Joy Luck Club

      Joy Luck Club portrays different stories from three different mothers and one daughter. Throughout the film, the stories are told and through all the experiences, there are many well-known "Asian images" presented.

      In the film, many intensities of Asian portrayal can be felt. One story that was told was about the mother's life as a young girl, being matched to a heir to the throne by a matchmaker. They'd never met each other before, but when they did, the heir presented sloppy and a couldn't-care-less attitude towards her. The heir's mother repeatedly bugs and humiliates the young girl due to not being conceived after sleeping with the heir for days and weeks. Spoiler-less on how it is done, the young girl escapes from the household, ultimately ending up with her current husband and having a daughter she loves. Matchmaking is somewhat of a superstition for having the best possible match for a son or daughter and is generally important for the Chinese very back in the early years. Another story is told about a daughter who's mother was obsessed for perfection in her child. This daughter was [forced to] playing piano constantly and consistently, eventually entering into a talent show, in which she chokes. She disappoints her mother, but soon after makes her a more than proud mother; she plays chess and becomes a chess champion. The mother then carried a newspaper with her daughter's image on the cover and walks with her daughter in hand, walking up to random people on the street (we all know women like to show off what they are proud of).

      This film gives off a lot of cultural insights of the Chinese population, however, adding stereotypes into the mix: Chinese people always play piano, Chinese mothers always want a grandchild. It is an interesting mix because some may view everything as something they could label the whole Chinese population with and not feel like they are wrong about it, whereas others know the difference between some of these events.

Suzie Wong

      In The World of Suzie Wong, Suzie is an Asian prostitute who meets an male artist, eventually falling in love with him. At first, her job as a prostitute makes it a priority to gain the largest reputation, which she already had. As she persists on making herself the artist's "exclusive" woman, she tries desperately to tell her fellow prostitutes that she and the artist get along well, saying things like, he makes paintings of me, he lets me have or do whatever she wants with his belongings, etc. Suzie, however, has a back story, which is revealed as her having a child, and taking up the prostitute job to suffice for both their lives' expenses. Eventually, her child dies and a scene brings us to Suzie in the act of a Chinese traditional funeral for her son, while the artist stand beside her. In brief, the two end up together after Suzie comes clean about her true feelings and it becomes another one of those Asian woman American men films.

      In the film, Suzie Wong mentions to her fellow prostitutes, at the time the artist begins to get frustrated with her, that she had been beaten by him. Oddly enough, she does this with pride. She fakes the beating by biting her lip and using the blood to paint her lip and parts of her face and wilds up her hair to make her words promising. To a male, this would be something he would want to hide from publicity, but for Chinese prostitutes apparently, it was a big deal, in a good way, to be beaten by the person she slept with. In the beginning of the film, the male artist runs into what seemed to be an inn. In actuality, it was a prostitute house. The owner, however, did well to hide the truth from the artist, passing it off as an inn. As to being cheap, he does whatever he can do to keep the artist living in the prostitute house for a month. The dialogue in the movie also shows some stereotypical claims, such as Asian accents unable to pronounce L's and R's correctly, and comments like "all Chinese (Asians) look the same" are said. At the end of the film, Suzie burns paper for the afterlife of her deceased child.  This is a Chinese tradition for funerals.

      If this film were to truly make stereotypes for Asian women as clear as can possibly be, it does a great job at it. Although stereotypes do not pertain to all of the community it is aimed towards, in which case many people forget this, Nancy Kwan's character Suzie Wong portrays many of these labels. Culturally, however, seems to be a different case. The funeral tradition shown in the movie isn't particularly something of a label or stereotype. The portrayal of this shows more of a respect to Chinese culture (rather than just telling the audience that the child died, they show how the Chinese deal with the tragedy). In a sense, this movie is educational (to some degree), but somewhat demeaning to the Chinese female community.

