Why Man Asked Girlfriend to 'Pretend to Be Japanese' For Reunion with High School Friends
A Chinese woman has taken to the internet for advice after her boyfriend wanted her to "pretend to be Japanese" to meet his high school friends -- specifically his male friends.
The OP (a.k.a "original poster") shared her story to Reddit's AITA ("Am I the A--hole") forum, asking the internet whether or not she's in the wrong for refusing to fake being an ethnicity of which she is not to "impress" her boyfriend's friends at an event.
Redditors weighed in, before the woman later revealed the reason behind her boyfriend's bizarre request, and where they stand now.
Read on to see what went down and how Redditors reacted.
Chinese Woman's BF Wants Her to 'Pretend to Be Japanese' to 'Impress' Friends
In her original post, the woman asked the question: "AITA for telling my boyfriend I wouldn't pretend to be Japanese to impress his old high school friends?"
"I (23f) am a Chinese woman living in America. My boyfriend (23m) is American and white. I am somewhat aware of a weird thing for Asian women some white American guys have," OP wrote. "But most of my boyfriend's exes are African-American so I thought I was in the clear."
"He's going to attend a event that includes many friends from high school," he added. "He told me he wants his friends to think I'm Japanese. He said I don't have to outright say it, I can just do something subtle to give them that impression."
According to the woman, one of her boyfriend's exes, who is African-American, will be at the event, but OP's boyfriend "promises" that his ex being there "has nothing to do with him wanting people to think I'm Japanese."
"He said it's for his male friends," OP clarified. "Even though it's people he rarely sees so this maybe a one time thing, I told him I wouldn't pretend to be Japanese."
"Unless it's required, I avoid telling people I'm Chinese," she explained. "I feel people put much stock into where people are born and I want people to get to know me for me."
Despite her declining her boyfriend's request, OP said her boyfriend "still wants" her to go with him to the event, but noted that "he seems like he's dreading it."
"Am I the a--hole ?" she then asked.
Reddit Weighs In, Slams OP's 'Creep' of a BF
Redditors appeared to unanimously label the woman as NTA, a.k.a. "not the a--hole," and didn't hesitate to rally behind OP, while also accusing her boyfriend of having a "fetish."
"NTA and it's really weird that he wants you to lie to show off his 'Japanese' girlfriend like a trophy," a user wrote.
Another commenter suggested the boyfriend fetishizes Japanese culture, saying he was "dreading" going to the event because he probably "already told them you're Japanese."
"NTA boyfriend and his friends have a weird ass fetish," another wrote in a popular comment, to which OP replied, "Maybe I'm naive. I definitely don't think I understand how kinks and fetishes work."
"I was hoping [because] most of his exes are African-American, that would mean he doesn't have a weird obsession for Asian women," she added, before asking how "many" of his friends he grew up with possibly have the "same fetish."
"I am not defending him, I just don't know how this works," OP clarified.
After a Redditor suggested that the boyfriend may "have a fetish for 'Exotic' women for which any woman not white could fit," the woman said that the commenter's "theory fits the most."
"Maybe my boyfriend have an obsession for non-white women but wants to impress someone who specifically like Japanese women," OP said.
Meanwhile, another user -- who also said OP was NTA -- asked, "Why the heck are you dating this creep nta."
"A part of me was hoping people would say I'm overreacting," she said.
Another commenter asked OP if she was "looking for a reason to stay with that weirdo??"
"You're not the a--hole for not pretending to be something you're not," the user assured. "It's good to have self respect but….your boyfriend sounds like a piece of work and he'll do more microagressions against you if you let him get away with it. PICK BETTER!"
The woman replied, "I was, but this is a problem I can't ignore. My boyfriend has issues."
OP Gives an Update
The next day, the woman gave an update in a new post, sharing that she had a conversation with her boyfriend, who explained the apparent reason why he asked her to "pretend to be Japanese."
"A tiny update as the conversation I had with my boyfriend was less than 2 hours long," OP said. "He promises that he doesn't care that I'm Chinese instead of Japanese. He admitted he's physically attracted to women who aren't white."
"He promises that his old high school friends doesn't have anti-Chinese sentiments. He admitted it was a stupid competitive thing between him and his friends," she continued. "He said his friends will be [impressed] that I'm Chinese but one of his other friends has a South Korean girlfriend. In their weird ranking, even though Chinese is ranked high, South Korean is ranked higher. For them, the only thing that ranks higher than South Korean is Japanese."
