Reflection of the Film
Even in our modern society, minorities are often stereotyped. One of these minorities is Asians and Asian Americans. Our society always finds itself amused by giving labels. What is a stereotype itself? It is set general idea or image, or set of characteristics that, as people believe, represents a person, but most commonly, a large group of people (Collins Cobuild). What is the first image that emerges in your mind when you’re asked about Asian men? Is it nerd, small, emasculated, evil man, or Kung Fu fighter? What can you say about women? They are the dragon ladies, “China dolls”, or just submissive and weak-willed. It is commonly believed stereotypes to describe Asian American minority. We can’t blame people for the way they used to imagine Asians but we can blame our media and especially Hollywood on creating such stereotypes.
For decades, Asian image has been formed by people with almost none understanding of Asian people. They didn’t worry how it would influence their position in American society. It begins when the first Asian immigrants arrived in the United States. In the 1890s, first images of Asian began to emerge. They were depicted as evil villains, bad boys, and cruel fighters. They would be either lustful or completely asexual. From early beginning, Asian characters were presented to provide some kind of comic relief. We can find an example of such method even now. Raj from a well-known TV-show The Big Bang Theory is depicted as “nerdy” man who struggles with communication with women. The media made his character undesirable. Other men in this show also have this problem. The Asian character is described as the one who can’t even utter a word in front of a woman. Still, we cannot but mention that nowadays Hollywood made a great breakthrough in allowing Asian American actors to act. Hollywood doesn’t use “yellowface” so often. “Yellowface” is a form of makeup used by actors to represent an Asian person to make the acting authentic in depicting their culture, behavior, and traditions (Amy Kashiwabara, 2016). Actually American movies often fail in differentiation between Asian cultures. All the variety of Asian and Pacific Islands have only one homogeneous identity. For example, all the Vietnamese and Korean women in 1970s were called Mama-San which is Japanese term (Amy Kashiwabara, 2016).
Asian American women have their own stereotypes that are completely different from men’s. Still, they also contend with gender racism stereotypes. Women are often depicted as marvelously submissive and it is regarded as an ideal feminine trait. They are exotic erotic and always available to men. “Dragon Lady” stereotype comes out when depicting a strong woman. This character is to be physically appealing and domineering (Mary Yu Danico, Anthony C Ocampo, 955).
Let’s see the evolution of stereotypes of Asian American in Hollywood from 1940s till nowadays.
The 1940s
During the World War II, we can observe a certain anti-Japanese propaganda. Japanese were described as enemies. Rarely Chinese or Korean actors could play them. Hollywood was quite careless about strict distinguishing between Japanese and Chinese. That was why the problem arises. It led to difficult times for Asian American because of the stereotype that followed them at that time.
It was the time of “yellowface”, there was no possibility for even Asian American to play “a good” Asian. They could participate only as antagonists. We can see the examples in Dragon Seed (1944), The Purple Heart (1944) (Helen Zia, 117).
The 1960s
At that time films began to avoid war theme and stereotyped villain image, nevertheless, there were some titles which include these topics. The new stereotype was created with an emergence of Breakfast with Tiffany’s (1961). The character of Mr. Yunioshi still played in yellowface, was unhappy and irritable but he was amusing because he was not threatening. Yellowface was still in use because Americans of that period would not go to watch a movie with an Asian playing the main part.
The 1970s
1965 was the begging of immigration and a lot of Asian immigrants arrived in the United States. The films of that period were tolerant with the Asian characters. The main hero of that period was Bruce Lee who exploded a myth about weak and emasculated Asian men. During this period films about martial arts became really popular. Some of the films, like The Big Boss (1971) were dubbed into English (Curtis Wang, 2016).
That was a beginning of Asian American films to form a new image of an Asian man. A lot of Asian actors began to win different awards. For example, Pat Morita The Karate Kid, Mako Iwamatsu The Sand Pebbles, are famous Academy Award – winners.
Recently, many Asian American actors are allowed to receive large roles in a film. Movies like Get Smart (2008), and TV-series like The Walking Dead (2010 - ongoing) both have actors who are Asian Americans starring the leading parts.
Still, we cannot but mention that stereotypes remain. One of the most viewed sitcoms Broke Girls has a typical stereotyped Asian character Han Lee, who is short, has a funny accent, is obsessed with restaurant, and earning money. We can hardly find an Asian character in any kind of movie without a joke or stereotyped image concerning their race (Emory Wheel, 2014).
Anyway, we can say that Hollywood is currently on some kind of a fence over how it should picture Asian character. We can only hope that it would make a right decision.
Works cited
Danico, Mary Yu, and Anthony C Ocampo. Asian American Society. Los Angeles, Calif. [u.a.]: SAGE Reference, 2014. Print.
Kashiwabara, Amy. "Vanishing Son: The Appearance, Disappearance, And Assimilation Of The Asian-American Man In American Mainstream Media". Lib.berkeley.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Wang, Curtis. "Asian-American Males In Hollywood: 1940S-Now". Users.eecs.northwestern.edu. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Wheel, Emory. "Asian Americans In Hollywood: Stereotypes Saturate Media Depictions | The Emory Wheel". The Emory Wheel. N.p., 2014. Web. 27 Feb. 2016.
Zhao, Xiaojian, and Edward J. W Park. Asian Americans. Print.
Zia, Helen. Asian American Dreams. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000. Print.
