The Shifting Landscape of Asian Americans in the Media１）

ONO, Kent A. （University of Utah）

Representations of Asians and Asian Americans in U.S. media and film have changed over time. In this context, one of the main questions scholars ask is whether or not those changes, cumulatively, have improved the representational landscape, kept it steady, or actually made things worse for Asians and Asian Americans. In this article, I review scholarship in the field of Asian and Asian American film and media; discuss historical representations of Asians and Asian Americans; suggest a few contemporary representational strategies Asian Americans are using to problematize dominant representations of them; and then think through, more specifically, recent media representations of Asians and Asian Americans, as well as of Asia, particularly Japan. Much of what I have to say here was spelled out more fully in Vincent Pham’s and my book, Asian Americans and the Media. The first scholarly books about representations of Asian Americans addressed film. In 1955, Dorothy Jones published The Portrayal of China and India on the American Screen, 1896-1955. It would be 23 years before the second major book, Eugene Wong’s On Visual Media Racism: Asians in the American Motion Picture, would come out. Both books were about cinema; but notably, Wong’s book was critical and focused on racism while Jones was more descriptive. Thus, scholars usually regard On Visual Media Racism as the inaugural book in Asian American Studies of media and film. It would be another 13 years before the next significant book would appear. Russell Leong’s Moving the Image, published in 1991, introduced book chapters written by independent filmmakers primarily discussing Asian American filmmaking, but also addressing aesthetics and other topics. Gina Marchetti’s book Romance and the“Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction came out two years later, continuing earlier work by Jones and Wong to examine Hollywood portrayals but also bringing a gendered perspective to scholarship in the process. Darrell Hamamoto’s 1994 Monitored Peril: Asian Americans and the Politics of TV Representation was the first book on Asians and Asian Americans to examine television specifically. Hamamoto drew a correlation

―1 0 5― between TV representations of Asian Americans and U.S. global relations with Asian countries.２） After a six-year hiatus, the 2000s introduced four key books on representations of Asians and Asian Americans（Darrell Hamamoto and Sandra Liu; Peter Feng; Peter Feng; and Elena Tajima Creef）. Hamamoto and Liu’s book Countervisions: Asian American Film Criticism significantly updated the conversations around Asian American film by introducing reception studies and theoretical approaches to the study of film, as well as gender and sexuality. Feng’s two books Identities in Motion: Asian American Film and Video and Screening Asian Americans brought the field of film studies into consideration; deeply involved in both theory and history of film, Feng’s works increased the scholarly grounding of the field and rendered this subarea a serious one for investigation. Finally, Creef’s book Imagining Japanese America: The Visual Construction of Citizenship, Nation, and the Body brought a visual culture, feminist, multimedia, and cultural studies approach to studies of Asian and Asian American representation, specifically focusing on Japanese Americans across multiple media. The 21st-century saw a renaissance of scholarship on Asian and Asian American representation, with a series of books in the first decade（Parrenas; Daisuke Miyao; Kent Ono and Vincent Pham; Jane Park; Brian Locke; Glen Mimura）and even more books already published in this second decade（Jeanette Roan; Celine Parrenas Shimizu; Gina Marchetti; Shilpa Dave; Ruth Mayer; David Roh, Betsy Huang, and Greta Niu; Jun Okada; Lori Lopez）.３） Without going into tremendous detail, these works include analyses of multimedia, visual culture more generally, and the digital. Moreover, whereas there was a focus on“stereotypes” in earlier scholarship, today’s work has largely been influenced by cultural studies, particularly Stuart Hall’s contributions. Thus, as a whole, this work makes clear, first, that the meaning of a stereotype is not fixed; second, that representations change over time; and third, that the articulation of social forces may produce a particular kind of representation, depending on the cultural condition influencing it. From the earliest research on Asian and Asian American representation, there was a transnational element associated with Asian and Asian American representations. Dorothy Jones was aware that Hollywood was producing representations of Asian peoples, and Eugene Wong followed that up by emphasizing the racist impact of such images on Asian Americans. It is important to say that Asians and Asian Americans were represented in media in particular ways. Many define such representations as stereotypes, but cultural studies has altered our view of stereotypes and how they function. Moreover, representation is more complex than just looking at racially negative or problematic images of people. A stereotype can change over time, and the cultural context in which a stereotype forms and functions

