WP1 REVISED: Exposing Hollywood’s Fake Narrative to Develop Real Equality in Storytelling
When people look back at the film industry, or more specifically, Hollywood, 100 years ago, and compare it to today’s world, most of them would think that we, as a society, have come a long way in terms of diversity, equality, and representation. We could say the same when comparing today’s world to the world 50 years ago, 25 years ago, 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago. This is true… to an extent. Hollywood has changed a lot since it first started, but in the grand scheme of things, it has moved at much too slow a pace to get to where it is today. Since I was seven years old, becoming an actor has been my dream, and to this day, it has never changed. But as I got older, I noticed that most of my inspirations and role models as an actor were/are white people, as they are truly all I saw on screen and even on the stage (being raised in a suburban city called Fort Collins, CO).
And before I started to work as a professional actor a few years ago, I actually used to think that Hollywood was doing an amazing job at being more inclusive. In fact, this is a sentiment that is shared by most film/TV lovers today, because of the false narrative that “things have changed” that Hollywood has pushed onto us in terms of the development of Asian representation in the industry. In order to raise the awareness of this false narrative to film/TV lovers and filmmakers alike, the concept of how this idea actually impacts real equality in storytelling needs to be tackled.
When I was younger, I was happy to just be able to see the growth in the amount of films/TV shows that were centered around Asian people/characters. However, a lot of this satisfaction that I felt and that many other Asian people feel today is a direct result of Hollywood making it seem as though they are making drastically progressive improvements, while not actually doing it. The news and the internet are great sources of distributing information to a countless number of people. In turn, they are also able to be very easy and effective ways to manipulate their audiences.
For example, look at how the film, Crazy Rich Asians was marketed to the public. This movie, in terms of who worked on it, appeared to be a huge step forward for Asian reputation and representation in Hollywood. However, the actual content of the project consisted of characters that reinforce and play into Asian stereotypes and a bland story that focused more on the fact that it was an “Asian story” than a good one. Yet, the false narrative that “things have changed” that Hollywood has forced can be found by looking no further than even the titles of the articles that talk about the movie, such as The New York Times’ “‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Tops Box Office, Proving Power of Diversity (Again)” and Toronto Star’s “Groundbreaking Crazy Rich Asians instills hope among Asian-Americans.” The “Power of Diversity” already sounds like a weird, fake term that only Hollywood uses to profit off of people of color. And “groundbreaking” and “hope-instilling” wouldn’t be the words I would use to describe a story that is full of stereotypes and preconceived notions about the people that it is trying to represent.
Even in today’s world, most people’s favorite movies and TV shows star or center around a white actor/character. None of these stories are based around their “whiteness” or have the core issue being what race they are. Yet, when I got my first agent and started to audition for projects, I noticed that most, if not all, of them were solely about the characters’ “Asianness,” or their “culture” and “identity.” Since Asian people have rarely been the main subject of films and TV shows, Hollywood has felt the need to make us feel empowered by putting all of their focus only on making films that are “proudly Asian” and nothing else. In doing this, they are subconsciously making Asian people feel like the “other,” which is the complete opposite of what equality is.
Yes, being a person of color in America is a completely unique experience that comes with a plethora of issues that are rooted in the fact that we are not white. And yes, the racial/historical/situational context and subtext of stories surrounding Asian characters should still exist in the content. However, that’s only a part of our lives, and our race isn’t always a main factor/component of our life experiences sometimes.
Sure, I am extremely proud to be Korean and wouldn’t change my identity for the world, but I am more than just a Korean person. I am a human too with regular human problems! Since I first wanted to become an actor, most of my dream roles were to be the main character in stories that don’t just revolve around the character being Asian/Korean. Stories where the character just HAPPENS to be Asian/Korean and doesn’t make a big deal about it, because I don’t make a big deal about it in real life. Of course, there are beautifully done films and other mediums of art/storytelling that do a deep dive on what one’s history/background/culture means and how one discovers their identity. But when it comes to filmmaking in terms of having an Asian main character, too many of the projects focus too much on this same subject, so much so that it has become unoriginal and predictable.
True equality in storytelling will only be achieved when more stories based on Asian people are centered around the idea(s) in the art get developed, which is something white actors, writers, and filmmakers get to do no matter what. 99% of the time, stories that are centered on white characters don’t have anything to do with their “whiteness,” so why should BIPOC projects be that much different?
