Am I A Dragon Lady?

When I was around 12 years old, my uncle came home with his right arm covered in saran wrap. He had just finished his full sleeve and was covered in freshly done tattoos. I thought tattoos were the most badass thing. So at the age of 12, I decided that I was going to get a tattoo, specifically a dragon tattoo. I’d always been fascinated by dragons. In fact, my favorite childhood movie “Spirited Away” probably started my obsession with dragons.

In October 2018, my cousin took me to a tattoo parlor and I got a Thai dragon tattoo on my back. Now getting a tattoo was quite possibly the most rebellious act I’d ever committed. When my family discovered I got a tattoo my mom didn’t speak to me for a week, my great uncle came up to me and slapped my tattoo and told me “Why would you do something so ugly?”I hid my tattoo from my Grandma for months in fear of the mouthful of a lecture I was going to get. I never thought I did anything bad; I just really wanted to get a dragon tattoo. In fact, I had already given my mom a two-year notice that I wanted to get a tattoo as soon as I left for college. I got a dragon tattoo for many reasons, for one I was born in 2000, also known as the year of the golden dragon. I specifically got a Thai Buddhist dragon on me in honor of my religion and culture. My tattoo was for me and only me. But after I got my tattoo I noticed a new trend people began calling me “the girl with the dragon tattoo.”At first, I thought it was because I had a really good tattoo (which I do), but then I slowly started realizing it wasn’t a compliment; I was embracing the stereotype of Asian women. My dragon tattoo ended up turning into a nasty (and honestly, pretty racist) pickup line. For instance, sometimes when I go to work and I’m wearing a shirt that shows my tattoo, a lot of men make uncomfortable comments to me about it. I had some fellow peers come up to me and tell me “Wow Naaley that’s very ABG of you”. I was being turned into a fetish and sexualized as an “exotic Asian”. All of a sudden I had this huge wave of regret. I hated who I was. I started having an identity crisis, I thought I was going against everything I stood for. I’ve always been the one kid that calls out other people for being racist, but was I just turning a blind eye to myself? I thought to myself, that I was taking steps backward in my fight against institutional racism and that I was betraying my fellow Asian Americans. But then I realized, the tattoo I got was for me, and only me. That my tattoo is what I wanted it to be. But (that) made me question, Why am I being turned into a fetish? Dragons are mythological creatures, what even is a dragon lady? Where did this obsession of being exotic stem from?

I grew up in a small town named Visalia, which is right in between Fresno and Bakersfield. Growing up I was the minority of minorities, the majority of my town was Caucasian or Latino so I was always treated like the “other”. So I’ve always wanted to know more about being Asian in America, so that’s why when I came here to SFSU I decided to declare Asian American Studies as my minor. So, when I first started looking for research the first thought that popped in my head was to look at the Asian Amerian courses that I’ve taken in the past. Being Asian American plays a really big role in my identity so I’ve declared it as my minor and because of that, I also knew beforehand that Asian American studies here at SF State are one of the best ethnic study programs so I would have a lot of research available to me. My Asian American Mass Media course is what taught me what a Dragon Lady is and where it came from, and I know that some of the readings that we have in that class would really help with my research for this class.

Then I realized, I don’t really know any history of dragons. I know the general gist of dragons in Thai/Lao Buddhism but what about other cultures? So I began researching the history of dragons in other cultures, from the medieval times, Messopatian civilizations and ancient China dragons have been a myth to mankind since the beginning. There has to be some reason why dragons have been incorporated into almost every civilization’s folklore and culture. What’s the origin of dragons if they aren’t real creatures.

While doing all of this research I realized I don’t really have the same concept of dragons as everyone else does, well no one really has the same image of dragons. This was interesting to me because dragons aren’t even real creatures. If they aren’t real then how does everyone else at least have some certain image of what they are?

The image of dragons I have in my head are the Thai/Lao dragons I’ve seen since I was 4 years old at old Buddhist temples. Dragons were placed on the rooftops of the temples and at the entrances of the temple. They are known to be the one that protects us from demons that could hurt our spirits. But when I asked my friend about their thoughts about dragons, they saw medieval dragons that would whisk a random damsel in distress. Yet we still can agree on what a drawing of a dragon looks like no matter the style of it.

