Asian American Audience Analysis
Audience Analysis:
The following essay are addressing the audience of people who shows, at minimum, an interest in Asian American issues of today, and is willing to take many different perspective on how each different issues are tackled by experts or people who have interest in it. A secondary audience could be people who has no general knowledge of the topic, but want to learn about Asian American issues and promote advocacy. Demographically, these people would be of Asian descent with an age range from 16-50 years of age. The audience would have a beginner’s level of reading skills and are willing to read the essay even if it goes against his/her belief or does not. I expect the audience to have a better understanding on how Asian Americans …show more content…
in media is the root to the issue of stereotypes that Asian Americans face.
What are you? Chinese?
I remembered the day like it was yesterday. Eric asked, “What type of Asian are you? Ching Chong?” I told him I was Chinese American. He rudely replied, “Oh, so you are a geeky Kung-Fu Master who is good at math,” and laughed hysterically as he walked away. I laughed it off because I have faced this ignorance before, and it usually does not affect me. However, this time, I questioned myself, “Where does a person get these stereotypes and how are they created? Also, how does it affect society in the negative way?” After that incident, I went home, and turned on the television, and the movie “Rush Hour 2” was on. This movie is about Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan), and Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) embroiled in a counterfeit scam involving the Triads. Like any other Chan movie, he was a master in marital arts and fought off the Triads and the dragon lady, Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi), with finesse and power. Watching this movie after the incident allowed me to have an epiphany that the reason why stereotypes exist is because of how movies and TV shows portray Asian Americans. I grew up with an organization named Asian American Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (AALEAD) and their goal is to be great leaders of our generations and teach the youth about the Asian American Issues. Promoting Asian American Advocacy is something I am passionate about. To learn more about where Asian Stereotypes came from, I attended a conference called East Coast Asian American Student Union Conference (ECAASU). The conference talks about various Asian American issues by attending workshops. The workshop that stood out the most was the Asian Americans in Media which talks about Asians on TV shows and movies and how it affected society in that it gives a negative view on it causes outsiders to think in a stereotypical way of how we are, and also gives ourselves a negative view. Merriam Webster defines stereotype as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” (“Stereotype,” Merriam-Webster.com).
Asian American stereotypes are a product of myths that are spread by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. An example of a myth that exist is that all Asians are nerds. The media has made this myth true by various TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy’s Dr. Christina Yang played by Sandra Oh where she was first in her class in Stanford University (Grey’s Anatomy, 2005) or Lloyd played by Rex Lee who graduated at Stanford where he was first of his class. (Entourage, 2004) Popular comic strips in the late 1890s called “The Yellow Kid” and “The Ting-Ling Kids” (Olson) are depictions of racial cartoons of the Chinese American for mass audiences. The roles these Asian Americans portray in media greatly affects how outsiders perceive Asian Americans and how they perceive …show more content…
themselves.
Asian men are seen as submissive, evil villains, emasculated males, servants, sidekicks, unfriendly individuals, Kung-Fu Masters, and undesirable male partners. Cruel villains such as Jet Li in the movie “War” (War, 2007) who was a malicious assassin killing anyone using guns and marital arts. Asian males have historically been portrayed as either uncontrollably lustful or completely asexual. Charlie Chan, a Chinese American detective, played by Warner Oland, who was Swedish American, was one actor who exemplified the completely asexual as he did not show any attraction to females and only focused on his work. Another example for this type of stereotype would be William Hung the American Idol castoff. One of the most common roles for Asian American males is being a sidekick/servant to a more superior person like in the movie “The Green Hornet” (The Green Hornet, 2012) where Kato played by Jay Chou was the sidekick and servant of Britt Reid who was played by Seth Rogan. The character Reid seems to take advantage of Kato as he saw him as inferior. While this is portrayed all over the media, this affects society in a negative way. This gives a false depiction of how Asian American males are in society. The Asian stereotypes in media gives this idea that Asian men have to be what they are as what the general public sees. It means that an Asian American man must know Kung Fu, be mean, or always serving someone in a way. Just how Asian men in media is bad, so are Asian women in media.
