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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
IS LUCY LIU A HEROINE OR A CURSE?
he isn't exactly playing Suzie Wong, but actress Lucy Liu has chagrined Asian Americans nevertheless. As Ling Woo of Fox's Ally McBeal, she spouts lines like, "A woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick," and, "There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them." The character is a self-described "tramp" who is simultaneously addicted to casual sex and uses sex to have her way with men. Being a creature of American TV, Ling's sexual encounters are never with Asian men, only adding fuel to the fire.
But some think Liu deserves credit for having built near-icon status for a strong Asian female character out of the scraps she was initially thrown in her first Ally McBeal appearance in September 1998. Ling Woo was evidently to have been scenery for the Nelle Porter character but stole the spotlight and, thanks to a killer kiss, quickly became a regular.
Liu's latter-day dragon lady has been deemed so compelling by American TV audiences that she often shares top billing with Calista Flockhart. Her overnight notoriety won her a lead in the Charlie's Angels movie in which she kicked ass, literally and figuratively, on par with the far better-paid Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore. Liu also landed the female lead in Jackie Chan's comic western Shanghai Noon and the role of a mafia dominatrix in the Mel Gibson flick Payback.
Her sexual roles opposite mostly non-Asians have led many Asian Americans to call Liu a sellout. The facts suggest otherwise. Her family immigrated from China and settled in Queens where Lucy was born December 2, 1968. The area began its transformation from an Italian neighborhood to an Asian one as she entered grade school and Liu went through an identity crisis in the normal quest to fit in with peers. Upon graduating from Stuyvesant High, she spent an unhappy year at NYU, then transferred to Michigan at Ann Arbor where she managed to fit acting, dancing and singing into a degree program in Asian languages. She also studied an Indonesian martial art called Kali-Escrima-Silat. She speaks fluent Mandarin.
None of that matters much, of course, to the countless Asian American women who suffer unwanted attention based on Liu's portrayal of the sexual predator Ling Woo. But some AA women are grateful that she has at least helped them shed the image of passive, submissive wallflowers. Many AA, of course, resent Liu for playing roles that reinforce the old stereotype of Asian women as being available to non-Asian men even as they applaud her for showing Asians to be English-speaking members of American society.
All of which begs the question, is Lucy Liu a heroine or a curse for Asian American women?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 04:38:55 AM)
Poor Lucy Liu! I think she's great looking. She may not have the doll face of many of the chinese actresses who are gorgeous, but to this non-asian she's good looking and I enjoy her acting a lot. It seems to me white women on Tv are also sex crazed. I'm not familiar with all of her movies, but in Shanghai Noon she wasn't a sex object.
Asians have a right to be mad over their treatment in the US especially when they first arrived in this country, but I see nothing wrong in them mixing romantically with other nationalities. I'm English, Irish, French, Spanish, and German. My ancestors were chased down the street during World War I by people yelling "dirty Prussians."
We should all be proud of what we are and not what we aren't. Asians have a lot to be proud of and it shouldn't take other people telling them about it to realize it.
Charlotte
Lacyguymon@aol.com
Friday, March 22, 2002 at 07:24:44 (PST)
Hey Schiavona,
I'm not gonna try and insult you so I'll just get down to the point. Asian Women portrayed as either submissive or domintrix like dragon lady. You might think these are completely opposit but guess what they have in common? These stereotypes play into the white boy's sexual fantasy. Whatever role an asian female will play, ultimately, she'll be the tool of a white guy. You know what I'd like? If things totally reversed. So that in the future, asian guys are only with white women in the media, asian women are seen as ugly and undesirable so they're never seen in the media with anyone or...at all. Have fun.
y'all just forgot about asian men
Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 20:44:34 (PST)
Schiavona,
The point with Lucy Liu is not that she is type cast. The point is that there is not a whole slew of asian actress in Hollywood. So that you can balance Cameron Diaz with a Jody Foster character. Which leads to humanization or individualizing white women on the silver screen.
So a majority of white America, due to lack of exposure to real asain women, have only seen Asian women as either a Dragon Lady or Submissive roles.
Just like when you watch HK films. Whites are always protrayed as evil villians or bad accented idiots. Even pure white women are treated negatively. Only hapa are treated in somewhat of a positive light, if they are totally immersed in HK culture. This contribute to many HK FOB looking down on white people and some aspects of western culture when they come overseas.
Think about that.
AC Dropout
Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 15:16:48 (PST)
"You know she's a sellout when she's never had a role in which she didn't have a white guy romantic lead."
By the way didn't she act opposite to Taye Diggs, who is black? Correct me if I am wrong.
"So she's independent blah blah blah, but in the end she ain't nothin but a white man's hoe."
Or a black man's?
"I can't wait for a day when the only asians we see on tv are asian guys and those asian guys are only with white girls."
Unlikely to happen as only 5% of white American women marry outside their race (see the AA Gender Divide Board). Why would white women want to give up their privilege? You think Cindy Crawford would ever give Asian men their time of day?
Asian Male
Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 14:20:03 (PST)
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