Week 12- Spirit of Mediated Asia

As historical events and attitudes shape the way people perceive things, media furthermore amplifies those perspectives. This is no more evident than in the way in which Asians have been, and currently still do, to some extent get portrayed in film and TV. Generally speaking, “while non-Western cultural products may appeal to Westerners for being unique and exotic, they are often regarded as so different as to be alienating” (Wu & Chan, 2007, p. 198). The common stereotypes for Asians in Western media are either that of the token Asian or a negative stereotype such as the yellow peril. The token Asian can be found in modern shows such as Grey’s Anatomy and films such as Charlie’s Angels. But as with everything in life, nothing just comes into being; Asians aren’t depicted in the minority for no reason, it all has to do with the historical context from which these stereotypes originated. Hemant Shah has outlined some key historical reasons as to why there is a certain level of distrust between Asians and white Americans. Between 1900 and 1930 there was a great increase in the Asian population in the US, and with all of the new immigrants looking for work they took all of the jobs that the white Americans had written off as too difficult or too tedious. Moreover, the Asians began making great profits following their commitment and dedication to working on the poor farmland. Soon the Asians started taking manual labor jobs and the white Americans felt so severely threatened that they created the Asian Exclusion League (AEL). Its goal was to expel all Asians from the US and prevent immigration from Asia (Shah, 2003, p. 3) Therefore, given that these were the issues being dealt with by white Americans, the media furthermore amplified their perspective and strong dislike for Asians and thus began the negative portrayals that are still evident to some extent in today’s society.

The ways in which Asians were portrayed in the media throughout history were strongly dependant on the historical events at that particular time. Prior to World War II and the threat of Japanese invasion, all Asians in the media were portrayed in the same way- simply as one race; the “Asian culture was understood as a single, unitary entity” (Shah, 2003, p. 5). However there was a significant shift in western preference to depict particularly Japanese Asians in strongly negative roles, and to depict Chinese Asians as “virtuous, industrious and trustworthy” (Shah, 2003, p. 3). The increased preference for Chinese Asians at this time inspired the stereotype of ‘Asian wisdom’ which has continued to develop as a regular stereotype clearly evident within modern media. An obvious shift in Asian depictions were evident following the rise of Mao Tse- tung to power in China and the rise of communism. Following World War II the Japanese and the west had somewhat settled their differences and thus the focus fell to a hatred of communism and furthermore a strong and obvious dislike of the Chinese Asian. A vast contrast to just a few years before, following the rise of communism the Chinese Asians went from being depicted as trustworthy to in the 1950s and 60s being depicted as “deceitful, cruel, addicted to drugs, and hateful of westerns” (Shah, 2003, p. 4) a stark comparison to earlier portrayals. All due to the effects of historical events thus amplified in the media. Through western portrayals of Asians through negative stereotypes as has been evident, the stereotypes act as a source of control that serve as a part of a mechanism of social control of Asian Americans and Asians (Shah, 2003, p. 5). Furthermore it is clearly apparent that historical events have an extremely high impact on the way that Asians are portrayed in western media and that the feelings towards that stereotype are amplified through media.      

References:

Shah, H. (2003). "Asian Culture" and Asian American Identities in the Television and Film Industries. Studies in Media & Information Literacy Education, 1-10.

Wu, H., & Chan, J. M. (2007). Globalizing Chinese Martial Arts in Cinema: the global- local alliance and the production of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Media, Culture & Society, 197-217.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay: http://pixabay.com/en/photos/?q=kung+fu&orientation=&image_type=