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For years, street and organized racing catered almost exclusively to white males who drove American-made V-8 automobiles, and Asian Americans who drove import cars were excluded from mainstream car races. This scene changed in July 1990 when 500 Asian American street racers and import car enthusiasts drove their Hondas, Nissans, and Acuras to the Los Angeles County Raceway for an event called Battle of the Imports. This day marked the first organized presence of import car racing in southern Cali- fornia, the capital of automobiles and the breeding ground for car cultures. Frank Choi, the founder of Battle of the Imports, invited everyone he knew and asked them to spread the word, and in the end, drew an impressive crowd. Today, the import scene is so popular that Battle of the Imports attracts more than 20,000 people and is televised on ESPN2.

Import racing is an emerging youth cultural form reconstructed by Asian Americans as a proactive response to cultural exclusion. Distinct from cruising and hot rodding of the 1950s and 1960s, Chicano low riding, or Anglo muscle car traditions, import racing is much more than racing; it also entails customizing or modifying import subcompact vehicles and combining this with a youthful lifestyle. Participants “fix up” their Asian subcompacts and transform them into lighter, faster, louder, and visually fancier cars. The cars, however, are not only reserved for racing but are used in everyday life, reflecting the “show” aspect of the import car culture.

Since its debut in the early 1990s, import racing has soared in popu- larity in California, spreading as far south as San Diego and as far north as the San Francisco Bay area. Another regularly held event, Hot Import

CHAPTER 10 Reinventing the Wheel:

Import Car Racing in Southern California

Victoria Namkung

Asian American Youth : Culture, Identity and Ethnicity, edited by Jennifer Lee, and Min Zhou, Routledge, 2004. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usflibrary-ebooks/detail.action?docID=182869. Created from usflibrary-ebooks on 2019-01-09 09:40:41.

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Daze/Nights, boasts more than 15,000 attendees.1 Asian Americans comprise between 50 and 60 percent of the crowd, based on estimates among import car industry workers and magazines such as Auto Week. However, personal years of observation suggest that these estimates are conservative at best.

The growing import racing scene has unquestionably changed the auto- motive industry and altered the dynamics of the vibrant car culture in southern California. Although import racing has propelled a historically invisible ethnic group onto center stage of the previously Anglo-domi- nated consumer market and culture, it has also become an important venue for socialization and identity formation among Asian American youth. This chapter examines the following questions: What are the distinct features of import racing, and why is it uniquely Asian American? How do young Asian Americans negotiate race and gender through participation in import racing? Is import racing a reaction to alienation from mainstream youth culture, or is it simply a new version of American consumer culture in which Asian American youth participate? Is it deviant, or is it a normal youth practice that merely aims to establish an identity? And finally, what are the implications of this emerging youth subculture for Asian American identity formation?

The data on which this study is based were collected over a two-year period between 1998 and 1999, and consist of four components: (1) in-depth face-to-face interviews with ten import racers whose ages range from 14 to 24 (eight males and two females) at four sites in southern California—Battle of the Imports in Palmdale, University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Irvine, and University High School in Irvine; (2) informal con- versations with numerous import racers, event organizers, and auto mar- keters, both Asian and non-Asian;2 (3) participant observation in organized events;3 and (4) media accounts—magazines and videos of actual racing. In this study, import car racers include not only those who race their cars but also those who attend racing-related events, as well as those who modify and fix up their cars. The study investigates the history and development of import racing as an Asian American socializing tradition, but given the lim- itations of the data, the study is not intended to provide a comprehensive analysis of the entire import car racing scene.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S CAR CULTURE AND IMPORT RACING

The car culture has always been a salient feature of southern California’s imagery. Francis Ford Coppola’s classic, American Graffiti, for example, depicts the days of hot rodding and drag racing in Los Angeles, and, today, MTV’s hip-hop videos depict rap artists in “low rider” Chevys bouncing

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up and down with hydraulic systems. Cars are undoubtedly a driving force behind southern California’s consumer culture. Since World War II, rapid suburbanization and the lack of accessible public transportation have rendered Angelenos dependent on the automobile, and with the proliferation of automobiles was born a car culture. The emergence of the car culture became evident in the 1950s and 1960s when hot rodding and drag racing dominated the scene, and drive-in movie theaters and drive- up restaurants sprouted across America’s cities to cater to the culture. Cars have served a function far beyond transporting individuals from one locale to the next; they constitute a key component of popular culture based on consumerism and materialism. In contemporary America, cars affirm one’s status, express a lifestyle, form an identity, and socialize youth.

