Asians In Hollywood: From Anna May Wong To "Kung Fu Panda"

I've always said the only people worse represented throughout Hollywood history than black people, were Asian people. Just like we had our share of white actors parading around in blackface, Asians had to tolerate white actors in yellowface: that is, white actors made up to look like and play Asian characters.

Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu, to name two. Whenever the discussion about minority representation on screen came up in the public consciousness, Asians seemed to barely rate a mention.

Well now you can sample some Asian images throughout Hollywood history, good and bad, by tuning in to Turner Classic Movies every Tuesday and Thursday in June. Their series, "Race and Hollywood: Asian Images In Film," is a film festival showcasing Asian performers from the era of silent films, up until more contemporary movies like "The Joy Luck Club" and "Enter The Dragon."

Last week's program featured a documentary on Hollywood's first Asian film star, Anna May Wong. "Anna May Wong: Frosted Yellow Willows" chronicled the career of the American born Wong who dreamed as a child of being in the movies. Though she found work, first as an extra, and then in larger roles, the choicest roles, even for Asian characters, were reserved for white actresses.

A lovely woman, whose beauty radiated off the screen, Wong longed for the chance to showcase her acting, so she left Hollywood and was rewarded with better stage and film roles in Europe. She became the toast of the continent in the 20's and 30's and internationally acclaimed. But still, as far as Hollywood was concerned she never gained the kind of stardom she would have had she not been Asian. In later years, like Hattie McDaniel and other black actresses of her generation, Wong caught flack from her own people for the roles she took.

After the documentary, TCM showed several of Wong's films including "Shanghai Express" starring Marlene Dietrich.

Keith at hapihour.org applauded TCM for the series:

I gotta hand it to TCM for going through the efforts to air these films wrapped in an educational festival. We can never be too educated about how people of color, LGBT and other disenfranchised members of our community have been — and continue to be — misrepresented and stereotyped in popular culture.

Speaking of popular culture and a film that's otherwise lauded as a classic, one of the many problems I have with the movie "Breakfast At Tiffany's" is Mickey Rooney's terribly offensive portrayal of Holly Golightly's Japanese neighbor.

His portrayal is supposed to be funny, but believe me, it ain't. And I'm not Asian. Today it would be like watching Angelina Jolie, slanted eyes and all, made up to play Sandra Oh's role on Grey's Anatomy.

And that brings me to "Kung Fu Panda"---you thought I forgot, didn't you? Well, I didn't. Angelina Jolie is one of the voices in this animated movie about a panda who's "forced to become a kung fu master to save his jungle from leopard villians." It made $60 million at the box office last weekend and though it's gotten good reviews there's some dissatisfaction about the movie in the blogosphere.

Jennifer at Mixed Raced America is "annoyed" by "Kung Fu Panda:"

Because do we need MORE reinforcement of Asian stereotypes, especially those that perpetuate the connection of Asians with Panda bears and martial arts, and DAMN IT, this one has BOTH. Maybe I wouldn't be so annoyed if there were more Asian Americans on-screen just being, well, Asian American. Pumping gas at your local Shell station. Ringing up your groceries.

The Black Snob also has problems with the movie:

Most times America must seem like a black or white world where if you're not a black person or white person no one really gives a crap about whether your thousands-of-years-old culture is being portrayed by a cartoon panda doing martial arts voiced by Jack Black. Just suck on it Chinese Americans.

When I see Kung Fu Panda I think--Is this the equivalent of Hollywood making a movie about a jive-talking Chicken from the country whose dream is to become a famous rapper, moves to the ghetto but is constantly being pursued by greasy black fry cook from Church's--World's Greasiest Chicken Chain?

The Angry Asian Man isn't so angry about "Kung Fu Panda," but he does have a warning for parents:

Not only will it make truckloads of money this weekend, it will no doubt inspire countless kids across the country to kung fu kick each other. Parents, expect some Kung Fu Panda-inspired injuries this summer.

