On Monday in class, we were debriefing the class visit to the Museum of Chinese in America. Our discussion of the Museum led to many topics relating to Chinese Americans as well as Asian Americans in the US. The topic of discussion that I found particularly contentious and worthwhile examining was Asian people in Hollywood movies. The problem with these movies is that there aren’t a lot of Asian actors acting in them. To make matters even worse, there aren’t even Asian actors or actresses playing the parts of Asian characters in the movies. As it was mentioned in class, Katherine Hepburn played an Asian character in a movie and wore makeup to look the part, something called “yellow face.” Katherine Hepburn wasn’t the only actress of her time that wore a yellow face to portray these specific characters. Professor Rosenberg mentioned how this wouldn’t very well pass by people today because it’s very demeaning and derogatory. But, I find it funny how even though yellow face doesn’t occur as frequently today as it did before, there are still non-Asian actors and actresses who play Asian parts in Hollywood movies. To some, it might seem trivial that this still happens today and that it doesn’t have to mean anything in the greater scheme of things. But to think that would be ignorant to the fact that Asians are not only underrepresented in these movies, but misrepresented. Why does this happen? The only parts that Asian Americans are able to get are usually the stereotypical roles such as kung-fu or martial arts characters, especially with Chinese Americans. I’m not necessarily saying that this is a bad thing since several Chinese actors, such as Jackie Chan, were able to take advantage of this gap that Hollywood badly wanted in their movies to be viewed as worthy in the movie industry. But I think that in a nation with so much diversity, why don’t we see this diversity in the movies we watch? Minority characters are so rarely seen in these films and usually they’re never the main lead as they’re usually the supporting characters at the most. Personally, I don’t think that’s as bad as the idea that Asians are misrepresented. I think once we fix the misrepresentation of Asian characters in Hollywood movies, we can focus on fixing the underrepresentation.
Misrepresentation and Underrepresentation- The Lesser of Two Evils
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I agree with Amanda in how there is particularly a lack of diverse actors and actresses in the film industry. Amanda delves into when there is an actor of color, s/he usually plays a stereotypical role such as an Asian actor will most likely play a stereotypical role rather than play a character in a film for example with no relations or includes Asian culture at all. Although I agree that some successful actors such as Jackie Chan and Lucy Liu have broken some barriers of a successful Asian actor who can play roles outside of their stereotype, there still lacks a progress or movement to celebrate more diverse actors as the main characters of the film rather than solely being included as a side character to add “diversity” in the cast list.
For example the most recent movie on screen, “The Great Wall”, is a movie with a predominantly Asian background from the plot to the director and to the cast members. Yet the theme of having a “white hero” save a group of minorities remains despite the many hurdles overcome from having such prominent representation of Asians in both the production and acting industry. Not to degrade Matt Damon as untalented actor, but personally I felt that this film missed out on a great opportunity to stand for all minorities in the acting industry that it is not necessary to have a white protagonist. It almost reestablished that a white protagonist is a must for a movie to be successful, to be recognized, or whatever it may be that motivated Director Zhang Yimou to include in his script that a white merchant must be the savior of China from monsters. I do not endorse that this movie was necessarily poor solely based on the actor casted, but I do admit the plot itself could have been altered to fit the overall theme and events to really celebrate and represent the Chinese and Asian communities in the industry.
I must disagree with Amanda however with her final statement that it’s a green light to have Asians underrepresented as long as misrepresentation is fixed first. It is impossible to have the public associate different cultures with the correct groups of people with false faces to represent those groups. The media has a great capability to feed stereotypes into the minds of the public permanently because Hollywood would then have to stereotype the image of the group of people represented in order to have a consistent recognition of which groups are being referred to for the viewers to understand. This was extremely detrimental to Native Americans as Hollywood almost single handedly stereotyped the face and understanding of Native Americans by the public today. I understand that both of these issues are very prominent for all minorities in the film industry and they are indeed giant hurdles to overcome. But if you’re going to have an Asian character, simply have an Asian actor play the role or else you’re just going to fuel this single image of what an Asian looks like for the public to recognize in media.
Hey Belinda, I just wanted to clarify my last statement. I was trying to say that I personally feel like misrepresentation is worse than underrepresentation, but that that by no means that one is more or less important than the other. It was just my personal opinion. Misrepresentation seems to me to be worse because it’s an inaccurate portrayal of the characters in the movies because it purports an image that isn’t reality and it demeans the abilities of Asian actors to play the roles that are rightfully theirs. Underrepresentation is a whole other problem in it of itself. However, I agree both are problems that require significant attention.
Hi Amanda thanks for commenting back and I do understand that you’re not condoning one or the other as you do call them both as evils. I apologize for using the wrong term of “green light” that implied as if you did condone one over the other. However, I still stand by my belief that there isn’t a way to bargain one for the other as they are both symptoms of a greater racism and are branched out from it specifically in this case the film industry.
