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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
IS LUCY LIU A HEROINE OR A CURSE?
he isn't exactly playing Suzie Wong, but actress Lucy Liu has chagrined Asian Americans nevertheless. As Ling Woo of Fox's Ally McBeal, she spouts lines like, "A woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick," and, "There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them." The character is a self-described "tramp" who is simultaneously addicted to casual sex and uses sex to have her way with men. Being a creature of American TV, Ling's sexual encounters are never with Asian men, only adding fuel to the fire.
But some think Liu deserves credit for having built near-icon status for a strong Asian female character out of the scraps she was initially thrown in her first Ally McBeal appearance in September 1998. Ling Woo was evidently to have been scenery for the Nelle Porter character but stole the spotlight and, thanks to a killer kiss, quickly became a regular.
Liu's latter-day dragon lady has been deemed so compelling by American TV audiences that she often shares top billing with Calista Flockhart. Her overnight notoriety won her a lead in the Charlie's Angels movie in which she kicked ass, literally and figuratively, on par with the far better-paid Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore. Liu also landed the female lead in Jackie Chan's comic western Shanghai Noon and the role of a mafia dominatrix in the Mel Gibson flick Payback.
Her sexual roles opposite mostly non-Asians have led many Asian Americans to call Liu a sellout. The facts suggest otherwise. Her family immigrated from China and settled in Queens where Lucy was born December 2, 1968. The area began its transformation from an Italian neighborhood to an Asian one as she entered grade school and Liu went through an identity crisis in the normal quest to fit in with peers. Upon graduating from Stuyvesant High, she spent an unhappy year at NYU, then transferred to Michigan at Ann Arbor where she managed to fit acting, dancing and singing into a degree program in Asian languages. She also studied an Indonesian martial art called Kali-Escrima-Silat. She speaks fluent Mandarin.
None of that matters much, of course, to the countless Asian American women who suffer unwanted attention based on Liu's portrayal of the sexual predator Ling Woo. But some AA women are grateful that she has at least helped them shed the image of passive, submissive wallflowers. Many AA, of course, resent Liu for playing roles that reinforce the old stereotype of Asian women as being available to non-Asian men even as they applaud her for showing Asians to be English-speaking members of American society.
All of which begs the question, is Lucy Liu a heroine or a curse for Asian American women?
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WHAT YOU SAY
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In my opinion as a white man, I think Lucy Liu is a definitely liability to Asian women because she has yet to break out of the Hollywood stereotype of an Asian woman and has yet to so much as a utter even a minor complaint about it.
I dont care how many Asian American groups give her an image award she is portraying the same old stereotyped Asian woman that we have seen in Hollywood for years, its just that she is much more prominent than Asian actresses of the past for the sole reason of being in a popular TV show.
Her roles continue to be the same old "white man china doll" role or "insatiable ivory man eater" which Hollywood has yet to alter.
I watched snippets of Ally McBeal, which even without the asian stereotype I have always found to be a vomit inducing show. I saw one episode "The Kiss" which she relishes seducing yet another white guy and blowing his mind with her "exotic asian technique" and then another one where she wants "to get with" Ally's father instantly after she finds out he gets divorced and is unhesitatinlgy insistent despite Ally's protest of her doing so.
Hollywood has yet to pair an Asian female with anything but a non Asian man
only cast them in these:
"the dragon lady", "the exotic insatiable hot for non asian men, hookers, "the poor wife of an an abusive asian" or the "poor wife of an asian crime boss, both which needs to be rescued by a white man.
I dont see Kelly Hu as really selling out Asian women in her role as the sorceroress in "The Scorpion King" because it seems to me to be a typical female role in a macho potboiler that probably if not played by her, would have been by played by anyone attractive female regardless of race as long as they weren't didnt have a pale skin tone. I think its sad that she sees parading herself as a piece of meat
as a breakthrough role and was even more disheartened that she would subject herself to appearing on The Howard Stern Show in order to get her name out there. It turned my stomach to her one of Howard's partners in crime that supposedly "likes asian women" hearing him throw out racist stupidly pickup lines like referring to his egg roll and his two wontons. A lot of white men are "into Asian women" because they see them as an "exotic sex toy" , but are still blantantly racists toward asian people and condesceding to asian culture.
She will be just like dozens of other pretty faces who grace the covers of Maxim and Stuff, who will be quickly forgotten until the next flavor of the month hottie comes along.
I liked her role in Martial Law, because it didnt seem like a stereotype.
As far as Jet Li and Chow Yun-Fat being
"sellouts", I would have to say that they are not, because Asian males either been portrayed as sexual predators of white women or have had asexual roles since they dont get the Asian girl because all the white prettyboys have them, they dont get paired with any female at all.
I think its positive that such big profile Asian actors get paired with non Asian women, because I have seen it real life, but Hollywood seems oblivious to it, the problems is these pairings rarely amount to more than handholding or a peck on the check even after they have risked life and limb for their lady,which in the case of Anna and the King, it makes sense because its an unrequited love affair.
The two characters are from 2 completely different social classes which even further complicates their cross cultural relationship.
Ok im getting long winded here, but to keep a long story from getting any longer, Asian women are not helped by Lucy Liu's roles at all.
chowyunpat
chowyun@yahoo.com
Wednesday, May 01, 2002 at 23:51:16 (PDT)
To all who think Lucy and Kelly are sell outs,
Are they sell-outs b/c they play roles oppositing white men? If so, does that make Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li sell-outs b/c they play roles oppositing white women?
Those Asian imports regularly have white women oppositing Asian men (Replacements, Anna and the King, Kiss the Dragon, The Lover ...) Are those Asian men sell outs?
just wondering
Saturday, April 27, 2002 at 02:22:30 (PDT)
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