one I could turn to in my confusion, no one who could answer my questions: Where, exactly, did I fit in? Did my adoption mean I was supposed to try to aspire to a whiteness beyond my reach? When other people looked at me, what did they see - an Asian girl, or an American? Yet claims of вЂњcolorblindnessвЂќ and melting-pot platitudes did not stop people from complimenting my English or asking where my parents had gotten me, nor did they prevent my classmates from pulling back their eyes and teaching me slurs I was usually too humiliated to report to anyone. Throughout my childhood, well-meaning adults told me that my race and my heritage werenвЂ™t supposed to matter. In my school, where even white girls with brown hair seemed to envy the blondes, I didnвЂ™t just feel invisible I felt like a mistake. I was an adopted Korean girl growing up in one of the many towns in Oregon that is not Portland, which meant that everyone who cared about me, everyone I saw around the neighborhood, everyone I met in my day-to-day life was white. Kristi Yamaguchi came along right when I needed her, filling a need I had long felt but didnвЂ™t understand. It was recognition - all the more powerful because that feeling was often in such short supply. What many Asian-American kids felt when we watched her and, later, Michelle Kwan in the limelight was more than appreciation, more than fandom. But if youвЂ™re an Asian-American woman of a certain age, chances are Yamaguchi might also have been one of the first Asian-American women you saw being publicly celebrated. IвЂ™m far from the only kid who fell hard for Kristi Yamaguchi, world and olympic champion, in the early 1990s. ThereвЂ™s an Asian girl on television, and everyone is cheering for her.

#YAMAGUCHI WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED THAN PRIDE TV#

I was flipping through the handful of channels our TV could pick up with its rabbit-ear antenna when I glimpsed her waving from the tallest podium at the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, dazzling in rhinestone-studded hot magenta, with her high hair-sprayed bangs and million-watt smile. The first time I saw her she wasnвЂ™t even skating.

Yamaguchi what more do you need than pride