Nate Imai took on the job of producing a concert that aims to defy and redefine the current perception of Japanese Americans and the Asian American community as a whole.
Set to take place in the heart of Little Tokyo, the REMIX concert aims to unite youth of Asian heritage.
Imai, a fourth-generation Japanese American, came to UCLA from Massachusetts, where he was raised without a strong connection to his Japanese culture. Soon after he set foot on campus, Imai became involved with the Nikkei Student Union at UCLA, a group which promotes Japanese culture and community involvement.
One of Imai’s major goals is to take students to Little Tokyo and give the students and community leaders time to meet face to face and create a dialogue.
This connection with the current generation of Japanese Americans and older generations becomes important as values change over time.
“The first generation of Japanese Americans, our great-grandparents, dealt with the issue of coming to a new culture and language. Our grandparents dealt with World War II internment. The third generation, our parents, fought for retribution for our grandparents’ internment,” Imai said.
He said the fourth generation of Japanese Americans has yet to face a true issue of its own. However, not knowing about their ancestry will only help the deterioration of these Japanese Americans’ identities.
Imai got the job of producing the fifth annual concert through the Japanese Cultural and Community Center’s internship, which was founded to get young people involved in the community.
The four-hour concert features one hour of traditional cultural performances, while the rest showcases young talent in the Japanese and Asian American communities. The concert aims to highlight up-and-coming young Asian American talent to challenge typical stereotypes in entertainment.
“This concert focuses on people breaking through. If you get numbers, you cannot be ignored. There is energy in L.A. and at UCLA for Asian American identity,” Imai said.
While planning the concert, Imai and others had to research and find upcoming artists.
“I was completely blown away by the talent,” Imai said.
The REMIX concert will feature a myriad of performers. Many groups are composed of UCLA students and alumni ““ all of whom said they are supportive of the event.
Support from the event also comes from local sponsors. Admission is free to the REMIX concert, and various prizes will be auctioned off, including airline tickets.
Promotion for REMIX concert was done through what Imai considers “guerilla tactics” ““ that is, through word of mouth, YouTube videos, blogs and promotion through MySpace and Facebook.
Little Tokyo, often seen as a critical center for the Japanese American community, has seen more businesses arrive that have no ties to the community, which has caused some concern.
“The Little Tokyo Community Council calls meetings to create a dialogue with local businesses,” said Craig Ishii, Regional Director of the Japanese American Citizens’ League of the Pacific Southwest District. “It’s important to get businesses invested in the community to sponsor events and be good community members.”
The concert mission statement asserts the new voice of the younger generation.
“The mission of the Next Generation REMIX concert is to establish the young Asian Pacific Islander voice within California,” reads the mission statement of the Next Generation REMIX concert.
The concert’s directors said they hope to have the concert serve as a bridge to help tie the community together.
“We have the support from the community, and we can make this more than a concert. We’ll still have a kicking show. Our message is about artists, youth and community and gaining exposure across culture and giving credit to Asian American performers,” Imai said.
Imai speaks of the embrace of Japanese identity but as expressed in contemporary methods, like hip-hop. The concert will physically bring the youth of the Asian American communities together, but it aims to bring Asian American youth together by abandoning the antiquated stereotypes of Asians in American society ““ the Asian goofy nerd and the passive Asian male.
“It’s about understanding one’s self,” Imai said. “Being the “˜token Asian’ is hard to deal with. … Japanese Americans come from all different backgrounds. Exploration of traditions and relating to other Asian Americans because they faced similar challenges, like racism, keep in mind the different layers of the Asian American identity,” Imai said.
The emergence of other similar events aimed at helping to tie the Asian Americans to their roots hints at a larger movement that is soon to come.
It’s one step toward achieving Imai’s goals. When Imai goes home, he plans on continuing the work he started at UCLA.
“I plan to stay involved with the networks I’ve created here when I go back to the East Coast and take what I’ve learned here and create a stronger Asian American community there,” Imai said.