Flower Drum Song Analysis

Nevertheless, Asian-American stars are recognized extremely played prototypical roles offered to them – model minority, sexualized the female or masculine women. There is much argument within the Asian American community whether to consider Liu as a protagonist or a hateful. In playing highlighting sexuality roles such as Ling Woo on Ally McBeal, a role who is a ‘self-described “tramp” … simultaneously addicted to casual sex and uses sex to have her way with men’ (Goldsea.com 2008). Is she bolstering the sexploitation of Asian females, or is she an Asian image who plays her strong points? Moreover, there are already some problems in the critical writing as to whether Liu is to be considered an action star or an actor. Some argues that, in Charlie’s Angels

Although, 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

As a result, the Asian females lost their sense of “individuality” and “diversity of what it means to be Chinese.” As Connie accents, the stereotypical representation of Asian women increased during “the US involvement with the Philippines wars, Japan and China in World War II, and more recently, the Korean and Vietnamese Wars” because the American soldiers saw Asian women “as prostitutes and sexual objects who provide rest and recuperation from the war zones” (as cited in sitemaker.umich.edu). As time passed and media came into existence, stereotypical names, such as “Dragon Lady” and “China Doll,” of Asian-American women began to represent the Asian American women as sexual and erotic objects in the media.

Many people think that the poem A Song, by Helen Maria Williams, is just a love letter when, in fact, it is more of an expression of her relationship with her inspiration of writing.

“Slaying the Dragon” by Deborah Gee is a comprehensive look at media stereotypes of Asian and Asian American women since the silent era. From the racist use of white actors to portray Asians in early Hollywood films, through the success of Anna May Wong’s sinister dragon lady, to Suzie Wong and the ‘50s geisha girls, to the Asian-American anchorwoman of today. The movie also shows how stereotypes of exoticism and docility have affected the perception of Asian-American women.

Flower Drum Song was based on the 1957 novel, The Flower Drum Song, by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee. It was the eighth stage musical by the team of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. The piece opened in 1958 on Broadway and was subsequently made into a 1961 musical film. The team hired Gene Kelly (famous for Singin’ in the Rain) to make his debut as a stage director with the musical and scoured the country for their cast. With the exception of Juanita Hall (who also starred in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s South Pacific), the main cast is mostly Asian. Anna May Wong was actually set to return to Hollywood with the role of Auntie Liang in Flower

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

culturally inaccurate. At the time, Asians were still very much underrepresented in film and many

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.

Who’s next? It seems that the issue about race in American history never reaches an endpoint. The intersection of race, gender, contradiction has been continually crucial to shape the identity of minority American. As early as the first wave of Asian immigrants, Chinese immigrants, arrived in west coast, Asian Americans was haunted by anti-Asian movement and intense hostility. Foreign Miners’ Tax passed in 1852 was a representative of racial campaign between whites and nonwhites. The requirement of monthly three dollars’ tax intentionally crashed the earliest American Dream of Chinese immigrants who expected to lead a better life in the US. Such Anti-Asian movement was eventually ushered into legalized level. California Supreme Court declared in People v. Hall in 1854 that Chinese migrants were not entitled to testify against the white citizens in US court based on the fact that people, other than whites, could never enjoy the same rights as white Americans. Since then, Asian immigrants were subjected to numerous social and legislative initiatives that specifically targeted them on a racial basis. In David Henry Huang’s semiautobiographical play Yellow Face, he mixed his own memory and fiction to depicting an image of Asian American racial identity. In 1990, Hwang led a group of Asian-Americans to protest the casting of a white British actor as a Eurasian character in the musical Miss Saigon. However, later in his own play Face Value, he mistakenly casted a white actor,

Asian American actors in modern media deal with whitewashed film and television, underrepresentation in major works, and casting in stereotypical roles. These three problems are rooted in the history of Asian American actors in film and television, and have been perpetrated by stereotypes that continue to this day. The purpose of this memo is to examine the modern industry of film and television through the eyes of Asian American actors, viewing the stereotypes and stigmas these actors face, and looking forward to see what can be done by casting directors to reduce harmful stereotyping and increase diversity in film and television.

Asian people are under-represented in America. There isn’t very many of them in sports. Only 1.9% of people in the National Football League(NFL) are Asian. Only 2.1% of people in Major League Baseball( MLB) are Asian. Worst of all Asians only make up .2% of the National Basketball Association(NBA). Asians are even underrepresented in pop culture. White actors often play the roles of Asians in movies. In the movie Ghost in a Shell The main character Motoko Kusanagi was played by Scarlett Johansson. In the movie Star Trek Into Darkness, the main character Khan Noonien Singh was played by Benedict Cumberbatch. Asians aren’t just underrepresented in Hollywood, they are also underrepresented on television. The television series Fresh Off the Boat is the first prime-time sitcom, in 20 years since All-American girl by Margaret Cho, to feature an Asian American cast. In the United States, we have more than 50 million Asians but they are criminally underrepresented in sports and pop culture. Many Asian kids grow up and don’t have many famous people of their same race to look up to. These kids go through their whole life with nobody to look up to.

     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

Reading the essay it reminded me how we use both of our hands to do something. But Jonathan was different he only has one hand and he can accomplish the same amount of stuff as us. But society might judge him more than us because he only has one hand. Personally, I liked how Jonathan found a way out of negativity by playing the drums. And how he is more confident when meeting new people because he is able to tell his experience. I cannot imagine myself without one hand because it is going to be difficult with all the put downs and people always bringing up about my hand. But whatever Jonathan is going through, I did not go through. It was hard to connect with him because I couldn’t imagine myself with one