OP then dropped a bomb, telling Redditors, "I broke up with him. I told him and his friends need to have more respect for women."
Commenters praised OP for her decision.
"Good for you. That sounds like an insanely stupid thing for him to worry about," a user wrote.
"The very idea that he and his friends RANK the desirability of female partners according to their cultural / ethnic origin is deeply, deeply s--ty behaviour," another said. "You did the right thing to break up with him. Absolutely appalling behaviour!"
"You did great standing up for yourself. You're not some piece of meat for a competition," another person chimed in.
What do you think?
Solve the daily Crossword

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


USA Today
23 minutes ago
- USA Today
'Happy Gilmore 2' is absolutely wonderful
The legacy sequel has transformed itself into one of the ugliest reanimations in modern Hollywood, the crass puppetry of a once-beloved corpse dancing to the same song-and-dance that made it so cherished in the first place. Shame-soaked nostalgia dollars flutter about like ugly butterflies in a trash garden, destined to put on the same "dead dog and dead pony" show for fearful audiences afraid of any ounce of originality until the unforgiving entertainment machine runs out of caskets to mine and the whole movie world falls off a cliff. And then there's Happy Gilmore 2. Leave it to Adam Sandler, perhaps the most beloved American entertainer this side of Mickey Mouse and Tom Hanks, to putt the golf ball through the most byzantine mini-golf fun house from Hell and nail the shot to keep himself under par. Happy Gilmore 2 is just baked with too much love to reek of what dooms its colleagues. In one way, you could view Happy Gilmore 2 as a triumph of affable stupidity, a sequel so awash in the hallmark Sandler rage-man physical comedy that it manages to feel fresh... if only because Hollywood has practically abandoned the genre entirely for "comedic" superhero movies that smirk at the screen as if any insinuation of comedy at all is some sort of naughty cooke jar-snatching that big daddy corporation didn't see while reading the newspaper... the kind that would make even Wade Wilson blush. Last summer's Deadpool and Wolverine actually owned its identity of being a straight-up comedy as opposed to something dreadful like Thor: Love and Thunder (shutters in Zeus), but even then, it was still a Deadpool and Wolverine movie. Marvel putting out the biggest comedy of the decade so far just feels wrong, even if the movie was indeed funny. Yes, a Happy Gilmore Netflix movie in 2025 replete with countless cameos from golf professionals, Sandler regulars, podcast hosts and sportscasters plays to the broadest audience possible. The humor is wack-a-mole wide, the callbacks to the original so plentiful and obvious that you can almost count this as a double-bill on Letterboxd with just one sit on the couch. However, everything feels hand-stitched, as if an entire community of people who love Happy got together and crafted a big quilt to wrap themselves in nearly 30 years later. The warmth radiates from the screen. Unlike a big-budget Hollywood legacy blockbuster where nostalgia cuts the checks and the corporate "reverence" for what came before feels AI-generated to appeal to the most shameless part of our brains' art-processors, Happy Gilmore 2 feels pleasantly overstuffed out of adoration. Sure, most of the film is flatly ridiculous, the lowest-hanging fruit basket being passed around for everyone to take one and pass it down. Characters punch and choke each other out of sheer glee; another drinks hand sanitizer to get a buzz. One man on a beach thinks he's watching a Happy Gilmore golf match on television, but in reality, it's just a rock in a makeshift box. One character goes to the bathroom in a mailbox. Like all of Sandler's movies, the cheap joke is the best joke, and the school cafeteria belly laughter is real and wonderful. Think about the star for a moment and where he is now. After years and years of pushing it away, Sandler's recent forays into auteurism have fulfilled the tantalizing promise of Punch-Drunk Love and Funny People. Even in his screwiest of comedies, he showed off the volcanic range and crestfallen heart of a truly generational actor. Uncut Gems in particular felt like an answered prayer. Watching the Sandman getting sandbagged down with heartless 2010s Netflix comedies made you question if he had finally just settled. The grand pleasure is that Happy Gilmore 2 shows that even a new Sandler Netflix comedy can make you scream-laugh to the point of waking up your dog and bothering your neighbors. By plowing shamelessly into the original film beat-for-beat but still awakening something oddly profound on the passage of time with how so many of the 1996 film's actors have departed from this golf course for the other, Happy Gilmore 2 plays as both a Happy Madison fan convention smorgasbord and a group hug for the past, present and future. Happy Gilmore 2 also arrives like