A teaching Youtube channel with over 2.18 million subscribers known as Extra Credit posted a video called “Dragon-The Origin of Dragons- Extra Mythology” it goes over different cultures and how their folklore all had a dragon element infused into it somehow and how the creation of dragons come from.

This youtube video goes into depth on various different cultures. From European medieval culture to the Natives in South America and the royal families of China and Japan dragons, all had this mystical aura to it, while they all had different feelings about dragons they all still had a similar shape and some holier than thou superpower. For example in the East Asian countries such as China and Japan, they thought that dragons were good luck and brought prosperity to the land, so they would worship the dragons. While on the other hand in medieval Europe they thought of dragons as the bad guy, and the quest that a man must complete in order to prove his dominance. So they despised dragons

The video then went on to talk about how snakes are basically one of the brain’s biggest fears and that myths are created from what we fear the most. And how psychologically we would create something that we fear into a creature of greater power. Historians also believe that back then when they found dinosaur bones it made sense to them that the existence of dragons existed.

I think this is why Asian women were deemed to be dragons. Because men sexualized them so much it almost seemed like they were too good to be true like it was some quest for them to conquer Asian women and if they succeed it would bring them good fortune or they knew they really had made it. This all happened because sex sells and the whole exotic myth of dragons just makes it even easier for them to sell Asian women, especially because of how rare it is in media.

Nancy Kwan was one of the first famous Asian figures in American media. She starred in the ever so famous movie The World of Suzie Wong (1960), she portrayed Suzie Wong who was a Hong Kong prostitute who white men would just basically pine over and fight over. This movie catapulted Nancy Kwan into the American spotlight, she became a well-known actress and proceeded to pave the way for Asians in American media. While Nancy Kwan did put Asians on the map and paved the way, she received a whole lot of backlash for creating the stereotype of Asian Americans being dragon ladies.

With the popularity of Suzie Wong, it showed America a different side of Asians, and it basically created two different versions that an Asian woman could be, either the passive flower or the exotic dragon lady. This movie also piqued the interest of Asian women. Suzie Wong basically showed a lot of America that Asian women are basically sex objects that will only please and worship no matter how badly they treat you.

This movie basically created this sex appeal of Asian women because they knew it would sell. At first, it was supposed to be a win for Asians in media because before this Asian female leads were always portrayed by white actors, and if an Asian women were to be on the screen she would never be the lead because of strict Hollywood taboos. So Suzie Wong really put a real Asian face on the screens of America.

With the popularity of Suzie Wong came the creation of other dragon ladies and different ladies became new sex symbols.

While this was a win because it was one of the first times an Asian was a lead and it did make strides for Asians in media a lot of people were angry with Nancy Wong for taking a raunchy acting role. They claimed that what she did was bad for the image of Asian women and it took steps back for Asian women instead of forward.

In a PopMatters movie review for Suzie Wong written by Sharon Mizota (2004), she writes that Suzie Wong created an “American imperialism as a love story” (Mizota) and how a lot of other Asian American view Kwan’s movie as a “ notorious example of the stereotypical and demeaning ways” (Mizota).

This article also reveals that because of this movie men basically found it okay to take advantage of Asian women. That all Asian women want to be controlled and dominated by a white male. It basically made it normal for Asian women to be raped on screen.

This just shows the negative effects of the dragon lady stereotype years after the movie. It’s been a good couple decades and Kwan’s lead role has still followed her to this day. Since she was the first Asian woman to become a dragon lady and make it relatively big in the celebrity scene. This article also shows that I’m not the only one who is bothered by these stereotypes and that it really has impacted other people.

Nancy Kwan is still very much a walking legend. She is still doing a lot of things for the Asian community and is still showing support for the next generation of Asian American actors and media.

In her NBC News interview “Nancy Kwan had trouble sustaining her Hollywood career. Now, she; thinks opportunities abound.” by Stephany Bai, Kwan talks about how back in her day there weren’t really parts being written for her, instead she had to fit into what Hollywood wanted her to be. Kwan talks about how when she was in Hollywood she “ Unfortunately…at that time it was very restricted” (Bai). So you can’t really blame her for creating this dragon lady stigma because she had to do it for livelihood. She talks about how “no scripts being written, or interesting roles in order to sustain one’s career” (Bai). There was nothing else offered to her so she saw what she needed to do and she did it. She doesn’t regret what she did and it’s because it benefited her, is it bad that she doesn’t feel guilty for the creation of an incredibly racist stereotype. She needed to make money, and the way to survive was through the scripts that she had to become, not scripts that were made for her. However, she is making up for it by supporting up and coming Asian American actors and supporting the increasing platforms for themselves.