Asian women have two dominant stereotypes which are the Dragon Lady which typically portrays an Asian woman who is sneaky, untrustworthy, and scheming who uses her sexuality as a weapon to deceive and take control of men. This depiction of this stereotype has been portrayed in various media such as Lucy Liu in “Man with the Iron Fist” (Man with the Iron Fist, 2012) which shows a Head Mistress of a prostitution house who uses her sexuality to be in power. Another would be Anna May Wong, the first Chinese actress, who was portrays as the stereotype. The other type is the Lotus Blossom stereotypes which presents Asian women as passive, sexually compliant and easy to seduce such as Zhang Ziyi in “Memoirs of a Geisha” (Memoirs of a Geisha, 2005) who was a passive woman who is sexually compliant as a Geisha because she had no other choice as she was schooled in becoming one. These race and class stereotypes of Asian American women give the impression of what Asian American women are really like to other Americans as well as to Asian American themselves. This perpetuates race and class inequalities of Asian Americans by allowing these belittling Asian characteristics to appear repeatedly in society.
Another stereotype that was perpetuated by the media was the idea that “All Asians look alike” This is due to the fact that many Asian American ethnic groups like Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese are often portrayed in the media by whatever the movie needed them to be.
In “Memoirs of the Geisha” (Memoirs of a Geisha, 2005) the main character was a Japanese female named Chiyo Sakamoto as it was portrayed by a Chinese female, Zhang Ziyi. M*A*S*H (M*A*S*H, 1972) was a TV show based around the Korean War, and Mako, a supporting actor who is Japanese, portrayed many racially different roles. He played roles such as a Chinese doctor, North Korean soldier and South Korean major. This gives society the negative stereotype that Asians all look alike, but common sense tells us that we do not and that we are uniquely different from one another. As media is a big issue to why Asian Stereotypes exist, it also might be due to how exposed they are to Asian Americans in their
communities.
The stereotypes that Asian Americans face are due to how exposed the general public are to Asian American culture. The media is there to perpetuate stereotypes, but what society sees in the media is what causes stereotypes to exist. According to the U.S Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population (Census, 2000), and knowing that most Asians Americans live on the west and east coast of the US, many Americans living in central parts of the country have little to no exposure to any Asian Americans due to the lack of Asians living in the central part of the US (Figure 1, 2010). Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. In conclusion, Asian Americans stereotypes are perpetuated by the media via movies and TV shows. Through the access of media, stereotypes about Asian Americans are spread around and told to people thus believing that Asian Americans must be able to be these things because of what the media tells them. The stereotypes affects the general public a negative and false information about how Asians are. It also affects Asian Americans as they will have to meet a certain expectation and if that expectation is not reached, then it demoralizes them. How the media portrays Asians are rather a social issue and change is needed.
Word Count: 1364
Bibliography
"Stereotype." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2014.
Web. 25 March 2014.
"RaceBridges for Schools." 7 Myths and Stereotypes About Asian Americans. Ethnohtec Story Theatre. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Univeristy of Michigan, . "Media Representation in Media."Asian Americans and the Media: Perpetuating the Model Minority. Univeristy of Michigan. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Jessica S. Barnes, , Claudette E. Bennett. The Asian Population: 2000. U.S.Department of Commerce, n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
C.N, . "Latest Census 2010 Data About the Asian American Population." . N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Asian pacific Americans in prime time: Lights camera and little action. •National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, 2005. 1-13. Print.
Sandra, Oh, perf. Gre 'ys Anatomy. ABC : 2005. Television.
Rex , Lee, dir. Entourage. PrimeTime: 2004. Television.
Jet, Li, perf. War. Lionsgate, 2007. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Zhang, ZiYI, perf. Memoirs of a Geisha. Columbia Pictures, 2005. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Mako, , perf. M*A*S*H. CBS: 1972. Television.
Lucy, Liu, perf. Man with the Iron Fist. Universal Pictures , 2012. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Jay, Chou, perf. The Green Hornet. Columbia Pictures, 2011. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Mok, T.A. ). Getting the message: media images and stereotypes and their effect on Asian Americans. Cultural Diversity and Mental Health. 1998. 185-202. Print.
Richard D. Olson, R. F. Outcault, The Father of the American Sunday Comics, and the Truth About the Creation of the Yellow Kid. N.p.. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Asian Alone or in Combination as a Percentage of County Population: 2010. 2010. Photograph. www.asian-nation.orgWeb. 25 Mar 2014. . Figure 1:
The following essay are addressing the audience of people who shows, at minimum, an interest in Asian American issues of today, and is willing to take many different perspective on how each different issues are tackled by experts or people who have interest in it. A secondary audience could be people who has no general knowledge of the topic, but want to learn about Asian American issues and promote advocacy. Demographically, these people would be of Asian descent with an age range from 16-50 years of age. The audience would have a beginner’s level of reading skills and are willing to read the essay even if it goes against his/her belief or does not. I expect the audience to have a better understanding on how Asian Americans …show more content…
in media is the root to the issue of stereotypes that Asian Americans face.
