Media portrayal of Asian American men
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Media representations of Asian men with White women
Non-negative depictions of Asian men with White women
Non-negative pornographic media
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Asian American men are generally not portrayed in the pornographic media, but there are exceptions. Mostly, Asian men in pornography live in Asia and are in scenes with women from their nation of origin. There are few male Asian American pornographic enterprises. These male Asian American websites rarely have their content hosted on pornography portals, so few people know they exist. The pornographic websites involving the prior include: Asian Man: The Sex Adventures of Asian Man, Phuck Fu Masters, Asian Guy on White Girl and Pink Crave. But the prior sites only feature Chinese American and Vietnamese American men.
Non-negative web-based comic strips
Asian Americans have created two web-based comic strips. Badmash and Secret Asian Man are both comic strips about their authors' lives as Asian American men. They try to represent Asian American men the way their authors' feel they should be represented. Since they are web-based, they do not have to appeal to the majority audience of the United States. Both these comic strips feature the Asian male main character in interracial relationships with white women.
Non-negative movie and TV depictions
Asian men have been recently portrayed in partnership with White women. In the movieKill Bill, Japanese men were portayed as having a large sexual interest in the White female protagonist. In Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Harold had a sexual interest in one of the White females. The movie Mean Girls portrayed Kevin as starting an interracial relationship with one of the White females. The 1993 TV series Full House had Stephanie Tanner with an Asian American boy as a friend. Another film which coupled an Asian American boy and a White American female was From Dusk Till Dawn although they were brother and sister by adoption.
Negative Depictions of Asian men with White Women
Negative Movie Depictions
Asian men have been portrayed as threats to white women [1] in older movie portayals. Racist depictions of Asian men as "lascivious and predatory" were common at the turn of the 20th century. [2] Historically, between 1850 and 1940, U.S. popular media as well as pre-war and WWII propaganda portrayed Asian men as a military and security threat the country and therefore a sexual danger to white women, [3] (since historically speaking, a woman's body symbolized her "tribe's" house, country and/or continent (i.e. land) within many cultures around the world). [4] In the 1916 film Petria, a group of fanatical Japanese individuals who invade the United States, attempt to rape a white woman. [5]
Negative News Portrayals
In 2006, Natalee Holloway disappeared in Aruba in a media circus that has been labeled a case of Missing white woman syndrome. Two Asian Arubians Satish and Deepak Kalpoe and a white man, Joran Van der Sloot were suspects in her disappearance. They were dogged by the media for months, even though many non-white men and women had disappeared in the same period. [citation needed]
Asian male warrior
Asian men have been portrayed as being warriors in many movies. Recently Asian men have been portrayed as warriors in American movies. These warriors are not restricted to earlier depictions of martial artists, but instead encompass the mainstream archetype of the warrior. In the movie Hook (film), Rufio is portrayed as a great Asian leader and warrior. In the movie Saw (film), the Asian detective valiantly followed the serial killer with a shotgun. In King Kong (2005 film), a Chinese shipman fell to his doom while hunting the legendary Kong. In the movie The Shadow, the archvillian was the Asian warlord Genghis Khan reborn.
Asian men have large portrayal as soldiers in the United States which is part of the more general Asian male warrior archetype. The movie Pearl Harbor (film) documents Japanese soldiers flying air raids on Pearl Harbor. Full Metal Jacket portrays the Asian soldier fighting the American forces in Vietnam.
Asian men have a large portrayal as martial artists in the United States which is part of the broader Asian male warrior archetype. The movie series The Karate Kid features the ongoing journey of the pupils of the Karate master Mr. Miyagi. The many portrayals of Jackie Chan have him star as the lead martial artist in his movies. More recently The Last Samurai had many accurate depictions of Japanese samurai who clashed with katanas.
Asian men might have the most portrayal as warriors in video games. The Tekken, Soul Caliber, Street Fighter, Samurai Showdown and Mortal Kombat have all had more than their share of Asian warriors.
Asian master of magic
Asian men have often been portrayed as having great knowledge in the ways of magic and the supernatural. In the movie Gremlins, the old Asian man guards the supernatural mogwai. In the movie Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi has the supernatural power to heal Danny after he is struck by his opponent. In the movie Darkman, Genghis Khan has a variety of supernatural powers ranging from illusion to blindingly-fast movements. In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the Kali priest had the power to remove peoples' hearts from their bodies and was immune to the effects of fire. In The Matrix series, Neo has the power to see the codes of machines even when out of the matrix.
Examples
- The English Patient - Kip is represented as sexual with Hanna at certain points
- The Jungle Book - Mowgli is portrayed as "uncivilized", animal-like and sexual with Kitty (regarding the latter)
- The King and I - the King is at times represented as "barbaric", in certain versions of the story he and Anna are romantically linked
- Broken Blossoms - Cheng can be perceived as a positive character, especially towards Lucy, but the actor who plays him is white
Media Representations of Asian men (with non-White Women)
- Romeo Must Die - some viewers perceived the lack of physical interaction between Han and Trish as racist
- Min Chen - charged with kidnapping and killing 9 year-old Cecilia Zhang
- Murder Unveiled - Surjit (along with his sister) is suspected of ordering individuals to kidnap, torture and murder his niece [1]
References
- ^ 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.
- ^ Wu, W.F. (1982). The Yellow Peril: Chinese Americans in American fiction 1850-1940, Archon 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.