―1 0 6― may change, too. A stereotype is a specialized kind of articulation that is the product of an alliance of forces at a given place and time. Thus, as forces change, so do stereotypes. Key stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans within U.S. media include the“yellow peril,”the idea of the Asian and Asian American horde（Gina Marchetti; Robert Lee; Gary Okihiro）. Dating back at least to representations of Genghis Khan, the yellow peril is a fear produced and then circulated, often signiﬁcantly aided by media. It portrays Asian people as ready and able to take over and overwhelm（in this case）U.S. culture and society, while also portraying whites as vulnerable or in danger. Another key representation of Asians and Asian Americans is“yellow face.”In our book, Asian Americans and the Media, Vincent Pham and I discuss two types of yellow face: explicit yellow face and implicit yellow face. Explicit yellow face is when someone who is neither Asian nor Asian American plays the role of an Asian or Asian American character. Historically, in Hollywood, this meant white people wearing make up and clothing to make them“look Asian”and then speaking jibberish or highly affected speech with no real connection to an Asian language. Perhaps the most famous historical examples of this kind of representation are Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s（1961）and Katharine Hepburn in Dragon Seed（1944）, but it persists into the present, for example in a 2014 episode of How I Met Your Mother（“Slapsgiving ３”）. Implicit yellow face is when:（１） Asians or Asian Americans themselves play the role of a generic“Asian”person and often have make up and clothing and an exaggerated accent, as well;（２）actors play a generic Asianness with no connection to real Asian or Asian American ethnic groups, o（r ３）players are encouraged to play Asians or Asian Americans（e.g., on as video game characters）. Thus, each of these aspects of yellow face has to do with racial masquerade and the pleasures and problematics associated with them. Asians and Asian Americans often appear as comic relief. In a similar way to the way African Americans have been represented this way（e.g., minstrel characters）, Asians and Asian Americans often appear as the butt of jokes（e.g., Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles）. Thus, Asians and Asian Americans are not to be taken seriously. Our humanity and our perspective are unimportant, indeed（at times）laughable. Contemporarily, Ken Jeong, an Asian American actor, often gets slotted into comedic roles that ask him to play the role of a buffoon. For instance, in a photo spread titled“Just the Two of Us”in the men’s magazine GQ, in 2011, Jeong listed as a“funnyman,”is the“third wheel”to a white heterosexual couple who appear as if in romantic interludes. Key to this representation is the representation of Jeong as sexually undesirable. Asians and Asian Americans have also been constructed sexually. Men and women have been represented in a divergent fashion, but through analysis it is clear that these different representations are systematically connected. For instance, men have been represented as

―1 0 7― Charlie Chan, Fu Manchu, or model minorities（Laura Kang; Jachinson Chan）. Women have been constructed as dragon ladies, lotus blossoms, or madame butterﬂies. First, it should be noted that a dragon lady is basically coincident with Fu Manchu in that both characters are highly sexual, but instead of being a sexual deviant, a dragon lady is sexually desirable, albeit dangerous because she is treacherous, evil, and uses sexuality for power. Moreover, these relationships conform to colonial representation, with men being constructed as unable to be ethical, moral, and sexually desirable suitors for Asian and Asian American women, and Asian and Asian American women being constructed as sexually desirable, supplicant, obsequious, and ideal suitors for white men. As Laura Kang suggests, this colonial construction of sexuality is the colonizers’ fantasy, which nevertheless has repercussions for the psychology of Asians and Asian Americans. The psychological dimension of representations of Asians and Asian Americans not only affects Asian Americans, but arguably larger media publics. Thus, a recurring representation of Asians and Asian Americans has to do with whether or not they can be legitimate members of U.S. society. The“forever foreigner”stereotype typically constructs Asians and Asian Americans as unassimilable and from outside of the United States, regardless of citizenship.

Given the history of Asians and Asian Americans not being included as rightful members of the U.S. polity, it seems quite contradictory that arguably the primary stereotype of Asians and Asian Americans today and for the last ﬁfty years has been the model minority. It seems as if it should be a compliment that Asians and Asian Americans are regularly represented as smart, good students, from good families, law abiding citizens, and as getting good jobs, especially as doctors, scientists, and other medical professionals. Nevertheless, such a stereotype is highly problematic for, as Keith Osajima has suggested, the model minority stereotype drives a wedge between Asians and Asian Americans and other racialized groups, such as African Americans, Latinas/os, and Native Americans by saying to those groups, “Look, Asian Americans are racial minorities, but they are not complaining, and they are succeeding, so get to work!”Furthermore, it makes even more invisible the many Asian Americans who do not have these social advantages. The model minority stereotype renders Asian and Asian American life worry free. They are seen as not having problems. If there are problems, they work it out themselves and need no additional help from the government. Moreover, when Asian Americans do protest, because they have been represented so long as model minorities, people often react as if Asian Americans are being unreasonable or are making too much out of too little, since it is imagined that any experiences of racism they might feel pale in comparison to other racialized groups.

