Tuesday, February 11, 2020

My wife loves awards shows. The Grammys, the AMAs, the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the VMAs, you name it, she'll even watch the damn SAG awards. I don't know what it is, it's not like she works in the entertainment industry, but she loves watching them, and I guess I have to admit I like them too, though maybe not as much as she does.

But I do watch the Oscars. I love movies, and I've probably watched almost every Academy Awards show since I was a teenager. So as usual, there we were on Sunday night, watching the 92nd Academy Awards, when something quite remarkable happened.

I guess this is as good a time as any to reveal that I'm Korean-American. I immigrated here when I was five, so for all intents and purposes, I'm American. I'm definitely more American than I am Korean. With that said, I was still unbelievably proud to see people from my native country get up on that stage and accept not one, but four of the biggest awards of the night. It was the first time Korea has ever won an Oscar. No Korean movie had ever even been nominated in the Best Foreign Language category, let alone Best Picture and Best Director.

When Parasite director Bong Joon Ho beat out the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, two of my favorite directors of all time, to take home the Best Director prize, I was beside myself. Not just because it was such a huge upset, but because the man deserved it. I've been a fan of Korean cinema for a long time. I've watched just about every Bong Joon Ho movie the same way I've seen just about every Tarantino and Scorsese movie.

The night was made even better because Bong's acceptance speech was full of such dignity and grace. Through his translator, he recited a quote that he said he had "carved deep in his heart" when he was a film student.

"The most personal is the most creative," he said through his translator, a quote that he goes on to reveal was from none other than his fellow nominee Martin Scorsese. As they show Scorsese on screen, he is clearly touched upon hearing how unbeknownst to him, his words influenced a young man growing up on the other side of the planet. Then he honors Quentin Tarantino by acknowledging how when nobody in the west was watching Bong's films, it was Quentin Tarantino who was telling people to watch Memories of Murder, Mother, and The Host.

But perhaps my favorite moment of the evening was when Parasite won Best Picture.

As you can see in the picture above, Bong let his producing partner Kwak Sin Ae accept the award. I could see how overwhelmed she was. Even I was overwhelmed, and I was sitting in my living room. I couldn't believe I was watching a bunch of Korean people standing on the stage at the Oscars, accepting the biggest award of the evening. As the producer began to speak, I may have been a little nervous because I wasn't sure what she would say. Then she said something that captured the moment perfectly.

"I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now," she said, and I knew what she meant. I felt like a bridge was being formed in that moment, a bridge between the east and the west.

Maybe it's just me, maybe it's not as big of a moment as I want to believe it is, but no matter what you say, on Sunday night something happened in the world that had never happened before. A film made in the east won the biggest film award in the west.

So what does all this have to do with Bitcoin Cash?

I think Bitcoin Cash has the ability to act as a bridge in the same way, and likewise achieve something that has never happened before in the world. I wholeheartedly believe that Bitcoin Cash can connect people in radically new ways, and we will be amazed by what it can accomplish if given the chance. But in order to do that, I think we need to be united, to work together and not just in our own little silos, to bridge the east and the west. I don't know how we're going to bring the Chinese Bitcoin Cash community and the English speaking BCH community together. I just know that BCH will only be stronger if it were to happen.

Like she said, I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now, so as a community, let's not squander it.

Thanks for reading.

P.S. In case you haven't heard, my first puzzle has already been solved but the winner was amazing enough to return all the funds and then some, right here on read.cash, so be on the lookout for the next iteration.