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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
ASIAN FILMS & HOLLYWOOD'S ASIAN IMAGES
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:02:53 PM)
rouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, with its modest budget and phenomenal legs, was the past year's most profitable Hollywood release. It showcased the talents of multiple-Oscal-winning director Ang Lee and charismatic Hong Kong action star Chow Yun-Fat who had also co-starred in the lavish Anna and the King. Action director John Woo has helmed a half-dozen big-budget movies emblazoned with Hollywood's brightest names. Jackie Chan and Jet Li have each starred in a couple of Hollywood vehicles. The past five years has seen a virtual tidal wave of Asian talent washing into Hollywood.
But some Asian Americans question whether the individual contributions of imported Asian talent, no matter how visible, have really changed the way Asians are portrayed by Hollywood and the way we are seen on Main Street. Others do see a shift, albeit subtle, and expect more to come.
How do you see the effect that imported Asian talent has had on the images we Asian Americans must live with day in and day out?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
Those Asian stars already have a huge market. They are bigger stars than Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks in Asia. Investor put money on those movies because they are for sure profitable. The market value of Asian Americans is not proven, so invest on them will have a bigger risk. This is also why Bruce Lee needed to go back to Hong Kong at the beginning -- no investor have the guts.
Asian movies in Hollywood will certainly provide more opportunites to the Asian American stars -- see Jet Li and Russell Wong in Romeo must die. With more and more chances, AA will become superstar someday. It is a win-win situation. But, before you are a superstar, you have to be a survivor.
Asian image will change little by little with more Asian expose on the main stream media. Be patience, it is only the beginning. Support Asian movie!
Newcomer
Thursday, October 11, 2001 at 19:45:47 (PDT)
The import of the HK stars are two-fold.
One: they wanted to leave HK because the movie industry there is no longer as good as it was during the 80's and 90's for various reasons.
Two: Hollywood now realize that there is a market for wire choreograhy in their production, the turning point was the Matrix I believe. So now they want the best wire performers and choeographer in their project. Currently, all those people are Asian.
At some point the fanatic kung-fu performance will be conducted by non-asians. Like Ladder Scene in Three Musketeers that looks a lot like the one in Once Upon a China.
Only Chow Yun Fat has come to USA because of his non-martial art ability. I don't see how he can improve AA image. I mean his first break in the USA was "The Killer." How is that good for the AA image. That we are all assassins that do bad with good underlying motives.
So I really don't see much of change in attitude yet in Hollywood. Until Asian have clout in Hollywood you won't see much change. Even Jackie Chan complains how restrictive Hollywood is when he does a movie for a US studio. Jackie always says he want to change the stunts at the set to try to make it better, but they won't because of "safety" concerns. Sounds like a PC way of saying "So what you've made a hundreds movies with death defying stunts on the fly, you work for us now boy. Now shut your mouth and jump like we told yea!"
AC dropout
Thursday, October 11, 2001 at 14:15:56 (PDT)
Clarity and Ghostwriter,
Amen to the tenth power,
American media only likes one thing when it comes to Asian culture. Available Asian women. There are 4 memorable Asian males who are working or have worked in Hollywood. Bruce, Jackie, Chow and Jet. They all speak with a thick Asian accent which drives home the point that Asian males are foreigners and they all more or less thrive only in the matrial arts movies (with the occasional exception of Chow). There about 4 recognizable Asian females in America as well: Connie, Lucy, Lisa, Margaret. They all speak perfect English and are notorious white male hounds. Lisa Ling is dating Rick Yune but dated some powerful white ABC exec to get where she is.
But even beyond that every little image In American cinema concerning Asians almost always deals with white/black guys killin Asian guys by the truck loads and bangin Asian women who are already falling on thier knees out of pure worship as though they have never experienced attraction to a male up until now.
If there is an Asian guy he is usually a villain of pure evil, an asexual kung-fu master or a marble mouthed comic relief.
Guess when this image will change....try no time soon...or quite possibly never.
Who's to blame?....John Q white guy and Shlomo Goldberg. Am I being racist ..yes ....because this whole issue is about race in the first place. Its inescapable......
Bandersnatch
Friday, October 05, 2001 at 10:54:09 (PDT)
I'm not Asian so I think I can express how some other people see Asians. I think non-Asians sometimes think Asians are smarter than we are and better behaved, but the images the movies have depicted in the past have been very poor. Chow Yun-fat turned my thinking around as he is so sexy and such a good actor and even though he was a crooked cop in "The Corrupter" he still had a good heart. I have been following his career and personal life and I really like what I see. All three of his American movies were not box office hits, but they did show his great talent. Perhaps with the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" he will finally be able to become an American super star as he is in Asia. I will not be satisfied until he can play a part that is not written for an Asian, but that a man of any race could play. African Americans have reached this point and I see no reason why Asians can't do the same thing.
Charlotte Guymon
Thursday, August 30, 2001 at 07:09:11 (PDT)
I personlay believe that Crouching Tiger hidden Dragon clarified something that ive suspected all along.
Chinese PEOPLE CAN FLY!
They invented gunpowder and rockets to scare invaders away. MAYBE LI MU BAI and the girl had rocket packs!
FatWhiteguy ds9129@aol.com
Wednesday, July 25, 2001 at 10:14:56 (PDT)
I think Americans are smart enough to distinguish between fantasy and reality..... I hope.
When a white dude sees an asian dude, I really don't think the white dude is thinking about whether or not the asian dude can kick 4 times in the air or fly up walls and trees. Most likely, their wondering, "How can that dude afford such a kick-ass car?".
