Media portrayal of East and Southeast Asians
Template:Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians
Stereotypes of East and Southeast Asians are manifested by media.
Asians, especially Asian men, are underrepresented in American media. They are commonly portrayed in a stereotypic way. [1] [2]
Archetypal Asians in American fiction
Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan are arguably two of the most important and well-known fictional Asian characters in American history. Both were created by white authors, Sax Rohmer and Earl Derr Biggers respectively, in the early part of the 20th century. Fu Manchu is a sardonically evil but intelligent Chinese murderer with plots of world domination, the embodiment of America's imagination of a threatening mysterious Asian people. Charlie Chan is an apologetic submissive Chinese-Hawaiian detective who solves cases and never fights back against the many racist insults hurled at him by White American characters, and represents America's archetypal "good" Asian. Both characters found widespread popularity in numerous novels and films, and therefore have pervaded the American consciousness with stereotypes of Asians.[3]
Fu Manchu: "Evil" Asian
Thirteen novels, three short stories, and one novelette have been written about Fu Manchu and Sir Denis Nayland Smith, the British agent determined to stop him. Millions of copies have been sold in the United States with publication in British and American periodicals and adaptations to film, comics, radio, and television. Due to his enormous popularity, the "image of Fu Manchu has been absorbed into American consciousness as the archetypal Asian villain."[3] In The Insidious Doctor Fu-Manchu, Sax Rohmer introduces Fu Manchu as a cruel and cunning man, with a face like Satan, who is essentially the "Yellow Peril incarnate".[4]
Sax Rohmer inextricably tied the evil character of Fu Manchu to the entire Asian race as a manifestation of the yellow peril, attributing the villain's behavior to his race. Rohmer also adds an element of mysticism and exoticism to his portrayal of Fu Manchu. As Fu Manchu contrives elaborately creative and cruel methods of murdering his victims, he often uses supposedly Asian methods or elements in his murders such as silk rope. It is also important to note here that despite Fu Manchu's specifically Chinese ethnicity, these elements are pan-Asian, again reinforcing his portrayal as a representation of all Asian people.[3] Blatantly racist statements made by white protagonists such as: "the swamping of the white world by yellow hordes might well be the price of our failure" again add to Asian stereotypes of exclusion.[5] Fu Manchu's inventively sardonic methods of murder and white protagonist Denis Nayland Smith's grudging respect for his intellect reinforce stereotypes of Asian intelligence, exoticism/mysticism, and extreme cruelty.[3]
Charlie Chan: "Good" Asian
![](/media/wikipedia/en/8/83/Chan_clan.jpg)
Charlie Chan, a fictional character created by author Earl Derr Biggers, has been the subject of 10 novels (spanning from 1925 to as late as 1981), over 40 American films, a comic strip, a board game, a card game, and a 1970s animated television series. In the films, the role of Charlie Chan has almost always been played by white actors (namely Warner Oland, Sidney Toler, and Roland Winters) in "yellowface."[6]
In stark contrast to the Chinese villain Fu Manchu, Asian American protagonist Charlie Chan represents the American archetype of the "good" Asian.[3] In The House Without a Key, Earl Derr Biggers describes Charlie Chan in the following manner: "He was very fat indeed, yet he walked with the light dainty step of a woman. His cheeks were chubby as a baby's, his skin ivory tinted, his black hair close-cropped, his amber eyes slanting."[7] Charlie Chan speaks English with a heavy accent and flawed grammar, and is meticulously polite and apologetic. After one particular racist affront by a Bostonian woman, Chan responds with exaggerated submission, "Humbly asking pardon to mention it, I detect in your eyes slight flame of hostility. Quench it, if you will be so kind. Friendly co-operation are essential between us." Bowing deeply, he added, "Wishing you good morning."[7]
Because of his emasculated, unassertive, and apologetic physical appearance and demeanor, Charlie Chan comes off as non-threatening to mainstream audiences despite his considerable intellect and ability as an Asian American man. He holds none of the daring, assertive, or romantic traits typically attributed of white fictional detectives of the time. Instead, Charlie Chan's successes as a detective are in the context of proving himself to his white superiors or white racists who underestimate him early on in the various plots.[3] His character also perpetuates stereotypes of orientalism as well, as he quotes supposed ancient Chinese wisdom at the end of each novel, saying things like: "The Emperor Shi Hwang-ti, who built the Great Wall of China, once said: 'He who squanders to-day talking of yesterday's triumph, will have nothing to boast of tomorrow.'"[8]
Asian men
Emasculation
In today's media, although Asian women are frequently portrayed as positive romantic partners for white men, Asian men are rarely positively paired with women of any race (aside from few examples such as The Lover, The One (film), Romeo Must Die and Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle). In the past 30 years, in sharp contrast to the hypersexual state of Asian American women in the media and the comparatively frequent portrayal of white man/Asian woman relationships, there have been almost no Western or Hollywood films with romances involving an Asian man and a white woman.