If we were to tackle racism we should not simply recognize the little cases or examples but the heart of racism prevalent in the industry as a whole. Indeed that is difficult to eradicate racism once and for all but it’s important to recognize that these symptoms are related to a greater epidemic that has been established throughout history and power. In this case it is not that focusing on more specific examples is bad but the context of the issues we’re focusing on must be understood and what it’s related to.
To further elaborate again I understand it is your opinion that having Asian cultures stereotyped to a specific image is worse than having little to none inclusion of Asian actors in the industry. Yet I still believe it would be an unsuccessful way to educate the “proper” representation of Asian cultures, lifestyles, etc. if there was such a limited inclusion of proper Asian faces to portray those aspects “accurately”. Bargaining would not solve any problems even if we were to put the issue of misrepresentation upfront because then the faces we recognize is then skewed, rather than the “misrepresentation”. It would almost be running in circles trying to solve one issue at a time where one we would have lack of understanding and then one with the lack of recognizing. Recognition in regarding to relatability and validity for Asian actors and what they are capable of. Of course I understand Asian actors should not be subjected to their stereotypes nor should any minority actor be only casted to represent the media stereotype, but I believe having more minorities recognized and featured on the big screen to show that all minorities can be just as successful actors as to white actors and will slowly improve the lack of diversity and cultural representation in the film industry.
You make a great point about the “white hero” theme in Hollywood movies. It’s amazing how this theme continues to be repeated even now. Let’s name some movies that use it.
Dances With Wolves (an otherwise sensitive portrayal of the plight of Native Americans)
The Last Samurai
Glory
Others?
Perhaps the myth of the “white hero” is rooted within our own history with examples such as the white man’s burden, Manifest Destiny, and even modern day occupations of “unstable” war zone areas and has found its way to be recycled into the entertainment industry. With the constant usage of this model in real life politics as well as in Hollywood, it’s no surprised to me why the lack of representation and recognition is still so prominent today for minorities.
As for other movies that use the “white savior” theme, there’s even an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to listing movies as far back to the 1950s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_savior_narrative_in_film
Hi Amanda,
I agree with your interpretation of this discrimination in the film industry, with the focus on misrepresentation of Asian characters. We so rarely see minority groups on camera and in the rare cases that we do, it is often in stereotypical roles such as martial arts mentors, taxi drivers, or in some controversial films, terrorists. Coupled with the issue you brought up about non-Asian actors playing such limited Asian characters in films, there is almost no way for minority groups to successfully break into the industry. This minimal expression of minority groups in roles that often make gross generalizations about the entire population of people goes beyond just Asian characters and makes for a very inaccurate portrayal of the ethnic diversity we find in America. I think you are right that one of the major issues we need to tackle is this misrepresentation, but I believe tackling underrepresentation will work hand in hand with that endeavor. In order to allow more minority actors to play roles that fit their own ethnic makeup, those minority groups will need to be given more on-screen opportunities. Even if a person fits the description based on physical appearance, experience and technical acting ability will still determine whether or not they get the role. Therefore, I believe that in order to fix misrepresentation among minority groups in the film industry, we must simultaneously begin to fix the issue of underrepresentation.
Amanda,
I totally agree with you that majority of the movies shown during the 20th century were both misrepresentation and underrepresentation of Asians. It was difficult for them to attain a role in the Hollywood movies, and even if they managed to miraculously attain a role, they would be starring in stereotypical roles. As a matter of fact your comment reminded me of a movie I learned about in the past, known as Birth of a Nation (1915). Although this movie is significantly praised for its visual innovations and sophisticated filmographic techniques, it is also criticized for its racist depiction of the African Americans. In this move, the African Americans were heavily misrepresented, and their roles those of the stereotypical ones; they were depicted as the minority group that deserved to be persecuted for oppressing the Southern Whites, and the majority group, the white men in the Ku Klux Klan, were glorified for their “hunting” of African Americans. Clearly, not only the Asians but the African Americans were also misrepresented in the American film industry; this clearly shows that White Supremacy was extremely vehement and visible in from the late 19th to early 20th centuries.
Also, the issue of Asian actors and/or actresses unable to play the parts of Asian characters in the movies still exists today. I happened to stumble upon an article by The New York Times, called “Asian-American Actors are fighting for visibility. They will not be ignored”; the article highlights the problem of the parts of Asian characters aren’t being played by Asians. For instance, it was announced that in the adaption of a Japanese manga series, the Japanese name of the main character was replaced by a more western name, and the role of the main character was assumed by a white actor instead. This problem is definitely isn’t a problem of the past, but is also a problem of the present.
Hi Amanda,
I totally agree with you in that Asians had been misrepresented and underrespresetened in the movie industry. I think that the industry had grow in such a way in the 20th century that different racial groups are placed into the mold different roles in movies, like the example of Asian males as the star in martial art films. I don’t think it will be easy for the movie industry to change these molds for different racial groups as the audiences are also used to seeing the actors from different racial groups in these molds. And referring to Ban’s comment that Japanese names were changed to more western names in adaptation of Japanese manga series, I think this is actually common because it would not make sense for the setting of the manga to be in the western world while all the characters maintain their original Japanese names.