The American Film Industry : The Asian Community

Whether it is on TV screens of movie cinemas, the predominant casting of Whites has always been prevalent in the media. It has made many people raise questions about the lack of Asian representation and other people of colour. The few roles that are cast to Asians or Blacks are featured in their stereotypical images (Bonilla-Silva 179). Even in advertising, Asians are placed in different settings than their White counterparts (Taylor and Stern 50). Most research has been analyzed on movies, but rarely on a comedic television series. I will be acknowledging this lack of research by analyzing a TV show, Fresh Off the Boat, was released last year which features an Asian family. The show has received fairly positive reviews, partly due to the

Television and film is a huge part of American culture. As the “face” of America changes, it is expected for our media to reflect it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Since the beginning of film, minorities have been misrepresented and underrepresented. While there has been a significant increase in minority actors since the beginning of film, there is still a huge underrepresentation present in American television and film. Our media needs to reflect out diverse country. This topic is always important and relevant because race, gender, and sexuality, in general, have been issues throughout the growth of television and film. Even today, minorities are subject to

Films have the power to both influence and reflect society. The stereotypes prevalent throughout American culture are reflected in most films. While the United States is becoming an increasingly diverse country, this diversity is not portrayed within American cinema. Minority figures often occupy

As an Asian-American woman, I want to see better representation for the Asian community; if media is supposed to reflect the real world, then there is no excuse for leaving Asians out in American films. I want to dissect why Asians are still marginalized and stereotyped today when there is a demand for more diversity in media. In addition, I want to cover the history behind the stereotyping and whitewashing of Asians in Hollywood and how that still has a negative impact today. In fact, recent movies have white-washed Asian roles in favor of white actors. In May 2015, Sony released “Aloha,” where Emma Stone portrayed Allison Ng, a part Chinese-Hawaiian fighter pilot. This blatant erasure is also evident in Dreamworks’ casting of Scarlett Johansson

The University of Southern California discovered that filmmakers have made little progress in casting more non-white characters. Even though the United States is becoming more diverse in culture Hollywood has not change from its roots. From (Sanathanam and Crigger, 2015) research the top 100 films in 2014 up to 75% of the characters were Caucasian. 17 of the top movies in 2014 featured non-white lead or co-lead actors (Out of 30,000 Hollywood film characters, here’s how many weren’t white section, para 1). Informs that Hollywood is not in a rush to change their ways to avoid diversity for Caucasians to share the fame with other ethnic groups. Hollywood is mindset is to keep Caucasians superior.

The following voice project will discuss second generation Vietnamese Americans struggling with cultural expectations. In this assignment, I will be reviewing the stereotypes of Asian Americans. During this assignment I will be incorporating conversations had with an individual who identifies with this voice. Kim Truong is a 26 year old Vietnamese American. She was born in Vietnam and was raised in Tennessee and Mississippi. She has been in United States since the age of ten. Kim believes she bodies and as well as rejects a lot of the Asian American stereotypes.

"Hollywood typically restricts its portrayals of Asians to a limited range of clichéd stock characters" (Restrictive Portrayals [RP], 2004). Examples of the common roles that Asian Americans play in movies are martial artists, Indian cab drivers, television anchorwomen and prostitutes (RP, 2004). Even if most Americans do not buy into these images because they interact with many Asian Americans who do not fit the stereotype, the areas of concern are those parts in the United States where there isn't a sufficient Asian population (Wu, 2002). Since many Asian people do not surround these Americans on an everyday environment, it is a safe assumption that they will draw their judgment of Asian Americans from how they are portrayed on film and television.

Asian Americans have been part of America for almost as long as its existence. From the Chinese laborers building the transcontinental railway, inner cities laundry services, to Asian farmers who have helped build the agriculture communities around the country, Asian American have contributed to the industries and economy of America. Despite their loyalty and contributions to this country, Asian Americans have been discriminated and considered as “unassimilable” by many Americans. Racism toward Asian is further extended by Hollywood’s use of “yellow face,” where Caucasian actors applied make up and prosthetics to pose as Asians, stereotypes such “yellow peril” and “orientalism.” (Garcia, 13) From the beginning of motion

I saw the highly promoted movie adaptation of The Hunger Games in spring of 2012, and I left the theatre wondering one thing: where were all the Asians? This is not an uncommon occurrence: as a second generation Japanese-Canadian, I have grown up surrounded by American and Canadian media that lacks representation of Asians to the point that seeing an Asian on my television is an thrilling. This is the sad reality of the state of representation of Asians on television. I have learned and experienced first hand that the lack of

