Asian American Roles In Film

A successful movie is decided by gross revenue of the movie. Most writers and directors base on the world 's histories, the reality society, and the favorite people 's style to make their successful movies. Indeed, the writers are responsible for writing the script. Once they have handed over the script that is pretty much the end of their creative involvement with the movie. The directors control film 's artistic and dramatic aspects, and visualizes the script while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Therefore, the writers and the directors are the most important people who make a successful movie. Even though, the writers and the directors are the main people who create the content of the film, they do not have a responsibility to avoid stereotyping ethnic characters in the movie because it is just the connection between the audiences and the actors or actress, it is the way to increase the business of filmmakers and the writers, and it is just the way to review the world 's history.

Imagine a distant post-apocalyptic future in which a group of researchers discovers a stack of DVDs of 20th and 21st century Hollywood movies of Asian American actresses. After watching those movies, what might the researchers conclude about the characteristics of Asian American women in the movies? Certainly, they will view Asian American women as sexual and erotic objects of the society that white men can score with ease. Why do I assume they will think that way? The answer is a simple, yet controversial one: mostly, the media, as the history proves, portrays Asian American women either as erotic sex slaves of white men or as insidious personalities who lure their prey into a trap with their sex appeal. If we look into the history,

Today, when society talks about diversity, often times, Asian-Americans are brought into the conversation and are talked about as highly looked up to individuals, but they haven’t always been this way. On television, many times, Asian-Americans are represented as “nerdy” and “socially incapable/awkward”, Asian-American males are mostly shown as being weak and stereotypically awkward, while Asian-American females are either shown as “exotic” or also stereotypically awkward and nerdy, as stated by Takaki in his book Strangers from a Different Shore on page 479,

Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if

Whether it is on TV or movie screens, the faces of white actors and actresses have always been prevalent in the media. For generations, many teenagers have been exposed to countless movies with white people in major roles. Moreover, the few roles that are cast to minorities feature the characters in their stereotypical personas (Bonilla-Silva 179). Even in advertising, Asians are placed in business settings, upholding the hard-working Asian stereotype (Taylor and Stern 50). As Taylor and Stern mention in their paper, the “model minority” has made the issue of stereotyping seem less important for Asians. The majority of these actors that are examined, regardless of race, are typically middle-age and well established in their acting careers. However, there is a lack of research behind Asian youth acting and their perceived roles. To account for this knowledge deficit, I examine how whiteness influences the media to portray youth actors as individuals that stray from their stereotypes in an attempt to achieve whiteness. My research site centres around Fresh Off the Boat (FOB), a comedic television series featuring a Taiwanese family. The title of the show Fresh Off the Boat or “FOB” is also a term used to describe a person that is considered too ethnic and as a term of denigration. I utilize Pyke and Dang’s categorization of “FOB” and “whitewashed” to analyze the narrator, Eddie Huang. I chose to limit my research primarily to the first “pilot” episode where the audience is

Despite the fact that Asian Americans have been in Hollywood for decades, there are very few positive representations of them in film. More often than not, they’ve been depicted as stereotypical caricatures, and more specifically, as foreigners who can’t speak grammatically correct English. Moreover, the negative representations of Asian Americans in film has perpetuated certain misconceptions about their culture. Chan is Missing (1982) calls for more genuine representations of Asian American identities through its cast of complex characters and defiance of Asian stereotypes. The film also urges its viewers to critically think about their own notions of identity through the use of several recurring themes and filmmaking techniques.

Although Asian Americans comprise only about 5% of the U.S. population, this group is the fastest growing segment of American society. Despite such rapid expansion, Asian Americans are widely underrepresented throughout media, whether in television, cinema, or literature. Moreover, there are different stereotypes associated with Asian Americans. One of the most pervasive stereotypes details how Asian Americans are a “model minority”. In essence, this myth describes how anyone who is Asian American will become a successful individual able to achieve the “American dream”.

