BEg2 ch 26 the rap of Darren

[Michael Bailey]

Intern Darren -

“leaning in the doorway now gazing at her, she wants to say inscrutably,
but that would be racist.”


apparently has all kinds of leeway in the firm, that extends to plugging in
an amp and a “TB-303 clone”

(Bass synthesizer -
https://youtu.be/A4IcFED-10c )

 for an impromptu performance right there in Chandler’s office.


The rap is inscrutable imho -

“Tryin to do Tupac and Biggie thangs”

Which would be what? Rapping? Feuding?


         “With red velvet Chairman Mao piggy banks,”

Awesome near-rhyme!
There is a Chairman Mao piggy bank, btw -
https://www.helioferretti.com/plush-piggybank-mao-tse-tung



“  like Screamin Jay in Hong Kong”

          it’s a song
https://youtu.be/PaTHMO-XmV4



       “  jumpin to wrong conclusions

         old-movie confusions, yo who be dat

         Scandinavian brand of Azian

         ya dig wid some Sigrid be”
          (generic Swede name, right?)

         the daughter of Kublai Khan,

         Warner Oland, Charlie Chan, General Yan”

Warner Oland -
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Oland
“Swedish-American actor most remembered for playing several Chinese and
Chinese-American characters….”
- notably Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan

General Yan - nothing in my search seems apt


       “  bitter tea, for her stupidity “
(Internal near-rhyme, love it!)

“pullin rank

         Bette Davis shanked”

(Internal rhyme)


“by Gale Sondegaard”

(Gale Sondegaard played - against type - the “Eurasian” widow of the man
Bette Davis shot in “The Letter”
https://classicforareason.com/2017/07/04/the-letter-1940/amp/
in the scene depicted on the wall hanging above the couch at the gun range
where Randy and Maxine talked earlier in the chapter)

         like they was on the [prison] yard

         or down in some forgotten cell

         far, far from the corner of

         Mott and Pell—

Famous intersection in Chinatown!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/331477690


So he’s justifying his own playing against type by being an Asian rapper in
a field not full of Asians

- & saying he can do it as well as Swedes can play Asians, giving examples.

But who is/was General Yan?