WP3: The Creative Asian-American
My father once said “You can do anything you want in your life, Monica.” These words are not commonly spoken in an Asian household, as children’s career paths are usually guided by family. The freedom I had in my life and future not only represents the unconventional upbringing I experienced, but also the contrast to the limited creative expression and individuality many Asian-American youth struggle with as a result of Asian values, principles, and background and its connection to modern-day society.
A variety of factors that one is surrounded with throughout their lives play a significant role in their perception of themselves and the world around them. This is no exception for career choices and the levels of creativity tied to certain professions. Not only has parental upbringing played a significant impact and shaping role in the creative identity in the Asian-American community, but also sociocultural influences and media representation. This is observed by various interviews, history, and certain career industries and its levels of representation found in everyday life. Examining the various factors that have played in building the Asian-American creative identity allows for the departure from traditional Asian stereotypes and creates room for the inclusion of representation throughout everyday life.
When we hear what it means to be Asian American, words and traits often influenced by various Western-made perceptions come to mind. Very rarely do we realize the history behind such images of racial groups, as they often stem from racist connotations in history produced by white society. Words that are both deemed as positive and derogatory come up, such as studious, quiet, and robotic. In addition to the intelligent demur these words seem to produce regarding Asians, the absence of the correlation to creativity in any of these words elicits the perception of Asians as uncreative. According to a 2015 Forbes article, Asian Americans “aren’t creative enough, lack leadership skills, and don’t take risks” (Zhao). In the Western eye, these are the traits that define Asian Americans, feeding into the idea that Asians are robot-like and are always followers, instead of leaders. This serves as a basis from which Asian Americans are judged upon that limits them from entering various fields, most notably, the creative industry.
Asian Americans are pushed into various career paths by their parents and households. Their upbringings are rooted in traditional Asian values, as well as the model minority culture created by Western white society. For example, the conventional career paths in medicine or law are considered the best job an Asian child could have. Kim states in her article “Why Asian People Are Uncreative? Why Jewish People Are Creative?” that most Asian parenting is shaped by Confucian values that emphasize conformity, hierarchy, filial piety, and academic achievement, explaining such high career expectations for children. Any career in the arts would be a disappointment to the household, as it is deemed “unstable” and not respected enough. As a result of the non-existing identity Asians Americans are tied to in conjunction with their upbringing, the main struggle Asian Americans face in terms of their identity is passion. While they may have an interest they are passionate about, their filial duties and parental expectations obstruct them from pursuing such passions.
Despite the objection many children face, the disapproval of such career paths stem from a place of love. Parents’ main goal is for their children to have a clear, stable path to success in order to live a comfortable life and have a high reputable position in society. A career in the arts rarely provides any of this, making Asian parents turn away from this field for their children. The Confucian values many parents hold in high esteem serve as a basis and context for how Asian Americans are raised that affects their creative ability, factoring in the idea that Asian Americans are uncreative, stemming from their upbringing.
Even if their children are not passionate about careers in medicine, law, or STEM, parents have their underlying reasons for why they push their children into such career paths. We see this parental ideology in an interview held by The Guardian. In the interview, a Chinese-American woman shares what her mother told her to choose a career in medicine over interior design, demonstrating the influence parental values have over children’s career choices: “In math, there’s always a right answer; one plus one always equals two. It’s not that way in the arts” (qtd. in J. Lee) What many Asian households value in life is a clear, stable direction for their futures. Fields in STEM that are straightforward and are known to always be successful are the reason why they are preferred over jobs in the arts. In the creative field, success is not always guaranteed, and it is inevitable that there can be struggles such as keeping food on the table or paying bills. This is most likely known as the reason as to why passion is not as valued in Asian cultures than in American cultures, providing a source of reasoning as to why there is a lack of creative expression in the Asian-American community.