a godsend in a world where studio comedies have fallen to the wayside. Consider that modern comedy has mainly shifted into other genres and into the indie space, where witty banter and situational ironies tend to rule the day. They're incredibly funny, but the other side of the spectrum, the kind that studios used to pump out in the summer with the Sandlers of the world for mass appeal, have nearly gone extinct. Perhaps that makes a big, doofy Happy Gilmore sequel all the more commendable with its themes of mourning the people we've lost and saving the traditions we care about while we have them. The film's villain is a tech-bro who wants to turn golf into a glitzy rizz-fest with color-run fireworks and brash stunts to appeal to the TikTokers and Twitch streamers who don't have time for the love of the game. As much as you absolutely cannot read any supremely deep text in a movie where a honey-drenched Travis Kelce gets attacked by a bear in Bad Bunny's "happy place" dream, you feel the Sandler-dad wisdom trying to slap around the young'uns a bit to appreciate the old ways and cherish the familial bonds that keep them aflame. Happy Gilmore 2 is the funniest movie of the year so far by default, if only because no other movies really try to go for laugh-a-minute comedy like this any longer. The new Naked Gun movie will surely challenge it, but why can't the audiences of today get their own Happy Gilmores and Frank Drebins to cherish anew? It's an unfortunate irony that the surest bet at getting a major comedy project off the ground in 2025 is to dust off an old character and put a new shine on them to appeal to nostalgic business sense. No, Happy Gilmore 2 can't stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its predecessor because that's outright impossible. However, it can bundle in the laughter in equal measure and mess around so much with the very nature of a legacy sequel that some of its most shameless callbacks feel inspired, almost a parody of its serious brethren. Yes, there is infinitely more integrity with Chubbs Peterson having a son who works at a mini-golf course who also has a fake hand than whatever the Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hook was with Shea Whigham being Jon Voight's kid out of nowhere. Those two movies mirror each other. Tom Cruise's sacrifice-for-the-movies adrenaline and Christopher McQuarrie's James Cameron/Brian De Palma-tinged set-piece excellence go blow-for-blow with Sandler's ageless comedic timing and immaculate facial expressions and his and co-writer Tim Herlihy's masterful ability to mine nonstop gags out of the most ludicrous visuals. Watching Cruise's underwater submarine ballet in the latest Mission: Impossible is incredible; watching golfer John Daly try to drink booze out of an antique cuckoo clock is, too. Where Happy Gilmore 2 succeeds and the latest Mission: Impossible fails all has to do with the approach. The latter is bound to sincerity in its most cringey throwbacks because it's downright, well, impossible to wink a bit at the audience at how silly this all is. A Sandler comedy has the freedom to have its nostalgia cake and throw it across the room to instigate a food fight. During a scene at a graveyard, headstones of characters long gone from the original start popping up in spades. A few of those would have induced eye-rolls; a bunch of those, even of the most random side characters, makes for great meta-humor. Comedies give you the ability to check yourself a bit, as the wedgie-giving ombudsman comes in to readily acknowledge a lot of this is looney tunes. A streak of sadness dyes the current, as the reason Happy falls off the golfing map is the kind of shock revelation a Happy Madison production probably doesn't aim for 10 years ago. The world kept spinning while Gilmore was swatting golf balls with a hockey goon's might, and it wasn't always kind to our favorite golfer like we might have hoped. Dad-Sandler has always been the most sentimental version of himself, and his kids aging right in front of his eyes and starting to leave the nest seems to weigh on him and his renewed take on Gilmore. This and Wes Anderson's excellent The Phoenician Scheme both dive into similar subject matter with equal gusto, of a father reckoning with his children and his place in providing for them. There's a world-weariness to Happy this time around in the way Sandler carries him that both compels the film's most jarring narrative choice and grounds some of the film's far, far sillier antics. That approach gives Sandler's performance added gravitas and the entire film around him a paternal watchfulness that would've played as unearned earlier in his filmography. There is no doubting Sandler's commitment to the project as you might could have in the past; he's all in, and so is everyone around him. The older Sandler has gotten, the more his traveling-theater approach to making movies has taken on new meaning. Even in his biggest comedic misfires, the community Sandler keeps with him on his Happy Madison