If Asian-American guys were repulsed by lines like "Me so horny," uttered by a Vietnamese woman in Full Metal Jacket, they are now seeing themselves portrayed in a similarly degrading manner.
Steven Haruch, a Korean-American adoptee and a recent UW MFA graduate in creative writing, has dated both Asian and non-Asian women. Of the Newsweek and Seattle Times stories, he says, "I felt more marginalized after reading those articles. It was like they were saying, 'Hey, look, you guys can feel better about yourselves now.' If I read something like that about another group, I'd feel pity for them. And I don't want to feel pity for my own sexuality."
Lucy Liu in Shanghai Noon :
The Farrah Fawcett of Asian-American pop culture.
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Tommy Kim, a graduate student at the University of Minnesota who teaches a class on the sexualization of race, concurs. "A million and two things pissed me off about [the article in] Newsweek. On a superficial level was simply the fact they chose a really dorky-looking guy [for the photo]. If they're going to write about the fetishizing of Asian men, couldn't they have found someone a little more worthy of fetishization? More substantively, I don't like the way the article reified stereotypes. It accepts as truth that Asian men are dorks, but that dorkdom has now become financially lucrative. . . ."
"The fact that Asian-American men are seen as nerds hasn't changed, only the appeal of nerds has," Kim continues. "Nerds are now rich in this dot-com world, and money has always been sexy."
Professor So observes, "It's kind of pathetic that Asian-American men have to say they're good-looking. Of course they're good-looking. Like any men. There are subjectively good-looking men and not so good-looking men. . . . I think it's sad that Asians have to cry out . . . but it tells you how much [racism] is ingrained, because of what's happened historically to Asian Americans in the US."
Can you separate sex from race?
Because Asian Americans have been misrepresented for so long, we are especially attentive to the few images of us that do exist. Perhaps in some cases we are overzealous in our critiques. Lucy Liu is just one of many successful Asian-American women who have polarized the community; novelist Amy Tan has also been accused of pandering to Orientalist desires. Many Asian-American literary scholars feel that Tan's best-selling The Joy Luck Club exoticizes the Chinese culture and portrays Chinese men as oppressors and white men as saviors. When the book was made into a movie, many Asian men were upset by the idea of white men attracted to the mostly female cast. Some called it The Joy Fuck Club, disregarding the film's positive impact on viewers who may not have been previously aware of San Francisco's multigenerational Chinese-American community.
Professor Hamamoto feels that Ling's exaggerated sexuality is an extension of the intercontinental Asian sex trade. In an e-mail, he writes, "Like I was telling my class . . . the White Man's lust for the Yella woman stems from his imperial presence beginning in the Philippines, to occupied Japan . . . to Korea . . . to Vietnam, to Thailand. . . . Linked to this imperial presence is the system of military prostitution that has migrated overseas to the US in the form of 'Oriental' massage parlors, dating services, and marriage brokerages. I understand the character 'Ling' played by Lucy Liu in this larger context. For Liu or any other Yella woman to feel flattered that the White Man fetishizes her simply as an un-raced, ahistorical, universalized 'human being' is simply deluded."
History can't be altered, but continuing to judge Asian-American women in light of an ugly past is dangerous. For one thing, it makes Asian women out to be victims. But by making the most of her stereotyped role on Ally McBeal, Liu has become a more successful and powerful actress than her white costars. As for ordinary Asian-American women who find themselves under a social spotlight whenever we choose to date a non-Asian man, our issues are not necessarily about racial inequality and public perception. Just what makes Asian men think that they treat Asian women any better? It would be a much simpler world if things were black and white (and yellow), but in reality, sexism and racism aren't traits confined to white male TV producers.
More external links
For David Nakamuras Seattle Times article, Theyre hot, theyre sexytheyre Asian men, visit the Seattle Times search page. (You must type in David Nakamura's name and May 7, 2000 for issue date.)
For more information on Gedde Watanabe, visit this Fametracker.com page.
For more on portrayals of Asians in the media, visit this DemocracyWeb.com page.
