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Sex, Money & |
Sex, Money & Asian Stereotypes Sexual devaluation is the only viable offsetting fantasy strategy against Asians, given the unquestionable strength Asians have shown in the economic arena.So Hollywood pushes the stereotype of Asian men as asexual machines. Reflect this across the gender line, and we see the sexuality of Asian women devalued by making them sexually available — the ultimate slam in a society that still values women for their fitness to be a good wife and mother. This also serves the dual purpose of further devaluing Asian male's sexuality by denying us the ability to command the loyalty of Asian women and further promoting the offsetting fantasy by implying their availability to Mr AJ. [CONTINUED BELOW]
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Seeing stereotypes as a compensating mechanism doesn't make them any less annoying, but it does shift the focus of the anger from Mr AJ, the consumer in need of an offsetting fantasy, to the industry that feeds that need for profit. As an Asian American, I see much of Hollywood as a parasite that feeds on economic discontent and turns it into racial discord. That's why I rarely watch non-sports TV any more, even when something happens to catch my interest.
Recently I have become struck by the irony of a stagnant Hollywood finding so much renewed vitality in things Asian, especially martial arts flicks. It has been able to exploit even a big Asian star like Jackie Chan to feed the offsetting fantasy (Rush Hour 2) by reviving the same old stereotypes that impugn Asian sexuality, both male (inadequate) and female (prostitute). Hollywood is growing ever more skillful in surgically exploiting Asian genres and filmmaking techniques to produce movies that serve its own purposes. In 2002 China's premiere director/propagandist Zhang Yimou released Hero, a Jet Li martial arts epic featuring the most ravishingly surreal fight sequences ever filmed, surpassing even those of Akira Kurosawa. A profoundly impressed Quentin Tarantino got Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein to snap up Hero's U.S. distribution rights. Then the studio held up the film's U.S. release for two years while Tarantino set to work making the Kill Bill sequence using many of the same techniques and even plot elements, albeit with inferior execution. Only when both Tarantino flicks had enjoyed their full box-office runs unhampered by questions of imitation was Hero released to American audiences. Tarantino, knockoff-artist-cum-auteur par excellence, had his cake and ate it too. The subtitled version of the film was credited as being “presented by” Quentin Tarantino. Industry journals showed him receiving Jet Li's grateful handshake for his efforts in bringing Hero to global audiences. It all made Tarantino look like the godfather of highbrow martial arts flicks. The most Asian of genres — first introduced to broad American audiences by the efforts of Bruce Lee, the symbol of revived Asian celluloid manhood — had fallen into hostile use. In Kill Bill Tarantino uses an Asian medium to revive the image of Asian women (Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii, Julie Dreyfus as the half-Japanese Sofie Fatale, and Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari) willing to die in droves for a white man (David Carradine as Bill). I'm not suggesting that all Hollywood action films featuring Asian characters are inherently offensive. There have been exceptions (most notably the Bruce Lee and Jet Li films). But given Hollywood's longstanding tendency to go for the profit in selling offsetting fantasies, I approach each one as I would a coiled rattler. |
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