the wanksta. i have a theory about why james is the way he is. the reason is because he's the rare one point five generasian who never had to go through the dorky fob clothes days. or suffer through the indignity of having to wear huge glasses -- this means he has good genetics ladies, ahem cough cough hint hint. see, young james the hepcat was generally cool and did stuff like skateboarding and art, very non-traditional dorkasian things to do. young james didn't play video games, wasn't buried in the library, wasn't stuck at home with curfew, got to dress himself, had a social life, didn't have overly strict parents and generally avoided things that might put him into contact with dorky asians. some history for perspective.



james wang the first immigrated to the united states from china at the age of six. james and his family settled into houston for three years while his father got his masters at the university . so far so good, very normal, but it gets interesting. in 1987, the wangs moved to laramie, wyoming -- yes, that laramie. it was here that james deviated from his destiny as dork king. he got into art and skateboarding and petty theft. in super white wyoming, he wasn't exposed to the dorkdom that was other recent immigrants. instead, he played on the wide open ranges and tore up the state with his little middle school ponytail (james will not authorize posting of his ponytail pictures, should we start a petition?). with eagle eyed vision and skater street cred, james was already too cool for school. cue 1992 and his move to san diego. thrust into an ethnically diverse environment, james didn't automatically cling to the asian cliques. he hung out with the skater kids and the art kids, who were pretty cool and far removed from the social black hole that was the alamo of the dorkasian.



see, my thing is that most asian kids have to go through a dork period. glasses, strict parents, terrible clothes, bad english, social ineptness, everything contributes to ultimate dorkdom. so what does that mean as dorkasians progress through life? well, they either grow out of it or they don't. but regardless of if they do or not, they are always well aware of what is cool or not cool. in trying to assimilate to a foreign culture, dorkasians (and dorks of all ethnicities) have to try to figure out what people think of them and how they can get others to think of them differently, if that's what they want. they possess a need or awareness of being accepted and "in." or at least observing what "in" is.



james doesn't really possess this trait. james has marched to the beat of a different drum -- or should i say gong -- for all his life. he's like the anti-asian. as least as far as this fundamental asian american-ness is concerned. sure he had the strict musical upbringing common to our generation (his mom is a piano teacher and james was chained to the piano since the age of five). sure he's got his culture and his semi-traditional upbringing (but no chinese school since he didn't need it), but james is in some ways distinctly not asian american -- in regards to his lack of social insecurity. and my theory is because he was never a dork at any point in his life. except i mean, maybe now. he got seriously into video games and xbox in his twenties, so he's like retroactively dorky-fying himself. if only we could make him like board games and then somehow mess up his vision so he'll need two inch thick glasses. then he would know what it feels like to be a dork. for now he'll just have to be satisfied with his big......camera.



ps. just because james was not a dorkasian does not mean that he is automatically not a cockasian. take that any way you like. hi james!