projects has always endeared. He takes care of his own, and that love shows through here more so than in any other project he's ever worked on. The rampant cameos would be gratuitous if the people staffing them didn't seem so genuinely thrilled to be there. Christopher McDonald's Shooter McGavin getting dragged back into the fold would feel forced if McDonald didn't treat the role like it was the true opportunity of a lifetime. There's no way in heck Verne Lundquist wears that blazer in the film's third act if he's not tickled to be back in this world. Heck, all of the brand-name golfers in the cast seem to relish the chance to act with Sandler and actually buy into the material. Do you know how much of a comedic achievement it is that three of the funniest people in this movie are Daly, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris? Daly plays with the kind of comedic fire that we sometimes praise to the extent of pushing them into awards talk; he's really that inspired with his fearlessness to be as zany as possible. Sure, Happy Gilmore 2 is still a legacy sequel at its core, replete with brand endorsements and adorned with Super Bowl-commercial rascality. However, it's the rare legacy sequel that feels purposeful and human-driven. The film reaches for real profundity, as much as you can find in a Happy Madison movie. It's a movie with a good soul, as affably crude and dingy as Sandler's landmark works and operating with the same level of zeal. Does all of it work as well as it could? Nah. Does every joke land? Probably not. Is it messy? Most certainly; all of Sandler's comedies have been to a degree. However, it's still so much better than so many other films like it. The world is a better place when Sandler is making comedies like this. Hubie Halloween felt like a nice change of pace, and Happy Gilmore 2 feels like the grand return to that high-wire fire hydrant style of Sandler funny business. It's painfully fully and surprisingly wistful for its place in time. We need Sandler to keep tapping into his dramatic potential; it's why his decision to work with Noah Baumbach again on Jay Kelly is so encouraging. However, we also need Sandler firmly planting his feet in the comedic worlds where he's the smartest idiot in the room with a heart of gold, and we all love him for it. Watching Sandler succeed with everyone cheering him on as those signature Happy Gilmore needle drops hit might make you just a wee bit misty... and not because it's an uncaring algorithm programming "Nostalgic Feelz" for the most basic audience possible. When it's earned and it's real, there's nothing like going back to your happy place with the people you love.
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Actors Who You Forgot Are Singers Too
In the golden days of American cinema, actors were expected to be masters of their crafts — catch that? Not craft, but crafts. If they harbored dreams of seeing their name in lights, then they had better be prepared to act, dance, and sing for their supper. Nowadays, things have definitely changed, and we don't expect our actors to be delivering Grammy-winning performances or our singers to be dipping their toes in the dramatic — which makes it all the more impressive when they do. From Scarlett Johansson to Robert Downey Jr., we'd forgotten these stars had singing talent to match their acting skills, and it's a blast from the past to revisit their musical stylings. There are plenty of working actors today, famous and not-yet-so-famous, who call themselves multi-hyphenates — Lady Gaga has proudly crossed over from singing into acting with her lead role in A Star Is Born, and recent rumblings indicate Selena Gomez is hoping to make a similar transition. Stars like Emily Blunt or Nicole Kidman, on the other hand, seemed perfectly happy to hide their singing talents away for their long, successful acting careers before dazzling us with a final act reveal. It's fun to discover new talents in celebrities we're already excited about watching, and we guarantee you'll want to check out these music careers you forgot existed. Read on for all the actors whose singing skills you may have overlooked. A version of this article was originally published in February 2021. More from SheKnows John Legend, Reese Witherspoon, & More Stars Whose Kids Don't Like Their Parent's Singing Best of SheKnows All About Conor Kennedy, RFK Jr.'s Private Son Who Was Once Linked to Taylor Swift 16 Times the Celebrity Death Rule of Threes Actually Happened The Best Photos of Sharon & Ozzy Osbourne's Kids Growing Up Over the Years Margaret Qualley Margaret Qualley: she can dance, she can act, and yes, she can sing. With the help of her music producer husband Jack Antanoff, QUalley released music in July 2025 under the alter ego of Lace Manhattan. She released the songs 'ODDWADD' and 'In the Sun She Lies,' both of which will be in Ethan Coen's upcoming film Honey Don't! Angelina Jolie Did you know that Angelina Jolie will be singing opera for her role in Maria? This'll be the start