How Do Asian-Americans Receive An Aquatic Preferences?

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.

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.

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

This paper is a critique of the adaptation of David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face, a semi-autobiographical play, adapted and directed by Jeff Liu. This play was produced by the YOMYOMF Network and was performed through the video-sharing website Youtube. The plotline follows the misadventures of an Asian American playwright named David Henry Hwang, the protagonist of the play who is played by Ryan Yu. Throughout the play, Yu's character leads a protest against yellow face casting which only ends up in failure and embarrassment. Furthermore, he ends up mistakenly cast a white actor, Marcus G. Dahlman who is played by Christian Gorham, in an Asian role in his own play named Face Value. Whilst Yu's excelled in his portrayal of his role by effectively

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.

When I moved to United State of America, and entered college, I found out that it is not easy being an Asian-American. As I have lived in U.S. for two years so far, I believe I qualified to say that and I am not the only one. Even though culture shock and psychological state are normal for people like me who just came to U.S for 2 years, other young Asian-Americans who born and raised in U.S also continually suffer with their bi-cultural identities.

I do love the fact that Asian Americans are sensitive to others opinions and are careful to not offend anyone. I believe we need more of that in our society today. Everyone just says what is on their mind without thinking about it first and understanding that words can hurt. However, I do not believe that we should conform to fit into another societies standards. On another note, the foot binding thing freaks me out and makes my feet hurt just thinking about it.

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

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,

Chang-Rae Lee’s Native Speaker expresses prominent themes of language and racial identity. Chang-Rae Lee focuses on the struggles that Asian Americans have to face and endure in American society. He illustrates and shows readers throughout the novel of what it really means to be native of America; that true nativity of a person does not simply entail the fact that they are from a certain place, but rather, the fluency of a language verifies one’s defense of where they are native. What is meant by possessing nativity of America would be one’s citizenship and legality of the country. Native Speaker suggests that if one looks different or has the slightest indication that one should have an accent, they will be viewed not as a native of

“Big Trouble in Little China” starts with a white American character called Jack Burton, who delivers his cargo to a small town and during some free time plays card games in a Chinese market. After beating everyone at the game, he is proposed a bet by his friend Wang, and wins. Wang, not having enough cash to pay himself, convinced Jack to pick up his girlfriend Miao Yin at the airport, promising after which he would pay what he owed. Unexpectedly, a Chinatown gang called the Lords of Death abducts Miao, because of her green eyes. She becomes essential to being able to revive an ancient Chinese sorcerer Lo Pan and bring him back to the flesh. This marks the beginning of the

These instances would take away from the professionalism of the piece and would at times even take her credibility away. Colloquial terms such as “For the love of everything that’s good and pure,” and word usage such as “obviously” forces the reader to understand only one side of the argument. Another instance of unprofessionalism is when she would address the audience personally, using “I” and “me”. She often reiterates how the stereotype makes her feel “But this positive prejudice is just as threatening to my identity”, “if I ever show signs of struggle”, “I’ve witnessed during all of my years” and while these can offer a closer inspection of how these stereotypes affect a person, it does help with her argumentation. Giving a critique on a subject such as this, the author must hold no opinions and be subjective. Throughout her essay, the emotions towards the stereotype began to grow negatively. She would address Asians as “my race” which made her argument even more personal than professional.

Initially, I disagreed with Chang’s statement and felt that his opinion did not give people the option self-identify as Asian American and that they had to go through some sort of ritual in order to lay claim to that title. However, as I read on, I began to understand the power of this word and the role it has in Asian American identity. For one, this term liberated Asian Americans from the racist term Oriental placed upon them by their white oppressors and allowed them to select their own identifier. On the other hand, Chang explained that the term could actually erase identities such as gender, sexual orientation, and

Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are one of the fastest growing minorities in the United States. Despite their mainstream success academically and financially, hence the model minority myth that has been associated with AAPIs, they continue to face many challenges in seeking mental health services in their communities. Although the exact number of AAPI youth with mental illness is not known, research suggests that Asian American youth are at high risk.