―1 0 8― This representation is problematic for other reasons as well. For instance, as Yuko Kawaii has argued, the model minority image is either connected to or a precursor to a yellow peril representation. That is, if Asians and Asian Americans are too good, or too smart, they can pose a threat to the United States. One example of the model minority stereotype as a representation of yellow peril is the robotic Asian or Asian American. For example, in hospital dramas E.R. and Grey’s Anatomy, the primary Asian American characters on both shows, Jing-Mei Chen and Cristina Yang（played by Ming-Na Wen and Sandra Oh, respectively）, are represented as too focused on awards and school and not enough focused on the lives of their patients. Furthermore, in the film Akeelah and the Bee, Akeelah, who wants to be a spelling champion, has an arch rival named Dylan Chu. At one point, Akeelah’s tutor, Dr. Larabee（played by Laurence Fishburne）, says that Dylan Chu just memorizes the words. He does not know their history, implying that he is not interested in the important cultural history behind words, despite being a racial minority himself. This representation of Asians and Asian Americans as robots not only suggests they are inhuman but also makes it possible to imagine their elimination or death, since they are automatons, technologies, or robots and, thus, have no salvageable human qualities to begin with. The history of Asian and Asian American representation results, in large part, from non- Asians and non-Asian Americans having control over the tools and institutions of representation. That is, those who know little or nothing about Asians and Asian Americans have had the power to recreate and reinforce insensitive representations of Asians and Asian Americans. The power to represent Asians and Asian Americans has been unavailable because Asians and Asian Americans have had limited access to mainstream media production. Beginning in the 1960s, however, an Asian American media and film movement began. This was a critical moment when Asian Americans took control of the means and modes of production and created self-reflective self-representations. Part of this effort was anti- and de-colonial in nature and sought to dismantle the existing Hollywood edifice. The book Moving the Image contains many essays that capture sentiments of filmmakers during the Asian American media and film movement’s early years. Early films such as Robert Nakamura’s Manzanar（1970）sought to destabilize the long-standing control of Hollywood over representations of Asians and Asian Americans by featuring narratives of disjointed childhood memories from the Manzanar concentration camp. Thus began a very long and complex set of responses by Asian Americans to the woeful history of representation. And, these responses have been complex and varied. For instance, in addition to documentary experimental films such as Manzanar, Asian Americans have protested, criticized, and challenged problematic Hollywood representations. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans, for instance, is a watchdog group that meets with Hollywood producers and directors in order to provide input on their films and also notifies

―1 0 9― Asian Americans about what films to boycott or avoid. Asian Americans have also“queered”dominant representations, that is, taken images of Asian Americans that were considered racist in the 1960s and 1970s and reimagined those self-same representations in light of the conditions that actors face and sometimes the gender constraints they face. Cynthia Liu, for instance, rethinks the film star Anna May Wong, who has historically been known for having defined the role of the dragon lady in film. Behind the scenes, Wong was actually challenging Hollywood and was forced to leave the country when she was not chosen for the lead female role of O-lan in the film The Good Earth. Similarly, in her essay, Mimi Nguyen explores ways Bruce Lee’s hard body and a-sexual casting in films could be reimagined contemporarily through fantasy as sexually charged and queer. While much work within film and media has been independent in nature, and for good reason, some work has crossed over into the mainstream, and this has resulted in key works in Hollywood addressing representation in much more complex and politically useful ways. Asian Americans have found in independent media and film a refuge, of sorts̶a place where other independent-minded creators work, and a place where big money does not determine the eventual artistic object created. Yet, even some who have benefitted from an Indie start, such as Justin Lin and Mira Nair, have gone on to make blockbuster films that engage Asian and Asian Americanness critically, such as Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and Mississippi Masala, respectively, for instance. Key to Asian American independent media and film and even crossover media and film is the effort to debunk or challenge the model minority myth. Filmmakers such as Spencer Nakasako have helped produce films such as Kelly Loves Tony and a.k.a. Don Bonus, both of which tell reality-style narratives about people who do not fit the model minority stereotype. Such films not only challenge the view that Asians and Asian Americans live unproblematic and successful lives but also addresses the complexity of Asian and Asian Americanness, given their incredible diversity and demographic breadth.

