Movies in General

The only time when you see Asian people on American TV is every 4 years when the Olympic game comes, it is kinda hard to ignore all the medals, but they sure try.

Oh and of course, they won those medals because they must have cheated, or their training have no human rights...

plawolf said:

Harry Kim was a classic example of a walking stereotype of what westerns thinks a good oriental should be like: nerdy, deferential, lacking in confidence, pretty much useless in a fight, and always the side-kick happy to let someone else take the lead.

I haven't watched more than a few episodes of Lost, so cannot speak for the Kwons, but Glenn is an absolute disgrace as a positive role model. He is pretty much a carbon copy of Harry Kim with all the same character flaws, and his idea of standing up for himself to a racial slur is to stress that is is Korean, not Chinese. *Slow clap*

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It's been a long time since I've watched Voyager, but I remember Harry coming into his own as the series went on.

Of course, there's always the *other* Harry, from Harold and Kumar. If you've watched their latest movie, Harold is a pretty successful professional. Of course, again, he's a Korean.

As for Glenn, I'm gonna have to disagree with you. He's more of a follower, sure, but he's also one of the smartest and bravest people in the entire group. There's even a scene where his girlfriend specifically points that out. Glenn is willing to put up with the rest of the group "taking advantage" of him because he's a team player, and can see the bigger picture. He's about the only character from the original cast who hasn't had a puerile shouting match with another survivor, because presumably, he understands that when humanity suddenly dropped to the bottom of the food chain, it's not the time to argue about petty jealousies. Of course, I reserve the right to be proven wrong by some future episode.

plawolf said:

They are probably attacking it because it has no Americans in it. I mean, how dare the British do anything without the yanks there holding their hand?



Well it's an open secret that America is massively racist against China, and not just at the government to government level. It's just the racism is so endemic and pervasive the vast majority of people do not realize what they take for granted as a common saying is actually pretty racist and offensive.

I have lost count of the number of times westerns have said to my face, with all sincerity that something isn't racist because it is targeted at Chinese specifically instead of all orientals.

But, I think more and more Chinese are learning to play Hollywood's game, and it is already having an impact today.

Some of you may remember the massive sissy fit some American bloggers were having because the producers had the audacity to cut the racist kitchen scene from Men in Black III in China. The arrogance is really quite breathtaking. The racist scene was left in all other versions, so it's not like that decision had any impact whatsoever on what those American bloggers and their racist buddies got to watch, but they were still enraged that the Chinese audience were spared the indignity of having to suffer through that.

The new Iron Man movie is said to feature China prominently in the story and is to have a positive Chinese character. No surprise that it is part financed by a Chinese company. It would be interesting to see how that goes, but I fear it may end up being a reverse MiBIII, with the positive Chinese scenes cut from the American version and replaced with some China bashing just to appease the bigots.

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Well-said, and that's why I am overt about telling people I officially hate Hollywood. Of course I still watch some of their produces, but I skip the extremely over stereotypical racist ones (most of them featuring Lucy Liu, the really ugly Chinese that real Asians won't like) such as Dragonballz (wtf's with a white dude for a goku?).
It indeed is a good thing for more Chinese investments and directors to enter Hollywood because this will shake things up a bit. And until significant progresses are made, I don't even think Asian-grown actresses are suitable for entering Hollywood<--(they will just all unknowing become part of another project that stereotypes against Asian women, notably Asian fetish) Seeing Liu Yifei with a white guy in a movie will disgust me inside out, simply because I know it's not an innocent coincidence, but rather a deliberate attempt to reinforce Asian fetish. And of course the thing about cultural fetish is that it's a disrespect to a specific culture and seeing those within that culture as fetish objects and not actual humans.
Instead, people like Daniel Wu, Leehom, MC Jin, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong will be prime candidates for entering Hollywood productions because they possess either physical attractiveness, perfect English, or knowledge of Asian stereotypes or a combination of both. (Leehom, Jin, Tony for all I know, demonstrated they knew those stereotypes and they resist them.) Knowledge will lead to resistance, which is why it's pretty confident that actors like them will turn down negative roles. Meanwhile, actors with strong sex appeal and physical attractiveness will be of course not only tier 1 star materials, but also harder for them to play minor roles, and even harder to make them play stereotypical ones of being weak and bad English. And that's where people like Anthony and Daniel are good, because their statures alone break the small Asian stereotype(and the eyes).

kwaigonegin said:

Equation, are you of Chinese descent? yeah it's sad that in this day and age racism is still very much alive and well in the good ole US of A. At least you're in Cali right? perhaps not so much racism there since Asians there are more 'accepted' than say in the Midwest or the South.

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Yes I'm of Chinese descent and no, I'm living in TEXAS. There's racism here as well, but the overall people seems to be more friendlier and tolerant than other parts of the US..IMO from what I experienced so far.

Anybody here is planning on watching that new Quintion Terrantino Kung Fu movie called "The Man with the Iron Fist" with Lucy Liu? I will probably wait for it on DVD, looks too stereotypical for me to waste my money on that on opening night. Movie tickets are quite expensive these days! I can't wait for Skyfall to open here in the US. It looks promising...considering Quantum of Solace bombed the last Bond movie.

