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AAST 355 - Asian Americans in Film (Note: rectangular boxed text…

- - - - There are many instances throughout this excerpt where both "ambivalence" and "fixity" are mentioned. Although dense and sometimes hard to dissect, this text emphasizes explores colonial discourse in these two terms. Ambivalence allows stereotypes to occur over and over again and fixity makes it difficult for repetition of harmful stereotypes to end.
      - See connection to South Asians and the Hollywood Party
  - - - "Again and again I find myself stressing to students, to nonacademic readers, that thinking critically about a film does not mean that I have not had pleasure in watching the film."
        
        In the same vein as Kido-Lopez' reading, in my opinion, you don't have to be criticizing something in order to be an activist for the media. I believe that you can be critical of a director or a movie while being both a fan and an activist.
    - - The same can be said about Asian portrayal in film. In earlier films like The Cheat, Asian actors are used mostly to support other white characters' lives instead of being the focal point of a film. But as time goes on, we get more diverse perspectives of Asian lives with every new modern movie that gets put out.
- - - - In-class notes:
        
        Lotus Flower is referred to as the "little Chinese girl" or the "little Chinese nurse", infantilizing her and reducing her down to her ethnicity
    - - Lotus Flower is an "extension" of the Chinese garden, wearing mostly pink and greens throughout the film. At the end of the movie she returns herself back to nature by going into the sea.
    - - Lotus Flower continues to yearn for Allen while he has moved on at home
        
        By the end of the movie she has abandoned all that she has loved and takes her own life by dropping herself into the ocean
        
        The name "Lotus Flower" reduces her down into simply a beautiful object to look at, "wildly coveted and hard to find", as stated by professor Cho. But ultimately they are disposable and often forgotten.
  - - - Other examples discussed in class:
        
        Siamese Cats in Lady and The Tramp
        
        Dancing mushrooms in Fantasia
      - Yellowface is not taken as seriously or offensively as blackface is in the U.S.
    - - Yellowface is a byproduct of WWII era. A lot of fear mongering surrounding Asians occurred around this same time period.
    - - Likely Chinese Exclusion Act
  - - - Recall Bhabha's The Other Question in which he discusses the role that colonialism plays in maintaining a stereotype. I see similarities here in brownface trends.
    - - Comedic depiction of Indian characters tends to just be racist portrayals following the same few stereotypes about Brown people, but the comedic effect behind the jokes make them more palatable for people to watch and are easily disguised in media.
    - - See connection to Mississippi Masala
  - - - "the racial difference in this variant on the Madame Butterfly story is located not in the characters’ different skin tones but in the bright yet ‘naturalistic’ colours of the exotic mise-en-scene, including the ornamental gardens, foliage and costumes in which racialized bodies are enclosed"
      - The Toll of the Sea is used "as an early
        example in which ‘color cinematography accentuates the difference in skin tones between the Anna May Wong character and her Caucasian husband, his wife and her Caucasian-looking son’."
      - Chromophobia is defined as "the ‘loathing of colour’, ‘a fear of contamination and corruption by something that is unknown or appears unknowable’"
      - "She does not navigate a three-dimensional space with
        the same agency. Rather, as dictated by the mise-en-scene, she is so enclosed in the colourful garden and costumes that she becomes an ornament herself: a ‘body ornament’ that Cheng theorizes as the yellow woman’s state of being, and a fate inscribed in the career of Wong in Hollywood as she was routinely cast in roles designed mainly to add ‘authentic’ oriental flavour to the mise-en-scene."
        
        Asian women are used as props in the background of white actors' lives. Lotus Flower's character is yet another instance of this trope, similarly to The World of Suzie Wong where Suzie's character pines after Robert
- - - - Ling Moy is described as "exotic" and "intriguing" (5:57)
      - Ling Moy compares herself to Ronald's features to which he responds "strange I prefer yours" (25:19)
      - Ah Kee's voices tends to change to speak with a more strong accent when he speaks to Ling Moy
      - The randomly placed gong sounds throughout the film are typical of Fu Manchu films
    - - This can be tied back to the "Model Machine Myth" as discussed by Bui. Ah Kee and Ling Moy have little outside personal lives besides having "Oriental" character traits
  - - - This is a very early example of media activism (as discussed by Kodi Lopez) by Wong in which she speaks out against the repetitive roles played by Chinese Americans. Many more modern actors have followed in her footsteps, advocating and fighting for more inclusive roles for Asians in film.
- - - - (8:30) Suzie Wong says she is a virgin, perpetuating the portrayal of Asian women as submissive and innocent
      - (1:33:10) Robert likes Suzie better in more traditional clothing compared to European clothing
    - - (11:20-13:45) Showcasing the differences between Chinese culture in a dramatic exaggerated way (naked child, roasted pig, men playing cards on the street, etc.)
      - The Chinese in the background sounds very exaggerated and almost gibberish like as if its a background track to contrast Robert's presence. I'm unsure if this was done intentionally or not but the speaking stood out to me as being more jarring and noticeable
      - (1:24:40) "We know she isn't really a human being...since she's Chinese it wouldn't really matter anyhow"
        
