Author: Loan-Anh Pham
Asians in the entertainment industry are slowly breaking through the glass ceilings, but this is only the beginning of a movement. 2017 has been a fairly successful year; Vietnamese-American actress Kelly Marie Tran landed the role of Rose Tico, a Resistance mechanic, for powerhouse film Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Chinese actress Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, was given the lead role of Mulan Disney’s upcoming live-action remake. BTS, a Korean boy-band, gained widespread attention with debuts on the Ellen Show and the Billboard Music Awards; “Fresh Off the Boat,” an ABC sitcom about an Asian family adapting to a new life from D.C.’s Chinatown to suburban Orlando, is still going strong, and “Crazy Rich Asians,” a rom-com that’ll feature an all-Asian cast is set to hit theaters on Aug. 17, 2018.
And yet, people like Marvel’s editor-in-chief, C.B. Cebulski, serve to remind all of us about how Asians are only a tiny percentage of those movie screens and awards stages. Cebulski’s admittance to posing as a Japanese comic book writer during the early-2000’s may seem like a fun and “hands-on” experiment, but #ActualAsianComicWriters certainly doesn’t think so. Cebulski’s ignorance is just another obstacle to actual Asian writers who struggle to find opportunities not just in the comic book world, but in the overall entertainment industry.
Cebulski’s case is simply one in many. Tran is one of the few Asian American actresses on the Hollywood scene, and the huzzah and celebration of her gaining a lead role is thoroughly sad when one looks at the underlying message: these big breaks don’t happen for a lot Asian entertainers. How many other Asian-American actresses have graced the movie screen in a lead role? Additionally, Marvel rarely features Asian women: Claudia Kim played Dr. Helen Cho in “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” but she had minimal screen time which ended when Ultron possessed her and shot her when she tried to resist. No Asian actresses or actors were present in “Captain America: Civil War,” and Tadanobu Asano’s portrayal of Hogun in “Thor: Ragnarok” was just another supporting role.
Even the roles that Asian entertainers take on are stereotypical: doctor (said Dr. Helen Cho), karate man (sorry, Jackie Chan), tech guy, nerdy girl, and so on. Don’t forget the usual “Asian family comes to America and tries to adapt” story; in fact, that particular plot line is central to “Fresh off the Boat.” Yet, at this point, Asian culture should be embraced and accepted on-screen; it’s not like all Asian-Americans are bent on having a white-picket fence and freshly mown lawns. Movies need to reflect the idea that Asian-Americans have prospered in America and it’s not because we “Americanized;” rather, the “Americans” around us have accepted us and our strengths: our culture, our integrity, and our determination to reach our dreams. Isn’t that what everyone wants?
Yet, Hollywood crushes these hopes everyday. A producer actually tried to suggest that “Crazy Rich Asians” take on a white female protagonist instead of an Asian-American one. Even Yifei, a wildly acclaimed actress in China, will be a part of the Disney cinematic world for one time: Mulan is the only Asian Disney Princess and it’s highly unlikely that another one will be coming along anytime soon. The entertainment industry isn’t doing any Asians a favor despite the fact that Asians account for 60% of the world’s population (4.3 billion people!); the doors are just being slammed prematurely, and it’s not because of a lack of talent. Young Asian children are conditioned to believe that being in the spotlight isn’t meant for them because they never see the spotlight on people who look like them. Despite being born in America, the skin you are born with is still an obstacle.
It’s time that Hollywood catches up to reflect the changes that have been made in America. It’s about time that Kpop taught America some dance moves. It’s about time that we can see a girl in an áo dài, fighting with a lightsaber. And it sure is about time that Asian-Americans are both seen and heard.