I watched a lot of western films growing up. I never really paid attention to the race of the actors/actresses on the screen. That all changed when I was 13 and saw the film Shanghai Calling. It was a romance movie that involved a man traveling to China to do business and ultimately falling in love with a woman. What was so special about this movie you ask? Well, the main character in the film was an Asian American actor, Daniel Henny. His love interest in the film was a white female played by Eliza Coupe. Not only was it the first time that I saw an Asian man in a lead role, but it was also the first time that I saw an Asian actor not doing some form of fighting or anything else that fell into specific Asian stereotypes. Granted, even though Daniel Henny is half white, that didn’t matter to me. What mattered was that I was seeing someone who somewhat looked like me on screen. Even after watching that film, I tried my best to recall any full Asian actors in leading Hollywood roles. Of Course, I immediately thought of the one Asian male who pioneered in western cinema, Bruce Lee.

With my academics being at an all-time low I started to formulate questions in my mind. Was I failing because I wasn’t used to the American system of academics? Was I homesick? I concluded that many of these questions were just excuses. The one question that I truly had, but was too scared to come face to face with was whether or not the racial dynamic in a classroom affected a student’s learning – my learning. This thought that I had – thinking about whether or not the race of my teacher affected my performance in school can be understood through the theory of “stereotype threat”. This theory was created by Psychologist Claude M. Steele, who is also currently a professor at Stanford University. Steele explains the “stereotype threat” as “viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype or fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype” (Steele 1999). With that said, there have been many experiments that have been conducted over the years that support this theory. One concept behind the theory is to show what kind of impact that racial/ethnic matching can have on students. This leads to another question, how do our teachers impact our learning?

Matthew A. Kraft, an associate professor of education & economics at Brown University used the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project as one of his primary sources for proving the impact that teachers have on a student’s growth in and out of the classroom. He makes the point that teachers are crucial to a student’s “complex cognitive skills and social-emotional competencies” (Kraft, M.A. (2019). Furthermore, his dissection of the MET project briefly touches on how racial/ethnic matching affects a student’s ability to learn (Kraft, M.A. (2019). With teachers often being one of the first influencers/leaders like figures in a child’s life, it is crucial to understand why it is important for a child to see someone of the same ethnicity conducting that initial role in their journey to coming of age.

Now that we’ve explored why minority representation matters for a student’s development, in what other ways does lack of representation affect minorities coming of age? As an Asian, I often think that my ethnicity is practically invisible to the media. When we do get attention from the media, it’s often overlooked or “mistakes” are made that are quite blatantly racist. One of the most recent examples that I can think of is our current presidential election. Before candidate Andrew Yang withdrew from the 2020 presidential race, MSNBC displayed his name incorrectly on live television. Instead of using his real name, they had “John Yang” broadcasted. In addition to that, NBC also managed to make a mistake when they revealed a display that showed the 10 candidates that would be debating on stage during September 2019. However, on the screen, they managed to miss one name, Andrew Yang. Politics Reporter, Nicholas Wu, who is currently a member of the Politics NOW Team at USA TODAY, showed Yang’s reaction to the “mistakes” that were made. Yang was quoted saying that “sometimes honest mistakes happen. But NBC and MSNBC seem to omit me on the regular” (Wu, N., 2019). It’s moments like these that make me question the media. There seems to be a lack of desire for America to have an Asian as their leader. With that said, it seems quite obvious that the media will do whatever they can to shield an Asian candidate from the public. But how has other forms of Asian representation been affected?

In terms of the entertainment industry, the model minority myth has helped aid Hollywood in the creation of a false representation of Asian culture. For years the many roles that have been offered to Asian men were martial arts related. For Asian women, they’ve always been highly sexualized in Hollywood movies. In addition to that, Hollywood has had a long history with “yellowface” – by using white actors for Asian characters. This means that instead of casting actual Asian actors and actresses, studios prefer to use prosthetics and coloring over them instead. One of the most famous cases for this would be Mickey Rooney’s role in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Rooney played a character by the name of Mr. Yunioshi. His portrayal of the character was the embodiment of Asian stereotypes. The overall aesthetic of his character was insulting and damaging to all Asians. His character had buck teeth, wore glasses, and had prosthetics that were painted to closely resemble that of an “Asian skin tone”.

Why is it so difficult for Hollywood to cast Asian actors in roles? An argument that can be made is because there was the Hays Code. This code lasted from 1930-1968 and it “included an array of requirements that were indicative of society in America, including the prohibition of any sexual encounter between actors of different races” (Morgan, T., 2018). In addition to that, it was originally thought that casting white actors and actresses would be more relatable for the general audiences. Therefore, this would result in ticket sales being higher (Morgan, T., 2018). With that said, the fact that there are actors who have won academy awards with roles that involved yellowface or any other type of whitewashing in Hollywood is baffling.