And besides, everybody is too freakin' busy to care about anyone else, in this day and age.
Keep your head straight and don't sweat the details.
K-town Los Angeles.
K-town L.A.
Wednesday, July 25, 2001 at 03:08:39 (PDT)
Hollywood is a evil. They brainwash people into thinking what is reality. There is no free exchange of ideas and stereotypes are either clear cut or they don't show minorities at all. Ever notice that the majority of non-minority stars are blue eyed? Ever notice that in most American movies they show Americans saving the world (while none of the minority themed movies that make it to main stream audiences don't?). Hollywood always make movies that depicts a Americans/European person saving the world from impending doom. This is a sign of extreme egoism and American/Euro centric self inflation. Most minorities are bad guys very rarely do they show a minority being the hero and if they do they most likely die in a extreme act of heroism (which is Hollywood's backdoor way of trying to show how race friendly they are). The media shapes and brain washes people into thinking a certain way. It's done subliminally and that is a crime against all people. Fact is that asian women are more accepted in Hollywood than asian males are (the disparity is so great it's comical almost, although it's a sad, sad indictment of Hollywood's overt racism). There are NO ASIAN AMERICAN MALE STARS in the movies, radio, broadway, writing and in TV. None, if you're an asian male and you don't know kung fu or you don't have a accent then there is no work for you basically. I am a asian american male writer. I wrote some screenplays and submitted them. The feedback I got was disturbing. The only 2 scripts they were interested in were one with an asian lady starring as the lead (with no other asian characters) and the other was a script clearly ripped off from the "Karate Kid" but with one exeception. The Mr. Miyagi character was a asian american male and they wanted him to have an accent to "make it more believeable to American audiences". I wrote these scripts as a joke just prove something to myself and others who didn't believe that American media portrays asian males and asians in a poor light. Face it people: Western media wants to portray asians in a certain way and all of it is racist. I mean how many films we are gonna see a "asian vixen" who screws around with non-asians all the time? How many nerdy characters are we gonna see? How many kung fu masters are we gonna see? How many de-sexualized asian males are we gonna see? Can't hollywood wake up and smell the coffee? Probably not because they control it and they force feed it to us and over time it will brainwash people into believing their version of what minorities are truly like. Being an asian male in hollywood is like being an endangered species...you never know when your time is up. White folks control hollywood and the media and thus they control the minds and bodies of us all. Problem is that the asians who are actually in Hollywood don't do anything to change this perception. They're white washed and probably just glad that they have job that is cool. Oh by the way most asians employed by hollywood are women also so go figure out what is wrong. Also hollywood markets their stupid movies all across the globe and these controlled media images will just penetrate and brainwash other nationalities stupid enough to believe that real life is portrayed by Hollywood. Remember folks the Revolution will not be televised.
Ghost Writer NYC
Monday, July 23, 2001 at 21:45:38 (PDT)
its a good sign when asian americans play positive characters rather than the stereotypes like, gangster and dragon lady. we asian americans are not like that.
asian american
Friday, July 06, 2001 at 17:00:03 (PDT)
M: "fuk doin roles that pay, they must be positive". This is probally a lot easier to say if your not a profesional actor/actress.
Honestly, if you want to change how asians are depicted in movies and televisions you have to find a way to make it profitable for the white dominated media or the asian community must do it itself.
Unfortunatly the media only really cares about money and theyre doing alright as things stand(no matter how morally unjustified it is). In the meantime see what you can do personally, like it or not non asians judge your community(ies) based on individual members they meet, so if you challenge stereotypes in day to day life that will help a lot. I used to live in an almost 100% white town, then in highschool i moved to a city where my highschool was over 3/4 asian. Being around asians constantly for 5 years slowly removed the majority of my stereotypes.
Media portrayal alone will change little.
white guy
Tuesday, June 26, 2001 at 02:39:05 (PDT)
I'm white, so I guess I can testify as to how this shapes opinions outside the asian community. It is good in that it shows asians outside of some movie stereotypes (asian men as being non sexual, asian women as being sexy mysterious seductresses, asians 100% being evil martial arts mafia, asians as being silly/just there to be laughed at etc).
On the other hand based on the movies asian people are still all martial arts masters.
PS: as an insecure white person i must state i do not believe in any of these stereotypes.
white guy
Monday, June 25, 2001 at 10:55:21 (PDT)
Most of the writers in Hollywood (and media in general) do not like to portray asian people in accordance with the real world on TV or the movies. I suspect they believe that their audience do not want to see an asian person in roles that a white person is usually depicted in. What are the chances that a handsome asian guy will appear on Friends as Racheal's love interest? I suspect never because of the bias that exists in the minds of white men against asians. This is logical given that media depictions are controlled and molded by white men. In the U.S., 1 in every 6 doctors is of asian descent. If you watch shows like ER, Chicago Hope, etc..the absence of asian doctors is strange given its lack of correspondence with the real world.
I do not discount the powerful effect that media images have in shaping people's perceptions about asians. I've had kids and adults ask me if I know Kung-Fu or if I can make killer fried rice. I usually laugh. Underneath this laughter there is an undercurrent of tiredness.
Clarity
Thursday, June 21, 2001 at 00:32:40 (PDT)
We must give a real portrayal of asian american stance n this country. we r more than kung fu and bad english. we must wake up and realize our future. fuk doin roles that pay, they must be positive. we must change the portrayal of asians together. never give.
M
Tuesday, June 19, 2001 at 22:10:24 (PDT)
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