Do two of your favorite movies have Asian leading characters? Recently, I conducted a survey on Asian Americans in Hollywood and the media. My sample consisted of 27 participants from Instagram, Reddit, and some of them were my classmates because I posted about my survey on those platforms and the class survey discussion forum. They are people who have access to social media and watch entertainment because not a single person answered “never” when I asked about how often they use social media and watch entertainment daily. The ethnicity of the participants includes: Latina/Latino, Caucasian, Filipino/Filipina, and people of Asian descent (i.e. Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Korean.) The first question I asked was if their favorite shows included leading Asian characters. The second question was about their knowledge of what the concept of “yellowface” was. And the third question was about cyber harassment and if they had to block people on their social media accounts. I asked other questions such as what are their favorite movies, and if they would audition for a role, but I did not find a need to include those into this post.
The reason why I chose these questions as my main focus to write about was because, after reflecting on the analyzation of other articles I did in my past posts, I realized that I should figure out other people’s perspectives and awareness on racism and cyber harassment being possible contributing factors of why there is a lack of Asian representation or culturally inaccurate portrayal of Asians. From the responses I received, I learned that although there are more Asian characters playing lead or supporting roles than I anticipated, there is still a big percentage of people who do not actually know what “yellowface” is. Additionally, there is nearly half and half percentage of people who are and are not cyber harassed.
(To see the complete survey, click here!)
Does your favorite movies/shows/films/dramas have leading Asian characters?
Firstly, I was surprised to see the results on this question, which showed a huge number in participants stating that their top two to three movies featured leading Asian characters. From the articles I had analyzed in the past few months on researching this topic [the lack of Asian representation in media and Hollywood], I was expecting to see a very small percentage for the answer “yes”. However, I was not very surprised when it came down to 40.74% of my sample group chose the answer “Only supporting characters”, because Asians are seen as supporting characters in Hollywood films, movies, and shows. Mr. Han in Karate Kid and Cio-Cio-san or Butterfly from Madama Butterfly are considered supporting characters. Yet, the majority of 48.15% stated that their favorite movies had leading Asian characters, which was very unexpected. That is nearly 50% of my sample.
What is “yellowface”?
Next, I decided to ask this question because it would test the participants’ knowledge of what “yellowface” is. If I were to ask the question, “Do you know what yellow face is”, and left it as a “yes” or “no” question, that would not be as interesting compared to the way I formatted this question with the different definition as responses. The majority of 55.56% got the answer correct, which is the definition provided to me by Wikipedia. However, a good percentage of participants thought “yellowface” was the same thing as “blackface” but for Asians, or that it is just a type of makeup that makes actors look Asian. Technically, they are not completely wrong because the process of “yellowface” does involve taking an actor who is not Asian and making them look more Asian by using makeup, but that makes me wonder if most people do not believe race and stereotyping are connected to “yellowface”. Some examples of “ yellowface” can be found in movies such as, “Ghost in the Shell”, which starred Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi, and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, which starred Mickey Rooney as I. Y. Yunioshi.
In contradiction to my observation of the results of the previous question, I asked a follow-up question that asked the participants if they think “yellowface” is racist or stereotypical. I even left the question with a free-response box. I did that because it will allow the participants to elaborate and go into detail on why they do or do not think “yellowface” is considered racist or stereotypical. I chose to include a few responses that were elaborate and went into detail about their answers. Overall, a huge majority thought that the “yellowface” was stereotypical. This was unexpected because many people chose the answers “yellowface” was the same thing as “blackface” but for Asians, or that it is just a type of makeup that makes actors look Asian.
Cyber Bullying & Harassment
Then, I ask questions about how social media affects the participants’ lives. I learned a majority of participants have not been a victim of cyberbullying or harassment, which is great. However, there is still a big percentage of participants who have been a victim of cyberbullying and harassment. I did not expect nearly 45% of my participants to be a victim, because that is a huge number.
I asked a follow-up question of “Have you ever had to block someone you know from social media or had to make your account private from people you know? Why or why not? (Please be as specific as possible).” The responses I received stated that they have had to block someone they know from social media or had to make their accounts private, along with a few responses that they are not active on social media or they just ignore people who harass them. Below are some of the responses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one thing that was agreed upon was that, although “yellowface” has been normalized in some way, is still not acceptable and is frowned upon. Additionally, none of my participants would want to be victims of cyberbullying, but some participants took action in blocking people or making their accounts private or they would ignore the people who are harassing them. Finally, I learned that more Asian actors are playing leading roles in movies, films, and shows then I had originally expected.
Work Citations:
“Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Sept. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_at_Tiffany's_(film).
“Ghost in the Shell (2017 Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 7 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_(2017_film).
“Madama Butterfly.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madama_Butterfly.
“Portrayal of East Asians in American Film and Theater.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 13 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrayal_of_East_Asians_in_American_film_and_theater.
“The Karate Kid (2010 Film).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Oct. 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Karate_Kid_(2010_film).
