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This thread is in response to the comical Disney Channel thread. I started a new thread because I thought it was important for people to understand WHY there is a lack of representation for us Asian-Americans in the first place. Prepkid, you can't seriously be blaming the Disney Channel for this, now can you? I mean, these shows represent Asians based on ignorance. It's not purposely meant to be offensive or racial; the media just doesn't know any better. AND IT IS OUR FAULT that Asians are portrayed the way they are. Here's something I came across:
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<p>The fault isn't that there aren't Asian-Americans serious about their chosen field in the arts - there are plenty of successful Asian artists, architects, writers, fashion designers and a growing no. of Asian-Am directors. Not to mention journalists and news anchors (well, Asian female anchors anyway).</p>
<p>With regard to Asian-American actors - that's an entirely different story. While the portrayals of AFs as the "submissive, exotic Asian doll" or "Dragon Lady" still exist - the portrayals of AAFs have progressed somewhat to include that of nonstereotypical characters (however, all of these nonstereotypical AAF characters never seem to have an AM romantic interest).</p>
<p>For AAMs - things have not progressed as far. Most portrayals of AAM characters tend to be the stereotypical geek/dork, asexual, foreign or gay.</p>
<p>Daniel Dae Kim, who had spent 13 yrs in the industry, never had a role where he kissed a girl until "Lost" (and he had to play a foreigner at that). Btw, the writers for "Lost" initially had written for Sun to leave Kim's character, Jin, on the show.</p>
<p>And there are many Asian-American (including hapas who look primarily Asian) actors who end up leaving the US in search of better opportunities in Asia (i.e. - Daniel Henney who had to go to Korea for a career as an actor - even though he didn't speak any Korean).</p>
<p>Keanu Reeves and Russell Wong are both hapas - it's no coincidence that the hapa who passes as white as had much more opportunities (Wong has largely been limited to Kung Fu roles).</p>
<p>The writers for "Harold and Kumar" wrote the script since they didn't see any films/tv shows depicting their Asian male friends (who were regular guys and not stereotypes). They had to fight tooth and nail to keep both lead male characters Asian (the studio wanted to turn one of the leads into a WM character - which would have totally defeated the whole point of the script).</p>
<p>No - it's not the fact that Asian actors don't have the "zeal" for their craft (look at Vic Chao - a handsome, fit Asian-American actor who graduated from Stanford where he was a gymnast - the majority of the roles he gets offered are for "Chinese delivery guy" or "nerdy engineer" - but when the casting director gets one look at his mug and physique he gets "nexted" - since he doesn't fit the stereotype).</p>
<p>This bias is the same reason why advertisements/commercials primarily pair AFs with WMs and why almost all of the Asian-American news anchors are female.</p>
<p>Hollywood has made huge steps with regard to roles for blacks, women and gays/lesbians - but unfortunately, this hasn't been the case with Asian-Americans (particularly Asian-Am males).</p>
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Perhaps the reason that Asian men aren't bankable in Hollywood is the same reason they have less success with interracial dating than other non-asian males? Perhaps we should have laws outlawing things like personal preference as well? Then we could be one big happy family.
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<p>And perhaps Asian men aren't bankable b/c Hollywood is stuck at portraying Asian males as stereotypes which leads to the problem with regard to IR dating.</p>
<p>Half a century or so ago, black males were primarily depicted by Hollywood as buffoonish clowns, simpletons, manual labor and were pretty much emasculated - and guess what? No one thought of BMs as sex symbols then.</p>
<p>The media has a huge impact in how people think (after all, businesses wouldn't pay billions in advertising if it didn't) - it's no coincidence that females (esp. AFs) who spend time in Asia (where they see handsome AMs in romantic roles) end up changing their previous negative mindset with regard to AMs.</p>