Asian American Stereotypes in Film Essay

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,

Among the stereotypes of Asian Americans, the myth of the Model Minority and Panethnic Identity are among the easiest to attribute to Asian Americans. What exactly are these stereotypes? How did they come about? Whose responsible for perpetuating these terms? And what harm are they are they doing to Asian Americans anyway?

In his essay “Paper Tigers,” Wesley Yang discusses his own experiences as an Asian American, tying them into the larger picture of Asians functioning in American society today. Yang’s argument is that even though Asian Americans are one of the most successful ethnicities in the country, stereotypes that Asian Americans are exposed to affect the way other Americans view them. Because of personal bias and racism, human society fails to see other people for who they are and put too much emphasis on what they are supposed to or not supposed to be in America today. Stereotypes cloud people’s vision and judgment and keep some from achieving their goals because others have a pre-created

directors have stated that they cannot well-finance their film if the name of their leading actor is not mainstream name (Kim). White Americans during this time too, probably believed that if Asians were casted in the film, it would not be as good as they did view Asians as inferior in every way including in the performing arts. Even when Asians actors were casted to play Asian roles, Asian Americans would go out of their way not to watch. David Henry Hwang, who would later go on to write his own version of Flower Drum Song, said as a young man growing up in the sixties, watching how Asian characters were featured made him feel “icky”. All the Asian characters that he saw were either portrayed in an unrealistic or comical way or as a character that was dependent on the leading white character (Hwang). It made it hard for Asian Americans to look to media for role models when they were hardly ever represented and represented in inhumane ways.

All women are too sensitive! All Mexicans are illegal immigrants! If you’re from the South, then you are ignorant! Most people have heard at least one of these stereotypes pertaining to a certain group. Some people believe them whilst others do not. American Born Chinese illustrates three stories depicting the custom of stereotypes surrounding society: “The Monkey King”, the story of Monkey King’s thirst for infinite power, and his quest for atonement; “Jin Wang”, the story an awkward boy who tries to “fit in” the community around from but constantly fails; and “Danny”, the story about a high schooler who feels uncomfortable by his stereotypically negative Chinese cousin Chin-Kee. In this day-and-age, stereotypes are what bring people

have a father on the show at all. The studio executives felt that American viewers would not

At last, Asian American are victims of cultural stereotypes. For example, it is told “that they practice martial arts”, “eat cats and dogs,” and “try to look European”.

Aside the violence and the language in relation to the Asian culture, there is also the way that media portrays their sexuality and their overall ethics. For example, Carter who is African-American is portrayed as a loud, obnoxious, and highly sexual. While on the job, he is constantly attempting to romanticize the women of Hong Kong, whereas Lee remains fully aware and attentive to the job. Lee also takes his job very seriously where in contrast, Carter is constantly fooling around and is shown gambling at the craps table, and then says, "My people did not go through 362 years of slavery just so you could send us back to the cotton fields with $500 chips!" A clear portrayal of how both races, and in this case the Asians, are stereotyped and shown to the public by the media as what it should be defined

Americans have stereotypes and labels placed on Asians and Asian-Americans. This is also true vice versa. Most stereotypes originate from media. In Hollywood, Asians are usually portrayed as the nerdy or geeky friends. They are also mostly casted as minor roles like being extras. Asians are also underrepresented in media, like Hollywood. Even in movies that are of Asian origin, there are very little Asians who are part of the main cast. For example, in Kubo and the Two Strings, there is only one Asian cast member in the movie that places in ancient Japan. There is also the upcoming movie Ghost in the Shell. It is originally written as a manga, which is Japanese comics, and as an anime, a Japanese cartoon. There are Asian actors who could have

The movie the Karate Kid is about 12-year-old Dre Parker moves to China with his single mother, and he faces to many difficulties by being a stranger. However, he will be able to fight with those difficulties by embracing his karate skills with his master, Mr. Han. On the way to go to China, Dre wants to practice Chinese and talks to the man sitting next to him by believing that the man would speak Chinese. The man is actually an American. This scene is involving American and Chinese cultures, and it also shows a cultural stereotyping because Dre makes a false assumption by the way the man looks.

The lack of attention to the Vietnamese culture in the movie shows what little regard the American directors and audience have for the Asians in the movie. Why would the Auteur spend the money on the Vietnamese when his audience does not care about the Vietnamese? Because an American audience would not distinguish between a Vietnamese actor and another Asian actor, the Auteur hired the cheaper non-Vietnamese actors rather than actual Vietnamese actors. The narrator honestly believed when he acquired the job that he would be able to make a difference to better present his race in the movie, but in actuality his job had little meaning. American media operates

Asian people in film were not always shown in the best ways. They were usually in the background or they were part of a joke. American films showed their perspective of Asian people but Asian Americans in film helped to portray their national ideas to the western world. The Game of Death was a movie that involved Asian or Asian Americans like Bruce Lee, Robert Clause, and Raymond Chow and actually used national ideas that are commonly found in Asian countries.

This movie furthers the stereotype of Asians being mystical. Westerners always felt a sense of otherness towards Asians and for this reason their depiction in the movie seems to come out of another dimension in which the movie illustrates through Fu Manchu’s mysticism. This also undermines the validity of Fu Manchu’s character who is supposedly highly educated, but is made to seem more like a crazy man in his behavior. Furthermore, this is illustrated in the physical appearance of Fu Manchu, with long claw like nails and raised eyebrows he sets out to be the epitome of a villainous character. Because of the West’s lack of understanding of Asian cultures, they tended to portray them in a non-humanistic manner, as exemplified in Fu

This source was written in 2008 by MANAA. It starts off with a memo from MANAA to Hollywood discussing the issue of the American entertainment media defining the Asian image to the entire world. A list of examples are then given to help Hollywood thrive by comprising a more “inclusive vision” of the human community. There are numerous headings in the list that include several examples and evidence of Asian male stereotyping. One of the headings in the list given includes, “Asian Americans restricted to cliched occupations” which show how too often, the Asian American professions are depicted as gangsters, prostitutes, faith healers, laundry workers, etc. Other headings shown in this literature review is “Asian racial features, names, accents, or mannerisms as inherently comic or sinister”, “Asian male sexuality as negative or non-existent”, “Unmotivated white-Asian romance”, “Asian Americans as the “model minority”, “Asianness as an “explanation” for the magical or supernatural” and many more. Each one of these headings consists of a variety of examples that prove these headings to be true. “Anti-Asian racial slurs going unchallenged” is another significant example. Words such as “chink”, “slant-eye”, “nip”, “Chinaman” and even “Jap” are known to be well-known and extremely offensive terms used in Western media

This was great given that Asian roles were very scarce at the time. Many people wouldn't know the term “Orientalism". Orientalism is a term that is used to describe or imitate aspects in Eastern cultures. The term was given when a majority of American films knew nothing