Hot Rodding, Low Riding, and Muscle Car Racing

Although cars have played a large role in southern California’s identity, this culture has been particularly salient for male youth. In the 1950s and 1960s, legal and illegal hot rodding and drag racing gained popularity among white teenagers in the San Fernando Valley. Teenagers would take a Ford or other American-manufactured cars and rebuild or modify them to increase their acceleration and speed. Even today, the hot-rodding culture remains very much a part of the popular car culture in America, thriving through car clubs, car shows, and magazines.

In the 1970s, a new movement entered the car scene — low riding. Originating in Mexican barrios in East Los Angeles, the low rider move- ment asserted a new cultural form with a strong Mexican flavor into the dominant Anglo car culture. Although Chicano low riding involves cruising and modification, unlike hot rodding, racing is not a central component of this culture. Low riding began as a hobby exclusively among Mexican American youth that entailed customizing cars, but today it boasts a multiracial cast that includes black and white youth. Since gaining popularity among American youth of different backgrounds, Chicano low riding is now an undisputed feature of the dominant car culture. It has become such a central feature of the American mainstream that the toy manufacturer Mattel launched a line of Hot Wheels based on low riders.4 Moreover, there are numerous car shows and magazines devoted specifically to low riding, the recently held exhibition on Latino car culture at the Petersen Automobile Museum in Los Angeles being a prime example.

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Contemporary Import Car Racing and Battle of the Imports

Like hot rodding and low riding, import car racing was born and devel- oped in southern California and has since spread up the California coast to other parts of the country (Witzel and Bash, 1997). However, unlike hot rodding and low riding, Asian Americans were the innovators of this newest car trend, which emerged as a result of their exclusion from other forms of popular car culture. Until recently, Asian Americans were invisible in America’s car culture, but as they came of age in the late 1980s and 1990s, Asian American youth prominently established their place in California’s car racing scene.

Import car racing entails modifying and dressing up cars to drive faster, sound louder, and look fancier and flashier. Although some import car racers choose German or Italian cars, the vast majority drive Asian imported, compact cars such as Honda Civics and Nissan Sentras. Young racers typi- cally receive their first cars from their parents as gifts but then spend their own money from part-time jobs to modify and dress up their cars, devoting as much as tens of thousands to “fix up” their “ride.” Considering that the base price of cars is between $15,000 and $30,000, and that import car racers pour thousands more into their cars, it is not difficult to understand why middle- and upper-middle-class youth dominate this trend.

Style is an important element in the import car racing scene, so it is not only a question of how well the car runs but also how good the car looks. Import car racers lower their cars to the ground, and many plaster them with bright stickers across the front, down the hood, or on the side; the stickers serve as advertisement for various import car companies, often in Japanese writing. Racers often tint their windows and add parts such as giant spoilers and oversized wheels and rims, and the modifica- tions do not stop there (see Figure 10.1). Import car racers also install top-of-the-line stereo systems, customized seats, and even dashboard consoles that feature video games. Hence, the visual appeal of the car is tremendously important. This is not to say, however, that performance is unimportant. On race day (Figure 10.2), racers remove seats in order to lighten their load and maximize speed.

The first import car racing event made its debut in July of 1990 at the Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale — a desert-like suburban city northeast of Los Angeles that serves as the main venue for import racers to practice legal racing. Organized by Frank Choi, Battle of the Imports aimed to unite racers from California for a legal car race and show. Over 500 young people (mostly Asian American) and about 50 cars participated in the first event, and since then Battle of Imports has become a biannual weekend extravaganza that draws as many as 20,000 racers and friends

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Reinventing the Wheel • 163

Figure 10.1 The Wheels. Photograph by Victoria Namking.