Ghost in The Shell is another example of whitewashing in Hollywood. This is a movie that came out in 2017 and it was an adaptation of a Japanese Manga. The main protagonist in the film is a character called Motoko Kusanagi. However, our favorite “Asian” actress, Scarlet Johansson portrays this character in the movie. Many Japanese fans of the original series went on a riot and made petitions to try and get a real Japanese actress cast instead of Johansson. However, the director of the original Ghost in The Shell anime, Mamoru Oshii, stated that “her physical form [Motoko Kusanagi] is an entirely assumed one. The name Motoko Kusanagi and her current body are not her original name and body, so there is no basis for saying that an Asian actor must portray her” (Rose, S., 2017). The point that Oshii makes in this statement is true due to the fact that Motoko Kusanagi in the story is indeed a cyborg. This is a rare case where the character’s ethnicity/race is not able to be specified due to the fact that she is not a living being. However, this then becomes a question of honoring the source materials origin.

I'm sure many have grown tired of whitewashing in Hollywood. This is something that they’ve been doing for so long time and it will probably take decades until this mockery of Asian culture subsides to a significant extent. Even after the Ghost in The Shell controversy, it honestly feels like there is a small select group of directors that are willing to push for diversity. A more recent example that I can think of is an anime movie called Akira that came out in 1988. It’s a story that takes place in Neo-Tokyo and depicts a dystopian society that emerges after the atomic bombs were dropped in Japan in World War 2. In addition to that, the Akira anime also has a reputation for breaking boundaries for what was possible at the time for digital animation. Needless to say, this movie was way ahead of its time. It was so popular that even English dubs were created so that it could be screened in the United States.

A live-action version of this film has been in the works for over 15 years now. However, Asian actors have been petitioning for years in hopes of stopping this particular film from being whitewashed. This was done because rumors of white actors such as Andrew Garfield, Robert Pattinson, Justin Timberlake, and more were in discussion for playing the leading roles (Schneider, S., 2014). Yes, Hollywood was planning on casting white men to play two Japanese teenage boys. Upon hearing this news, Actor George Takei even opened up his petition and expressed his thoughts on the matter:

"The manga and anime phenomenon is mostly white in this country...It originated in Japan, and, of course, it has a huge Asian fan following. But it's the multi-ethnic Americans who are fans of Akira and manga. The idea of buying the rights to do that and in fact change it seems rather pointless. If they're going to do that, why don't they do something original, because what they do is offend Asians, number 1; number 2, they offend the fans" (Schneider, S., 2014).

It was responses to the casting rumors like the one from Takei that made studios stop and think about what they going to pursue. Luckily, director Taika Waititi is now in charge of bringing the Akira live-action movie to life. Fans are happy that he is the one who gets the final say in the casting since he is a fan himself of the source material. In addition to that, Waititi wants to cast Asian actors for his interpretation of the film. He hopes to find “untapped talent” – someone who has not been in the limelight (Barder, O., 2017).

One of the most disappointing things is seeing minorities against each other. Sometimes miorities in the film industry look as if they are competing with each other. I think back to the 2016 Oscars when actor Chris Rock decided to poke fun at Asians during his monologue. At one point during the event, when Rock was meant to reveal results for who won in a given category, he brought out three Asian children on stage. They were dressed in suits, had glasses, and even held briefcases. Rock then followed up by completely butchering their names and implying that they were good at math. At the end of his “joke”, he said, “if anybody’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids” (Ryzik, M., 2016). Asian American actors and even athletes went on social media to express their disappointment in Rock’s “joke”. It was the complete opposite of helping monitories progress in Hollywood. Mee Moua, former president, and executive of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice said:

“Last night’s ceremony, and particularly the ‘joke’ involving Asian children, which played off more than one damaging stereotype of Asian and Asian Americans, exposed one of the failings of how we talk about race in America: race relations are not a black-white binary.”

"It is to all of our detriment to look at race narrowly. We need to work together to dismantle the systems that devalue the experiences of minority groups so we can see the tales of the diversity that have shaped our nation reflected accurately" (Italie, H., 2020).

There’s no doubt that Rock’s “joke” had malicious intent. If he had not felt that way, then why did he fail to comment on his own actions?

With Hollywood slowly creating movies that involve actors/actresses of minorities, we have seen films such as Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians on the silver screen. Crazy Rich Asians, in particular, is the first film in 25 years to have a full Asian cast with a leading Asian actress. The only film that came before it was The Joy Luck Club (Ho, K., 2018). When I first saw Crazy Rich Asians my initial thought was that it was poking fun at the stereotype that Asians are rich. And after being able to digest what I had seen, I thought to myself that there was a sense of poetic justice. Though the film does reinforce a stereotype towards Asians, for Hollywood to understand the importance of minority representation, they need to see it from the perspective of actors from minorities.

Even now with a film like Crazy Rich Asians, is it enough? Is it enough to push Hollywood over the edge and finally start considering Asian actors for leading roles? Why does any of this even matter? Laura Thomas, a professor at the Antioch University said:

"Children’s early experiences – including the hours spent consuming media – shape what they imagine to be possible for people who look like them, live where they live or come from where they came from. Simply put, kids determine what they can be based on the examples around them” (Thomas, L., 2020).

This is why films like Crazy Rich Asians is so important. At a young age, we must see the potential for who we can become. Granted, this does not always have to come from someone who is of the same ethnicity. However, when you are part of a minority that has just enough films for you to count with your fingers, it makes it extremely difficult to relate to others. You will start to watch that small list of films and ultimately you’ll start to ask yourself, is this all I am?