Sayonara

      Sayonara was somewhat a typical Asian girl loving an American man film. In the story, a man named Lloyd Groover, an army man, and his close friend are sent to Japan. Lloyd's friend plans to get married to a Japanese women Kasumi. He does. Another Japanese woman catches Lloyd's eyes, although he already "has" a [American] women who he is to be wed to. Lloyd ends up falling for this Japanese woman and eventually has to let his "fiancee" that he wants to marry her. The general later orders that a group of men, including Groover and Kasumi's husband, who landed in Japan, go back to America. This enrages Groover as he explains to his friend about the issue. In the end, the house where Kasumi and her husband lived in was burned and Groover and his friend ultimately was forced to leave Japan. Lloyd met with his lover and asked her to return to America with her. 

     There are a couple understandings of Asian images, one being the "Asians are short" stereotype. In the film, the ceiling of Kasumi's home is very low. Getting through the doors for Groover and Kasumi's husband means they have to bend their head down to pass through. Generally, Asian women seem to be submissive and it shows clearly in Sayonara. Kasumi is timid and is usually up to whatever her husband tells her to do. In Groover's case, his Japanese lover gradually falls for him while at the beginning ignoring the fact that Groover wanted to exchange words with her. In the marriage scene, Kasumi is met with a kiss from his husband and Lloyd, both exchanging only pecks. Early in the movie, Lloyd gives a more intimate kiss to his fiancee.

     I feel distraught at the idea that certain images such as Asian women being submissive can make it seem like all Asian female (or males for other stereotypes) are this or that, otherwise they aren't truly Asian. This movie drags on the love of Asian women to American men throughout the story, especially in the end where Lloyd gets her Japanese lover to go to America with him, as if it is the "moral" of the story. It promotes the idea that Asian women are suited more for men other than the Asian races. It, to me, is a troubling thought. 

Anna May Wong

Anna May Wong

      Anna May Wong was one of the youngest Asian actors in Hollywood. She was a drop-out in high school at the age of 16, trying to pursue roles in acting. Anna May Wong played her first role at 17, in the silent film Troll of the Sea.

      Her roles played very typical Asian images that Americans stereotyped Asians as. She played many supporting roles as a "Dragon Lady". She sometimes played other roles where she helped Americans against the Japanese. China learned of Wong's success but had mixed feelings upon her roles in films. In Troll of the Sea, she was a young Chinese lady who had met an American man, and stereotypical as can be, the Chinese female actor's character fell in love with the American man.

    Anna May Wong played a bunch of roles that even to this day seem to be the only "real" roles Americans can see Asian women play. I believe this is plainly just stereotypical discrimination. Just as there are images of Asian males (i.e being scrawny, geeky and never getting the hot chick), Wong was put into many situation film career-wise where she would be acting to promote these images as politically correct. 

The Slanted Screen

James Lam

Larry Tung

Images of Asians and Asian Americans In Media

January 25, 2013

The Slanted Screen

      In The Slanted Screen, multiple Asian actors speak in a documentary about the development of

Asian images in media. The first and “last” Asian actor for a long time was Sessue Hayakawa. He was the

first Asian and Japanese Hollywood star and played all kinds of races: Indian, American, Chinese, etc.

Other Asian actors that took part of the documentary were Mako, James Shigetsa and Tzi Ma. A

director, Frank Chin, talked about certain problems and issues based on the Asian races’ relation to

American media.


      The main issue presented in the documentary is the misinterpretation of Asian images. The

misinterpretation was not only a single problem but a group of problems that targeted faces and

appearance of Asians, the way they acted, their voices and accents, etc. Frank Chin also mentioned

another separation regarding the Asian images is that they usually not in the main role of movies and

television shows, and there were rarely any Asian love roles.

      I feel that many of the issues that were portrayed in the documentary are absolutely correct.

Although certain aspects of these issues were politically correct (i.e Asian males didn’t really get a girl,

especially when the female was white). This is similar to segregation and the racism that America had

against the African Americans. The limitations of having Asian actors being a role as an “Asian” didn’t cut

for getting the spot on the movie or show was “not enough”. Tzi Ma mentioned that at those times you

would have to apply for a role of any kind: American role, Indian, Spanish, any kind of role possible for

the show. Another example of limitations is the original Green Hornet where Bruce Lee, as much

prowess that he did have, could only get a role as a sidekick to the main character role of the Green

Hornet. Nowadays, you still do not see many “Asian” roles in Hollywood movies or shows, but these

opportunity is growing as can be seen in shows like Heroes and Two Broke Girls.