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through word of mouth, the Internet, and import car-part sellers. Because of the popularity of import car racing, its founders have recently chris- tened the Import Drag Racing Association (IDRA), which oversees many other racing organizations.

“Grudge Night” and the Import Lifestyle

Although Battle of the Imports is the biggest event in import racing, groups of Asian American racers also gather on Friday evenings for “Grudge Night,” often in Palmdale but also in other places. Other enormously popular events include Import Showoff and Hot Import Daze/Nights in the Los Angeles area, which combine the display of cars with a nightclub ambiance that includes strobe lights, hip-hop and dance music, and other forms of live entertainment. The events are essentially a fusion of car show and night club — evidently a formula for success considering that they attract thousands of Asian American youth. In 1999, the social event Hot Import Daze/Nights was so packed that the organizers were forced to turn away 4,000 people. Racers and their friends hang out in various social groups, chat and laugh boisterously, and take pictures and videotapes of the night’s events. Generally, alcohol and drugs are absent from the import car racing scene, although the party culture often extends to hotels after some events.

Certain racers like Adam Saruwatari have even achieved minor celebrity status.5 Saruwatari can race his Mazda RX-7 “in the nines” (reaching speeds of more than 140 miles per hour) on a quarter-mile stretch in less than

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Figure 10.2 Race Day. Photograph by Victoria Namking.

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ten seconds. Although no one can rely on import racing as a full-time career, some events offer racing and show purses in the thousands, and Saruwatari often walks away with the most cash. Others in the same caliber of racing as Saruwatari are now sponsored by top corporations in the auto- motive industry and have teams of people fixing up their cars to get them ready for race or show time.

Participation in actual import racing begins as young as 16 years of age and even earlier for those whose friends or siblings are involved in the hobby. Racers and “racing crews” (groups of racers who are friends) are mostly 1.5- or second-generation Asian American males between the ages of 16 and 24 from suburban middle- and upper-middle-class families.6 In Orange County, for example, the youth are predominantly Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese American. Although most youth modify or change their cars to look a certain way, only half may actually participate in races at professional tracks. Groups of crews often simply gather at deserted places like Oxnard (a farming community about 45 miles north of Los Angeles) to hold illegal races. As import racing increasingly gains in popularity, one finds a growing presence of African Americans, Latinos, and Euro-Americans, but the scene is largely dominated by Asian American male youth. These events also draw hundreds of young women who come to participate, hang out with friends, or work.

Import racing is an expensive and time-consuming hobby. Although some racers complain about the enormous monetary and time investment, others actually profit from the growing market demand by selling their fixed-up cars and reinvesting the money into new vehicles. Jason, a 24- year-old Filipino American college student and an import racer on his way out of the scene, estimates that he has spent over $9,000 in modifications over the last three years alone. Although his parents live in a middle-class neighborhood in Orange County, California, Jason has paid for his own costs through a series of part-time jobs that he has held over the years. Jason’s 1992 Honda Accord LX is sharp-looking, with clear corner, bumper, and rear taillights, and a custom leather interior. He has also installed an HKS air filter, Nitrous Oxide, and Neuspeed Race Springs, and even reached the level of sponsorship from a well-known custom interior company.

Jason used to race and show his car frequently and with pride, but now, at the ripe old age of 24, he acknowledges that he is pushing the upper age limit for the hobby. Participants typically leave this hobby after graduating from college when they begin their first full-time, career-oriented job and live on their own. They calculate that the costs to maintain and fix up their vehicles are prohibitive when they become financially independent. So although former import car racers may own an import car like an Acura or a Nissan, they tend not to fix them up as they once did.

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Accompanying the races and shows (which take place year-round in various parts of southern California) is a unique import lifestyle. Unlike mainstream car racing, import racers drive their dressed-up cars day-to- day, hang out in large groups, speak the same slang, listen to hip-hop, and don similar styles of dress and hairstyles. At races and shows, racing crews and friends often sport clothing that promotes their car club or sponsor. Capitalizing on this trend, vendors set up booths to sell car parts and lifestyle-related merchandise such as clothing and accessories.

