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GOLDSEA |
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
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(Updated
Wednesday, Jan 22, 2025, 06:38:55 AM)
i'm chinese american and i thought it was really cool to see S. korea make it to the semi finals of the world cup. i was cheering for them too! =D
i think that the korean fans were very classy and very graceful as the host country as well. i live in k-town los angeles and it was neat to see the hood all out cheering for their team and everyone was so well behaved unlike some laker fans! =P
d@ m@n
Monday, July 01, 2002 at 09:16:57 (PDT)
Political Observer,
My view of why Asian men are not portrayed favorably by the media is not distorted-- rather, your interpretation of what I'm saying is distorted. Read my post again-- I never said nor implied that blacks and whites are in cahoots to keep the Asian man down. I don't even think that, because blacks don't have executive media power, though they have considerable consumer power. What I was trying to say is that generalized white guilt now overcompensates by placing blacks in the spotlight 100% favorably, in every circumstance possible. Think of Morgan Freeman, Samuel Jackson, Denzel-- they are partenered in every major film with some white star, even anachronistically (in medieval European settings, the Old West, etc.). It's so predicatable-- you won't find a major film today without a black co-star at the white hero's side, as if to place a stamp of approval on the whole enterprise. (This is with the exception if interracial romance-- that's still largely a no-no, and when it happens at all, it's almost always a WM who gets the girl of color and transcends the boundaries, like a true chivalric pioneer).
Asians, on the other hand, are still much more at the receiving end of prejudice, stereotype, and neglect in the media. Read the many posts here, and you'll see that I'm not alone in believing this. Your sanguine view that white males have no agenda and just want everyone to succeed is great, and I'm sure many feel this way. But like I say, WMs control the media, and they put in what the majority wants-- and the majority is still white. In any event, like people here are saying, this is all slowly changing. You have more and more AM media stars. Think about Bruce Lee-- he had to be almost miraculously skilled and charismatic in order to rise to the top. (Sound like Ichiro?). Bruce Lee had to be-- and was --ten times better than any white male to make it, thirty years ago. Times have changed a lot, but we still have a ways to go.
Yonsei
Monday, July 01, 2002 at 07:38:19 (PDT)
A Thoughts,
I wonder how white american males felt with an Asian team that allowed them to advance?
You're right about asian infighting. It sucks. During the world cup, I was cheering for China, Korea and Japan. It didn't matter who won, just as long as they did.
T,
Kelly Hu isn't a very good example. So far I've only seen her as a half naked useless chick in a movie and a half naked Maxim girl. How splendid for asians that we have representation like that.
huu76
Sunday, June 30, 2002 at 23:58:06 (PDT)
MiMi...
Thanks for the comment. Yeah, you're right. Not only do blacks stereotype but I also believe EVERY race (every individual) holds their own stereotypes about other races. About the tattoos though, I don't see that as someone trying to claim something from another culture as their own. I just see that as an accessory. Nothing wrong w/that. They're not saying they invented them.
CaliGirl
Sunday, June 30, 2002 at 23:14:29 (PDT)
Most people can ignore aspiring talent such as actors/actresses but in sports, people with talent are bound to be noticed. Yea! Corea go kick some but at the world games!
I am proud for Corea achieving some major status for cohosting the Fifa World Cup games and the hospitality we have shown. If ANYONE is unsure of this, just log on to CNN.com and go to Grant Wahl's praising reviews of Corean hospitality.
And I totally agree with AsianThoughts who went to Corea and noticed that most of the men/guyz there were very tall. Besides which, height isn't that big of a deal, once you think about it.
Hey, who cares if you're taller than me, or who's taller than who... as long as you're not in a physical tussle, that is. ^^
Typical Azn Female
Sunday, June 30, 2002 at 14:14:03 (PDT)
Ahn Jung-hwan 's picture up top is pretty neat. Im a guy and even Ill admit hes cute. Kinda looks like a pirate though.
Red Flag
Sunday, June 30, 2002 at 09:17:37 (PDT)
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