What are you? Chinese?
I remembered the day like it was yesterday. Eric asked, “What type of Asian are you? Ching Chong?” I told him I was Chinese American. He rudely replied, “Oh, so you are a geeky Kung-Fu Master who is good at math,” and laughed hysterically as he walked away. I laughed it off because I have faced this ignorance before, and it usually does not affect me. However, this time, I questioned myself, “Where does a person get these stereotypes and how are they created? Also, how does it affect society in the negative way?” After that incident, I went home, and turned on the television, and the movie “Rush Hour 2” was on. This movie is about Inspector Lee (Jackie Chan), and Detective Carter (Chris Tucker) embroiled in a counterfeit scam involving the Triads. Like any other Chan movie, he was a master in marital arts and fought off the Triads and the dragon lady, Hu Li (Zhang Ziyi), with finesse and power. Watching this movie after the incident allowed me to have an epiphany that the reason why stereotypes exist is because of how movies and TV shows portray Asian Americans. I grew up with an organization named Asian American Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (AALEAD) and their goal is to be great leaders of our generations and teach the youth about the Asian American Issues. Promoting Asian American Advocacy is something I am passionate about. To learn more about where Asian Stereotypes came from, I attended a conference called East Coast Asian American Student Union Conference (ECAASU). The conference talks about various Asian American issues by attending workshops. The workshop that stood out the most was the Asian Americans in Media which talks about Asians on TV shows and movies and how it affected society in that it gives a negative view on it causes outsiders to think in a stereotypical way of how we are, and also gives ourselves a negative view. Merriam Webster defines stereotype as “a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” (“Stereotype,” Merriam-Webster.com).
Asian American stereotypes are a product of myths that are spread by various media, from books, plays, movies, television, to even historical propaganda. An example of a myth that exist is that all Asians are nerds. The media has made this myth true by various TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy’s Dr. Christina Yang played by Sandra Oh where she was first in her class in Stanford University (Grey’s Anatomy, 2005) or Lloyd played by Rex Lee who graduated at Stanford where he was first of his class. (Entourage, 2004) Popular comic strips in the late 1890s called “The Yellow Kid” and “The Ting-Ling Kids” (Olson) are depictions of racial cartoons of the Chinese American for mass audiences. The roles these Asian Americans portray in media greatly affects how outsiders perceive Asian Americans and how they perceive …show more content…
themselves.
Asian men are seen as submissive, evil villains, emasculated males, servants, sidekicks, unfriendly individuals, Kung-Fu Masters, and undesirable male partners. Cruel villains such as Jet Li in the movie “War” (War, 2007) who was a malicious assassin killing anyone using guns and marital arts. Asian males have historically been portrayed as either uncontrollably lustful or completely asexual. Charlie Chan, a Chinese American detective, played by Warner Oland, who was Swedish American, was one actor who exemplified the completely asexual as he did not show any attraction to females and only focused on his work. Another example for this type of stereotype would be William Hung the American Idol castoff. One of the most common roles for Asian American males is being a sidekick/servant to a more superior person like in the movie “The Green Hornet” (The Green Hornet, 2012) where Kato played by Jay Chou was the sidekick and servant of Britt Reid who was played by Seth Rogan. The character Reid seems to take advantage of Kato as he saw him as inferior. While this is portrayed all over the media, this affects society in a negative way. This gives a false depiction of how Asian American males are in society. The Asian stereotypes in media gives this idea that Asian men have to be what they are as what the general public sees. It means that an Asian American man must know Kung Fu, be mean, or always serving someone in a way. Just how Asian men in media is bad, so are Asian women in media.