of her singing career, and we can't wait. Kristen Wiig For co-writing 'Harper and Will Go West' with Sean Douglas, Kristen Wiig is earning Oscar buzz for being a songwriter, and singer now. Along with that, she's written numerous songs on Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar, some of which she sang. Keke Palmer Keke Palmer has shown off her vocal chops in a few movies over the years including her work in Joyful Noise and Grease! Live but fans might still be surprised to know she's released a few albums too. Her first was in 2007 titled So Uncool and it charted at number 85 on the Billboard R&B charts, per NBC. Over the years, she's continued to release new music, including her two EPs in 2020 titled Virgo Tendencies, Pt. 1 and Virgo Tendencies, Pt 2. Most recently, Palmer announced her new girl group, Diva Gurl, alongside three other singers. 'Pre-Save our 1st single #SOB today!' Palmer wrote on Instagram. 'Prepare to be slayed on June 21st #DivaGurl.' Tiffany Haddish Tiffany Haddish surprised her followers this week when she announced her new single, 'Woman Up.' 'Really, it's an all-the-way-around song because everybody has their dual sides,' Haddish told Entertainment Tonight. 'I'm like an onion; sometimes you catch me out in public and put a camera in my face, I'm like, 'La da.' Sometimes you put a camera in my face and catch me outside [and] I'll be like, 'Listen, I'm not in the mood right now.' There's different levels to it.' Haddish has also released a few singles over the years, including 2023's 'Till The Club Close' and 'Too Much' in 2020. Kate Hudson Kate Hudson first dabbled in music in her 2021 appearance in musical-movie Music, which was written by Sia. The actress, who is perhaps best known for her Oscar-nominated performance in Almost Famous or her iconic rom-com hit How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, officially stepped into music in 2024 with two singles, Talk About Love and Live Forever. Shortly after, on May 18, she released her first-ever album, Glorious. Zendaya Acting, dancing, singing, being a fashion icon; we don't think there's anything Zendaya can't do. Most recently, the Emmy-winning actress made everyone gasp as she surprised fans with a performance of 'All for Us' and 'I'm Tired' with Labrinth at Coachella. She can really do it all! Lily James Lily James, who already showed off her singing chops in Cinderella and Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, just released a new single for her upcoming movie What's Love Got To Do With It? 'It was an absolute pleasure working in the studio with both [composer] Nitin [Sawhney] and Naughty Boy,' James told Daily Mail. 'Music plays a huge part in the film, and I'm thrilled to contribute to this amazing single alongside some incredible artists.' Could this be the start of a new career direction for James? Jeremy Renner Marvel's very own Hawkeye can do much more than throw arrows, he can sing too! In addition to a few singles, Jeremy Renner's first EP The Medicine dropped in March 2020. Hailee Steinfeld At just 14 years old, we knew Hailee Steinfeld was the real deal when she was nominated for an Oscar for her role in True Grit. Since then, Steinfeld's proved she can do much more than acting and that she's an incredible singer too! In addition to some hit singles like 'Let Me Go,' 'Love Myself' and most recently 'Coast,' she also released her EP, Half Written Story, in 2020. Hugh Laurie After learning how talented Hugh Laurie is, you'll be left wondering why House never had a musical episode. Laurie has released two blues albums over the years: Let Them Talk and Didn't It Rain. Robert Pattinson Following his stint in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Robert Pattinson was sure he was going to head into the music business. 'I really thought I was gonna do music at that point,' he shared with GQ in 2022. 'I don't know where I had the, kind of, belief in that because there was absolutely no one saying that there's a music career on the table. But I was doing a lot of gigs, constantly doing open mics all the time. And then…I ran out of money, basically.' Fortunately, Pattinson was cast in the Twilight films, for which he got to show off some of his music talents with two songs on the movie's soundtrack. Jared Leto Jared Leto rose to fame on the '90s teen drama My So-Called Life. But once the series wrapped, he and his brother, Shannon, formed the group Thirty Seconds to Mars. The band has put out albums since the early 2000s, all while Leto's been building his impressive acting career, winning an Oscar for his role in Dallas Buyers Club along the way. One of the band's most famous songs is their 2009 single 'Kings and Queens.' Emmy Rossum Long before she was Fiona Gallagher on Shameless, Emmy Rossum was training at Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus. Once her acting career took off, Rossum was still able to put her singing skills to use with her role as Christine Daaé in the 2004 film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera. Three