Given the fact that Asians greatly struggled in America, as they were known as the foreign, undesirable race, they place a significant amount of value on career path and stability for their future generations. This is due to the fact that they had to greatly work hard to get to their place in society, according to E. Lee’s article “The Chinese Exclusion Example: Race, Immigration, and American Gatekeeping, 1882–1924” (37). In breaking down such viewpoints of Asians in early America, the model minority was created, when Asians were instead looked upon in a positive light. Wu’s “The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority” article supports this idea that the Asian community became the minority that other foreign groups should be modeled after, as they represented the American dream and its values and meritocracy. This positive viewpoint of Asians then serves as an incentive to continue following such career paths, as Asians begin to become more and more successful in the public eye. The continuation of such traditions is mainly focused on the goal of success in America. The ingrained mindset of having a strict recipe for success in America creates a plethora of households that strive against creativity in preference for their children’s future success and acceptance in society.
Considering the obstacles and parental objections Asian Americans face in their career paths, I have had my own personal experience with creative expression and my upbringing. Unlike the traditional strict Asian-American households, however, my parents allowed me to explore anything I wanted without the pressure of going into medicine or law. This allowed me to have various phases in my interests, from writing to film production to music to coding. Regardless of the field, I had my parents’ support in being able to explore anything I wanted, allowing me to have a sense of individuality that I was blessed enough to have. This sense of freedom that was introduced to me from an early age heavily influenced my creative ability and identity. Based on the “Long-Term Effect of Parents’ Support of Adolescents’ Career Maturity” journal by Lim and You, parental support is one of the most vital sources of motivation and confidence in children, as approval is something that many children sought after. With the emotional support of parents, children have the emotional confidence and stability to explore careers they are passionate about. This allows adolescents to be the decision-makers in their own lives, rather than their parents; children can control their own lives, developing a sense of autonomy and individuality.
This is evident in my own personal experience because parental support has created a sense of identity for me and confidence for me to be able to explore anything I wanted without the fear of having to live up to my parents’ expectations. While my parents also value filial piety and academic achievement, they placed a greater emphasis on my happiness and how my passions could be paired with different career choices that would also lead to financial stability and success. As long as I was content and trying my hardest in everything I pursued, I had my parents’ support in anything I embarked on. I became more independent professionally, teaching myself various skills based on my passions, growing to be more controlling of my own life. My own upbringing provides a stark contrast to the common background other Asian Americans are raised in, demonstrating just how big of an impact parental influence and values can have on an individual’s creativeness and identity along with their self-esteem in career choice.
However, in conjunction with households serving as limitations for Asian Americans who strive to enter the arts, the creative field itself also acts as a barrier. There is a notable underrepresentation of Asian Americans in the creative industry — from film to music — that serves as a visual representation of how unconventional it is for Asian Americans to break into the arts.
When Asian Americans are able to have a spot in the industry, their roles almost always uphold and perpetuate a derogatory stereotype that locks Asian Americans into that specific role for history, most commonly based on gender. For example, Asian-American women have been objectified in Hollywood films since the 1980s. From being known as the overtly sexual “Dragon Lady” to the submissive and quiet “Chinese Doll”, there has been a negative stereotype of Asian women that has bloomed in such creative industries. These stereotypes not only perpetuate harmful racial problems like the hypersexualization of Asian women, but they also demonstrate the negative stigma that revolves around the creative industry for Asian Americans, justifying parents’ disapproval of such career paths.
There exists several stereotypical roles for Asian women in the film industry in modern-day entertainment. While they have expanded in roles, Asian women’s film roles continue to have themselves degraded to nothing but an accessory to men that continues to feed into a racist and sexist stereotype for women in film. In an interview with East Side Stories, Joyce Keokham stated that Asian actresses most likely get cast as a “white guy’s girlfriend or…a fresh-off-the-boat Asian who’s a prostitute who can barely speak English” (“What It Takes To Be An Asian American Creative (Part 1/2) 00:35–00:46). Such sexual stereotypical roles for Asian women place no sense of individuality on them, as they are characterized by either their relationship with men or their foreignness. Asian women in films are all grouped together and are responsible for representing their entire racial community. In the creative field, Asian women are defined by strictly their sexuality and they continue to struggle in breaking away from this narrative.