The import racing identity has exploded, and today thousands of Internet web sites are dedicated to this culture. For example, the Internet service provider America Online features numerous chat rooms dedicated to “O.C. Racerz” and “Import Scene.” Since import racers are typically high school or college students from middle- to upper-middle-class backgrounds with Internet access, promoters, vendors, and participants have found it easy to spread the culture far beyond the confines of southern California. Recog- nizing that their target audience is on-line, promoters of racing events utilize and rely on the Internet to access customers. There are also numerous publications dedicated to import racing such as Import Tuner and Super Street, available in local grocery stores in Orange County and Los Angeles, making the culture readily accessible to many of America’s youth.

IDENTITY FORMATION VIA IMPORT RACING

Import racing has a unique Asian twist — racers are predominantly Asian American; cars and parts are mostly imported from Asia, and, most impor- tantly, races and shows serve as a cultural space constructed and used by Asian American youth and young adults as a proactive response to the history of marginalization and exclusion. Import racing forges a distinct identity for Asian American youth that allows them to look and feel good, cool, and sexy.

Forging a Pan-Ethnic Community

A unique characteristic of the import racing identity is the formation of a pan-ethnic community. In the beginning, racing crews and other partic- ipants started in various ethnic groups, hanging out and racing separately by ethnicity. For example, Japanese Americans believed that they started the trend, while Filipino Americans claim that it originated in P (Pilipino)- Town. Groups were initially exclusively Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese, but, with time, ethnic group boundaries faded and converged toward a collective pan-ethnic identity. Now, import racing has become one of the few places, aside from political alliances, where Asian Americans have come together as a group.

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Over the years, an import racing identity and culture have emerged in which young Asian Americans hang out, date, and attend events in groups of two, four, or more. Crews help their friends prep for a race, and although some racing crews are coethnic, others are pan-ethnic and multiracial. Given its growing popularity, especially in southern Cali- fornia, import car racing has enormous crossover appeal and has attracted whites, blacks, Latinos, and women, who not only attend the events but also get behind the wheel. The crossover appeal has propelled import car racing into the mainstream in the world of automobile racing. The makers of popular import cars, parts, and even corporations like Anheuser-Busch sponsor racers and events in order to expand their markets. In some cases, the sponsorship has even extended to Asian American organizations.

Although group identity is often based on a set of boundaries that distin- guish insiders from outsiders, import car racing transcends ethnicity, race, and gender. What matters is the legitimacy of the racer, fitting into the culture, or just being “cool.” The erosion of boundaries fosters a sense of community and identity for those who participate in the culture. For example, Todd, a 20-year-old college student at UC Irvine and an import racer, describes how the hobby makes him feel “a part of something”:

It’s like you feel you’re a part of something exciting. The import market is growing so fast I can barely keep up. Before it was just a few cars on the road here and there, but now it’s like all over the place. Even when you go to a club or a rave, the parking lot will be full of racers and they’re just looking for a place to hang out and talk about cars and shit. Where I’m from, there aren’t that many Asian kids, and most of them are really FOB-like. But here at UCI and in San Gabriel there’s just so many Asian kids, we’re bound to hang out together and hook up because of the car stuff.7

Although import racing is racially inclusive, Asian American males are the creators of and dominant forces behind this youth culture. Given the large Asian American population in southern California, especially in some local high schools and college campuses where the Asian American popu- lation now exceeds 50 percent, Asian American males will continue to have a strong hold on this cultural form.