Television and film is a huge part of American culture. As the “face” of America changes, it is expected for our media to reflect it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Since the beginning of film, minorities have been misrepresented and underrepresented. While there has been a significant increase in minority actors since the beginning of film, there is still a huge underrepresentation present in American television and film. Our media needs to reflect out diverse country. This topic is always important and relevant because race, gender, and sexuality, in general, have been issues throughout the growth of television and film. Even today, minorities are subject to

Asian stereotypes are a product of prevailing myths propagated by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. Generally speaking, the stereotyping of Asian women often swing to extreme types: the docile, subservient sexual object, or the dragon lady. Asian Americans only make up a small percentage of the United States population and live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii. Consequently, the rest of the American population will most likely get their exposures to Asian Americans through television and movies. Popular media exposure to Asian Americans lacks one-on-one acquaintance with Asian Americans. It hinders the process

Another reason in which how Model Minority negatively affects Asian Americans is the expectation of many Asians in modern media. In a recent report by the University of Southern California Annenberg’s Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative, researchers have found that out of the top films, only about 5.3% of the actors and actresses are asian. On top of that, many of the actors and actresses in these films only have minor roles.

This is because Asian Americans are represented in various ways in the media. According to the textbook article, “Asian Americans were also represented as “perpetual foreigners”, as not being from the United States, as having cultural practices that are not “American,” and as embodying loyalty to a home country over the Untied States” (Drew, 2015 pg. 170). Then again the encouraging thing is that not all Asian Americans are the same, so having various representations of Asian Americans helps show viewers the many different ways Asian Americans are. But then at the same time there is a negative consequence to why Asian Americans are represented in so many ways. When thinking about what is shown on screen Asian Americans are represented so effortlessly, meaning that the media does not think Asian Americans are significant or good enough for big roles, or to even act as themselves. An example of this would be the movie Aloha, where the director made the decision to cast Emma Stone who is a White as an Asian-American

     Asian Americans only make up a small percent of the American population. Even more significant is that this percentage live mostly on the west and east coasts of mainland United States and Hawaii; leaving the rest of the American population to most likely get their exposures to Asians through television and movies. However the exposure they have receive throughout the history of cinematography has been hardly flattering. Throughout the course of history Asians in film have been portrayed as evil or the "yellow peril" as described by others. If Asians are not being classified as evil in this picture then they are most likely the comic relief, with their lack of coordination or grasp of the English

Although this segment is considered one of the more blatant display of racism towards Asian Americans, there are still many areas in the entertainment industry where racism is present in a more subtle means. This is largely exemplified by the limited roles offered to Asian actors.

The new term "Hollywood Whitewashing" has become popular among bloggers and critics alike . According to the Wikipedia Definition whitewashing “is a casting practice in the film industry of the United States in which white actors are cast in historically non-white character roles. The film industry has a history of frequently casting white actors for roles involving people of color, including African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, and any other Non-white, non-Hispanic culture, including Native Americans.”(WIKI) Once you have your eyes open to this phenomenon, it is very easy to see roles being switched in many popular blockbuster hits. It seems that in film making and storytelling, the story teller can use actors that don't fit the character simply because they are well known celebrities. Specifically, the casting of Asian Americans in film, is very minimal and is strongly apparent by the casting of Caucasian actors or actresses to portray an Asian character.

Most of the movies and TV shows you’ll see different ethnicity playing a character of or being a host and that good. But some movies you have people as actors trying to portray a paper that it’s not even close to their race. Instead of hiring a actor that his ethnicity will fit on the ethnic of the film Hollywood rather use someone well known to play the part of a Hispanic, Asian or black character in a film. In early Hollywood white actors were often made to portray characters of other race. For example, Yellow Face is when a white actor is using makeup to pass as an Asian. In a film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961) Mickey Rooney played a role of a cranky Japanese landlord and the character he was playing was Mr. Yunioshi. Even in the twenty-