Asian Americans in Film, TV and Media Texts

Hi everyone,

I know we have mostly been discussing how African Americans have been portrayed in film, and television and the ways ‘othering’ occurs in such media texts. However, I’ve always felt that Asians and Asian Americans are also misrepresented in their roles in film and television, and that there is a great discrepancy between how they truly are in real life and their portrayals through the media.

To me, they have always been portrayed in the same, and not necessarily positive, ways. There is an unrealistic amount of media texts where stereotypes regarding Asians are reinforced – namely in their appearance, and their behaviour. When South Park is illustrating that a character is Asian, they will always have slanty eyes – however, since they themselves don’t claim to be politically correct, this is probably not the best example. In film, other examples I have seen are:

Twilight (Film), Mean Girls (Film), Lost (TV) and Confessions of a Shopaholic (Film), in which the Asian character always has slanty eyes

500 Days of Summer (Film) and Click (Film), which both feature a big Asian family who are portrayed as unfriendly, unattractive and strange (at least one of the members will always be wearing glasses)

Mean Girls, Confessions of a Shopaholic, Yes Man (Film) and How I Met Your Mother (TV) – in all of the first three, there are three high end fashion store sales assistants who are ALL arrogant, conceited and ‘snobby’ – telling the protagonist of the movie in Mean Girls that she is too fat to fit the dress, or telling the protagonist in Confessions of a Shopaholic that her credit card was declined twice, for example. In How I Met Your Mother, there are hardly ever any Asian characters, but in the rare occasion that there was in an episode, she was once again conceited and having a fight with one of the main white characters, Robin.

Jennifer’s Body – there is one Asian girl in the film, who as usual has a conceited attitude (and wears glasses).

On the contrary, I somewhat feel that African Americans are portrayed in a more positive light – and more realistically – than Asian Americans. I don’t disagree with the arguments that African Americans may be portrayed negatively often – as criminals, for example – but to me they are also portrayed positively in many other ways. They are often portrayed as being very humorous or are the character providing comic relief in a film or TV show (an example would be Rush Hour and Rush Hour II), and/or have their singing or dancing performing talent showcased by the film or TV show (an example would be Dreamgirls, starring three African American women.) One of the most famous African American actors, Morgan Freeman, is well known for his role playing God – clearly a very privileged and empowered role.

Why I feel that the portrayal of Asian Americans in film, television and media texts in general isn’t positive or realistic enough is that they hardly ever get many positive or ‘normal’ roles, and if so it is quite rare – Lucy Liu in Charlie’s Angels is a good, but rare example. Fortunately I feel that the portrayal of Asian Americans is improving to better roles, such as the recent Sucker Punch and Hangover II both featuring the Korean American actress Jamie Chung in a positive role (though she is still of course one of the supporting roles to the white, blonde main character in Sucker Punch).

I also feel that, if one were to see an example of ‘real’ Asian Americans, they would see a great discrepancy between the Asian Americans portrayed in many media texts as being foreigners who can’t speak English and therefore can’t adapt to Western culture well, and the Asian Americans on Youtube, for example – who are real people and not chosen through film, television and media producers, and are therefore a more accurate, authentic idea of Asian Americans. There is a large amount of popular Asian American people with successful channels – Michelle Phan (Vietnamese American) is the first woman on Youtube to reach 100 million subscribers, Natalie Tran (Vietnamese Australian) became so popular that she has begun making a living off her comedy videos which are viewed by international audiences, and Ryan Higa (Japanese American) is one of the most famous and top subscribed users on Youtube for his comedy videos and short films, for example. I could also list many who are frequently in the top watched columns of Youtube, many of whom speak fluent English and are from America, Canada, or UK, etc. Whenever I stumble upon these popular Youtube channels, I can’t help feeling that films, television and the media in general have the wrong idea of Asians, or Asian Americans – they are far from many of the stereotypes placed on them: foreign, unable to speak good English, geeky/nerdy, slanty eyed, etc.

Altogether, this is my opinion of why I think Asians/Asian Americans are also often the victim of ‘othering’ and that there is often an inaccurate portrayal of their ethnic group.

NZ Media as a racist institution

After today’s lecture I attended an anthropology tutorial where we were also talking about racism in NZ. Some of my classmates believed that there was no longer racism in NZ today or that we can pride ourselves as being “less racist than other countries such as Australia.”

Growing up as a pakeha in NZ society and going to schools with a diverse range of ethnicities, I also used to think that New Zealand society was not racist. I wasn't exposed to extremely racist people or racist inequality. However I now know that it is the institutions and structures that create racist and unequal outcomes even if the people in the institutions aren't intending this.

If we look at the New Zealand media we can see it as an institute of racism: It treats certain racial groups differently than others due to their procedures, particularly in the fact that the news media are always looking for a story to sell to the dominant viewers. The fact that our mainstream TV News programmes are pakeha-based means that they are aiming to attract a white audience. The only way for New Zealanders to gain a Maori perspective on news is through Maori TV which is mostly spoken in Maori, tending to make people less likely to view it.

I watched this Wednesday’s news on both channel One and also on Maori TV. Maori TVs headline stories were on the law passed that gives Maori wardens the privileges to stop hosts at bars serving intoxicated Maori and another on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to hear the Te Kohanga Reo Trust Board’s application for recognition of the Crowns failure to recognise Te Kohunga (the youth programme of total immersion into Māori language and culture). After this the issue of the London Riots were covered with the perspective of Maori living in London.

In comparison to this, One New’s main story was an intensive cover on the London Riots followed by the issue on the Federal Reserve and US economics. One News did not cover any of these Maori issues and even finished their main features with a tacky American coverage of a “story” about the food pregnant women eat ends up being food their babies will like! What I found interesting in this news coverage was the fact that mainstream media obviously does not think that these Maori issues would be well received because they are only specific to Maori. They would prefer to show overseas problems and uplifting, rather ridiculous, stories on babies’ eating habits than any issue specific to Maori!

So why shouldn't Maori (that don’t regularly watch Maori TV) or other New Zealanders be exposed to these kinds of issues which are relevant and close to home? Why are stories such as the ones shown in Maori TV not important to the mainstream media industry? I believe it is because the dominant mainstream media are responsible of institutional racism and this coverage helps to maintain the institutional racism in NZ. This under-representation means that when Maori issues are shown they are generally radical or negative. Dominant news broadcasts clearly prioritise white issues over Maori ones, which in turn leads to New Zealanders being unaware and more importantly uninterested in Maori problems.

One News: http://tvnz.co.nz/one-news/update-b-video-3343716

Maori TV: http://www.maoritelevision.com/default.aspx?tabid=278&pid=151