Whether it is on TV or movie screens, the faces of white actors and actresses have always been prevalent in the media. For generations, many teenagers have been exposed to countless movies with white people in major roles. Moreover, the few roles that are cast to minorities feature the characters in their stereotypical personas (Bonilla-Silva 179). Even in advertising, Asians are placed in business settings, upholding the hard-working Asian stereotype (Taylor and Stern 50). As Taylor and Stern mention in their paper, the “model minority” has made the issue of stereotyping seem less important for Asians. The majority of these actors that are examined, regardless of race, are typically middle-age and well established in their acting careers. However, there is a lack of research behind Asian youth acting and their perceived roles. To account for this knowledge deficit, I examine how whiteness influences the media to portray youth actors as individuals that stray from their stereotypes in an attempt to achieve whiteness. My research site centres around Fresh Off the Boat (FOB), a comedic television series featuring a Taiwanese family. The title of the show Fresh Off the Boat or “FOB” is also a term used to describe a person that is considered too ethnic and as a term of denigration. I utilize Pyke and Dang’s categorization of “FOB” and “whitewashed” to analyze the narrator, Eddie Huang. I chose to limit my research primarily to the first “pilot” episode where the audience is

Since the first half of the 19th century, Asian Americans have been involved in the media industry when the original “Siamese Twins” Chang and Eng Bunker became naturalized citizens of America. Roles in television and other media were scarce for Asian Americans, only available roles were very stereotypical. Early Asian American actors such as Bruce Lee and Sessue Hayakawa could only land stereotypical supporting roles in prime time television. While minority actors have progress through the years, Asian Americans in the media remains an issue. The misrepresentation of Asians Americans that continues the tendency of stereotypes and type casting. To this day, Asians Americans take on roles that tends to portray the stereotypical roles. Asian Americans becomes easily targeted and exploited from such representation. “Model Minority” Stereotype is consistently express through advertising and primetime television; Asians being nerdy: having type casted into professional roles ignoring real values and cultures, Asian women: seen as hypersexual, erotic, cunning and dangerous, Asian men: dangerous, unfriendly, master of martial arts, undesirable male partners and weak. Media representation of Asian Americans in America’s media history, continue to influence and reproduce dominant Americentric impressions, rather than the true authentic depiction of Asian American culture and behavior. Americentric stereotypes of Asian American women and men has led to limited roles of Asian Americans

The initial issue is that there is not enough representation of Asian Americans in the media. News media, TV shows, movies consists of predominantly white broadcasters and actors. University of California, Los Angeles, reported that Asian characters made up of “3%-4% of roles in scripted broadcast and cable shows in the 2014-15

Did you ever really notice how Asians are really been portrayed within modern day media? As a fellow Asian-American. I have noticed that the media displays the Asian community in only one way, the foreign genius who excels everything, like kung-fu and math. You never really ever get to see a main character, who is a independent, courageous Asian "that doesn't know kung-fu", in any movie or TV shows. Many actors in modern day media prove these stereotypes to be true such as; beloved actor Ken Jeong, Jackie Chan, James Hong, Lucy Liu, and John Cho.

Given that the media is such a major part of how we see the world, it is important to dig deeper into the message it often portrays. In this day, televisions and cellphones are staple devices in every household, making it a simple and speedy platform to influence individuals of all demographics. Hollywood in particular has all the potential to provide positive and true portrayals of Asian culture through their work but they continue to do the exact opposite in order to please American viewership which leads to the whitewashing of the material. Race is sadly a factor that goes into choosing the right person for a role and this is where whitewashing comes into play as white actors are casted in roles that were originally meant for non-white actors. This can be seen in Hollywood as early as the 1920’s up to modern day America. This can have negative effects on our society and the way we view each other due to misrepresentation and blatant disrespect towards cultures, however it can also bring awareness and spark change due to the backlash it receives at the same time.

Asian American actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood movies as always being the silent and yielding foreign victims to social injustice and prejudice. Whether or not these depictions are true, they are nonetheless stereotypes that Hollywood producers have come up with. According to the US Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population, and knowing that most Asian Americans live on the west and east coast of the United States, many Americans living in central parts of this country have not really been exposed to any Asian Americans. Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. Even if