Race & Media

Hollywood & Stereotypes

Joanne Shum, Nisha Borshettar & Cindy Wong

CMNS 452 Week 5

Race & Media

Representation & The MediaStuart Hall

Image vs. reality

Our culture is saturated in images

Represents a meaning that is already there

“Stand in for” – taking the place of

Distortion of what reality really is

Race & Media

OrientalismOrient is integral part of European material civilization and culture

The term is less preferred today

Relationship between the Occident and the Orient is a relationship of power, domination and a complex hegemony

Westerner never loses his position as the upperhand

“Us” against the Whites

Stereotyping Asian Americans

Race & Media

The Model Minority Evaluated positively, said to help turn around negative stereotypes

Originally constructed in the 1960’s

Revived in the 1980’s under global and local contexts because of trade conflicts with Asian countries

Produces “colourblind talk”

Race & Media

Colourblind Talk“Furthers racial power not through the direct articulation of racial differences, but rather by obscuring the operation of racial power, protecting it from challenge and permitting ongoing racialization via racially coded methods.”

“Constitutive from model minority stereotype because Asian American ‘success’ is used to deny the existence of institutional racism and to ‘prove’ that U.S. society is reasonably fair and open for minority groups to move up the ladder.”

Racial Triangulation

Charlie Chan

Race & Media

Charlie ChanChan, despite his good qualities, is one-dimensional, and that, further, Chan is portrayed as effeminate and subservient to whites

Chan's character embodies the stereotypes and stigmas of Chinese Americans

Race & Media

Yellow PerilTerm can be traced back to Medieval times (Genghis Khan)

The West feared the yellow race as a menace

Asians were perceived as inassimiable foreigners

Was justification and rationale for continual westward expansion by the U.S.

Pearl Harbour inflated this stereotype

Fu Manch

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Race & Media

Fu ManchuIn Hollywood, Fu Manchu served to enhance the yellow peril stereotype

“Possessed superhuman intellect and ambition”

“Subhuman in his immorality and ruthlessness”

Built upon racist and imperialistic assumptions about Manchurian Chinese

Tied entire Asian race as a physical representation of the yellow peril

Yellowface

The films were only successful when they were "the domain of white actors who impersonated slant-eyed, heavily-accented Asians”

Where Asian actors are portrayed by White actors

I.e. Fu Manchu, Charlie Chan, The Last Airbender, 21

Existing RepresentationsWhy do you think Eurasian American actors associated themselves more as American, rather than Asian?

Is it because they are more accepted by the media?

What do you think?

Do you think movies, like “Harold & Kumar,” are made with the intention of bringing awareness to racial stereotypes? Or do you think racial stereotypes are reinforced for the purposes of comedy?

Romance & Yellow PerilHollywood has long been fascinated by Asian or Asian themes

Favours romances with White males and Asian females

Asian men often depicted as rapists or asexual eunuch figures

Salvation Story

Storyline that demonstrates the power of the White supremacy over Asians

Lost in Translation

The Darjeeling Limited

Cartoons?

Superheroes?

Do you think the movie “Crash” impacts people about the ways they think about racial stereotypes? If so, how?

Debate

Do you think the people of India have the right to be upset over the depictions of this movie? Why?

How does this movie illustrate the image vs. reality concept?

What do you think??