Representation in technicolor
The American film industry has a long past of demeaning and discriminating against people of Asian descent, so the recent success of movies incorporating Asian leads and cultures – such as Everything Everywhere All at Once – raises the question: is Asian representation in Hollywood finally changing for the better? And what does this mean for Asian Americans as a whole?
April 28, 2023
When the Oscars revealed their 2023 nominees, Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian-identifying woman to be nominated for Best Actress.
Wait… what? First “identifying” Asian?
As it turns out, over 80 years earlier, in 1936, a woman named Merle Oberon also received a nomination for the Best Actress Oscar. Oberon was born in India and was part South Asian and Māori, but she went to great lengths to hide these aspects of her ancestry. She lied about her origins and bleached her skin to appear whiter, which enabled her to gain more roles than any fully-Asian actress at the time could have played.
Historically, Asian actors and actresses have been limited to being nonessential characters, often playing into stereotypes because those were the only roles that the industry offered them.
They were labeled as exotic and foreign – not seen as truly American. They were comedic relief – never taken seriously. Women were hypersexualized; men were desexualized. And there’s also yellowface, the Asian equivalent of blackface, which was both prevalent and normalized in early Hollywood.
Over time, the industry started to turn away from yellowface and other extremely demeaning Asian stereotypes. Things aren’t perfect – discrimination and stereotyping still exist – but it is getting better.
Relatively recently we have seen the emergence of multiple popularized American films with significant Asian representation, including Crazy Rich Asians (2019), Shang-Chi (2021), and of course, Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
At this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven Oscars, outnumbering the other Oscar-winning films for 2023.
If you haven’t had the chance to watch the movie yet, the story follows a Chinese immigrant family that gets involved with interdimensional travel through alternate realities. At its core, the film observes the struggle of maintaining relationships between first-generation children and their parents.
“I’m glad I watched the film,” senior Kimberly Chu said. “It was a modern take on the classic, dynamic immigrant family story, with so many meaningful lessons. Seeing the actors in the production win so many awards during the Oscars and numerous other award ceremonies made me feel a sense of pride as an Asian American.” She emphasized her appreciation of the film’s effective storytelling.
“When you think of Everything Everywhere All at Once, yes, it’s a story about Asians, but it’s also more than that. It’s about mental health and relationships and family and love. It’s Asian, but it’s also American. It’s human,” Chu said.
Other students also expressed enjoyment over the film and its themes.
“My parents didn’t really get it because they were confused by all the abstract ideas that came with the hotdog fingers in the different universes and so on. But I think especially for younger generations, it’s a movie that recognizes our experience. I think it’s a good example of what movies should be like in the future,” senior Ava Wong said. At the same time, she acknowledged that there was always room to grow in terms of improving representation.
“Everything Everywhere All at Once does repeat the same themes that many Asian movies follow – like the significance of family – but I also think that’s because it’s so important in Asian culture. I’m intrigued to see what better representation would look like,” Wong said.
This brings up a good point. How can we even improve Asian representation?
If you were asked to name a recent popular Asian American film, chances are you think Crazy Rich Asians, Shang-Chi, Turning Red, or Everything Everywhere All at Once. All of these films focus on Chinese culture.
In a study of 200 films from 2018-2019 with Asian or Pacific Islander roles, the vast majority of representation on screen consisted of the Chinese, Indian, Korean, and Japanese ethnicities. This leaves out so many other parts of Asia or the Pacific Islands that are unique and different from the most represented ethnicities in media. Increasing representation of various Asian ethnicities is just one of many angles to improve representation as a whole.
“As the Asian community gains more traction in media representation, there are definitely things that still need to be improved, but I think we’re heading in a good direction,” Wong said. “Especially considering how we’ve been portrayed in earlier films, contemporary Asian representation is starting to help people get a better idea of who we are, what we are, and what our values are. And that’s important because everyone’s culture matters and deserves to be shared.”
Sources:
https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies
https://assets.uscannenberg.org/docs/aii_aapi-representation-across-films-2021-05-18.pdf