years later, she released her first album, followed by another in 2013. Emily Blunt Oppenheimer's Emily Blunt has captivated us with her work in period pieces, modern romances, and adventure films — but where she really shined the brightest is when she sang in the cinematic adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods as the Baker's Wife and as the titular character of our collective youth, Mary Poppins, in Mary Poppins Returns. Eddie Murphy One of, if not the, most successful comedic actor of our time, Eddie Murphy has a repertoire filled with modern day classics. The man who brought us Coming to America, Beverly Hills Cop (I, II, and III), 48 Hours (I and II), Boomerang, the Shrek trilogy, iconic stand-up specials that set the bar for what comedy could be, and years on SNL, can also sing. He's released five (music) albums starting in 1985 with single 'Party All the Time' which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. It's still very much a non-guilty pleasure. Robert Downey Jr. Oscar-winning Oppenheimer star Robert Downey Jr. released an album of eight original compositions and two covers back in 2004. We're partial to the opening track, 'Man Like Me.' Kristen Bell Kristen Bell is really known for her voice (her acting voice, that is), and for good reason. She voiced the hidden narrator on Gossip Girl, she's acted in TV hits like The Good Place and Veronica Mars, and in films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall…but back to that whole voice thing. She's also the voice of Anna from Frozen and Frozen 2, the mega-popular film series that finally brought her singing chops to light. Nicole Kidman This Australian megastar is such a talent that it's really not all that surprising that she can also sing. I mean, we challenge you to name a film or TV mini-series she's been a part of where you weren't blown away by her performance. Go ahead. We'll wait. In her HBO monster hit The Undoing, she sang the theme song, a haunting cover of The Mama and The Papa's 'Dream A Little Dream of Me.' David Hasselhoff No list of actors who sing would be worth its weight in salt without the inclusion of The Hoff. Yes, he's a legend because of The Young and the Restless, Knight Rider, and Baywatch, but with his 1988 single 'Looking for Freedom' he reached new heights of fame, particularly in Germany, with a song so big he performed it live at the Berlin Wall on New Year's Eve in 1989. Rita Wilson Surely you know Rita Wilson as an actor from films such as Sleepless in Seattle, It's Complicated, and Volunteers, or as a one of the producers of the highest grossing independent film of all time, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. She's also a singer-songwriter who's released four country-tinged albums starting with 2012's covers project AM/FM which includes a lovely version of Glen Campbell's 'Wichita Lineman.' Scarlett Johansson She's won a Tony (in 2010 for her performance in the revival of A View From the Bridge), is a bonafide superhero (thanks to her role as Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe), and has been appearing in critically acclaimed films since she was 12 years old. But did you know she also has two albums? Yup. Her solo LP Anywhere I Lay My Head (an album of Tom Waits covers) came out in 2008 and the following year she and Pete Yorn released their collaborative collection Break Up which is 100% worth checking out. Zooey Deschanel You probably know Zooey Deschanel from her Globe-nominated performance as Jess in the TV hit New Girl and in films such as 500 Days of Summer, Almost Famous and Failure to Launch. But, in addition to acting, Zooey is one half of indie pop band She & Him (She's the She, M. Ward is Him). They've released six albums in total – three original, one of covers, and two for Christmas (A Very She & Him Christmas and Christmas Party). Zoë Kravitz It was inevitable that Zoë Kravitz would become not just a star but a multi-hyphenate by virtue of her parentage (Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz) but she has proven herself to be a formidable actress with commendable performances on TV in Big Little Lies and High Fidelity and in films like the Divergent series. She's also the frontwoman of R&B electropop duo Lolawolf, named for her younger half siblings (awww), Lola and Wolf, who have released two albums, including 2020's Tenderness. Donald Glover From writing on TV for 30 Rock to starring in Community and Atlanta to films such as Magic Mike XXL and a little-known series called Star Wars where he portrayed a young Lando Calrissien, Donald Glover has proven to be a serious talent. He records under the pseudonym Childish Gambino and has released six albums to date. 