Jane Chung in, “Underrepresented in Hollywood.”
More Than a Face in the Crowd: The Fifty-Year Career of Asian-American Actress Jane Chung (16 March, 2013) is a documentary on Asian actress Jane Chung by Samantha Chan, her great niece. This film gives an insightful look at the life and career of Jane Chung as an actress. During the time of Chung’s career, Hollywood was full of whitewashing. Furthermore, Chung was one of the few Asian American actresses at that time. The film furthermore shows how difficult it was for Asian American actresses to land leading roles. Chung was put in many supporting roles, rather than starring roles. And rather than showing how hard it was to break into the industry, the film showed how hard it was to be an Asian actress from within the industry.
The film narrated by Jane Chung’s great niece, chronicles Jane’s career as an Asian American actress gives viewers a new perspective. Chan’s credibility is established when she states that she is related to Jane Chung. Her credibility strengthens when she interviews Chung’s relatives, whom interacted with Jane when she was still an actress. Chung’s family members are interviewed in the film as they discuss Jane’s career and how it affected her personal life. The movie invites the audience to learn about Jane’s career and what it was like working as an Asian American actress in Hollywood. Overall, Asians were and are not yet, given the credit they deserve for their hard work and dedication.
Chan’s film drew and directed the audience’s attention to the background characters in movies. There aren’t many Asian American’s in Hollywood, and Chan addresses this as she begins to conduct research on her great aunt. As Chan does some research, she learns that, “there are nine Jane Chung’s on IMBD, and I’m pretty sure that seven of them are her” (00:03:01–00:03:07). There were only few Asian actors at the time. Even then, Asians didn’t play major roles compared to their White colleagues. Asians typically played stereotypical or background roles. “The names seem so generic — Aunt May, Little Hong, Chinese Lady. I’ve never heard of most of them.” (03:09–03:19). They also received little recognition and screen time.
How Jane got interested in becoming an actress, surprised me. Jane was a “typical” stay-at-home mom and the family was doing well financially. In the film, it is learned that Chung’s children were part of the movie business when they were young. Sue Fawn Chung, Jane’s daughter, stated that her and her brother played background roles of stereotypical Chinese children. When World War II and the Korean War were at an end, the movie industry wanted to do films about Asia, or war in Asia. Chung’s children jumpstarted Jane Chung’s acting career, because those movies needed Asian families; not just children but adults as well. It was the 1950’s and Jane was 39 years old. During 1951–1957, there were only a few speaking roles for Asian Americans. However, after the Vietnam War and Civil Rights Movement, when Asians protested and fought for their rights, Asian American actors sought roles that were not restricted to only Asian characters.
Struggling to find her great aunt in the films that she appeared in, Chan creates a strong emotional appeal and directs the audience to focus their attention to the background characters. Chan says, “Looking for Jane has led me to watch movies in a completely new way. I find myself paying more attention to the background than the main leads” (00:10:51–00:11:02). Furthermore, it made me think about how much attention I paid to background characters in films nowadays. After I watched the documentary, I tried paying attention to the background characters to see what roles those actors played and what race they were.
The lack in Jane’s noted filmography, made me wonder why actresses like her weren’t more notable and memorable, since there was a documentary made about her. Chan says, “It’s not been easy to find her. Sometimes all I have to go off is a photograph” (00:11:14–00:11:20). Jane only had a few appearances and sometimes, few speaking roles. Finding Jane was very difficult. The only way the audience would have found Chung in her early works is if they were able to spot her quickly before she disappeared off-screen. Chan says, “Aside from her childhood growing up in San Francisco Chinatown, Jane’s had very little in common with the comfortable middle-class life that Jane lived outside of acting” (00:12:39 -00:12:48). In her later works, she seemingly played more speaking roles, but as a stereotypical “Chinese grandma.” Chan states, “Jane’s English was actually quite good, but she rarely got to show it” (00:13:20–00:13:23). Jane spoke Chinese in most of the movies that she was later featured in. In these movies, Chung was no longer in the background but a minor character role. Chan states that in the ’50s and early ’60s, women in the workplace were unusual. “Back in those days, there probably wasn’t too many careers that could be made of being an actress, especially an Asian actress” (00:16:10–00:16:21). While many Asian women were trying to adapt to the American lifestyle of “blending in,” Jane Chung continued her career journey as an actress. Chan says, “In When Harry Met Sally, Jane plays the wife in one of the interview couples. Each couple talks about their experience with love and marriage. This is the one role my family remembers best. And, ironically, she doesn’t speak a word” (20:30–20:46). After what seemed like so much progress for Jane, she still did not receive the attention she deserved. Jane spent most of her life starring as a supporting character, hoping to someday be the lead and have a more important role in films. I was also disappointed to say the least.
Through Jane’s strong motivation and long dedication to being an actress, Samantha Chan convinced me to believe that Asians will never receive the credit they deserve for their hardwork. As an Asian in the 1950s movie industry, there was little to no recognition and credit to actors, especially if they did not play major roles in films. Chan’s documentary on, Jane Chung, showed the real-life experiences that Jane must have went through, according to the information she gathered from credible sources, Chung’s family. The film shows how difficult it was to get a main role, even if the actor or actress had previously been in multiple films before. Whitewashing has long been an issue within the media industry. Nowadays, Hollywood is still underrepresenting Asian actors and actresses. Chan’s film gives you the life and history of one Asian actress, whose been through it all.
References
More Than a Face in the Crowd: The Fifty-Year Career of Asian-American Actress Jane Chung. [Place of publication not identified]: New York, N.Y.: ©2013: Samantha Chan, distributed by Films Media Group, 2015.