Joan Kee observes that "Asian American male sexuality has long entailed a discourse of nothingness."[9] Instead, according to Sheridan Prasso, Asian men in film have with little exception been portrayed as "small, sneaky, and threatening... spineless, emasculated wimps" with small penises, or "incompetents" who always lose when "faced with white man's superior strength or firepower."[10] For example, in American films Kill Bill, Payback, and the James Bond movie The Man with the Golden Gun (1974), entire inept Asian male fighting forces are immobilized by a white man (or white woman in the case of Kill Bill).[10]
The recurring image of the Asian male as a "sexually impotent voyeur or pervert" has pervaded television and film throughout American history. Examples include Mickey Rooney in "yellowface" as the bucktoothed Japanese landlord who sneaks peeps at Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, or the pathetically asexual nerd Long Duk Dong from John Hughes's 1984 adolescent classic Sixteen Candles whose every entrance is accompanied by the clash of a gong.[9] The stereotypes of emasculated sissy Asian men in the media have also translated to real life in the light way that Asian male leaders such as Ho Chi Minh, Kim Jong Il, and Mao Zedong are described and portrayed.
In American film, Asian men usually don't get the girl because they are either portrayed as being "Zen-like" and not having romantic feelings, or they are love-shy, or they are economically disadvantaged, or because they are easily defeated by superior white or black protagonists and are too emasculated to provide serious competition for the girl. For example, in Rush Hour 2 (2001) starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, the following dialogue about a white woman takes place:
Tucker: She picked me because I'm tall, dark and handsome, and you're Third World ugly.
Chan: Women like me. They think I'm cute, like Snoopy.
Tucker: Snoopy is six inches taller than you.[10]
Even action movies like Kiss of the Dragon (2001), or The Replacement Killers (1998) that contain Asian male protagonists deny the Asian male characters romances with the white women whose lives that they save. Instead of the kiss usually granted to the white male protagonist, in these movies, the rescued white woman only gives the Asian action hero a hug or a grateful obligatory "thank you" kiss on the hand; there is almost never a relationship between the characters even if there is romantic tension.[10]
Predators to white women
Asian men have been portrayed as threats to white women[11] in many aspects of American media. Racist depictions of Asian men as "lascivious and predatory" were common at the turn of the 20th century.[12] Between 1850 and 1940, both U.S. popular media and pre-war and WWII propaganda portrayed Asian men as a military and security threat to the country, and therefore a sexual danger to white women[3] since a woman's body traditionally symbolizes her "tribe's" house or country in Western cultures.[13] In the 1916 film Petria, a group of fanatical Japanese individuals who invade the United States, attempt to rape a white woman.[14] In the action movie Showdown in Little Tokyo, the Asian villain forces himself upon a white woman and murders her before threatening the Asian female love interest. The white hero ultimately kills the Asian villain and "wins" the Asian woman — while the hero's Amerasian sidekick is given no love life at all.
The recurring narrative involving the abduction or sexual contact of a white woman with a non-white (in this case Asian) man is called a "captivity narrative." Most Hollywood captivity narratives involving white women and Asian men either feature the threat of "white slavery," in which a white woman is forced into prostitution; or the capture of a white nurse or missionary, in which there is threatened sexual contact with an Asian warlord or military-related character (e.g. 1933 film The Bitter Tea of General Yen). The "white slavery" portrayal of the threatening Asian man stereotype was mostly predominant during the era of silent films. However, more recent examples of "white slavery" narratives include television movie The Girls of the white Orchid (1983), in which a white woman answers an advertisement for American singers in Japan and gets trapped in a prostitution slavery group;[15] and Thoroughly Modern Millie, a 1967 American film and 2002 Broadway musical, in which young white orphan women are drugged, kidnapped, and shipped to Hong Kong as slaves.
In the latter narrative involving the capture and partial assimilation of a white woman into an Asian world and the potential relationship with an Asian man, the narrative usually ends with the rescue of the woman by a white man and their return to American home turf. Through this type of plot, cultural boundaries are reaffirmed as the mystifying Asian culture and Asian sexual threat are rejected with the rescue of the white woman, and the American home and way of life are upheld as safe and ideal. These portrayals of Asian men as desiring and threatening white women yet never achieving relationships with them also reinforce stereotypes of emasculation and images of Asian men as unsuitable partners for white women.