You won't however get any injuries by watching TCM's film festival. That is unless you decide to kung fu your TV set.

By the way, "The Killing Fields" which I mentioned in my Memorial Day post: "Ten TV Shows And Movies That Taught Me Something About War," will air as part of the festival on June 26th.

Megan Smith is a BlogHer Contributing Editor covering TV/YouTube and she hopes to see more of a variety of great Asian roles for great Asians performers . Her other blogs are Megan's Minute and Video Runway.

Submitted by Megan Smith (view blog

) on Mon, 06/09/2008 - 23:34

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WoW!

I have never even heard of this show! Thank you for posting about it. To this day I'm excited when I see an Asian in the top billing because it happens so rarely. I can't wait to see it and I'm sad to have missed about the Anna May Wong topic.

:-) MJ Tam

SugarMyBowl.com

Submitted by mjtam on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 05:22

Check Out The TCM Website

Hi MJ,

Check out the TCM Website, it's possible they might air the Anna May Wong documentary again. If there's no info there, take a look at the documentary's website for more info about the film.

Happy watching!

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 05:36

thanks for the link plug

This is Jennifer of MIXED RACE AMERICA, and I wanted to say thanks for the shout out for my blog.

And thanks for the reminder about TMC--Peter Feng, a colleague of mine in Asian American studies and a film scholar of great repute, is, I believe, offering commentary on these films--contextualizing them and talking about the actors/actresses, the stereotypes, the limited roles for Asian Americans in Hollywood, etc.

I've seen SHANGHAI EXPRESS and really loved Anna May Wong in the role. She does sort've conform to the Dragon Lady stereotype, but she also brings in a nuanced performance (I think) and it is AMAZING what she was able to do given the times she was living in.

What makes me sad is that not a whole lot has changed for Asian Americans. Perhaps next to American Indians, Asian Americans is one of the most underrepresented demographics in film or television. And I do mean Asian American--because sure, there are plenty of imported Martial Arts films, Korean dramas, and Bollywood fantasy pieces, but aside from THE JOY LUCK CLUB or more recently the HAROLD AND KUMAR franchise, there aren't a whole lot of films that feature Asian Americans in the U.S. (and even JOY LUCK CLUB has half the narrative in pre-Communist China).

Ok, I'll stop now because I could go on and on about this subject. I look forward to watching some of the TMC films--although I find it hard to stomach the Charlie Chan films--the portraits are really AWFUL and there's nothing worse than watching someone in yellowface. UGH.

Submitted by obongo on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 08:03

Anna May Wong Was Meant To Be In Movies

Hi Jennifer,

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

It's obvious from her film clips that Anna May Wong was meant to be in front of the camera, and if she had been white would have been a huge star. But as you said, she did what she could with what she had and was still able to carve out a career for herself in the movies she loved so much.

I too am looking forward to TCM's upcoming "Asian Images In Hollywood" films.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 09:17

Answer to the Black Snob on Kung Fu Panda

I'd say no to Black Snob's question -- Kung Fu Panda is not the equivalent of the racist caricature described; instead it is a well done homage to the vibrant Hong Kong movie industry and martial arts movies. It had many direct references to scenes from great HK movies. It wasn't just some random collection of U.S. stereotypes of "Asians".

-----------------

Liz Henry

lizzard@bookmaniac.net

Badgermama - personal & mommyblog

Submitted by Liz Henry on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 10:02

In Black Snob's Defense

Hi Liz,

I haven't seen "Kung Fu Panda" so I don't feel qualified to answer the question.

However, maybe I should have included the following from Black Snob's "Kung Fu Panda" post:

While I'm sure it's a "cute" movie, considering that Asian people are
pretty much invisible in Hollywood save for the occasional Karate flick
and such rarities as Harold and Kumar,
it has to be annoying to see out the usual three paltry movies related
to Asian culture that may come out this year one of them has to be a
kid's flick about a talking panda who learns Kung Fu.

