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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, 04:38:55 AM)
Hi,
Just my opinion from a little research on the net I was doing out of interest. to get to the point:-
The media and hollywood is controlled mostly by Jews in the US, and generally it portrays a negative image of asian guys and maybe asian girls...the thing I don't get is that asians in particular the Chinese have been very hospitable towards the Jews, but the Jewish media insists on portraying asians negatively.
One example is that knowing that many Jewish people in the US have a great fondness of Chinese food, due to it's similarities with Jewish foods. There are many 'Kosher' certified Chinese restuarants in NY opened to cater for Jews, 'Kosher' meaning that a Jewish person can eat such foods without breaking the Torah.
Another example of the Chinese being tolerant of Jewish people is that during the Nazi wars as many as 20 000 Jews escaped to Shanghai to free themselves from persecution as China was one of the few places where Jews were accepted without a passport.
Why then does the Jewish media insists on portraying Asian males and maybe females stereotypically when Chinese have treated them so well?
My reason is mainly the commercial viability of propagating such false images because it satisfies the middle American syndrome. The media is trying to market itself to the mass public, so that as many people would 'buy' tickets to the shows. If Asians were to be suddenly portrayed as the 'hero/heroine' or 'good guy/girl' in shows, the mass audience wouldn't be able to identify with it as much when they could probably identify with the 'hero/heroine' 'good guy/girl' if they were just like them.
What does everybody thing?
JJ
Wednesday, July 03, 2002 at 05:28:40 (PDT)
Seattle Mojo,
always nice to hear from a conspiracy theorist.....got any dope on the kennedy assassination or 9/11?
So how does one lie about height and pull it off? How are the media "pretending" Arnie is 6'2?
maxdacat
Wednesday, July 03, 2002 at 02:55:50 (PDT)
it's very hard to generalize on AA height. I am a little over 5'9" yet many of my AA peers are somewhat taller than me, ~5'10", 5'11".
Everywhere, you will see under 5'8", but then, I see over 6' all the time as well, and way over 6' every now and then.
In some places I've seen very uniform distribution of height, say, all 5'8", or all 5'9", or all 5'11". Then there will be a a 5'6" and a 6'1". Not so strange, we seem an average size ppl (Chinese anyway), what I find interesting is that occasional extremely uniform distribution, despite being unrelated.
the Captain
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 23:49:06 (PDT)
huu 76,
I don't know about white american males' attitude towards the fact that an asian team allowed them to advance, but i can relate a story that might shed some light.
Last week a coworker of mine brought in a pie "to celebrate Turkey's triumphant performance in reaching the semi-finals." He's not of Turkish ancestry, so there was no obvious reason for him doing this. This lead me to ask him why he didn't mention S Korea, which similarly and unexpectedly reached the semifinals. Basically his response was that their performnace wasn't "extraordinary" because they were the host country, but that if I felt that way, I should bring in my own treats. Needless to say, I thought his answer was hogwash, and I pretty much believe that he is indeed offended by the idea that Asian men could succeed in sports. After all, why wouldn't you treat similarly situated (from his standpoint) people the same?
I won't generalize to all white men. This was the attitude of one particularly small (in all senses of the word, he's 5'4") man.
JJP
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 17:55:29 (PDT)
Yeah, it is much more complicated than the white man with his boot heel on the Asian or black man...I think blacks are really the most interesting example of this. I don't think it's an exageration to say there are very few positive examples of asian males or even asian females...either they are portrayed as without ethnicity or in some karate role...nothing to combat common stereotypes...the worst is the reporting from Asia...all these reporters always use a narrative of these "backwards" people need to change their ways, whether with women or sex or whatever...vs. the so high, progressive "white", western peoples.
I think alot of the conflict between asians and blacks can be explained by simple psychology. It's not "divide and conquer" from some plot...but a combination of very understandable inferiority complexes, trying to unconsciously associate with the dominator against other "lower" competitors, and then whites taking in one group--like a little child--saying they are good vs. the bad other group.
I think blacks are really the most interesting example of the complexities of racial dynamics today. It's hard to say whether much of imagery of blacks today is good or bad...it's more like there very important role in modern subconscious imagery has simply been revalued...so that the christ like figure/victim has almost become black...the criminal/animal--the worst and most despicable image placed on blacks by Victorians has actually become a thinly veiled positive image today...as we love rebels..who better a rebel than simply revaluing negative stereotypes into positive ones...so you see a love of black "culture" by white suburban teenagers and a very large and growing love of black men by younger women...it's the gangster/thug/animal/bad boy image associated onto blackness...I really don't think that's necessarily a good thing and while not pure oppression someone needs to study this more...Of course many good, almost non-racial actors like Morgan Freeman but really, it's not like our society has simply wiped away the ugly past...it's just been dug in a very shallow grave.