Asian women
The "China Doll" stereotype
The "China Doll" stereotype insinuates that Asian women are hypersexual, submissive, "exotic", feminine, and eager to please white males. According to author Sheridan Prasso, the China doll stereotype and other variations of this submissive stereotype exist in American movies: "Geisha Girl/Lotus Flower/Servant/China Doll: Submissive, docile, obedient, reverential (including Asian men as effeminate, servile); Vixen/Sex Nymph: Sexy, coquettish, manipulative; tendency toward disloyalty or opportunism; Prostitute/Victim of Sex Trade/War/Oppression: Helpless, in need of assistance or rescue; good-natured at heart." [10]
The stereotype appears in countless media presentations:
- In Return to Paradise, Malaysian women take pride in sexually serving White American men because they are white and rich.
- In The Year of the Dragon, the main character, a white police chief, befriends an Asian American female TV news anchor. The woman immensely dislikes the arrogant, selfish police officer for his derogatory remarks about her race. However, when he visits her house, he coerces her into having sex with him, and despite initially slapping his face, she submits to him.
- In Daughter of the Dragon, Fu Manchu's daughter falls in love with a white detective at first sight.
- In The Bounty, an Asian woman falls in love with a white man at first sight.
- In Come See the Paradise, an Asian woman falls in love with a white man at first sight.
- In LAX, a Filipina woman immigrates to America to marry a white man, who refers to her as "China Doll." Her character epitomizes the subservient, exotic, hypersexual Asian female who is the focus of a white man's desire.
- In Miss Saigon, there were protests that the lead Asian female role was seen as a stereotypically submissive one.
- In the TV show Lost, a Korean woman is portrayed as submissive (at first).
- In Graham Greene's "The Quiet American", Phuong, a Vietnamese woman is portrayed as a submissive partner to English war journalist Thomas Fowler.
It is common to see a white man paired with an Asian woman (or non-white woman) in Western movies, but seldom is an Asian man paired with a white woman. Asian women are often depicted as easily falling in love with white men. This depiction has been termed the "unmotivated white-Asian romance", as the Asian woman usually falls in love with a man only because he is white (MANAA). In Daughter of the Dragon, the daughter of Fu Manchu lays her eyes on a British detective and instantly falls in love with him. Miss Saigon and Come See the Paradise also contain scenes where Asian women fall in love with white men at first sight.
Gwen Stefani's fashion-accessory-like entourage of four Japanese Harajuku Girls also perpetuates stereotypes of exoticism and the submissive Asian woman. Stefani's adoption of this component of Japanese culture drew criticism from Mihi Ahn at Salon.com, and others who feel that Stefani has stripped Japanese street fashion of its authenticity and created yet another example of the 'submissive Asian female' stereotype.[16] According to the Jan/Feb 2006 edition of Blender magazine, stand-up comic Margaret Cho has labeled the Harajuku Girls as a "minstrel show" that reinforces ethnic stereotypes of Asian women.
The "Dragon Lady" stereotype
The "Dragon Lady" stereotype refers to a seductive, untrustworthy Asian woman. Essentially, it is a variant of femme fatale stereotype/archetype, though it also derives some attributes from more general negative Asian stereotypes. In case of Dragon Ladies, the tragic and morally ambitious aspects of femme fatales tends to be deemphasized in favor of sexuality and malice. The name derives from Dragon Lady, a character from a 1940s comic strip Terry and the Pirates, though the stereotype itself has existed since the beginning of the 20th century, quickly spreading to all media. One of the most notable early examples was Fah Lo Suee, Fu Manchu's daughter. Over the years, it proved to be one of the more enduring stereotypes, as examples of it continue to appear to this day.
Some recent examples of the Dragon Lady stereotype in American film include: Miho (played by Devon Aoki) in Sin City, and Gogo Yubari (played by Chiaki Kuriyama) and O-Ren Ishii (played by Lucy Liu) in Kill Bill. It should be noted though, that those characters were intended as homages to older characters in other media - pulp fiction and East Asian cinema, respectively.
Language barrier as a source of comedy
In American movies, television shows, and theatre, Asian characters are often used as a source of comedy, making the audience laugh by speaking thickly accented pidgin English and acting inappropriately. These mediums also find comedy by making fun of Asian languages and the way that they sound. For example, the thick accent of the goofy Chinese exchange student in Sixteen Candles — who is given the name "Long Duk Dong" — is used for cheap laughs. He is given lines like: "Wassa happening hot stuff?" and "No more yankie my wankie. The Donger need food." On Mad TV, a comedy sketch series, Miss Swan, a juvenilely clueless Asian manicurist played by Alex Borstein, is a favorite recurring character. Her trademark phrase is "Okay, I tell you everything: he look-a like a man!" and she draws laughs by annoying all the other characters to madness by communicating ineffectively due to her language barrier, pidgin English, and ridiculously inappropriate actions in public settings. In the revival of musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, the audience laughs at the purposely exaggerated foreign-sounding Cantonese dialogue between the Chinese villains. In the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, Mickey Rooney in "yellowface" plays the bucktoothed Japanese neighbor who constantly yells at the protagonists in broken English for being too noisy. Even when they are not being made fun of for comedic purposes, many Asian characters (especially early on in American cinema) are made to speak in broken English.
