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AAST355 FALL 2024 - Coggle Diagram
AAST355 FALL 2024
Daughter of the Dragon
Villainous asian characters and "good" white characters. As white characters are also usually the protagonists, this occurs even more commonly.
Objectifying Asian American Women: The sort of Asian performer trope, always wearing these elaborate performer outfits and being treated less like a full human being. They describe her as "exotic" and "intriguing." The western perspective where the Asian woman is more just a object of lust rather than a human suitable for a long relationship/marriage. TIMESTAMP 3:20
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Yellow Peril
Another tactic of fearmongering. Trying to display chinese "corruption." Ling moy like instantly turns evil after learning that Fu Manchu is her dad. Also sexist because Fu Manchu says that he wishes he had a son. However, this is kind of inline with traditional Chinese sexism. But, it's weird how this is used when portraying the Chinese as villainous.
The movie seems to highlight certain ignorant stereotypes like loyalty. However, it portrays it in an ugly way-- having Anna May Wong exact vengeance for Fu Manchu even though she has just found out that she is his daughter. She shouldn't have any emotional attachment to someone not in her life. This portrays the Chinese as kind of like a hydra where they all need to be get rid of. Fearmongering
Asian Self-Sacrifice
Kind of funny that all the Asian characters are dead. Even Ah kee needs to be the one to make the sacrifice and stain his hands with blood while also dying in the end, so we can keep the white characters "clean."
At some point in the film, Anna May Wong's character exclaims that she rather kill herself than harm Ronald (before getting "mind controlled"). Another depiction of self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice isn't inherently bad, but the gratuitous amount shown in these films does raise some eyebrows. It seems more of a way to write these characters out of the plot.
Second Option/Inferior
Ah kee is always shown as second to ronald. It portrays the white man as the preferred and the superior option.
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Both Toll of the Sea and Daughter of the Dragon portrays Anna May Wong as the side piece. More like she is just there for the white male, but not a "real" woman.
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Weakness of woman
Ling Moy is a "good" character and desirable when in her Lotus Flower trope. This displays that asian woman should be shy, obedient, and submissive.
Toll of the Sea
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The character Anna May Wong plays is treated as a fling and portrayed as kind of an inferior human compared to Carter. They portray it like she's hanging off of his every word and kind of desperate around the 14:00 mark. (Objectifying Asian American woman)
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Second Option: Lotus Flower is also portrayed as the inferior option to Barbara. The drastic difference in body language: Barbara is elegant and organized juxtaposed to a "lowly" unconfident and sidelined depiction of Lotus Flower.
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Lotus Flower is shown as a shy, dependent, and "weak" woman who is submissive to carver. More like a sexual/romantic object and not a human with one's own agency.
Asian Self-sacrifice: Lotus Flower jumps into the sea. This self-sacrifice is probably to alleviate the "awkward" situation with Allen and his wife.
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Who Killed Vincent Chin?
A documentary about the murder of Vincent Chin by Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz out of racist motivations. The case is treated outrageously with the murders getting off with extremely light sentences, not even spending time in jail. Afterwards, this event escalated to a civil rights supreme court case. (no idea why this is a different color).
Pan-asian identity created from a catalyst of the brutal murder and outrageous response from the justice system. This documentary
It is very telling how general America feels about racial issues, by using Eben's neighbors as a microcosm of what the white majority's racial sentiments were at the time. Timestamp: around 5:00 mark.
Ebens and his supporters play the victim card as if it was an accident in which he had no agency in. They fail to consider to Asian American perspective and focus on their own interests, a marginalization of Asian Americans. There are multiple timestamps one could put here as it happens quite frequently in the documentary. One such starts at 51:40 the scene of filming Ebens talking about it being accident for just being "so angry."