Asserting Masculinity and Hyper-Heterosexuality

Social scientists generally agree that masculinity, like race, is a social rather than biological category (Kimmel, 1994; Messner, 1992). Import racing

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provides a cultural space for Asian American youth to form a pan-ethnic community and also allows Asian American males to construct and assert an unequivocally masculine, hyper-heterosexual identity. Historically, Asian American men have been depicted and stereotyped as weak, effem- inate, nerdy, asexual, or sexually deviant. For example, Nayan Shah (2001) illustrates that the dominant white world viewed nineteenth-century Chinatowns as immoral bachelor societies of dissolute men with peculiar living arrangements, deviant sexualities, and vice habits that undermined American morality and family life. Sau-ling Wong’s (1992) exploration of ethnicity and gender in Chinese immigrant literature finds that femi- nization and demasculization of Asian men goes far beyond the physical and becomes a part of a distorted ethnic identity imposed on all Asian Americans. Robert G. Lee (1999) argues that the entry of Chinese men into the domestic sphere as household servants in the nineteenth century created a threat to the existing patriarchal hierarchy of the family since it led to the possibility of immoral intimate relations between white women and the deviant “third sex.” Although historical representations have depicted Asian American men as effeminate and sexually immoral, contemporary images are very different in this regard; Asian American men continue to be portrayed as asexual, nerdy, and forever foreign or “fresh off the boat” (FOB).

One of the appeals of import racing for Asian American male youth is that it directly challenges the negative stereotypes associated with Asian American males. Like other youth cultural forms such as African American hip-hop and Chicano low riding, import car racing is infused with masculinity and hypersexuality. As many of the interviewees observed, much of the import scene is fraught with “attitudes” and acts of demon- strating toughness. For instance, Jason recalls:

I used to encounter a lot of inadvertent stares and revs (revving your car up like you want to race) from a lot of muscle cars whose drivers were usually young white males. In a way, it [import racing] has given a lot of youth a positive hobby to get involved in. For many Asian Americans, it has given them something to identify with much like during the 50s and 60s white teens had muscle cars.8

Illustrating the attitudinal aspect of import racing, Spencer Lee (1999) states: “[N]onracers themselves often get in the mix, with ‘crews’ fighting at shows. Turf and being ‘hard’ have become as much a part of the scene as the cars themselves.” While tensions flare from time to time, they do not stem from differences in race or ethnicity, but rather from competition and racing,

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which is quickly settled behind the wheel. As the interviewees agree, it all comes down to what you can do inside the car.

In a recent issue of Gidra, published in Los Angeles, Naomi Iwasaki (1999) analyzed how Asian American males use import racing to counter their history of feminization. A cartoon that ran beside the article features an Asian American male smoking a cigarette, wearing baggy jeans, and leaning against an import car. Iwasaki refers to the insecurities or demas- culization of the Asian American male as the Asian Male Complex and elaborates how males overcome it with their import cars. Iwasaki explains: the Asian American male who “turns into a motor-revving so loud it sets off my car alarm, is the same one that causes me to roll my eyes and throw up my arms in disgust at the lack of Asian men out there who are secure enough to not have to front off and prove how hard they are.”

With thousands of Asian American males participating in this car culture, male dominance and sexual exploitation are problems that cannot be over- looked. Like other male-dominated sports such as football, boxing, or wrestling, import car racing places most females on the sidelines, often in sexually explicit and exploitative roles. For example, flyers and other promo- tional items display scantily clad women sprawled on cars to attract attention, and corporate sponsors like Budweiser and Toyo Tires hire women and sometimes “playmates” to dance and pose with cars and participants. Although some of the women are Asian American, most are Anglo. Other female attendees who are not hired by corporate sponsors also show up at events and pose in pictures. Most men may have no objections to the role of women in these events, but several Asian American males have voiced dismay about the behavior of some Asian American women. A former racer laments:

Nowadays, I think that the import scene is becoming too polluted with bad attitude. If you go to Import Showoff or Battle all the dudes look like thugs or wannabees. The women who model for the cars, especially Asian women, exploit themselves in skimpy outfits spreading their legs so guys with video cameras can snap a few seconds of whack-off footage. It’s so embarrassing when I saw that sort of crap, and it led me to get out of the scene.9

Import car racing is undeniably crossing over into the mainstream at a high speed, and, given its popularity, it may become a vehicle through which the image of Asian American males changes.

While Asian American males begin to transform their image through the import car culture, in the process, they are also alienating and exploiting their female counterparts.