The inclusion of the damaging image of how women were portrayed is significant because it represents the upholding of stereotypes and the reason for which these roles were made, which were the Western white male gaze. As a result of such damaging images found in cinematography, Asian women have been unable to break from their role of docile or sexual women. Their identities are tied directly to their race and sexuality, dehumanizing them as individuals. In the short film “Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded”, it is argued that a significant factor in the hypersexualization of Asian women is their so-called “exoticness” and “submissiveness” that entices the white male gaze. The limited stereotypical roles not only demonstrate the limited roles Asian Americans, especially women, have had in the creative industry in Hollywood, but also the intersectionality of race and gender identity, as well as the limitation on individuality Hollywood has placed on Asian society in general (Crenshaw 23–24). Rather than allowing Asians to creatively expand in the roles they play, the creative field solidifies their role to how Western society perceives them based on stereotypes, creating barriers for their individuality and creative expression.
In conjunction, Asian men also face harmful stereotypes in terms of their creative expression, as it is rather nonexistent for them. Asian men, just like women, have been placed in singular types of roles that offer no career or creative expansion in Hollywood. For example, Asian male actors are very rarely placed with a love interest and are seen with traits that focus on academia and a nonexistent social life. With the strict career paths created for Asian American children and the creative boundaries, Asian Americans are usually perceived as “robots”. This not only dehumanizes living, breathing people because they are “unable to express emotions”, but this also generalizes the entire Asian-American community with only one type of career path, interest, and mannerism. This influences the idea that “all Asians look the same” that goes hand-in-hand with the robotic image of Asians, demonstrating how we are viewed as interchangeable and replaceable in the Western eye. This type of image created for the Asian community has had a severe impact on Asians in all facets of society, from the workforce to Hollywood. The continued use of this “robotic Asian” stereotype in films continues to expose the public to this harmful image of Asians, not allowing them to be capable of having emotions, personality, or creativity.
In addition to creative expression in film, there is a notable underrepresentation of Asian artists in the music industry. Very rarely do we see Asian-American artists in the Western music scene, and there are very few Asian artists signed with major record labels. For example, Capitol Records (home to prominent artists such as Katy Perry and Niall Horon) have no artists of Asian descent. In contrast, 88Rising has a significant number of Asian musicians signed with them, as they are a label dedicated to supporting Asian-American artists in the Western industry. Despite the company’s success in uplifting Asian pride and providing Asian youth a sense of hope, it is clear that a company solely dedicated to Asian artists is needed to see the representation we need in the music industry. The idea that Asian Americans are uncreative, hard to market, and robotic limits individuality in this career path, as well as the option to even have a future in the field, as many Asian youth do not see people who look like them in the industry. The lack of representation encourages Asian Americans to continue following the model minority that feeds into white superiority and judgement because of Asian Americans’ so-called “foreignness”.
Many Asian-American youth struggle with their passions and creative identity because of the lack of representation in such creative fields. Despite the supportive upbringing I experienced, there was always a wavering feeling I had internally that made me question if I would even be successful because of my race, representing how significant of a problem Asian representation in entertainment and the arts is. With a lack of representation, adolescents can feel a sense of invisibility and ignorance that destroy or alter their perception of their own success, as stated by Basnet in their article “A Diversity Deficit: The Implications of Lack of Representation in Entertainment on Youth”.For example, if I had grown up listening to artists like BTS or watching films with Asian actors in non-stereotypical roles, there is a stronger chance that I would have felt more confident in my creative passions and not feel like a “backup option” were necessary. Not only does representation allow Asian youth to develop positive connections with their ethnic and racial identity, but it also allows them to believe there is a chance for them to pursue various career paths because people that look like them already do, according to Rogers in the article “Why Representation Matters in Kids’ Media”. Considering the fact that success has historically been measured by those who are white, the lack of representation has the power to make youth feel that they are unable to live up to the expectations and standards society is searching for in the creative fields, influencing them to pursue other career choices.
Upon examining the various factors that play into Asian-American creative expression in Western society in contrast to my personal experience, we can observe that there is a notable problem in representation in creative professions. This is not only induced by parental values and traditions, but also by history and how Western society has perceived Asian Americans over the years. The absence of underrepresentation and continuous creative limitations will ultimately result in the greater acceptance of various creative career choices and identity that can influence how Asian Americans perceive themselves and their futures. Not only will this bring in an influx of creative expression for the Asian-American community, but it will also represent an acceptance and opportunity for new values in future generations.
Works Cited
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