Then in a response to a commenter she agreed with Jennifer's point about the number of Asian images out there:

So my point really wasn't so much about the film, but how Asian
Americans don't see representations of themselves as just people, not
kung fu masters or cartoons, but just people in cinema.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Tue, 06/10/2008 - 14:10

I loved Kung Fu Panda...

and I'm Asian-American. Lucy Liu and Jackie Chan must not have thought the movie so horribly stereotypical either.

Well, I'm thinking that the Asian population in the U.S. is not very large compared to white, black and hispanic but there have been good Asian movies in the last few years (Crouching Tiger, Memoirs of a Geisha, Letters from Iwo Jima) and Sandra Oh and Lucy Liu have made inroads in the US. Keanu Reeves is an Asian/Pacific mixture. I believe Ann Curry is a mix of Asian ancestry; though not an actress she's a big deal on TV. The big question may be why there aren't more good hispanic roles since last I heard they are poised to overtake the number of black-Americans in this country.

Linda http://www.moonbridgebooks.com http://moonbridgeblog.blogspot.com

Submitted by leaustin on Fri, 06/13/2008 - 21:29

Thanks For Adding Your Point Of View

Hi Linda,

I appreciate you're giving us your take.

As you know I'm not Asian, so I won't presume to say how other Asians feel about this, but what I discovered when I was looking for links for this post was that there were several Asian bloggers who, while they acknowledged films like, "Memoirs Of A Geisha," etc, they wanted to see Asians in a wider variety of roles. Not just in WWII movies, or martial arts movies or movies set in Asia.

And I'd love to see more blacks and hispanics represented on the screen in a wider variety of roles. "Ugly Betty" is a perfect example of a TV show that showcases wonderful actors and actresses, several of whom happen to be hispanic. And on top of that, it's an entertaining, well-written, high quality show.

When we have more people like Salma Hayek and Shonda Rhimes behind shows and movies like "Ugly Betty," and "Grey's Anatomy," Hollywood will truly be moving forward in the right direction.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Sat, 06/14/2008 - 11:12

Asian living in White Mid West

Personally I'm not a fan of the movie or many movies withe asians in them. Once in awhile I will chortle at some stereotypical joke, but for the most part, it always comes to bite me. Being one of the few asians in such a white area, all stereotypes come back to me. They look at me as if to ask "do "you guys" really do that?"

There are so few movies about us just being asian-AMERICAN. acting like every white American out there. That makes it hard on me because even though i mildly speak my native tongue, i speak english with an american accent and I do what most Americans do on a normal day.

Submitted by battledress on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 06:57

I Get Where You're Coming From

Hi Kathleen,

No one wants to be seen like some kind of strange, foreign entity just because they're black or Asian or Hispanic. People need to make more of an effort to get to know the people they meet without making movie/tv-based assumptions about them.

Thanks for your thoughts.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Fri, 06/20/2008 - 11:54

I liked Kung Fu Panda, too.

Actually, I was afraid that Kung Fu Panda would be full of awful racist stereotypes and inappropriate jokes, but I honestly liked it and appreciated it for what it was--a cute & funny kids' movie. I do think that Hollywood has come a long way since Long Duck Dong in "16 candles". Of course, there's still lots of room for improvement.

Submitted by Asianmommy on Wed, 06/25/2008 - 14:18

I Appreciate Your Weighing In

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate your weighing in.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 12:53

Kids at my house say "thumbs down" on Kung Fu
Panda

This week I had four bright and inquisitive kids (nieces and nephews) staying at my house. I took them to see Kung Fu Panda, and although none of us hated the movie, they were not impressed. The four year old liked it best, but all the others thought the movie was "mostly fighting, and it just gets boring after a while."

Kalyn Denny
Kalyn's Kitchen

Submitted by Kalyn Denny on Thu, 06/26/2008 - 13:11