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HARD GIRLS AND HOOCHIES: ASIAN AMERICAN FEMALE PARTICIPATION

Asian Americans make up over half of the import car scene in southern California, and at least 90 percent of Asian American racers are male. Car clubs such as “Go Gyrl Racing” (Figure 10.3) include females who are serious about racing and showing their cars at events. Asian females typi- cally fix up Asian compact import cars like Hondas, Nissans, Mitsubishis, Acuras, and Mazdas, the results of which are often referred to as “rice rockets” or “rice burners.” Whether racing, showing their car, participating as a member of a crew, or just hanging out, Asian American females are becoming an increasingly visible and integral part of the scene. And while racing remains largely in the domain of Asian American males, females are slowly making inroads into the racing scene.

The gender element is particularly interesting because car cultures have historically exploited women. Caucasian women are pictured in car culture–related magazines, posters, and flyers, and a glance at Lowrider Magazine features Latina women in bikinis posing with various cars and drivers.10 Asian women play a similar role as accessories, “import play- mates,” and sexualized and exploited objects in the import car culture. Bikini-clad Asian American women lie on hoods of cars in magazines, and some Asian American girls who attend racing events and car shows actu- ally strip and pose for photographs with the cars on-site. Corporate sponsors also hire “import playmates” (who are often non-Asian) in order to attract attention at their booths during shows. Although females are just begin-

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Figure 10.3 Go Gyrl Racing. Photograph by Victoria Namking.

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ning to enter the race and show scene, the presence of “hoochies” (a pejo- rative term used to describe the women hired to decorate the sidelines and advertisements) presents an obstacle for Asian American females who are serious about participating in import car racing.

Many women also attend the events as fans who are interested in the sport and enjoy hanging out with friends. Like any sport, there are import groupies — typically groups of young, Asian American females who enjoy talking to, flirting with, and posing for the racers. The events serve as a meeting ground where young Asian American males and females can get together and “hook up.” Many of the participants and spectators bring video and still cameras to record the evening’s events. And while some of the females crave male attention, others attend the events just to watch, hang out with friends, and meet new people. From all visible evidence, the females appear to be in control of their actions.

For Stella, a 19-year-old Korean American female, the women who decorate the sidelines and magazine covers do not bother her, although she does notice the so-called hoochies who attend the events.

Why would I care about the hoochies at the races? Sure, some of them are annoying, but they’re really just like the Budweiser girls or something. Plus, they’re only there because the corporate sponsors bring them in. When you’re just out on the street racing or hanging out, they’re not around. I just come to do my thing and I leave. Most of the guys treat me okay, but some of them try to stare you down or act hard, but they’re just fronting.11

Although the sexualization of females exists within the import car culture, both men and women participate in these activities and repre- sentations by choice. Moreover, there are plenty of females who attend the races as spectators and participants who take no part of the sexual exploitation.

IMPORT RACING—A NORMAL OR DEVIANT SUBCULTURE?

Youth subcultures in any form tend to be treated as deviant from broader societal perspectives. However, import car racing is not a deviant subculture; rather, it is a celebration and affirmation of a positive identity, as well as a proactive strategy that challenges negative stereotyping. However positive, import car racing has often been perceived and misrepresented as a deviant subculture of “car gangs.” Indeed, import car racers participate in “crews” or “posses” like other young gangs, and some crews have as many as 500 mem- bers. And like many of today’s youth who have adopted the hip-hop culture

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and styles, they sport a “gangsta” image style of dress—baggy pants, sports- wear, shaved heads, piercings, and gold chains and earrings. In addition, there are notable similarities between Asian youth gangs and participants of the import car culture. Both are masculine subcultural spaces focused on the for- mation of an empowering ethnic identity. Members of youth gangs and import car racers also sport similar styles of dress, such as Tommy Hilfiger or Nautica sportswear, and borrow elements from African American hip-hop culture. Finally, both have a connectedness to their ancestral homelands in Asia and a shared appreciation of Asian cultures and pride (Alsaybar, 1999). Albeit rare, unfortunately there have also been instances of gang-banging, fist fights, civil disturbance, illegal races, and even deaths associated with import racing. However isolated and infrequent, these negative instances have led some local law enforcement officials to regard import car racers as dangerous trouble-makers.