Asian women have two dominant stereotypes which are the Dragon Lady which typically portrays an Asian woman who is sneaky, untrustworthy, and scheming who uses her sexuality as a weapon to deceive and take control of men. This depiction of this stereotype has been portrayed in various media such as Lucy Liu in “Man with the Iron Fist” (Man with the Iron Fist, 2012) which shows a Head Mistress of a prostitution house who uses her sexuality to be in power. Another would be Anna May Wong, the first Chinese actress, who was portrays as the stereotype. The other type is the Lotus Blossom stereotypes which presents Asian women as passive, sexually compliant and easy to seduce such as Zhang Ziyi in “Memoirs of a Geisha” (Memoirs of a Geisha, 2005) who was a passive woman who is sexually compliant as a Geisha because she had no other choice as she was schooled in becoming one. These race and class stereotypes of Asian American women give the impression of what Asian American women are really like to other Americans as well as to Asian American themselves. This perpetuates race and class inequalities of Asian Americans by allowing these belittling Asian characteristics to appear repeatedly in society.
Another stereotype that was perpetuated by the media was the idea that “All Asians look alike” This is due to the fact that many Asian American ethnic groups like Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese are often portrayed in the media by whatever the movie needed them to be.
In “Memoirs of the Geisha” (Memoirs of a Geisha, 2005) the main character was a Japanese female named Chiyo Sakamoto as it was portrayed by a Chinese female, Zhang Ziyi. M*A*S*H (M*A*S*H, 1972) was a TV show based around the Korean War, and Mako, a supporting actor who is Japanese, portrayed many racially different roles. He played roles such as a Chinese doctor, North Korean soldier and South Korean major. This gives society the negative stereotype that Asians all look alike, but common sense tells us that we do not and that we are uniquely different from one another. As media is a big issue to why Asian Stereotypes exist, it also might be due to how exposed they are to Asian Americans in their
communities.
The stereotypes that Asian Americans face are due to how exposed the general public are to Asian American culture. The media is there to perpetuate stereotypes, but what society sees in the media is what causes stereotypes to exist. According to the U.S Census in the year 2000, Asian Americans make up 4.2% of the entire American population (Census, 2000), and knowing that most Asians Americans live on the west and east coast of the US, many Americans living in central parts of the country have little to no exposure to any Asian Americans due to the lack of Asians living in the central part of the US (Figure 1, 2010). Because of this fact, it is highly probable that most Americans get their exposure to the Asian American lifestyle only through television and movies. In conclusion, Asian Americans stereotypes are perpetuated by the media via movies and TV shows. Through the access of media, stereotypes about Asian Americans are spread around and told to people thus believing that Asian Americans must be able to be these things because of what the media tells them. The stereotypes affects the general public a negative and false information about how Asians are. It also affects Asian Americans as they will have to meet a certain expectation and if that expectation is not reached, then it demoralizes them. How the media portrays Asians are rather a social issue and change is needed.
Word Count: 1364
Bibliography
"Stereotype." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2014.
Web. 25 March 2014.
"RaceBridges for Schools." 7 Myths and Stereotypes About Asian Americans. Ethnohtec Story Theatre. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Univeristy of Michigan, . "Media Representation in Media."Asian Americans and the Media: Perpetuating the Model Minority. Univeristy of Michigan. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Jessica S. Barnes, , Claudette E. Bennett. The Asian Population: 2000. U.S.Department of Commerce, n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
C.N, . "Latest Census 2010 Data About the Asian American Population." . N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Asian pacific Americans in prime time: Lights camera and little action. •National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, 2005. 1-13. Print.
Sandra, Oh, perf. Gre 'ys Anatomy. ABC : 2005. Television.
Rex , Lee, dir. Entourage. PrimeTime: 2004. Television.
Jet, Li, perf. War. Lionsgate, 2007. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Zhang, ZiYI, perf. Memoirs of a Geisha. Columbia Pictures, 2005. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Mako, , perf. M*A*S*H. CBS: 1972. Television.
Lucy, Liu, perf. Man with the Iron Fist. Universal Pictures , 2012. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Jay, Chou, perf. The Green Hornet. Columbia Pictures, 2011. Film. 25 Mar 2014.
Mok, T.A. ). Getting the message: media images and stereotypes and their effect on Asian Americans. Cultural Diversity and Mental Health. 1998. 185-202. Print.
Richard D. Olson, R. F. Outcault, The Father of the American Sunday Comics, and the Truth About the Creation of the Yellow Kid. N.p.. Web. 25 Mar 2014. .
Asian Alone or in Combination as a Percentage of County Population: 2010. 2010. Photograph. www.asian-nation.orgWeb. 25 Mar 2014. . Figure 1: