Asian representation in Hollywood has grown throughout the years covering everything from movies to actors/actresses to music. For this series, I will mainly be focusing on the movie/acting scene as the Asian scene in Hollywood now is not what it was years ago.
Anna May Wong is considered the first Chinese American actress Hollywood star. She was in the movie Daughter of the Dragon as an exotic dancer and murderer. Though she did play in other roles there was one thing that made her roles similar; they always killed her character off. In 1959, Wong said, “When I die, my epitaph should be: I died a thousand deaths. That was the story of my film career. Most of the time I played in mystery and intrigue stories. They didn’t know what to do with me at the end, so they killed me off.” (https://www.augustman.com, 2023). She paved the way for Asian American representation in Hollywood but was unfortunately overrun by racist screenwriters and producers.
Hollywood had no problem negatively portraying Asians and their culture, from yellow face and racial stereotypes to cultural appropriation. At one point, screenwriters would only make their leads white men even if they had to play an Asian character because that’s what was preferred in the industry. Hollywood in the 1950s would always make the Asian characters less important than the other characters. For the men they would make them slaves or servants while making the women more objects of desire but ones you can just throw away if you don’t want them anymore, hence the terms “China Doll” or “Lotus Blossom”. “Chinese men were stereotyped as degenerate heroin addicts whose presence encouraged prostitution, gambling, and other immoral activities. Chinese women were often portrayed as the “dragon lady” who is deceitful, mysterious, and sexually alluring.” (https://www.augustman.com, 2023). This is very toxic as Asian culture is beautiful and has so much to show to the world. Hollywood just saw white people more marketable than Asians. For example, Mr. Yunioshi from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He is played by a white man “wearing a fake tan, taped back eyes, and prosthetic buck teeth.” You could clearly see that this man was nowhere close to Asian. The fake tan and the taped eyes is a mockery to Asian culture as some Asians tend to have darker skin and more slanted eyes. If you would like to learn more about how Mr. Yunioshi is a mockery of Asian culture, you can follow this link here. https://www.unpublishedzine.com/film/its-time-to-talk-about-mr-yunioshi-in-breakfast-at-tiffanys.
Soon comes in Bruce Lee. A Hong Kong and American actor and martial artist. His first career in America debuted in The Green Hornet television series where he played the sidekick to the actor Van Williams however, the series was soon canceled in 1967. Lee continued to try to find major roles but Hollywood still thought that white actors were more marketable. Lee then left for Hong Kong and continued his acting career there where he became famous and returned to the US where he received his lead role in “Enter the Dragon”. He sadly died before the release of the film but he paved the way for Chinese men as well as martial artists like Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
Movies in the past 10 years have been a big step in educating people about Chinese culture and how wonderful it can be through movies. Crazy Rich Asians is one of the first studio films since 1993 that featured an all-Asian ensemble. Shang Chi is another with a predominantly Asian cast and the first Marvel movie to have an Asian lead. Turning Red was another recent movie associated with Chinese culture. What is important about this movie is that it’s a movie marketed for kids, and written by a Chinese woman. The most recent film Everything Everywhere All at Once also has a predominately Asian cast but really took a deep dive into Chinese culture and has both a Chinese lead and co-lead. This movie has won countless awards, Oscars included, and the actors themselves also won Oscars.
I think these movies are needed to represent as well as to educate in today’s society. With these movies and their wins, it really shows that the Chinese can succeed in making and staring in award winning movies. I think these movies are inspiring to the younger as well as the older generations who don’t feel seen or heard and happily enjoy that their culture is presented correctly.
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