The loudness of import cars and visible markers such as large, bright stickers and car modifications make racers easy targets for local police and business owners who readily identify them as gang members and want them to be excluded or controlled. The Edwards Cinema movie theater in Alhambra, California, for example, posts a sign that reads, “No import cars allowed.”12 Some interviewees complained that local and state police often target import racers through racial profiling, especially in areas with high concentrations of Asian American youth such as Garden Grove and Irvine in southern California. Asian American drivers of import cars have been singled out for police harassment, ranging from illegal searches to civil rights violations. Some police departments have even taken photographs of the drivers to store in a “mug book” for future use. Over one hundred Asian Americans, predominantly male, but also some female, have been subjected to this illegal harassment.13 The “Asian mug books” are based not only on race but also on the import style of the vehicle. As a former UC Irvine graduate bitterly explains, “Irvine sucked. UCI cops focused on ticketing lowered import cars. Other cities that I would cruise such as Old Town Pasadena had cops. Street races were dangerous too. There were numerous police busts.”14 The experiences of racial profiling are certainly not unique to Asian American youth; African American and Latino youth have been victims of racial profiling for years. As Robin Kelley (1994) states, “Even more common to the collective experience of young black residents of L.A.’s inner city was the police policy of identifying presumably suspi- cious characters on the basis of clothing styles.”

Many import racers complain about police harassment and about the problems that arise from misunderstandings and misperceptions by the local community, especially during racing events when thousands of youth pour in from all over California. Frank Choi has seen this happen time and again during his biannual event, Battle of the Imports. He describes

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the type of harassment that import car racers face:

Yeah, I mean we experience it with the local law enforcement up in Palmdale. It becomes really strict, pulling people over for stupid things like being too low, or having clear tail lights, or freaking hanging a stuffed animal from your rear view mirror, or some- thing like that. I guess it all boils down to the fact that there’s always a few bad apples that ruin the rest of the bunch.

He explains that the harassment often stems from police officers who mistake racers for gang members:

They did that in Irvine, they did that in Garden Grove. It’s prob- ably because the local law enforcement of today’s society views car clubs as gang members. And, you know that problem is in existence in Torrance, Palos Verdes, you know, everywhere. You know? And it’s a shame. But it’s similar to how it’s perceived here in Palmdale.

Frank Choi adds that, while import car racing may be no different from other forms of legal racing, the fact that the racers have a distinctive look makes them easy targets for law enforcement officials:

So that’s why, you know, they’re speeding on the streets, they do a little burn out here and there. You know it’s like, it’s no different than what’s going on in this time period than it happened in the 1950s, when you guys had national events at other racetracks. Except these kids look different! You know, so they have their noses pierced, their tongues pierced, their lips and their bodies pierced, they have tattoos, their hair’s a different color, their clothes look funny, but other than that it’s the same thing. You know I think there is this huge generation gap between the older generation as business owners and this new generation, these Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers that are actually consumers and users and patrons that are gonna come and make you money.

Understandably, import racers are frustrated that the media portrays them as gang members and that the local community mistakes them as such and misinterpret their intentions. The negative misrepresentations are difficult to erase, but individuals such as Frank Choi among others are committed to creating a safe, legal space in which import racers can partic- ipate. Although some may view import racing as deviant, it can be seen as a highly functional and surprisingly positive form of youth culture.

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CONCLUSION

Unlike other Asian-derived forms of popular culture such as Japanese anime, kung-fu films, or Hello Kitty paraphernalia, import car racing is made in America and is unquestionably Asian American. Excluded from the V-8, Anglo-dominated muscle car culture of the 1970s and 1980s, Asian American youth decided to start their own races and shows with their own cars and on their own terms. With its inception in the early 1990s, import car racing has become the most distinctive identity among Asian Ameri- cans in southern California. It is a sport or hobby for some, but for many Asian American youth, particularly males, import car racing and its lifestyle have become a socializing tradition. Although import racing has no overt political agenda, it has some parallels with the African American hip-hop culture in the sense that both cultural forms provide a sense of identity, community, and empowerment.