On December 5, 2006, comedian and co-host of The View, Rosie O'Donnell, used a series of ching chongs to imitate newscasters in China [2]. She later apologized on The View, saying "To say 'ching chong' to someone is very offensive, and some Asian people have told me it's as bad as the n-word. Which I was like, 'Really? I didn't know that.' I'm sorry for those people who felt hurt or were teased on the playground. But I'm also gonna give you a fair warning that there's a good chance I'll do something like that again, probably in the next week, not on purpose. Only 'cause it's how my brain works." [3]
William Hung is often conjectured that others exploit him because of his Asian race and his accent.
Stereotypes of Asian music
Western media has seen the continual invention and re-invention of a musical leitmotif connected to (usually derogatory) stereotypes of Asian music and culture. The motif, which has no formal name but is now known as the Asian Riff, is seen in dozens of examples of Western pop culture. An immediately recognizeable tune featuring only nine notes in a G-G-G-G-F-F-D-D-F progression[4], it is usually played on an "Asian-sounding" wind instrument. The cliché tune can be heard in pre-war cartoons in connection with China or Japan, and more recently in such songs as "Kung Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas and "Turning Japanese" by The Vapors, amongst many others. One site keeps a detailed history and reference list for this tune alone [5] and states that most of the references that use this tune are "denigrating towards Asians".
Relegation to supporting roles
Asians are often relegated to supporting roles in American entertainment and media. [17] Even in projects centering on Asian or Asian American subject matters, the primary protagonist is still usually a white character. For example, the internment camp movie Come See the Paradise features a white man as the protagonist, pushing its Japanese American characters into the background, while the American actor Tom Cruise portrays the main character of The Last Samurai. However, The Last Emperor, The Joy Luck Club, and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle are examples of popular films with Asian and Asian American actors in lead roles.
Stereotypes of Asian workforce
Asian Americans are often depicted in the media in a limited and predictable range of jobs: restaurant workers, Japanese businessmen, TV anchorwomen, martial artists, criminal psychologists, gangsters, faith healers, laundry workers, domestic maids, nannies and prostitutes. This misrepresents the diversity of the Asian American workforce. However Asian Americans are also stereotypically perceived as lower-class despite getting professional jobs or having a good education.[17]
See also
- Ethnic stereotypes in American media
- Ethnic stereotypes in popular culture
- Ethnic stereotypes in pornography
- Angry Asian Man
- Ching Chong
References
- ^ Asian American, HearUsNow
- ^ Quill, Erin, Why There are 'No' Asians on Television
- ^ a b c d e f g William F. Wu, The Yellow Peril: Chinese Americans in American Fiction, 1850-1940, Archon Press, 1982.
- ^ Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Doctor Fu-Manchu (1913; reprint ed., New York: Pyramid, 1961), p. 17.
- ^ Rohmer, Sax, The Hand of Fu-Manchu (1917; reprint ed., New York: Pyramid, 1962), p.111.
- ^ Internet Movie Database - list of Charlie Chan movies, IMDB
- ^ a b Earl Derr Biggers, The House Without a Key (New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1925), p.76.
- ^ Biggers, Earl Derr, Charlie Chan Carries On (1930; reprint ed., New York: Bantam, 1975), p.233.
- ^ a b Kee, Joan, "(Re)sexualizing the Desexualized Asian Male in the Works of Ken Chu and Michael Joo," Harvard University. [1]
- ^ a b c d e Sheridan Prasso, The Asian Mystique: dragon ladies, geisha girls, & our fantasies of the exotic orient, PublicAffairs, 2005.
- ^ Espiritu, Y. E. (1997). Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance: Constructing Our Own Images, Asian American Women and Men, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing.
- ^ Frankenberg, R. (1993). white women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness., University of Minnesota Press.
- ^ Rich, Adrienne. 1994. Blood, Bread and Poetry: Selected Prose 1979-1985. New York: Norton 1986: p. 212.
- ^ Quinsaat, J. (1976). Asians in the media, The shadows in the spotlight. Counterpoint: Perspectives on Asian America (pp 264-269). University of California at Los Angeles, Asian American Studies Center.
- ^ Gina Marchetti, Romance and the 'Yellow Peril': Race Sex and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction, 1993.
- ^ MiHi Ahn. Gwenihana Gwen Stefani neuters Japanese street fashion... Salon.com. 9 April 2005. Retrieved 16 March 2006.
- ^ a b Restrictive Portrayals of Asians in the Media and How to Balance Them, Media Action Network for Asian Americans