Thursday, March 5, 1998
Asian Americans in media to be honored
FILM: Organization aims to raise awareness, break down
stereotypes
By Aimee Phan
Daily Bruin Staff
Finding an Asian American on a television show or in a movie is
like winning the jackpot in Vegas. Very rare.
But Asian Americans have been making progress in the
entertainment and media industry in recent years – and Sunday
night, the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) will be
holding its fifth annual Media Achievement Awards Banquet to honor
those who have made the most remarkable accomplishments this
year.
MANAA, founded in 1992, is a media watchdog/education group that
strives to promote a more sensitive and accurate representation of
Asian Americans in the media.
This year, the awards go to "M. Butterfly" playwright David
Henry Hwang, the producers of the sci-fi series "Star Trek:
Voyager" and Academy-Award nominated documentary director Renee
Tajima-Pena.
While these honorees have made great strides in elevating the
Asian American presence in the media, most agree that Asian
Americans still have a long way to go before they are represented
fairly and accurately in film and television.
By giving feedback to the studios about the portrayal of Asian
Americans, MANAA hopes to do away with old stereotypes and
establish more positive and realistic images in their places.
Guy Aoki, former president and co-founder of MANAA, helped form
the group in 1992 after watching how the unfair depictions of Asian
Americans in the media were going undetected by the public. For
him, the final straw was the negative media coverage of the 50th
anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing and the anti-Asian
sentiment that was being aroused from it.
"We thought enough was enough," Aoki says. "I just thought of
all the hate crimes that were going to result from reviving this
old hatred. We realized that there wasn’t an organization that was
monitoring and giving feedback to the media about how Asian
Americans are portrayed."
One of the organization’s self-appointed duties is making sure
the media’s portrayal of Asian Americans on film and television is
fair and not racially derogatory. This includes protesting against
films which play up to Asian racial stereotypes that could harm the
mainstream public’s image of Asian Americans. One of their biggest
protests was against the controversial 1993 Sean Connery-Wesley
Snipes movie, "Rising Sun," which promoted stereotypes of Asian men
as ruthless businessmen and Asian females as sex objects.
"It was an educational campaign, not a boycott," Aoki says. "We
were complaining about the depiction of the Japanese in the movie.
We met with the producer and the president of Twentieth Century Fox
(the studio that produced the film), but they were unwilling to
soften the racially inflammatory depictions."
While "Rising Sun" was more blatant with the Asian stereotypes,
many films and television shows can be found guilty of relaxing
into typical Asian stock characters in their story lines. Most
films and TV shows today hardly feature any Asian American
characters, and if they do, they are often depicted in
stereotypical and subservient roles.
"They let Asian Americans play the stereotype role of a waiter,
a kung fu artist or a drug lord from Hong Kong," Aoki says. "It’s
hard for them to see an Asian American playing someone (ordinary)
like a marriage counselor."
An example of a positive Asian American on television that Aoki
and the rest of MANAA hope to have more of is former UCLA student
Garrett Wang’s character Ensign Harry Kim on "Star Trek: Voyager."
Wang’s multi-layered portrayal of the naive and romantic Kim is one
of the very few examples of a three-dimensional Asian American
character on a continuing television series.
"Garrett Wang has been a very positive character on the show,"
Aoki says. "He’s a romantic interest, not asexual and without a
penis like other Asian men on TV have been. He’s not a stereotype
on the show and he’s had the chance to show his stuff."
Wang, who also stars in the upcoming indie film "Hundred
Percent" (which features an all Asian American lead cast),
understands from first-hand experiences how difficult it is for
Asian American actors to break through the stereotypes Hollywood
harbors against them. He says he also believes that Asian American
men have an even more difficult time than women because of
longstanding anti-Asian sentiment that has existed in America.
"Asian American males are seen as two-dimensional and as the
enemy," Wang says. "Asian American women are a different case
because they are seen as more desirable and exotic by Caucasians
who have an Asian fetish. That’s why you have a Connie Chung and
not a Joe Chung."
But both Wang and Aoki agree that the biggest problem for them
in the media right now is their barely-there existence. Wang points
out that a recent survey taken by the Screen Actors’ Guild revealed
that while Asian Americans make up 4 percent of the population,
less than 1 percent of the roles on film and television are
portrayed by Asian Americans. Aoki says this is because of
Hollywood’s fear of trying something unfamiliar and unproven.
"They’re not very courageous people," Aoki says of Hollywood
executives and producers. "They’re too afraid to try something new.
Someone’s got to take a chance to open their eyes."
And Aoki says he still believes that the studios’ presumptions
about old-fashioned racism is probably the most common reason they
hesitate to hire Asian American actors for more mainstream
roles.
"The industry has tended to underestimate the intelligence of
their audience," Aoki says. "They don’t think that a white person
in Mississippi can handle an Asian person as a heroic character on
screen. It’s very narrow-minded thinking."
One of the ways Wang believes this problem can be improved is by
having more Asian Americans in the entertainment industry.
"People in Hollywood are more prone to jumping on the bandwagon
since they’re not as independently creative as they could be," Wang
says. "You need like a Spike Kim to break down some walls like
Spike Lee did for the African Americans."
Since Asian Americans are barely existent on any long-running
comedy series, Wang says the only way this can be solved is by
having a successful sitcom on the air comprised mainly of Asian
American characters.
While this was attempted several years back with the ABC sitcom
"All-American Girl" starring standup comedian Margaret Cho, the
show was canceled after only one season. Wang blames this failure
on the limited appeal of ethnic humor, which the show heavily
relied on for laughs.
"All the jokes were about the generation and cultural gaps
between the grandmother and (Cho)," Wang says. "It didn’t focus on
her strength as a comedian. It just did all ethnic jokes. They may
be funny for a while, but they don’t last. You have to make the
comedy universal."
As for integrating more Asian Americans onto the big screen,
Wang says one strategy is to cast them in roles alongside white and
African American actors so audiences can grow more accustomed to
seeing them on the screen.
"We need to get plugged into the formula of a Hollywood
blockbuster," Wang says. "If audiences go to see a mainstream movie
for the white actors, then they can leave being surprised and
impressed with the young charismatic Asian American star in
it."
While Aoki and Wang agree that there has been slow improvement
thanks to groups like the MANAA, they both believe that unless more
Asian Americans get into the business as writers and studio
executives, progress will linger on at a snail’s pace, a fate
neither wants to see.
Aoki points out how essential it is for more Asian Americans to
be on the screen not only for equality reasons, but also for the
future generations of Asian Americans who will look to movies and
television shows for an identity.
"If you don’t see Asian Americans on TV when you’re growing up,
you feel like you don’t belong," Aoki says. "A lot of young Asian
American children grow up feeling like they don’t belong."
Wang adds, "It shouldn’t be like this, it’s ridiculous. The
Asian Americans have a wealth of history and culture to go on.
Somebody has to take the first step."
AWARDS: The Media Achievement Awards Banquet will be held Sunday
evening at the Empress Pavilion Restaurant in Chinatown. For more
information about admission to the event, please call (213)
486-4433.
ALM Entertainment
"Power Rangers" star Patricia Lee will emcee the MANAA
Awards.