'This Is America,' his Grammy Award-winning single and music video, is a poignant critique of gun violence and racism in the U.S. that debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts. Jada Pinkett Smith She's been acting in TV and film for 30 years (Menace to Society, Set It Off, the Madagascar films) and is most recently known for hosting The Red Table Talk on Facebook Watch with her mom and daughter. But did you know she's also the lead singer in a nu metal band? Yup. Jada's band Wicked Wisdom has been around since 2002 and has toured with Britney Spears and Ozzy Osborne. Know anyone else that can say that? William Shatner To one generation, he will always be Captain Kirk. To another, he's Denny Crane of Boston Legal. And yet to another, he's the Priceline spokesman. He is all of these things, but he is also a man who has released what might be the strangest set of spoken word albums ever, starting in 1968 and continuing to his latest album, Blues, which was released in 2021. Included in his catalog are covers of U2's 'In A Little While' with Lyle Lovett, Robert Johnson's classic 'Sweet Home Chicago' with Brad Paisley, and the unforgettable opening to his 2004 William Shatner Has Been LP which opened with Pulp's 'Common People.' Solve the daily Crossword


Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
A professor's hunt for the rarest Chinese typewriter
It went into a suitcase and he took it back to California, where it joined a growing collection of Asian-language typing devices he'd hunted down. But there was one typewriter that Mullaney had little hope of ever finding: the MingKwai. Made by an eccentric Chinese linguist turned inventor living in Manhattan, the machine had mechanics that were a precursor to the systems almost everyone now uses to type in Chinese. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Only one -- the prototype -- was ever made. Advertisement 'It was the one machine,' he said recently, 'which despite all my cold-calling, all my stalking, was absolutely, 100 percent, definitely gone.' Mullaney's mania for clunky text appliances began in 2007, when he was preparing a talk on the disappearance of Chinese characters and found himself contemplating the disintegration of everything. Among the vast number of characters in the Chinese language -- around 100,000, by some estimates -- there are hundreds that no one alive knows how to pronounce. They are written down, plain as day, in old books, but their sounds, even their meanings, have been lost. Advertisement Sitting in his office, wondering at how something seemingly immortalized in print could be forgotten, Mullaney went down a mental rabbit hole. It would have been physically impossible to build a typing machine to include all the characters that were historically written out by hand, he thought. Some characters must have made the cut, while others were left behind. He sat back in his chair and asked himself: Could he recall ever having seen a Chinese typewriter? Two hours later, he was lying on the floor of his office, looking at patent documents for such devices. There had been, over the last century and a half, dozens of different Chinese typewriters made. Each one was an inventor's take on how to incorporate thousands of characters into a machine without making it unusable -- a physical manifestation of their ideas about language. Never plentiful, the typewriters were now increasingly rare, gone the way of most obsolete technology. Mullaney was fascinated. That evening turned into months of research, which turned into years of searching, as Chinese typewriters became one of his areas of historical expertise. He cold-called strangers and left voicemail messages for private collectors, people whom he suspected, from faint traces left on the internet, of having typewriters. He pored over looking for the next of kin of the last known owner of a particular machine. He called museums and asked, 'Do you, by any chance, have a Chinese typewriter?' Sometimes, they said yes. A private museum in Delaware happened to have a surviving IBM Chinese typewriter, of which only two or three were ever made. Someone at a Chinese Christian church in San Francisco got in touch with him to say they owned a typewriter that they were trying to get rid of. Mullaney took it off their hands. Advertisement The MingKwai is legendary among the handful of people who know about Chinese typewriters. It was invented by Lin Yutang, a Chinese linguist and public intellectual who had begun to worry in the 1930s that without some way to convert ink-brush characters into easily reproduced text, China would be left behind technologically -- perhaps destroyed at the hands of foreign powers. Attempts to create typing machines usually stumbled over the problem of cramming a galaxy of characters into a single machine. Lin's solution was an ingenious system housed in what looked like a large Western typewriter. But when you tapped the keys, something remarkable happened. Any two keystrokes, representing pieces of characters, moved gears within the machine. In a central window, which Lin called the Magic Eye, up to eight different characters containing those pieces then appeared, and the typist could select the right one. Lin had made it possible to type tens of thousands of characters using 72 