Erin Adler

CI 5472

30 September 2003

 

Asian Americans as Portrayed in American Television and Film

         Upon receiving the assignment of analyzing a group or occupation as portrayed by the media, I initially wanted to choose an ethnicity that was portrayed in a variety of ways.  Eventually, I chose Asian Americans for the exact opposite reason; I could not seem to find their representation anywhere!  What did this mean? How was this related to their status as a “model minority” in the United States? When they were represented, which stereotypes were enforced? What problems or issues arise in the way they are represented? I noted in the Module 5 reading that there is the second greatest discrepancy between actual percentage of the American population and representation on TV with Asian-Americans, second only to Latinos.  In the end, I found that there are many ways that Asian Americans have been portrayed, all of them based on some historical stereotype. I have outlined some of the trends I found below. I used my own recollections as a source as well as the two websites listed in the Module.  I viewed the film clip “On Orientalism” as well.

           

            As noted in the “Vanishing Son” website, the first problem with analyzing the way that Asian-Americans are shown in the media is that often there is a tenuous (at best) distinction between an Asian person and an Asian-American, especially in the past, in films and TV.  As a result, the way we see Asia greatly influences the way we see Asian Americans.  This is interesting because one would not think of confusing a German character with a German-American character.  Perhaps this is because there have been waves of recent immigration by Asian persons, and people assume there is a stronger connection there.

            The second inherent problem with this analysis is that the term “Asian American” is far too broad.  While African Americans have their roots somewhere on the continent of Africa, Asian Americans have their roots in a continent, a sub-continent, and many islands.  Are Middle Easterners Asian? It depends whom you ask.  Of these cultures, the Berkeley website said that Chinese-Americans are shown most often.

            The following are some of the representations of Asian Americans I came across:

 

Untrustworthy/Deceptive/Threatening: The first representation I thought of was the character of Ling on “Ally McBeal”.  She initially struck me as an empowered woman andunstereotypical, not negative as noted in the reading.  She can be described as icy, controlling, mysterious and provocative. However, I realized this does fit the idea of Asians being “other” as discussed at length by Edward Said, and more specifically, she is deceptive in her ways with men.  The stereotype, then, is that Asian-Americans cannot be trusted, which is also reflected on the episode of “Seinfeld” in which Elaine is getting her nails done and the women at the shop are kind to her face, but prattle on in Vietnamese.  She later finds out they are saying mean things about her.  Finally, I thought of the character of Fu Manchu.  Though I am mostly familiar with him through a style of facial hair, I know from comments from older family members that he was supposed to be threatening.  There is a lot on the first Berkeley website about his influence.

 

Comic Relief: I immediately thought of the awkward foreign exchange student in the ‘80s movie “Sixteen Candles” as a representation of an Asian (not an Asian-American) person.  He is either drunk in the movie, confused about where he is, or goofily placed under the arm of a giant, masculine white woman as an accessory.  Of course, he cannot speak English very well, adding to the “humor”.  All of this has a historical basis as well, from early film depictions of Asians as having “buck teeth, slanty eyes and yellow skin”. The Berkeley website dates this as far back as a 1906 film.  Jackie Chan would also fit in this category, with his physical comedy.

 

Subservient/submissive/quiet: This stereotype can be seen in the many roles played by Asians/Asian-Americans that require no speaking at all.  Often seen as servants, cleaners or restaurant workers (again, “Seinfeld”), a lot of time they do not say anything, but wait on white people.  The Berkeley website mentions a quote from Humphrey Bogart’s character in “Across the Pacific” (1942) that “Japanese make great servants”.  There was also a reference to the movie “San Francisco” (1936) that cited a “coolie-like” character that acted as a servant throughout, but was not listed in the credits.

 

Attractive to White Men/Exotic (Women only): This relates to Said’s book and comments about seeing Asian women as exotic/erotic, yet sexually submissive, like a Geisha girl.  Though she is not terribly submissive, I think of Tia Carrere’s character in “Wayne’s World” and Garth’s huge crush on her. There is a historic significance related to this category, and obviously a relationship between the desexualizing of Asian men.

 

The Action Hero/Athlete: I am thinking mainly of Bruce Lee movies and the “Dragon” movie detailing his life.  Jackie Chan also fits into the category of the athlete, though Bruce Lee seems more industrious and is obviously shown in a more serious way.  Figure skaters Michelle Kwan and Kristi Yamaguchi play into this representation as well.

 

The Wise Sage:  I thought immediately of the lovable, Japanese-American “Mr. Miyagi” in the “Karate Kid” movies of the ‘80s.   Even though he spoke fluent English, he was fond of saying only laconic phrases rife with deep meaning.  He knew a lot about Eastern culture and liked to sculpt his Bonsai trees, but was well-known for being the “sensei” of Ralph Macchio’s character and teaching him about karate and life.

 

Geeky/Computer-obsessed/smart:  The “Revenge of the Nerds” movies perpetuate this stereotype.

 

Friendly/docile/likeable: I created this category specifically because of Connie Chung.  I see it as a less extreme version of the “subservient” category above, because although Chung is not subservient, I always thought the main reason white Americans liked her was that she was so friendly.  There was and is little that is threatening about her, regardless of who she is interviewing (barring the Gingrich interview).  This fits with the “model minority” idea as well.  I would say Charlie Chan fits into this category, too; as a Chinese-American TV detective with no accent and nice clothing, he is likeable above all because he is Americanized.  I think Lisa Ling, formerly on “The View”, fits into this category as well.

 

Anime: One other representation worth mentioning is the movies of Kirosawa and other “Japanimation” filmmakers.  It is telling that the characters in these films have large, wide eyes (sometimes blue) and Caucasian-looking faces. 

 

Asexual/sexually submissive: This is related to the “white men” category above for women, but has its own context with men.  The website describes early representations of Asian men in film as  “eunuchs” or effeminate. Some early representations involved homosexual undertones with white male costars.

 

Other representations: Two movies that may have played a bit into stereotypes but that I saw as positive overall were the films “Snow Falling on Cedars” and “The Joy Luck Club”.  The first portrays Asian Americans as human and as legitimate victims of internment camps during WWII.  However, the story’s main romance does involve the female character’s falling in love with a white man.  The latter challenges stereotypes because each of the daughters works to find their own path in the United States.

 

Comedienne Margaret Cho also represents a fresh voice in the representation of the group.  She is loud, funny and sometimes caustic. She regularly makes jokes about Asian stereotypes and how she does not fit them.

 

An Asian-American woman became the first of her race to appear on reality TV when Shii-Ann Huang was on the “Survivor” series.  A source on a webpage I read (http://www.ewwoman.com/june03/ew_hollywood.com) attributed this to the lack of Asian Americans trying out.  An Asian-American media critic in the same article said that the “docile and homely” image of Asian-American women was just not conducive to the active and attractive character roles on reality TV.

 

Finally, the movie “40 Days and 40 Nights” recently featured Asian-American woman Shannon Sossamyn as the leading woman and love interest of Josh Hartnett.  It seemed to be a positive representation, though the movie’s quality was questionable overall.

 

         In surveying the number of “stereotypes” that I found, I began to wonder if maybe the largest issue with Asian-American representation in American film and television was not the fixed roles they must play, but more that we rarely see them at all.  There is actually some variety in roles today, from Lucy Liu’s cold, aggressive Ling to the docile service industry worker on Seinfeld.  Asian characters might be either fools, or intelligent nerds at computers.  As noted in Module 5 with African-Americans, we often see both extremes, but not the average, middle-of-the-road representation, which is a definite problem.