Most everything you guys said about Asian stereotypes vis a vis Hollywood is correct. I like to add that Hollywood is just an extension of the American psyche. Most American movie goers (public) do view Asians in a negative way and Hollywood is merely playing to that stereotype.

No different than superheros etc... everything else being equal except if the hero or lead character happens to be asian I doubt the box office gross for example would be anywhere close to a 'typical American' hero. The only exception is if the movie has to be purposely marketed to feature an 'Asian' hero (i.e Jet Li, Jackie Chan) etc then it may have a decent chance.

On a regular movie having a lead Asian character/hero would be a box office suicide. Think of any movies featuring the likes of Tom Cruise, Jason Staham, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt etc and replace him with an Asian actor. He may be the best actor to have ever walked the face of the Earth and I guarantee you the revenues would not be anywhere close. Even if you replace these actors with lesser known/non household named actors the result will be similar.

There are tons of movies with non household name actors and many went on to achieve successful box office hits. Replace them Asian/Chinese actors and the movie will surely tank.

The fact that there are ZERO American actors of Asian descent in the so call A-list is a good testament to our observations in regards to Hollywood potrayal of Asians. The only reason actors like Jet Li and Jackie Chan are even known in the US is because they were already very famous decades prior to entering the mainstream American entertainment industry. Even someone like Bruce Lee who is arguably one of the most famous Asian actor of all time had to get his start in Hong Kong despite living in the US (and knowing English) for many years of his life.

Equation said:

Anybody here is planning on watching that new Quintion Terrantino Kung Fu movie called "The Man with the Iron Fist" with Lucy Liu? I will probably wait for it on DVD, looks too stereotypical for me to waste my money on that on opening night. Movie tickets are quite expensive these days! I can't wait for Skyfall to open here in the US. It looks promising...considering Quantum of Solace bombed the last Bond movie.

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yea crap like those are exactly what i'm referring to as not gonna even watch

Equation said:

Yes I'm of Chinese descent and no, I'm living in TEXAS. There's racism here as well, but the overall people seems to be more friendlier and tolerant than other parts of the US..IMO from what I experienced so far.

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Racism in US is not that bad I think, after all they had few hundred years to work out their problem with race issues. What happens is majority of people will still be somewhat racist deep down, maybe they don't even aware of it. However vast majority of the people are politically correct.

One thing I am worried about is how will this change with the rise of China. Will the politicians and the media turn people ever towards sinophobia or not, only time will tell.

kwaigonegin said:

Most everything you guys said about Asian stereotypes vis a vis Hollywood is correct. I like to add that Hollywood is just an extension of the American psyche. Most American movie goers (public) do view Asians in a negative way and Hollywood is merely playing to that stereotype.

No different than superheros etc... everything else being equal except if the hero or lead character happens to be asian I doubt the box office gross for example would be anywhere close to a 'typical American' hero. The only exception is if the movie has to be purposely marketed to feature an 'Asian' hero (i.e Jet Li, Jackie Chan) etc then it may have a decent chance.

On a regular movie having a lead Asian character/hero would be a box office suicide. Think of any movies featuring the likes of Tom Cruise, Jason Staham, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Brad Pitt etc and replace him with an Asian actor. He may be the best actor to have ever walked the face of the Earth and I guarantee you the revenues would not be anywhere close. Even if you replace these actors with lesser known/non household named actors the result will be similar.

There are tons of movies with non household name actors and many went on to achieve successful box office hits. Replace them Asian/Chinese actors and the movie will surely tank.

The fact that there are ZERO American actors of Asian descent in the so call A-list is a good testament to our observations in regards to Hollywood potrayal of Asians. The only reason actors like Jet Li and Jackie Chan are even known in the US is because they were already very famous decades prior to entering the mainstream American entertainment industry. Even someone like Bruce Lee who is arguably one of the most famous Asian actor of all time had to get his start in Hong Kong despite living in the US (and knowing English) for many years of his life.

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True, the lack of Asian actors is not racism, they are only selling the movie to their targets audiences, which most of them are White, people just like to see people that are similar to themselves.

However shame on those movie that take on the Asian/Arab/Black/Jew characters only for the sake of further perpetuate the stereotypes.

jackliu said:

True, the lack of Asian actors is not racism, they are only selling the movie to their targets audiences, which most of them are White, people just like to see people that are similar to themselves.

However shame on those movie that take on the Asian/Arab/Black/Jew characters only for the sake of further perpetuate the stereotypes.

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I agree with what you say however I think there is more to it than just audience homogeneity...what I mean by that is Hollywood movies are very well received overseas but the target audience are certainly not white or Americans. Could it be part of the 'colonial' mentality? I think so but then again I'm no social scientist.

Another part could be due to 'attractiveness'.. I think it is safe to assume that there many times more Asian men and women who are more partial to the likes of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie etc than say 'white' American men and women who thinks the same for the likes of Jackie Chan, Jet Li or Lucy Liu etc.