keys. It was almost as if, Mullaney said, Lin had invented a keyboard with a single key capable of typing the entire Roman alphabet. He named his machine MingKwai, which roughly translates to 'clear and fast.' Lin, who was then living with his wife and children on Manhattan's Upper East Side, hired a New York machinist firm to make a prototype, at enormous cost to himself. He presented that prototype in a demonstration to executives from Remington, the typewriter manufacturer. Advertisement It was a failure. The machine malfunctioned at a crucial moment. Lin went bankrupt and the prototype was sold to Mergenthaler Linotype, a printing company in Brooklyn. And that, as far as Mullaney had been able to find out, was the machine's last known location. When Mergenthaler Linotype moved offices sometime in the 1950s, the machine disappeared. In his 2017 book, 'The Chinese Typewriter,' Mullaney wrote that he believed the MingKwai had most likely ended up on a scrap heap. This past January, Jennifer and Nelson Felix were in their home in Massapequa, N.Y., going through boxes that had been in storage since Felix's father died in Arizona five years before. They were looking at a wooden crate sitting among the cardboard boxes. 'What's this?' Jennifer Felix asked her husband. He'd had a peek in the crate back in Arizona. Oh, he said, it's that typewriter. She opened it, and realized it was not a typical typewriter. The symbols on the keys looked like Chinese. Nelson Felix, who often sold and bought items on Facebook, quickly found a group called 'What's My Typewriter Worth?' and posted some photos. Then they set it aside and moved on to other things. An hour later, Nelson Felix checked on his post. There were hundreds of comments, many written in Chinese. People kept tagging someone named Tom. The couple looked at each other. 'Who's Tom?' Mullaney was in Chicago to give a talk when his phone started going off -- ping, ping, ping. The small community of people he'd encountered in his long quest were sending up digital flares, urgently trying to get his attention. As soon as he saw the post, he knew exactly what he was looking at. It was the MingKwai. Advertisement But he didn't rejoice. He didn't sigh with relief. He was gripped with fear. What if they didn't know what they had and sold it before he could get to it? Someone could buy it with a click on eBay. They could make it into a coffee table. Take it apart and make steampunk earrings. It would be gone, just like that. He posted a comment on Facebook, asking the poster to contact him right away. After a few frantic hours, he got a reply, and the next day he and the Felixes were on the phone. He told them the MingKwai's story. He said that while it was up to them what they did with it, he hoped they would consider selling it to a museum. He was afraid that if it were sold at auction, it would disappear, a trophy hidden in the vacation home of an oil tycoon. Jennifer Felix was bewildered by what was happening. It was just a typewriter in a basement. But Mullaney had made an impression. 'It was lost for half a century,' she said. 'We didn't want it to get lost again.' 'To me it's just a typewriter,' she continued. 'But to other people it's history; it's a story, a life, a treasure.' Instructions and a box of tools were used to cast more Chinese character bars for the MingKwai 9 typewriter. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/NYT Mullaney figured out that Jennifer Felix's grandfather, Douglas Arthur Jung, had been a machinist at Mergenthaler Linotype. It's likely that when the company moved offices, he took the machine home. Then it was passed down to Felix's father, who, for more than a decade, had kept the MingKwai with him. 'That's what my dad decided to keep and bring across the country when they moved,' Felix said. Advertisement Keys on the MingKwai 9 typewriter. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/NYT Why, of all he had inherited from his own father, did he hang on to this typewriter? She doesn't know. But she feels it must have been a conscious choice: The MingKwai would not have been packed by accident. It weighs more than 50 pounds. In April, the couple made their decision. They sold the machine for an undisclosed amount to the Stanford University Libraries, which acquired it with the help of a private donor. This spring, the MingKwai made its way back across the country. When it was lifted out of the crate onto the floor at a Stanford warehouse, Mullaney lay down to look at it. The history professor could see that it was full of intricate machinery, far more delicate than any other typewriter he'd seen, and he began to imagine how engineers might help him understand it -- perhaps revealing what was going on in Lin's mind in 1947 when he invented a machine he thought could rescue China. Perhaps they could even build a new one. Lying on his stomach, Mullaney began to wonder. The MingKwai 9 typewriter. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/NYT This article originally appeared in