Let’s compare a recently released, typical Hollywood, studio movie in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, to a recently released, groundbreaking limited series show (that I actually auditioned for) in Beef. From first glance, they seem pretty similar in their support and representation for the Asian community (especially in the entertainment industry).
Now, let’s compare the actual content and story of the two projects. Shang-Chi is about a Chinese martial arts warrior that fights his wise, yet evil, gang leader father which inevitably ends in a huge battle between both parties’ respective giant flying dragons. Beef is a story about two Asian-Americans dealing with mental health and other personal life issues, going through a somehow-intertwined journey to try and become better people. Which one has more substance and seems like something more Asian people would be proud of and can relate to?
The word “representation” is always used especially in projects/products like this, but who is Shang-Chi really representing? Shang-Chi was fun and kind of a step in the right direction, but obviously, it had a LOT to do with the promotion of Asianness, rather than having any actual real, meaningful, creative, and original ideas that were displayed in Beef. Real equality in cinematic storytelling doesn’t just come from the amount of Asian people and Asian content that the audience is exposed to, but from how they are displayed and how they should be held to the same standard as any of the other stories/films/shows that are considered to be great.
Yet, one could see that the directors/creators of both projects, Destin Daniel Cretton for Shang-Chi and Lee Sung Jin for Beef, are both Asian and argue that this difference in the substance of the two films is just a difference in style and interest when it comes to storytelling/filmmaking. One could argue that perhaps that’s the type of story and lore that Cretton, a fellow Asian person, wanted to create with Shang-Chi, so maybe some Asian people do strongly relate to and feel empowered by these types of stories. But upon closer inspection, there’s just a few small, yet important details that are missing. He was the only non-white writer of that movie out of three screenwriters, and what’s even more important is that the original writer and artist that made the comic book that the movie is replicating/following is Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin, two white males.
The American film industry markets to the public that they are giving more creative power and opportunity to the Asian community, but the real power and control seems to still be coming from other sources and people, which is why projects like Shang-Chi feel so ingenuine.
With this, diversity should be in every job, not just acting, in order for equal storytelling to exist. In hindsight, the success of projects like Parasite, Squid Games, Beef and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once was so impactful and important, because it normalized having Asian people on the screen without making a big deal out of it. What’s the common denominator? They were original ideas created by Asian filmmakers (directors, screenwriters, etc.) who actually know what it’s like to live as Asian people.
I’ve talked to five different Asian filmmaker/artist friends of mine about the concept of this paper and the issue that it is tackling. It was no surprise that they all passionately shared the same sentiment with me in believing that we need more stories with characters that just happen to be Asian without making a big deal out of it. What is also no surprise is how this shows how behind Hollywood still is. So much so that it needed these films and TV shows to win countless awards, break records, and make history to demonstrate that it is acceptable to have regular Asian characters, especially regarding lead characters.
Most of the time, I see casting calls for roles of projects where being white is a requirement for what types of actors they are looking for and who can submit. But why? From the description of these characters and scripts, most of them could technically be ANY race, so why does casting limit their options solely to white actors? It makes sense when there is a valid reason for the character to have to be a certain race, but a lot of the time with “white” characters, there just isn’t.
I’m not calling for the hiring of Asian actors in roles just for the sake of diversity, but for there to be more of an open-mindedness by the ones making the choices, instead of giving into what the choices might look like they call for at first glance. Luckily, roles that are open to “ALL ETHNICITIES” are getting more common, but the number is definitely not anywhere close to what it needs to be. All that needs to happen in order to fix this is an awareness of this unprogressive pattern to be raised in hopes for creatives, filmmakers, and casting directors to be more open to diverse possibilities when it comes to Hollywood’s stories and their characters.
Works Cited
Barnes, Brooks. “‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Tops Box Office, Proving Power of Diversity (Again).” The New York Times, 19 Aug. 2018.
Chiu, Allyson. “Groundbreaking Crazy Rich Asians Instills Hope Among Asian-Americans.” Toronto Star, 3 Aug. 2018.
Crazy Rich Asians. Directed by Jon M. Chu, Warner Brothers, 2018.
Lee Sung Jin, creator. Beef. Netflix, 2023.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 2021.