While she did help create the Dragon Lady stereotype she also brought forth other really important Asian American films such as Flower Drum Song, one of the very first all Asian cast about, Asian immigrants adjusting to America. She really kick-started it for Asians without her, Asian people would probably be light-years away.

I first learned about Dragon Ladies through my Asian American Mass Media class, my professor Justin Woodard. I was planning on interviewing him at my last class but it was canceled due to a family emergency he had. This class happens to fall on a Wednesday and so it’s like in the awkward in-between just waiting. But I do plan on going to his office hours. I also think it could be intriguing to interview other Asian women and see what they know about dragon ladies and other Asian stereotypes.

I interviewed a fellow Asian American friend of mine Jennalynne Laquindanum, a second-year here at SFSU. She is an American born Filipina and grew up in Sacramento, California. I asked her a series of questions in regards to Asian American women. Here’s what I got from her.

Jenna has never really been called exotic by anyone else besides her family. That she doesn’t know what a dragon lady is but she knows that a lot of people do get dragon tattoos. She doesn’t necessarily feel like she is more sexualized and fetishized than others because she doesn’t fit the “traditional” Asian, because she gets more comments on being Latinx or Native American.

So, Jenna although she experienced different things from me she made me realize something. That this creation of Dragon Ladies doesn’t apply to all Asians. That it’s mostly catered towards East Asians. So because of this I realized I plan on interviewing some more East Asian American women in order to see what their perspective is.

In the book Screening, Asian Americans a team of Asian American authors explore the impact and history of Asian Americans in the media. There is a chapter written by Laura Hyun Yi-Kang an Asian American woman who is the chair of Women’s Studies at the University of California, Irvine titled “The Desiring of Asian Female Bodies: Interacial Romance and Cinematic Subjection.” In this chapter, Yi-Kang reveals the history of how the female Asian body became sexualized, the history of Asian American women in media, and how masculinity defines what is feminine and what isn’t.

Yi-Kang discusses how an Asian women’s body is seen as “exotic and enticing” (75 Yi-Kang) compared to the Asian male counterparts who are seen as “predatory figures..ugly or loathsome” (75 Yi Kang), this all stems from history because before we were in this day and age, America began truly exploring Asia and Asian culture, Asia has always been seen as the other. This is because of the notion that Asian men were taking all the cheap labor and single women here in America, and then came the racist immigration laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and Geary Act, American propaganda turned Asian men into foreign monkeys who would only cause harm to women. and for some reason, men, specifically European/white men especially feel like they need to “save” Asian women. White America created this scene where Asian women needed saving from Asian men because they were too pretty for them but just exotic enough to please the white superior counterpart.

At first, when Asia was shown to the American masses it was shown as a backward lawless society that somehow white America was always trying to fix. It made the “us versus them” mentality and created a really interesting image on Asians in general which would carry on into the other generations.

Because of this already budding interest in Asian women when China finally reached the same stage as America and was slowly starting business with them, white American businessmen were starting to be introduced to the real society of Asia, and they were really intrigued by their red-light districts and how “coy” and “submissive” the sex workers of Asia were, this then leads to basically the confirmation of the fetish of Asians.

So the introduction of Asian women in a new society that is up to date with America then created a new sex object for Hollywood to sell, which lead to the creation of the dragon lady stereotype.

I learned a lot of things from this essay actually, the history of dragons, the creation of one of the most popular dragon ladies in America, and insight from other Asian women as well. Perhaps the most interesting thing that I’ve learned is the history of Suzie Wong and Nancy Kwan, at first, I hated her because she’s the reason why Asian women were basically turned into sex objects and it followed us to this day. But when I learned more about her I couldn’t bring myself to hate her. She had to do what she had to because it was her livelihood. She had no intention of becoming a sex symbol, just like how I had no intention of my tattoo being turned into a gross pick up line. She was just a strong woman doing what she had to do and I can’t hate her for that. This research also made me realize a lot of the stereotypes that Asian women have are a direct result of the white men in America, which was disappointing but not surprising. It was also interesting to see how long I’ve been angry and tormented by dragon ladies.