Protests and media productions do make an impact, and they are necessary for change to occur, but for longstanding change it is also necessary to create institutions that last and that can continue to do work dependably every year. Asian Americans have formed many important organizations ranging from the Center for Asian American Media to Asian Cinevision. CAAM funds film projects, creates a space for independent artists to meet each other, and hosts the annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival featuring both Asian and Asian American films（ranging from full length features to avant- garde shorts）. Asian Cinevision also hosts a film festival and then allows for some of the festival films to screen in local film festivals throughout the United States.

―1 1 0― In addition to these institutions, changes in digital technology have led to a tremendous increase in activism and production on-line. YouTube, in particular, has been key both for those wishing to protest representations of Asians and Asian Americans and for those who want to create（on both low and high budgets）and distribute new media products. Social media have accelerated Asian American activism; not only can artists create works and distribute them inexpensively and efficiently, but they can also engage in activist efforts online that help inspire more activism online and offline. Social media allow activists to bring people together, create social consciousness and awareness, and move people to action, but they also render the presence of Asian Americans more ubiquitous overall. Demographically, Asian Americans are overrepresented on the Internet in contrast with their size. This could not be more apparent than in the number of high profile“internet stars”who are Asian American, such as Ryan Higa, KevJumba, and Michelle Phan, to name a few. Whereas Asians and Asian Americans have struggled throughout the history of Hollywood to land good, meaningful acting roles; in social media, they are in many ways able to remedy that invisibility and lack of opportunity by populating cyberspace with self-representations. Examples of internet activism key to Asian Americans is the twitter movement titled #notyourasiansidekick, created by Suey Park. This movement originated with a hashtag, but led to international exposure to the plight of Asian Americans, Asian American women in particular, and to the racial politics affecting Asian Americans. Similarly, the two twitter movements̶#whitewashedout and #hollywoodsowhite̶which both began as hashtags, brought Asian Americans and other racialized minorities together and drew attention to the racial politics undergirding Hollywood representation. Two recent creative and interesting social media activist movements are #starringjohncho and #starringconstancewu. These two movements include pictures of John Cho and Constance Wu in lieu of the actual lead actors who appeared in famous films such as The Martian and The Hunger Games. Not only do the images in which Cho and Wu appear ironically show that Cho and Wu are good enough actors, with big enough visibility, to be lead actors in popular blockbuster Hollywood films, but they also demonstrate that, were they to be cast as lead actors, these films would be interesting and desirable in other important ways. This movement invites viewers to imagine what films would have been like with minority leads and how those actors might have done things differently.

Contemporarily, nations throughout the world are engaged in“soft power”politics, in addition to“hard power”politics. Not only are they building bombs and other sophisticated modern weaponry, but they are also seeking to extend their ideological reach and create globalized markets for their products. Moreover, they are interested in image control and national public relations（see, for instance, Melissa Aronczyk）. Soft power politics were

―1 1 1― central to the creation of K-pop and its subsequent success. For example, Psy’s“Gangnam Style”did not appear out of nowhere; it was part of a concerted effort by the Korean government to cultivate and market Korean culture globally（Kent Ono and Jungmin Kwon）. More research is needed, as a result. For example, research on the growth of transnational actors and ﬁlm franchises is needed. Additionally, research on transnational activism and attempts to transform national policies is needed. Furthermore, research on the effects of national cinemas on other nations’ citizens is needed. For instance, a study of the impact Japanese films have had on the cultural identities and political beliefs of U.S. audiences is needed, coupled with a study of the way contemporary Japanese identity is an effect, in part, of U.S. representations and the role such representations have on forming that identity. This kind of research, combined with the existing research I review here on stereotypes, representation, institutions, and social media, can strengthen the criticism, self- representation, and activism in which Asian and Asian American media studies and media arts are deeply engaged.

Notes １）Many thanks go out to members of the Japanese Communication Association, especially Jiro Takai, Akihiko Andy Nonaka, Satoru Aonuma, and Rie Ohashi. This article derives from a keynote talk I gave on June 11, 2016 to the Japanese Communication Association in Fukuoka, Japan. Thanks also go out to Alison Yeh and Sarah Projansky for reading drafts of this article. ２）On this point, see also Doobo Shim. ３）See references for the works of authors mentioned.

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