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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
A New Image for Asian Men?
he original flavor stereotype of Asian men may have its inspiration in Hollywood mockery of the first wave of Chinese immigrants in the Old West. Bonanza's gimpy Hop Sing was the only recurring image of Asian men for most of TV's formative decades. For variety's sake, Hollywood racked its brain and added the coolie, the waiter and the bucktoothed enemy soldier.
Corean soccer star Ahn Jung-hwan
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Fortunately, Hollywood is no longer a one-stop outlet for depictions of Asian men.
Pro sports's $30 billion estimated annual U.S. rake rivals the $35 billion pocketed by Hollywood. Driven by athletic excellence, pro sports allow no room for image jiggering to satisfy racial biases. The exploits of dashing Ahn Jung-hwan in the World Cup wasn't scripted for white American mass audiences. The straight-sets drubbing that a tall young Thai named Paradorn Srichaphan gave Andre Agassi at Wimbledon can't be left on the cutting-room floor. Ichiro's leadoff-hitting and base-stealing can't be imitated with wires and special effects.
Hi-tech and bio-tech -- whose estimated $400 billion annual revenues dwarf the media -- have spawned another set of images that clash with Hollywood's. How do Americans reconcile premiere AIDS researcher David Ho or Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang with Hollywood's Hop Sings and Long Duck Dongs?
Questions arise. Doubts are engendered.
Even modern culture -- commonly tarred by association -- isn't entirely subject to Hollywood's reflexive Asian-male undercutting. Classical music lovers are nourished by Yo-Yo Ma's gourmet cello notes and thrill to the daring rifts of Japan's iron chefs. Younger Americans surrender racial identities to a no-holds-barred universe created by manga artists. Linguists and speed readers frequently abandon Hollywood's relentless quest for the lowest common denominator in favor of films made for Asian sensibilities.
To the extent sports, culture and business enjoy a tighter relationship with reality than does Hollywood, they offer Asian men a fairer, more compelling stage. And these spheres too pack big audiences that take note of the yawning abyss that separates Hollywood's "original flavor" Asian men from the crispier, spicier variety in the real world.
Is America seeing the emergence of a new, improved Asian male image? If so, is it making life easier for Asian American men? Or just stimulating a more determined effort at undercutting?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:38:55 AM)
What you say is true. The Asian man is coming into his own and everyone is starting to see that. Mainly because there isn't so much of an economic gap between the west and Asia. But that will only make Hollywood work harder to please people who feel threatened by Asian men. Somewhere down the road Hollywood will get so far off base no one will take it seriously. Then it will have to come around and start being more realistic and fair.
Problem is that could take a long time. Maybe ten or twenty years.
Pessimist
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 20:30:31 (PDT)
Ahn is legend, he killed off the mighty italians with his golden goal in the second half. He made the italians cry mwuhahahahaha
dupedopergangher
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 20:04:54 (PDT)
Unfortunately, Asian-American males are still under the stereotypical shell, especially thank to the Hollywood community. To be honest with you and I am not a sport fan, I have not heard any of those names you have mentioned above, with the exception of Ichiro. To a lot of mainstream America, he is still a "foreigner" - an imported novelty.
Two weeks ago, while traveled from Atlanta back to L.A., I eavesdropped some very interesting conversation by a couple of jocks sitting behind me. They talked about a Chinese basketball player that the American tried to bring over. And the conversation went like this:
"Why Chinese? I don't understand."
"I know, we have a lot of black basketball players here in America."
"I can't see the Chinese in sport."
And so on.
I was disturbed by their connotation that Asian men are not athletetically inclined. That's obnoxious. No, they are not white jocks. I believe that they are either Middle-Easterns or Latinos. The heart of the matter is that mainstream folks still do not buy us Asian men as participants in sports.
Those names are meaningless to the American mass. Michael Chang was our hope. He's a great tennis player. Without surprise, the numbers of product endorsement he got are so minimal comparing to that mediocre polish girl (Enrique's girlfriend).
The images of Asian-American men are bastardized by both Hollywood and the media, including literature. "The Joy Luck Club" was the ultimate sting to us Asian-American men. We are constantly being portrayed as either weak and sexually androgynous (M. Butterfly syndrome/Hop Sings) or outrageously evil (Yellow Peril/Dr. Fu Manchu).
Well -- thank to the Hong Kong imports of Jackie Chan and Jet Li. We have another image to live up -- Kung Phooey. I see more non-Asian kids doing the Kung Fu mock to their Asian friends than ever before.
Another perpetual image I see in movies lately is silent Asian men as Whites' insignificant sidekick, such as the characters in "Ocean Eleven" or "Minority Report."
In conclusion, I do not feel the drastic change in the portrayal of Asian-American men. On a positive note, things are changing, but very slowly. Unfortunately, too slow.
Tony
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 17:46:22 (PDT)
it's gonna be at least another 20 years before you see some REAL positive change. there are some good thing here and there but overall, it's almost the same as 20-40 years ago but just in a different form to be more PC in context to the current times!
d@ m@n
Wednesday, June 26, 2002 at 16:40:01 (PDT)
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