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AAST:355 Asian Americans in Film, Week 3, 10/15 The Fall of I-Hotel image…

- - - - “Asian men tend to be depicted either as rapists or asexual eunuch figures. By contrast, Asian females are often depicted as sexually available to the white hero.”
        
        Marchetti explores how Asian men were depicted either as sexual aggressors or emasculated figures in Western films
  - - - Themes:
        
        Orientalism and Exoticism: The portrayal of Hishuru Tori reflects the stereotypical "mysterious and dangerous" Asian trope, framing him as a foreign threat to Western women and values.
        
        Power: Tori’s branding of Edith symbolizes dominance and the fear of losing control to an "Other," which reinforces racial hierarchies.
        
        Dehumanization of Asian Characters
        
        the 'Yellow Peril'
        
        a racialized fear that Asian peoples were a threat to Western civilization
        
        led to portrayals of Asian men as sinister or devious figures, like stereotypical Fu Manchu
        
        Hypersexualization
      - Yellow Peril suggests that Asian cultures are a threat to Western civilization, framing Asian presence as undesirable and dangerous.
        
        This concept historically framed Asians as a danger to the Western world, often using stereotypes to dehumanize them and justify exclusionary policies and practices.
- - - - Yellow Face: “The theatrical convention of using makeup, costumes, and visual technology to transform someone to look East Asian” (Lee).
        
        Blackface is widely considered offensive but Yellowface still persists. Blackface is not as normalized.
        
        show Dehumanization through Color.
        
        Yellowface denies Asian characters their true identity by turning them into stereotypes while chromophobia erases the richness of nonwhite cultures, deeming them inferior or undesirable.
        
        Both practices reinforce the notion that whiteness is the standard.
- - - - Moral Scopophilia
        
        - Productive Perversity: Redefines sexuality for Asian women, instead of viewing sex or sexuality in a bad/negative way it empowers women in a more positive light.
        
        Quote that stuck out to me "...what if we assume that sex is not entirely bad either and that poor third world women are not powerless in order to expand out knowledge about race, sex and representation in ways that account for the lives of women...in other words, what if sex can be good and third world women can have power?" (Parrenas Shimizu)
        
        Example Ana Mae Wong
- - - - (Personal Thought: I absolutely loved the cinematography, music and narration choices throughout the movie)
    - - Asian American men historically faced systemic exclusion from marriage and family life due to anti-miscegenation laws, creating "bachelor societies."
        
        Popular culture and scientific racial classification reinforced stereotypes, contributing to their invisibility in romantic and social spaces.
        
        Asian American masculinity has been framed within a binary of lack (emasculation)
        
        This film challenged this binary by portraying complex, vulnerable male characters wrestling with identity, power, and relationships.
        “To recognize one’s need for others is an act of ‘vulnerable strength’—à la Bruce Lee—but also an act that counters straitjacket sexuality by forming communities… supported not by macho or castration but by the unique ways men survive straitjacket sexuality.”
        ^ encapsulates the balance between vulnerability and resilience that defines ethical Asian American masculinity in these films.
        
        “To recognize one’s need for others is an act of ‘vulnerable strength’—à la Bruce Lee—but also an act that counters straitjacket sexuality by forming communities… supported not by macho or castration but by the unique ways men survive straitjacket sexuality" (Shimizu).
        ^ encapsulates the balance between vulnerability and resilience that defines ethical Asian American masculinity in these films.
        
        Depiction of Asian Masculinity
        
        Asian men were usually depicted as submissive or emasculated. Often shown as weaker or less assertive than their white counterparts, reinforcing stereotypes of Asians as passive or inferior.
        
        Combating the Model Minority Myth
- - - - Themes
        
        Political Activism
        
        Cultural Memory
        
        Identity Formation: Rediscovery and reclamation of cultural heritage and identity through activism
        
        History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige
        
        Explores the filmmaker Rea Tajiri’s family’s experience of the Japanese American internment during World War II.
        
        Highlights how official history often omits or distorts marginalized voices, such as those of Japanese Americans.
        
        Showcases the struggle to balance personal memory and moments of history.
        
        Documentary style/ less linear storytelling in comparison to the last films we have watched in class. There was not much of a story or one clear plot but rather a collection of memories/personal experiences.
        
        Reflects on how the trauma of displacement continues to shape future generation
        
        Personal thought: I thought the style choices of this documentary were very unique, I had not seen one like this before that combined documentary footage, re-enactments, and poetic voiceovers to create an authentic narrative
- - - - Counters the "model minority" myth by showing the reality of systemic neglect and poverty faced by some Asian Americans.
        
        Breaking Stereotypes
  - - - Generational Differences
        
        Immigrant Mother-Daughter relationships
- - - - Cultural Expectations vs. Personal Desires
        
        Queer POC representation!
        
        Significant in its portrayal of a queer Asian American woman as the protagonist,
        -
        
        portrayal of the tight-knit Chinese American community
- - - - Fear about losing culture
        
        Cultural assimilation
        
        Displacement
- - - - Racial Profiling
        
        Islamaphobia
  - - - Alienation and Isolation
        
        Cultural Traditions vs. Modernity
- - - - emotional isolation
        
        could mirror the feeling of alienation that many Asian Americans experience
  - - - ending of Everything Everywhere All at Once, where Evelyn says to Joy, "You are getting fat, and you never call...," is deeply emotional and significant in exploring the complexity of their relationship. This encapsulates themes of communication, tough love, and cultural expectations within the context of an immigrant family.
- - - - white characters are presented as the standard.
      - points to the racial hierarchies present in media, where white femininity is elevated and often seen as the "gold standard," while Asian women (like Lotus Flower in The Toll of the Sea) are depicted as "other" or less desirable. perpetuates a form of racialized gender inequality.
- - - - Both highlight community resistance against systems that devalue marginalized lives.
        
        movements demonstrated the power of organizing to challenge institutional neglect and injustice.
        
        Racial Injustice