Hollywood Chinese
While interesting, these themes are not new. One way Dong's film distinguishes itself from other Asian-American films and books is when he interviews white actors who took on “Chinese” roles in the yellowface films of the 1920s-60s. German actress Luise Rainer, who landed the lead role (and an Oscar) as O-lan in The Good Earth (1927), based on Pearl S. Buck's novel, defends the film's yellowface casting, saying that being “true to the character” is “more important than being exactly right on the outside.”
PBS-TV Special Set to Explore Asian Stereotypes in Cinema
While many might think of D.W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” (1915) as the starting point of the dissemination of such racist images, the Chinese had by then already been smeared by an earlier silent picture entitled “Massacre of the Christians by the Chinese” (1900).
Over the intervening years, Asians have been generally presented in a very limited fashion in accordance with several recognizable stereotypes popularized and perpetuated by Hollywood.
The females tend to be very deferential and sexually available for white men, who they adore and place upon pedestals. Meanwhile, their males are shown to be either desexualized and submissive, or as dangerous and demonic, if they’re at all assertive.
You gotta love those old Chinese movie titles. Maybe the studios should've made one movie to cover everyone: blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Indians. To label it accurately, they could've called it Whites Demonize What They Hate and Fear.
There are many parallels between Chinese and Native stereotypes:
Thoughts on Hollywood Chinese
Some interesting tidbits from Hollywood Chinese and my reactions:
This is ridiculous for several reasons. First, many people in American audiences are Chinese and other minorities. They aren't all white. Second, who says people identify with skin color more than other characteristics? Maybe they identify with socioeconomic class or occupation before they identify with race. Third, the success of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and other martial artists proves there's no barrier to movies starring the Chinese. Audiences will watch anybody if the movies are entertaining.
As another Asian example, Monsoon Wedding cost $1.5 million to make but has earned $30 million worldwide. Why? Because once you figure out who the characters are, you forget they're (Asian) Indians. They could be any spirited family anywhere.
(Rob's rating of Monsoon Wedding: 8.5 of 10. Check it out.)
For those who don't understand what it's like to be a minority in America, this quote is revealing. Being Asian (or Indian) is much like being gay. Prejudice against racial minorities has become somewhat muted and hidden, but prejudice against gays is still widespread and overt. Many gays have problems with self-acceptance, I believe, and so do many minorities.
Anyway, I'd say Hollywood Chinese was broad and comprehensive but not especially deep. The film could've used some historians and scholars to provide more thoughtful analyses. Actors and directors aren't necessarily profound thinkers on cultural issues.
Rob's rating: 8.0 of 10. Worth watching if you care about stereotyping in the media.
For more on the subject, see Native Documentaries and News and The Best Indian Movies.
someone says: "The audience needs to identify with the characters. How are they going to identify with somebody who looks Chinese?"
ReplyDeleteYes, this is ridiculous now. There are now, for example, successful "buddy cop" movies where neither of the buddy cops are white ("Rush Hour", "Bad Boys")
Also, two instances of yellowfacing come to mind:
ReplyDeleteBoris Karloff as James Lee Wong. I saw one of these movies recently. He did not look Chinese, but he looked odd.
Sean Connery in "You Only Live Twice", a James Bond movie. This is not really "Yellowface", since James Bond disguised himself as a Japanese man as part of the plot. However, this disguise did not make him look Japanese. It made him look like an old "Star Trek" Klingon.