電影中的亞裔美國人刻版印象 Asian-American Stereotypes in Movies
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遠東學報第二十三卷第三期 中華民國九十五年九月出版 電影中的亞裔美國人刻版印象 ASIAN-AMERICAN STEREOTYPES IN MOVIES 杜約翰(John Duxbury) 美國南達科塔大學 教育博士 李分明 遠東科技大學應外系 副教授 摘要 本文以編年史的方式說明美國對亞裔人士的刻版印象。藉著呈現塑造刻版 印象的可能目的，並對照經由回朔 17 世紀英國帝國主義所描寫的冒險故 事中所傳達出來的刻版印象。這些刻版印象經由早期的喜劇素材和電影所 傳播，文中介紹 6 種亞裔刻版印象(髒亂、無德、苦力、黃禍、典型弱勢、 黃種人)。除了解釋並確認這 6 種刻版印象外，文中也藉著現代電影對於 這 6 種刻版印象加以分析，並討論這些亞裔的刻版印象如何傳遞出長遠性 的偏見，和好萊塢電影如何使用這些刻版印象來博取廉價的嘲諷。文中最 後提到今日亞裔美國人曾經如何被這些美式電影所冒犯，並以作者的反思 和評論做結論。 關鍵詞：亞裔美國人、刻版印象 I-229 遠東學報第二十三卷第三期 中華民國九十五年九月出版 John Duxbury, of Applied Foreign Language, Far East University Fen-Ming Lee, Dept. of Applied Foreign Language, Far East University ABSTRACT This article chronicles the origins of Asian stereotypes in America. It starts by presenting the possible goals of stereotyping and then gives some history about how modern day stereotypes date back to the adventure stories during 17th Century British Imperialism. These stereotypes were passed along to the early comic strips and then to early movies. Six Asian stereotypes have been constructed in the literature (the pollutant, the deviant, the coolie, the yellow peril, the model minority, and the gook). The reason for each of these six is explained and identified in context to popular culture. There is a quick analysis of more recent movies in regards to these six stereotypes. Then there is a discussion on how the portrayal of these Asian stereotypes perpetuates prejudices, along with instances where Hollywood uses them for cheap laughs. Attention is given to some Asian Americans who have been offended by these American films. The article concludes with the writer’s reflections and comments. Keywords：Asian-American、Stereotypes I-230 遠東學報第二十三卷第三期 中華民國九十五年九月出版 Stereotyping There has been an assimilation of different races, religions, and cultures into the United States at an unprecedented rate and scale. Kunda and Spencer (2003) discussed Germans can understand this challenge because the goals of stereotyping.[1] They theorized Germany is a financial power located in the three goals: 1) Comprehension goals, 2) middle of Europe, it borders much poorer Self-enhancement goals, and 3) the motivation to countries and thus it has a constant immigration avoid prejudice. The self-enhancement goals and refugee problem. The disturbing note is that serve to maintain, protect and enhance Germany gave birth to the Nazi party, and still self-esteem (Taylor & Brown, 1988). [2] The has a neo-Nazi problem. motivation to avoid prejudice is a desire to Stereotyping enables “perceivers to comply with egalitarian social norms (Dunton & simplify and understand huge amounts of social Frazio, 1997; Plant & Devine, 1998). [3] The information” (Kunda & Spencer, 2003, p. comprehension goals encompass the need to 524).[6] An individual’s confusion over puzzling understand events and reduce complexity behavior may be resolved by stereotyping (Bruner, 1957). [4] Stereotyping derives from (Kunda, Davies, Adams, & Spencer, 2002). [7] the need to make order out of the world, to Although this cognitive process is functionally categorize events, places, and people. useful, it objectifies people; “it transforms man The current controversy over into a thing” (Fromm, 1966). [8] Once an multiculturalism may be a result people’s individual has been objectified in another tendency to categorize other people into groups person’s mind, there becomes no need to get to in order to make sense of their own past and know them personally (Freire, 1970). [9] relationship to others. Attempting to indoctrinate everyone into one’s own group can be considered assimilation. It is associated with the Some History concept of the melting pot and it became Modern day stereotypes and impressions prominent right after World War I. The push for about Asia probably date back to British conformity required immigrants to completely imperialism which, according to some scholars, renounce their ancestry (Ramsey, Vold, & started in 1707 with the “union of England and Williams, 1989). [5] Scotland. … The adventure tales that formed the There can be an inherent arrogance to light reading of Englishmen for 200 years and assimilation. First of all, it assumes that other more after Robinson Crusoe were, in fact the groups want to join one’s own group. Also, it energizing myth of English imperialism” (Green, implies that other groups do not have a lot to 1979, p. 30). [10] offer one’s own group. Assimilation may be a The first mention of the Chinese in the practical and desirable end if groups, like the United States was in the early eighteen hundreds: early American colonists, have a need for civil “In 1834, the American Museum in New York order and national security. put Afong Moy on Public display under the I-231 遠東學報第二十三卷第三期 中華民國九十五年九月出版 billing of ‘Chinese Lady’” (Asian Women Model minority originated in the racial United of California, 1989, p. 423). [11] logic of cold war liberalism of the 1950s, but it In his book Oriental: Asian Americans in