ASIAN STEREOTYPES in VIDEO GAMES BY YICHEN SHOU STEREOTYPE ster·e·o·type noun a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Major Asian Stereotypes 1. Charlie Chan: Emasculated, weak and obedient, characters of this “good” Asian-male stereotype are often non-threatening and exist only to foil the superiority of the protagonist. 2. Fu Manchu: Cunning, cruel and grotesque, this Asian-male stereotype embodies the fear of the “Yellow Peril” and is usually revealed to be the evil mastermind behind plots to destroy the West. 3. China Doll: Weak, submissive and hyper-sexualized, this “good” Asian-female stereotype often plays the role of romanic interests needing rescue and are easily replaced by non-Asian romantic interests. 4. KungFu Master: Despite being strong and capable, this character is often a desexualized sidekick whose martial arts expertise is only justified by their (usually Chinese) heritage. 5. Samurai/Ninja: A stereotype mainly reserved for the Japanese, these katana/ninja-star wielding characters are emotionless, fearless, fanatically loyal to their masters, and obsessed with the concept of honor. 6. Dragon Lady: The “evil” counterpart of the China Doll, these hyper-sexualized Asian-females are temptresses who use deception and sex appeal to further their evil plans. Gender Nature Characteristic Stereotype Character (Non-Playable) Character (Playable) Chen Lin Jin Jie Tong Si Hung Bo’ Rai Cho Bioshock: Innite Battleeld 4 Deus Ex: Human Revolution Mortal Kombat Cheng Lorck Raymond Mak Two Chin Tsao Huang Lee 44% Titanfall Sleeping Dogs Sleeping Dogs GTA: Chinatown Wars Weak/Obedient/Desexualized 18% Glenn Ricky Wong Charlie Chan The Walking Dead Sleeping Dogs Jackie Ma Tao Cheng Sleeping Dogs GTA V 55% 20% Big Smile Lee Sunny Woo Yi Suchong Kano Good Honorable Samurai/Ninja Sleeping Dogs Sleeping Dogs Bioshock: Innite Mortal Kombat 13% Chang Wei Tian Zhao Shang Tsung Battleeld 4 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Mortal Kombat 20% Fu Manchu Neutral Pegan Min Wu Lee Farcry 4 GTA: Chinatown Wars Jade Tan Samantha Nishimura Takara Sato 65% 16% Just Cause 2 Tomb Raider C&C: Red Alert 3 Male Martial Arts Expert Knives Chau Sandra Tiany Kim 13% Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: the Game Sleeping Dogs Sleeping Dogs China Doll Not Ping Suki Toyama Vivienne Lu 45% Sleeping Dogs C&C: Red Alert 3 Sleeping Dogs Scheming/Cruel/Grotesque Lady Shiva Kai Leng Kung Lao Wei Shen 10% Batman: Arkham Origins Mass Eect 3 Mortal Kombat Sleeping Dogs 45% Ling Shan Sifu Henry Kwok Liu Kang KungFu Master GTA: Chinatown Wars Sleeping Dogs Mortal Kombat Evil 35% Neutral Emperor Yoshiro Jyunichi Kenshi Takeo Masaki 10% C&C: Red Alert 3 Saints Row 4 Mortal Kombat Call of Duty: Black Ops 10% Honorable Samurai/Ninja Samurai/Ninja Japanese Soldier Prince Tatsu Sub Zero Call of Duty: World at War C&C: Red Alert 3 Mortal Kombat 5% Weak/Obedient/Desexualized 5% Martial Arts Expert Chase Linh Jade Nguyen Zhao Yun Ru 8% Need for Speed: Undercover Hitman: Absolution Deus Ex: Human Revolution Dragon Lady Queen Himiko Yuma Lau 50% Tomb Raider Farcry 4 Weak/Need Rescue/Sexualized Broken Nose Jiang Chau Wu Winston Chu Ajay Ghale Sleeping Dogs Need for Speed: Undercover Sleeping Dogs Farcry 4 Huang Shuyi Premier Chen Zhang Sun Faifth Connors 72% Battleeld 4 Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Just Cause 2 Mirror’s Edge Good Jane Teng Joseph Oda Kasumi Goto 35% 44% Sleeping Dogs The Evil Within Mass Eect 3 Female Neutral Kate Connors Sam Lin Vince 28% Mirror’s Edge Sleeping Dogs The Walking Dead Not Stereotyped Lucy Kuo Sri Irawan Xiaoyong Bai 6% Martial Arts Expert Infamous 2 Just Cause 2 Farcry 2 Mrs. Chu Uncle Po 70% Sleeping Dogs Sleeping Dogs 28% Deceiving/Temptress/Backstabbing Sandra Telfair Wei Chen Evil 15% Martial Arts Expert C&C 3: Tiberum War GTA V 15% Neutral ABOUT The purpose of this project is not to show the underrepresentation of Asians in video games (for there are plenty), but to expose the misrepresentation and overuse of stereotypes for Asian characters. 28 of the most popular games from 2008-2014 were chosen, and all of the games’ major Asian characters were studied using the respective wikia pages of each game. The gender, nature and characteristic of each character was determined from each character’s wikia page description, and the stereotypes of each character were judged on a case-by-case basis by seeing which criterias each character fits. For example, “Emperor Yoshiro” is filed under the “Honorable Samurai/Ninja” category for his samurai background and often mention of honor during the game; he is then determined to fit the “Samurai/Ninja” stereotype because of his display of that stereotype’s major characteristics. Characters displaying multiple characteristics are filed under the trait displayed most prominently. Note that “Not Stereotyped” only defines characters who don’t fit in any of the 6 sterotypes explored by this project; some of them are stereotyped in other ways. “Sam Lin”, for example, fits the mysogynist Asian stereotype. RESOURCES - Most popular games from 2008-2014: “best games of 20XX” articles compiled by IGN and Gamsradar, e.g. “http://www.gamesradar.com/best-games-2014/” and “http://www.ign.com/lists/best-of-games-platform”. - Definitions of Asian stereotypes: “http://racerelations.about.com/od/hollywood/a/Five-Common-Asian-american-Stereotypes-In-Tv-And-Film.htm”, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotypes_of_East_Asians_in_the_United_States”. “http://sitemaker.umich.edu/psy457_tizzle/asian_american_women”, “http://sitemaker.umich.edu/psy457_tizzle/asian_american_men”. - Character information: taken from each character’s respective wikia pages, e.g. “http://cnc.wikia.com/wiki/Emperor_Yoshiro” and “http://sleepingdogs.wikia.com/wiki/Wei_Shen”..