Films About Us Without Us
So, do we have Asian representation in American media? I’d argue, no yet. But have we had “Asian” representation? Oh hell yeah.
TL;DR: Eastern and western influences on each other: let’s not just make this a culture swap. Can we make it cultural communal sharing?
As a first-generation Chinese American, looking at eastern culture in the west, particularly East Asian cultures in the United States, is a personal thing. As a kid, I remember thinking I was just like all the other blonde, blue-eyed, fair-skinned girls on my community soccer team, until a girl on the team started calling me “Blackie” because of the color of my hair (wild, right?). In middle school, one of my classmates, half-Japanese and half-white, would pull his eyes back and speak broken English to make his friends laugh. When a group of my family and family friends, Asian and Asian-American, went to go see Crazy Rich Asians, one of them remarked after the movie, “That was so unrealistic. Asian men aren’t that attractive… there’s a reason the lead actor was Hapa” (Hapa = half Asian, half white).
Growing up, the only Asian person I saw lit up on an English-speaking screen, glorified, was Mulan. I’m 22 now, and we’re only just now starting to make mainstream strides. According to one report, “while Asian Americans made up 5.4% of the U.S. population, they represented just 1.4% of lead characters in studio films in 2014” (Chow, for Time). When Awkwafina hosted SNL in 2018, she opened her monologue noting that the last Asian woman to host the show was Lucy Liu, in 2000. For those Asians and Asian-Americans cast in roles, they usually see the same thing: “The roles weren’t super offensive,” says Randall Park, one of my personal Asian-American actor favorites. “But when you look back and realize how many doctors you play, you think, O.K., that’s how they see us.”
So, do we have Asian representation in American media? I’d argue, not yet. But have we had “Asian” representation? Oh hell yeah.
We’ve all seen that one clip of Mickey Rooney as “Mr. Yunioshi” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961), you know, the one where he’s some sort of bastardization of a million east-Asian accents delivered with such spit velocity that I wouldn’t even want to be in that theater. There’s also Katharine Hepburn, with the taped-back eyes in “Dragon Seed” (1944). But it’s not just these beloved classics — we’ve seen Ashton Kutcher in that one snack commercial in 2012, where he’s been painted brown, wagging his head, and calling himself a Bollywood producer named “Raj” (whoever wrote this — what’s with the bobblehead action? Kutcher’s gonna strain his neck) (Also, he’s apologized). How about Karlie Kloss in 2017, paper-sheet white, and showing off sexy back muscles next to a sumo wrestler? (She apologized for that, though). Oh, and a classic — lovely, lovely Emma Stone, who for the record has gone on record to apologize, as a half-Asian woman in “Aloha” (2015). Don’t worry, there’s those who diplomatically turned down apologizing, too. Tilda Swinson, as the Tibetan “Ancient One” in Doctor Strange (2016) (Tilda Swinson? Tilda? Swinson??). Scarlet Johansson as “Major” in the beloved, complex, highly culturally beloved Japanese anime “Ghost in the Shell.”
Not only are these characters “whitewashed,” but even the type of character gets stereotyped. In “How I Met Your Mother,” Raj, who is also the only person of color in the regular cast, is somehow the most “feminine,” shy, unable-to-even-talk-to-women character among a cast of self-proclaimed nerds. Same case with “Long Duk Dong” in Sixteen Candles. Louis C.K.? He made a joke saying that all Asian men were basically women. We’ve all seen the demure, submissive Asian woman role (looking at you, “Dragon Seed”). Or even better — the female asian woman warrior with the purple streak in her hair (“Tina,” Glee. “Knives Chau,” Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. “Mako,” Pacific Rim. “GoGo,” Big Hero 6. “Blink,” “Psylocke,” and “Yukio” the X-Men films (three? You didn’t think we’d notice?).
A Little History Lesson
How did this happen? Harry Shum. Jr recounts in the episode “A Very Offensive Rom-Com” of NPR’s podcast Invisibilia how in 1875, the Page Act banned singled Chinese women from coming to the U.S. because they were “prostitutes” who would “corrupt and contaminate white boys.” During the 20th century, U.S. soldiers in Asian countries started marrying Asian women. So, of course, in 1945, the War Brides Act allowed these soldiers to bring their wives back home. On the flip side, while the only Chinese women in the U.S. were brides brought back from war, the already living-in-America Chinese men had no Chinese women to marry. In addition, anti-miscegenation laws made having relationships outside of one’s’ race illegal. It didn’t help that these Asian men often did jobs that wouldn’t rely on the English language — jobs like laundry and cooking (you know. So-called “women’s” work.) So not only did Asian women get represented as “exotically seductive,” but Asian men were emasculated.
Where Are We Now? (We = Asians, represented)
Last week, I was scrolling on TikTok and came across the “fox eye” trend. The idea is, you use makeup and your hands to make your eyes look slimmer, more seductive — you know, like Megan Fox and Bella Hadid. Not like the billions of Asian women born with slim eyes, the same ones who got made fun of by other kids pulling their temples back and saying, “No eyes! No eyes!”
Movies like Crazy Rich Asians and Parasite, the popularity of K-pop, Bollywood films, the music label 88Rising and Filipino rapper Ruby Ibarra, and public figures like Awkwafina, Ali Wong, and even Andrew Yang are helping to break the news: Asian people are diverse, complex, beautiful, funny, artistic, politically active, sometimes smart and sometimes dumb — and we’re enough to deserve representation. There will always be naysayers, but we’re making progress.
Oh, and here’s Trump’s reaction to Parasite winning the Oscar.
(Is Trump trying to #OscarsSoAsian?)
Look, it’s not like a lot of these actors and TikTok’rs have been trying to hate on Asian people. In fact, in some cases, it’s a type of appreciation. But while Asians are still mocked, stereotyped, and passed over for roles because they are Asian, let’s at least try to raise them up and give them credit where it’s due.
Let’s get more Asian people, more people of color, more diverse voices represented. Because while I love Mulan, I want my future kid to grow up with more than her.
Let’s not just make this a culture swap. Can we make it cultural communal sharing?
Sources:
“Crazy Rich Asians Kicked Down the Door. Now Asian Americans Are Fighting To Stay in the Room” by Andrew R. Chow for Time: https://time.com/5622913/asian-american-representation-hollywood/
“The “Asian Character Hair Streak” Is Real And A Huge Problem” by Rachael Krishna for Buzzfeed News: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/krishrach/people-want-to-know-why-asian-cartoon-characters-all-have
“Here’s What You Get Wrong When You Culturally Appropriate Asian Fashion” by Brittany Wong for HuffPost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/asian-culture-appropriation_l_5cd20d2be4b0a7dffcce2e1e
“A Very Offensive Rom-Com” from NPR’s podcast Invisibilia: https://www.npr.org/transcripts/709948132?storyId=709948132
“Our True Face: The “fox eye” trend neglects the underlying racism against Asians” by Maria
Jimenez Moya for The Daily Free Press: https://dailyfreepress.com/2020/02/27/our-true-face-the-fox-eye-trend-neglects-the-underlying-racism-against-asians/