is identified with the 1960s and 1970s (Lee, Popular Culture, Lee identifies “the six faces of 1999). [17] “Whites love us because we’re not the Oriental – the pollutant, the deviant, the Black” (Chin, 1974, p. xx). [18] The elevation of coolie, the yellow peril, the model minority, and Asian Americans to the position of model the gook” (Lee, 1999, p. 8). [12] Each of these minority had less to do with the actual success of faces, or stereotypes, was constructed in a Asian Americans than to the perceived failure – specific historical time in the United States or worse, refusal – of African Americans to because of some conceived threat to the white assimilate (Lee, 1999). [19] Americans and their families. Gook is a term derived from the Vietnam The concept of the Chinese as pollutants to War and may have had some origins in the our society came about in the mid 19th Century Korean War. However, Lee (1999) is not clear during the white settler’s expansion westward. about this. [20] Again, there seems to be an They were considered an alien presence in underlying threat to the US, this time California known as the “free-soil Eden” (Lee, economically, as the US economy shifts from 1999, p. 9). [13] The Chinese were arriving from large-scale industrial production to global the West across the Pacific. realignment of capital and labor. The United The deviant label was ascribed in the 1860s States begins to view the Asian Americans as an and 1870s when hundreds of Chinese women invisible enemy similar to the Viet Cong, were brought to San Francisco and forced into expecting them to emerge from the city jungles prostitution. Also, the Chinese were hired as as they did from the tropical jungles. domestic servants, hence the potential for interracial sex and intimacy. “A representation Comic Strips of the Oriental as both seductively childlike and One medium which contributed a great deal threateningly sexual allowed for both sympathy towards promoting Asian stereotypes was the and repulsion” (Lee, 1999, P. 10). [14] comic strip. In the case of adventure comic strips, The representation of the Chinese as coolies “the shortest route from boyhood to a ‘moral’ came about in the 1860s and 1870s. The Chinese and ‘intrepid’ adulthood seemed to cut across the immigrant workers were portrayed as “unfree exotic terrain of China and the erotic body of and servile, a threat to the white working man, Chinese Females” (Ma, 2000, p. 6). [21] which led to the nascent labor movement. … The creator of Flash Gordon, Alex Gillespie (That) excluded Chinese from the working Raymond, took up illustration because he class” (Lee, 1999, p. 9). [15] became unemployed in the Great Depression. At the turn of the Century, the term yellow “The Demonization of Orientals” (Ma, 2000, p. peril was coined for the large “Asiatic 6) was the main theme throughout his strips. [22] immigration” which posed “the greatest threat to The Leader Ming the Merciless, who had been Western civilization and the white race” (Lee, blessed by the god Tao, commanded a loyal 1999, p. 10). [16] The term was again used legion made up of evil Captains and Admirals during World War II. I-232 遠東學報第二十三卷第三期 中華民國九十五年九月出版 with names such as Lin Chu, Luong, and Doctor Fu Manchu’s daughter, Fah Lo Suee Chiung. (Sweet Perfume), appeared in Daughter of Fu Milton Caniff, creator of Terry and the Manchu (1931). [26] She had a Russian mother Pirates (Ma, 2000), is best known for his endowing her with attractive Caucasian characterization of the Dragon Lady. This characteristics making her accessible to the West “femme fatale who devoured men sadistically, (Ma, 2000). [27] turned into a solicitous geisha, conquered by the power of love for a white male” (Ma, 2000, p. 6). Movies– The Early Years [23] The temptation to duplicate Oriental Later, Sax Rohmer saw the early decades of villains in the movies was, and still is, great for the twentieth century as the perfect time for Hollywood. Examples might be Lucy Liu’s “launching a Chinese villain on the Market” (Ma, persona of a dragon lady/geisha girl masseuse in 2000, pp. 8-9) – Doctor Fu Manchu: Charlie’s Angels (Chin, 2003), [28] and a Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, geisha/samurai boss in Kill Bill (Ebert, 2003). high-shouldered, with a brow like [29] Also, consider the Star Trek movies with Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a the evil Khan (Ma, 2000). [30] close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes The counterparts to Fu Manchu and the of the true cat-green. Invest him with all Dragon Lady were Charlie Chan and Madame the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, Butterfly. Fu Manchu is “the villain, tall, bony accumulated in one giant intellect, and with and yellow; Chan, the detective is shorter, all the resources of science past and present, chubby and pink. The former is angry and with all the resources, if you will, of a threatening: the latter stays calm and apologetic” wealthy government – which, however, (Ma, 2000, p.