I would like to unpack another problem that dwells within the realm of Hollywood, and probably society in general. Despite the loud claims of ‘tolerance’ and inclusivity it is evident that persons of Asian ethnic belonging are largely underrepresented within the Hollywood rhetoric, and if they are then those characters are often poorly executed. As taboo as the topic of black racism appears to be throughout media, Asian people do not get as much coverage. The article by Amy Yee on Bloomberg stipulates the following: more than 90 percent of the participants of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment survey considered both the on and off screen representation as deficient, as 35 percent of the characters that are representative of their ethnic background, fall victim to the stereotypical portrayals such as the “martial artist”, which frankly should be a vestige of the past. However, the problem remains at the data analyzed by Geena Davis institute is fairly recent, essentially dating from 2010 to 2020. Although one of the most recent marvel movies Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is largely celebrated as the breakthrough of the Asian representation narrative, its real effect on the society is debated by Walter Chaw, the “Chinese American born in the United States”. He raises a valid point on how largely this celebration misses the question of quality of this representation, only focusing on the representation itself.
The misrepresentation could be seen as one of the contributors to the large hate towards Asians sparked by the pandemic. While not being the definitive answer to the blatant racism towards Asian people, decent representation would surely help to tackle the problem. According to the parasocial relationships theory, frequent consumption of the content that represents a certain group of people is essentially synonymous to having a diverse social circle, therefore frequent representation via film could accommodate the cognitive social acceptance of Asian minorities and truly integrate them into the said society.
Another major mistake in my opinion is the hyperfixation on the concept of race in the first place, which is my primary criticism of tokenism. Because this phenomenon is arguably of superficial nature, the characters that are of that fall into this trope tend to be flat. Having little to no character development as well as any dimension to their narrative, they fail to charm the audience, being made solely for the purpose of ‘representing’. That leaves them devoid of any individuality, potentially dehumanizing the character altogether. How can there be equality if the characters are not treated as human beings?
The topic you've chosen very nicely fits into the tolerance issues. I fully agree that, there have been some changes, but such large institutions like Hollywood that have enormous impact on all its watchers, the society could have already been structured in a more tolerant equal way, instead of hyperfixation that surely does little good.
ReplyDeleteHi Renata, I am glad that you mention this issue because it is important to bring awareness to the underrepresentation of different ethnics more and more. I can totally agree that if I see an Asian actor in a movie, it is most of the times connected with some stereotypical portrayal, like villain, cleaner or Asian restaurant owner. Thus, I think that film makers need to start emphasize equal representation among all ethnics more because I feel like now, in 2022, it is high time already.
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