Misrepresentations and Stereotypes in Hollywood

There have been various movies made in Hollywood about the Vietnam War and many believe some movies have inaccurately depicted the truth. Despite this America continues to hold authority over western accounts of America’s war in Vietnam (Storey, 2015). Even before the war there has been a stigma and attitude about Asians which created a view of “Orientalism”. In Storey’s book (as cited in Said, 1985) “Orientalism” is seen as an thought process which states the East can be seen as aberrant, undeveloped and inferior to the West who are rational humane and superior.

 Asian men can be seen as an unlucky target in Hollywood for stereotyping. One of the most well known Asian stereotyped men of the 2000’s was American Idol contestant William Hung. People took notice of Hun after he sung an off note version of Ricky Martian’s “She Bangs”. "His popularity soon began to embody, represent and reinforce Asian male stereotypes and indicates media’s appetite for simplified stereotypical views of Asian men", (Tewari & Alvare, 2009).

 The racism continued into 2010’s, with a misrepresentation of Asian men in the TV show 2 Broke Girls. The show follows a story of fictional characters Max and Caroline who are waitresses at a diner owned by Han Lee (Alden, 2011). Han can be seen as a Chinese immigrant with a heavy accent and over exaggerated small stature. Han is often made fun of due to his lack of sex appeal, poor English and overall awkward persona. It is undeniably clear the actor is American but is playing up his character with an accent; this can be seen as a plea for stereotype base laughs.  

People are taking notice for a change of representations of Asians in Hollywood. Recent movies like Crazy Rich Asians promote healthier views of Asians and feature an all-Asian cast. Hollywood will continue to see a change in their movies as there has finally been a realization that telling more inclusive stories is just good business (Ho, 2018).

 

References  

Alden. B (Producer). (2011). 2 broke girls [Television series]. Burbank, California: Warner Brothers.

Ho, K. (2018). Crazy Rich Asians Is Going to Change Hollywood. It's About Time. Retrieved fromhttp://time.com/longform/crazy-rich-asians/

Said, E. (1985). Orientalism. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin.

Storey, J. (2015). Cultural theory and popular culture. 7th edition. Oxford, U.K.: Routledge

 

Tewari, N & Alvare,A.N.(2009). Asian American Psychology: Current Perspectives. Taylor and Francis Group.: New York.