AsianThoughts
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 16:40:22 (PDT)
White guilt?? LoL, more like white fear of getting the sh*t kicked out of 'em. Apparently reasoning with white america isn't enough, hence we had the Rodney King riots. Who the hell do we think we're kidding, people.
So it isn't white guilt, and I'm sure folks would dispute it's white fear... Maybe whites have allowed these token black actors into Hollywood so they don't have to take any more heat from the black community and also to sell their products to blacks. The key word here is 'ALLOWED'. This is regardless of their abilities, the same is apparently not afforded to asians.
Do you honestly believe the people running hollywood are any different now? Or maybe those that run a certain company (t*x*co) are less racist because they decided to put a bunch of ads showing black people after an embarrassing incident among certain high level execs. Don't be naive, it's just PR and nothing more. I suspect something much worse in the attitudes of those running Hollywood towards asians than what we see on the big screens. Why should we assume otherwise?
Geoff DB: You mean you've reached out to asians and had your hand slapped away or pissed on. Have you had your hand slapped away or pissed on while MINDING YOUR OWN BUSINESS?? or get sh*t on, even... Apparently this happens quite a bit with asians. And the fact that this white/black american society finds it so acceptable to bad mouth and be belligerent to asians does not help. They expect us to amuse them with reasons and rational arguments and such, but we all know what it really takes... maybe we should dance for 'em like monkies too.
Nobody wants to call blacks racists, I guess most people feel they've earned that right or something. So the whites jump on the bandwagon thinking it's acceptable to put down asians too, along with some of the more vocal blacks that do have a problem with asians. Or look the other way when it happens, believe me that's the best asians are gonna get. Should we go out of our way to be your friend?? Maybe kiss up to your society a little more?? Please spare us a little bit of dignity will you.
I do hope things improve, but I have my doubts. I'll have to agree with Yonsei on much of this matter.
kimchi u.y.a.
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 15:47:07 (PDT)
Geoff and Political Observer,
Thanks for the articulate responses to my posts. I didn't mean to sound as though I was slighting the tremendous accomplishments of African Americans, nor imply that Denzel, Morgan Freeman and others aren't deserving of their roles. (Actually, what spurred my interest in my own AA culture in the first place is my longstanding scholarly interest in Afro-Am studies. But that's another whole universe to explore).
The point I was trying to make was how contrived the media can be, and how minorities are usually pawns in the game. I think "white guilt" is a real, operative phenomena; but it doesn't mean that those black actors aren't great and deserving of their roles and accomplishments in spite of it-- far from it.
I guess Asians feel as though they are where blacks once were-- ignored, left out, in spite of hard-earned contributions and the potential to contribute. Think about baseball in the early 1950s-- right after Jackie Robinson, they slowly and tentatively let in a few black major leaguers (who all went through racist hell), and none were marginal or "so-so". On the other hand, there were tons of marginal white big leaguers. You couldn't be anything but awesome to make the majors if you were black in the early 1950s. Things changed, but not overnight.
By the way, Geoff-- disregard the two-faced AAs. They might think they have more in common with whites than blacks, and probably feel a degree of smugness saying it. Their statements mostly reveal that Asians have been more openly assimilationist than blacks, due to our historical circumstances. The truth, I think, is we're equidistant from both white and black. Perhaps only interracial marriage will completely bridge those cultural and racial divides. And come to think of it, that's happening more and more, too. I welcome it, I think it's inevitable-- and it can't happen soon enough for me.
Yonsei
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 12:25:08 (PDT)
I agree that Denzel definitely deserved to win the Oscar. He is a brilliant actor. Just look at how far African-Americans have come in the past 35 years, it's incredible. And it was through unity and hard work. I hold hope that in 35 years Asian-Americans will have achieved more accpetance in society as well. There's no reason they can't. Look where blacks came from- they were slaves only 150 years ago, and were still forced to stand in the back of the bus in the 60's. It took a brave woman like Rosa Parks to change the world. Maybe we need the Asian equivalent of her.
curious girl
Tuesday, July 02, 2002 at 11:14:27 (PDT)
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