        Portrayal of the Asian "other", as discussed by Oh. They are not even viewed as being human to the white men in the film
  - - - Class notes:
        
        Maybe Happy Ending recast Andrew Barth Feldman as an Asian character in 2023
        
        Whitewashing can look like "becoming the other", "interjecting the White self into the story of the racial other", and "being centered in the world of the other"
- - - - One of the first instances we see Asian American characters interacting with other minorities in film
    - - See connection to Waymond's character in EEAAO
  - - - Even in a martial arts film, unrelated to race, Williams experiences police activity while walking to the airport
        
        We compared this scene to the current political state of Black/brown people experiencing police brutality and getting picked up off the street for "appearing illegal"
  - - - "These independent films threaten to center phallic power in telling stories that hinge on male rivalry over women and in using women as property and possessions in the organization of heterosexual relations. Since heterosexuality and manhood historically have been denied Asian American men, they have become the terrain of struggle in which men claim the right to define and control their masculinity."
      - "To reach for phallic power to remedy the wound of asexuality and effeminacy will kill you as a consequence of hurting others."
    - - "Among all racial groups, excluding Asian American women, Asian American men ranked at the bottom, under white, black, and Latino men."
- - - - Developed in the late 1960s and continued through the 70s and 80s
    - - We see examples of being "imperfect" with unedited footage in aka Don Bonus, he uses a lot of raw footage with no editing.
- - - - The documentary is shot in a "slice of life" manner. It shows various clips of the manongs daily lives in the pool room, in the park, in the food pantry, etc.
      - Includes interviews from various local residents of the I-Hotel and from politicians
      - Protesting erupted in the streets after evictions began
  - - - This movement was able to bring in a very wide range of people and activists to support the cause in SF. Not just Asians fighting for themselves, but now other marginalized communities were able to band together to show support and uplift the Filipino community
  - - - This documentary "reanimates intentions and aspirations of Visual Communications"
- - - - We continue to see this trend of filial obligation and needing to appease one's parents in a lot of the Asian films we watch, Saving Face, Mississippi Masala, EEAAO, etc. People of color tend to have a compulsion to do right by their parents because of the sacrifices they have made for them, at the expense of their own happiness.
    - - "It felt dangerous to have an Asian face. Asian American employees of auto companies were warned not to go onto the factory floor because angry workers might hurt them if they were thought to be Japanese"
      - "At first, the companies blamed the workers for incompetence and malaise, for wanting too much in exchange for too little" ... "Before long, however, they all
        found a common enemy to blame: the Japanese."
        
        Instead of banding together to fight against a deeper capitalistic issue, we see automotive workers come together to be racist and anti-Japanese in an effort to combat a declining industry
    - - They existed to create unions to fight for better treatment in workplaces, for both Asian and non-Asians
- - - - Filial piety
        
        Wil explains that she must let her mother stay with her or else she'd experience "karmic hell"
      - Importance of saving one's reputation
        
        (1:20:30) "You have thrown away a lifetime of my reputation" spoken by Wil's grandfather at her mother's wedding
        
        At the end of the movie, Wil and Vivian decide that they no longer want to "save face" and choose to live their lives no matter what their families believe
  - - - Sohn critiques this way of thinking because it grossly oversimplifies a very complicated issue between queer Asians and their families.
    - - "The queer Asian North American is a figure in danger of being written out of traditional kinship systems, which are encompassed by two core elements: (1) biological relations to entities such as parents and siblings and (2) an appropriate, often assumed-to-be heterosexual, monogamous marriage partner."
        