Activism and push back against the model minority myth after these events. Shown throughout the film, but first at around the 45:00 mark. TIMESTAMP
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Like the fall of the IHotel, Vincent Chin's case also sparked cross-racial solidarity with the activism and protests against unfair treatment and marginalization of Asian Americans
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World of Suzie Wong
Suzie Wong is self-sacrificial to an unreasonable level. She is willing to sell sex and be a prostitute than let Robert give up on painting. It is way too subservient and displaying the superiority of the white male.
Suzie wong being a prostitute is very much like the whole exotic/seductive asian stereotype of women
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Throughout the film Suzie Wong is often portrayed as scheming, conniving, greedy, or shallow. Especially, when she is bragging to her friends about having Robert "crazy in love" with her. This is both related to the asian exoticism motif and also with the idea of yellow peril.
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The interracial relationship between robert and suzie is much more for the purpose of the white male. This however does seem to be an upgrade from when interracial relationships needed to be killed off with the asian female being the sacrificer
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A.K.A. Don Bonus
A.K.A. Don Bonus can be juxtaposed with Better Luck Tomorrow. Both films narrate a story about an Asian high schooler, but the fictitious, "flashy," delinquency shown in Better Luck Tomorrow is displayed through a real documentary of an impoverished Don Bonus and his struggles living as a marginalized minority with past trauma
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The cops do not show up even after don bonus has called them. I don't know the exact reasons behind this, but this kind of underscores the marginalization of minorities, or just marginalization of the impoverished/less privileged. Timestamp: 11:00-12:00 somewhere here.
Don Bonus's teacher's actions show her lack of sympathy and understanding towards his situation. She makes jokes about using a machete when he talks about his traumatic past, she talks about Don Bonus failing and the audience kind of gets the feeling that she doesn't think highly of Don Bonus's intelligence. Timestamp: 15:20.
His english teacher also talks about him being a vegetable and not talking, kind of derogatorily like saying he's mentally handicapped or something, because he is uneducated and is not from America with a different first language and underlying trauma. Timestamp somewhere around 3:00.
Better Luck Tomorrow
Model Minority Trope: The "good" platonic, subservient "model minority." Someone who is calm and a character of perfection. (Ben)
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Asian Masculinity is heavily questioned by the model minority myth. Where positive masculinity is only a means to the end of being subservient to white superiority.
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Depiction of Asian Americans as criminals very much plays into the Yellow Peril trope. It also is a general stereotype of all minorities being a more negative/villainous light.
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Enter The Dragon
I would say this film is the turning point of our films between being highly racist/ignorant and having some more Asian American representation.
Bruce Lee is the main character and the protagonist and the hero of the story. This is something that is untrue about all asian characters prior to this film. They were all supporting characters that were only there to interact with our white characters.
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Saving Face
A very fundamental traditional view, as a Chinese American. The concept of saving face, essentially the reputation one has or one would have if there secrets were known.
Saving Face is a rom-com, we see this among other more recent films where they try to package messages and pushback against harmful stereotypes and try to minority stories within popular genres like comedy/action.
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Common theme of rejecting LGBT, specifically lesbian in this case, from mother to daughter. This a common theme and a source of tension between generations, specifically the past/traditional identity and the more Americanized/modern identity of the child. This is not saying that the American identity is more modern, but just how it is in these cases of second generation Asian Americans. Resolution of these differences is what brings about finding one's nuanced hybrid identity, something that speaks to me personally as an second generation Asian American even if I am not gay nor female.
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It Lives Inside
A horror film that also deals with the main character's struggles with her Indian American Identity.
Although coincidental, I found it funny that the white boyfriend is killed in this movie, kind of "revenge" for all the deaths of asian characters within interracial relationships. Around 42:00 Timestamp.
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Detroit Blues
This excerpt is obviously highly related to Who Killed Vincent Chin? Zia details her own struggles within Detroit and brings to light some deeper themes of pan-asian identity and activism as well as the context and the meaning of Vincent Chin's murder.
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Transformers: How Chan is missing led to better luck tomorrow led to everything everywhere all at once.
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