For American youth, a car and driver’s license are the first steps to freedom and independence, but cars represent more than a means of trans- portation. For Asian American youth, cars are a symbol of masculinity, individuality, ethnic pride, and an instrument for empowerment. Many Asian American youth may excel in academia, but they are often invisible in arenas such as sports, drama clubs, and leadership roles. Import racing has filled a void for Asian American youth by providing them with an avenue for extracurricular activities that is both productive and positive. The study reveals that import racing is not simply about drag racing or expensive wheels, but rather an opportunity for Asian American youth to form a collective pan-ethnic identity and reclaim their masculinity. As the first wave of import car racers departs the scene, the next generation is taking their place in unprecedented numbers. Given its popularity, import car racing will continue to thrive as a cultural form in southern California.

Mainstream culture is now beginning to embrace the import culture, and advertisers have come to recognize that import racers represent buying power with their disposable incomes to spend on clothes, cars, parts, and accessories. Print advertisements and television commercials have featured import racers and their vehicles, and even Hollywood wants in on the action. Director Rob Cohen’s 2001 film The Fast and the Furious, which is set in California and stars Vin Diesel and Paul Walker, grossed $144,512,310 in the United States alone. The film is not an accurate depiction of the import racing culture, but it features many import cars. More importantly, the film’s box office success proves that the subject of cars and racing is not only popular but also profitable. The 2003 sequel, 2 Fast 2 Furious, which starred an even more racially diverse cast, grossed $127 million domestically, proving that it is a hugely successful franchise.

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Frank Choi’s creation of the first Battle of the Imports gave hundreds of Asian American youth a place to belong, although that may not have been Choi’s original intent. The tens of thousands of teens and college students who attend import racing events on the weekends have found a place to be accepted. The culture has grown so rapidly and so furiously that it is prac- tically the norm for Asian American youth to participate in the scene in one way or another. Today, import racing has spilled over into the mainstream to such an extent that people in southern California rarely even blink when they drive behind a fixed-up car on the freeway. The Asian American import car racing scene has hit the American cultural mainstream with high speed and shows no signs of slowing down.

Notes 1. Author’s interview with Battle of the Imports founder Frank Choi and Hot Import Daze/Nights

promotional director, Mike Munar, December 7, 1999. See also “Here to Stay,” SEMA News, February 1998.

2. Most of my Asian American informants were male, and second or third plus generation. 3. I also attended two illegal street races in Oxnard, California, but only observed the way the

racers interacted and competed with one another. 4. See “With Their Contributions to U.S. Culture, Latino Teens Are Finding Their Place in the

Picture,” in Dallas Morning News, September 21, 1999. 5. See “The Kid and the King,” Los Angeles Times, November 24, 1999, and “In the Fast Lane:

Adam Saruwatari,” Yolk Magazine 5, no. 4 (Winter/Spring 1999). 6. See “A Turbocharged Obsession,” Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1997, and “Asian Car Club

Races into the New Year,” Los Angeles Times, December 31, 1997. Both articles delve into the car club and racing crew aspects of the import racing scene.

7. Face-to-face interview with Todd conducted by author on September 6, 1999, in Irvine, Cali- fornia.

8. Face-to-face interview with Jason conducted by author on October 6, 1999, in San Fran- cisco, California.

9. Face-to-face interview with Jason conducted by author on October 6, 1999, in San Fran- cisco, California.

10. Low Rider Magazine, McMullen Argus Publishing, February 2000. 11. Face-to-face interview with Stella conducted by author on October 11, 1999, in Palmdale,

California. 12. Based on the author’s own observation in 1999. The sign is posted in several areas outside

and inside the garage at the Edwards Movie Theater in Alhambra, California. 13. The information regarding mug books came from the author’s conversation and research

with Daniel Tseng, a librarian of UC Irvine who has done extensive research on the subject. 14. Face-to-face interview with Jason conducted by author on October 6, 1999, in San Fran-

cisco, California.

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