        We see this play out strongly in Joy's character is EEAAO. She seeks validation in her mother, Evelyn, who is afraid of being written out of her and her father's relationship.
    - - Being both queer and Asian are two separate identities that require their own kind of navigation at any given time.
      - "the challenge of dealing with racial and sexual differences leads queer Asian North Americans to live 'double lives—the racial versus the sexual. Many live in silence and secrecy, and often find themselves in situations where they are forced to compromise the multiplicity of their identities'”
- - - - Class Notes:
        
        Indians came into Uganda via British administration (who ruled over Uganda at the time)
        
        Masala is a mix of spices, but in the context of the film it represents the mix of cultures
        
        Jay's obsession with returning to Uganda shows his traditionalism
        
        Stereotypography sidenote
      - Anti-blackness is showcased during the film--Mina's family does not want her to be seen out with Demetrius as it may "tarnish their image"
        
        Similar to concepts in Saving Face and EEAAO, except instead of being ashamed of queer daughters, Mina is in an interracial relationship which also causes tension between her and her family
    - - Although Mina's character is not an example of brownface, by attempting to blend in with the dominant group around them, her parents still feed into the stereotype that allows other instances of brownface to occur.
- - - - Can tie this back to the concept of the "Asian Other" and orientalism. In The World of Suzie Wong, Robert says "We know she isn't really a human being..." about Suzie, which follows this same train of thinking. Because of Suzie's, exoticism/orientalism she is seen as subhuman, just as Archie is Robot Stories
    - - "This fusion of race and robot defines the modern Asian as a perfectible working machine, though morally imperfect. If it contains a brain, that working brain is never divorced from the natural calculations of the animal body (unlike the floating theories and traveling minds of white Europeans)."
      - "The Asian machine stood apart from the white bodily subject, as colonial technologies spread across the surface of the planet, population and bodies"
    - - "the history of the model machine flourishes, and continues to blossom, in conjunction with the ingrained conviction that non-white people are not free-thinking subjects but Automaton asiaticus. This myth justifies the real exclusion, exploitation, or extermination."
        
        We see this play out in Machine Love, where Archie and the female robot are pushed to work hard everyday while their coworkers slack off and live their own lives after work.
        
        Because Asians are seen as foreign in American, they are easily taken advantage of and made to be hard-workers, unable to have free well or think for themselves
- - - - Recall Peter Feng's In Search of Asian American Cinema, how do we know what makes a film distinctly "Asian American"? It's clear that there is no one way to categorize it and it may just be because Asians haven't quite mastered their unitary identity amongst themselves in the same way that Africans Americans and Latina/os have.
        
        While this may not actually be the case, I've noticed in my own life observations that Asian people seem to be more disconnected from their own community than other cultures tend to be, just as Tajima-Pena states. Asian-Americans tend to keep to themselves and remain quiet, upholding the "model minority" stereotype, which is why acts of defiance and protest like Visual Communications and American Citizens for Justice (ACJ) are so rare to see within Asian communities
    - - Tajima-Pena speaks in this reading about 3 transformative films for Asian-Americans in media, Chan is Missing, Better Luck Tomorrow, and EEAAO. Each of these films either challenged and existing trope or stereotype about Asians or showcased a new perspective on the real way that Asian-Americans carry out their days.
      - This is why Third Cinema is so crucial to have. Groups like Visual Communications paved the way for modern filmmakers to be able to express the way that they believe Asian Americans should be portrayed.
  - - - Her portion on advertising reminded me of the recent controversies surrounding the American Eagle vs. GAP ads with Sydney Sweeney and KATSEYE respectively. I personally believe that the KATSEYE ad did a great job at contributing to social justice by portraying a diverse group of young women to combat the undertones of the AE ad.
    - - Activism doesn't have to be a physical practice, it can be practiced in more everyday forms or through critiques online, etc.
      - Reminds me of "making movie magic" by hooks
        
        Although hooks' claim that directors should be thinking more deeply than surface level about the intention behind their movies does not exactly follow the same theme as Kido Lopez' reading, I found that they both went hand in hand, encouraging people to step outside of the norm to go above and beyond what should be a standard baseline.
        
        hooks says in her reading, "Movies do not merely offer us the opportunity to reimagine the culture we most intimately know on the screen, they make culture". Just as movies make culture, actors, directors, and media activists can also create and change culture. Their abilities to fight oppression and discrimination in media is powerful.
  - - - "I know you see yourself as a fighter. Well, I see myself as one too. This is how I fight."
        
        Similar themes to Bruce Lee's character in Enter the Dragon. He creates his own method of fighting, one not as combative as the other martial artists. All of his moves are pointed and intentional, and all of Waymond's words and actions follow the same.
    - - Joy's queerness is a major point of contention between her and Evelyn because of the pressure that Evelyn feels to conform from her own father. Follows the same theme from "Saving Face"
      - "You are getting fat" (11:16)
      - Doctor announces "Sorry, it's a girl." to Gong Gong when Joy is delivered in the hospital
    - - Waymond is the epitome of kindness, compassion, and empathy in the film and represents the wholeness that every other character lacks.
      - Nihilism, as seen in Jobu Tupaki's character, presents itself in the form of the Everything Bagel