Abstract
For my research internship, I studied the types and effects of Asian-American racial stereotypes through a content analysis of 54 characters across film and television series. Alongside the qualitative analysis of existing Asian-American stereotypes, SDSU professor Dr. Rodriguez and I also examined the intersectionality of Asian-American representation in media from a quantitative perspective by coding for character and actor nationalities, ages, genders, sexualities, story role, status as romantic interest, and socioeconomic standing. Examination of Asian-American representation in media through the lens of racial stereotyping reveals that they uphold the white racial hegemony and reinforces societal stratification. Through consideration of past research into racial stereotyping, specifically Asian-American stereotyping, and the data gathered from my research internship demonstrate the persistence and evolution of Asian stereotypes in modern media actively contributes to white racial hegemony.
Defining a Stereotype
Firstly, for the purposes of this paper we must define what a stereotype is and its relationship to the media in order to analyze Asian-American racial stereotyping. To this end, a stereotype will be defined as “a cognitive schema...of groups of people that we hold either individually or collectively within a culture” (Ramasubramanian, 2020). This internal representation of a societal group is made into an external reality through repeated exposure to the image in film and television, cultivating a social reality based on the media representation of societal groups through mass media (Dixon, 2002). Through the lens of this cultivation theory, the significance of media representation of different groups in society, especially racial and ethnic groups, is demonstrated.
The significance of media stereotypes for the examination of Asian-American racial biases is found in the nature of stereotypes as a self-preserving mechanism for the maintenance of the existing social hierarchy. Historically, the role of stereotypes, specifically in mass media, has been to persist, evolve, and “educate individuals as to how to survive and succeed” in a given culture (Sun et al., 2015). The portrayal of various social groups in the media allows for an education on one’s own group and others, as the continued exposure to these schema in film and television creates the social reality. This relates to the maintenance of hegemony in a society as media and the stereotypes it contains will teach social groups their place in relation to other social groups and the dominant group. Through symbolic representation of these groups, stereotypes reinforce the hegemony by educating people about their own status in society and shaping the social hierarchy (Rodriguez, 2020). Nowhere is the concept of social hierarchy more supported than in the tokenism of minority groups in film and television, a tactic which teaches minority groups that they are less represented in the public conscience and therefore lack power (Ramasubramanian, 2020). In fact, according to Ramasubramanian, media stereotypes stem from “a dominant, hegemonic, elitist, patriarchal, top-down view of minoritized groups” as a result of the elite control of film and television outlets. To sum up, the relationship between the media and stereotypes is that the media communicates, cultivates, and disseminates stereotypes and widely held perceptions of marginalized groups, from a position of societal dominance, as well as acting as an educator for minority and majority groups on their place in society.
Secondly, it is important to consider the relationship between specifically racial stereotypes in media and the white hegemony that is generated as a result of racial stereotyping in media narratives. The marginalization of racial and ethnic minorities, and their comparatively little representation in film and television, creates a centralization of white narratives, characters, and values. This results in a white savior complex and centralization of the white experience in media storylines (Griffin, 2015). Even in stories that supposedly center racial minority groups, such as The Help, The Last Samurai, and The Last Mohican, the white saviorism at the heart of these stories reduces social perceptions of racial minorities to the stereotypes and marginal representation of their media portrayals. Repeated exposure to these representations of racial groups as a result of white centralization creates the social reality, with white hegemony at the center (Dixon, 2002). Additionally, the trend of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) characters serving as a conscience or support to white main characters further educates racial minority groups about their societal roles beneath the white racial group. This goes back twofold, as “white [people’s] cognitive assessment places racial groups into a hierarchy” through learned attitudes from media exposure and cultivation (Stamps, 2020). Thus, it is revealed that the relationship between media racial stereotypes to the maintenance of white social dominance is that the marginalization and racial stereotyping of minority groups educates these groups on their own lesser status when compared to the representation of the dominant white racial group.
Asian-American Representation Matrix
Common Asian-American Stereotypes in Film and Television
A myriad of stereotypes surround Asian-Americans in film and television that separate this racial minority group from the dominant group, yet also divides Asian-Americans from other racial minorities for the sake of maintaining the white hegemony. In my research into Asian-American representation in film and television, there emerged a trend of racial stereotypes that have survived and evolved throughout history in such a way that reinforces harmful ideas about white hegemony and Asian-Americans in the social hierarchy. These media stereotypes contribute to white dominance in society in their nature as indirect indicators of social hierarchy in comparison to the dominant racial group, but also other racial minority groups. Through analysis and coding of these 54 Asian and Asian-American characters in American film and television series, as well as comparisons with the past research canon on Asian-American racial stereotypes in media, it is demonstrated that these stereotypes in media associated with Asian-Americans serve to uphold the white-dominated social hierarchy by dividing Asian-Americans from other minority groups, protect the status quo of the social hierarchy, and generate anti-Asian sentiments.
Model Minority
The model minority stereotype remains one of the most prevalent and sinister stereotypes among Asian characters in media, and serves the dual purpose of separating Asian-Americans from other marginalized groups and maintaining the white-dominated racial hierarchy. Among the Asian-American stereotype trends that revealed themselves in the sample data, the model minority stereotype proved to be one of the most pervasive, with 26 of the 54 characters exhibiting this stereotype. Representations of Asian-Americans as the model minority shows characters overcoming the obstacles facing other minority groups in America and achieving “affluence...freedom from problems and crime, and family cohesion” (Zhang, 2010). Such a stereotype paints model minority characters as “good” citizens due to their adherence to the established racial/economic status quo. This model minority stereotype has historically been used to maintain racial hierarchies “that reinforce anti-Blackness by pitting them against African Americans and Latino/a/x Americans as a way of justifying social hierarchies” (Ramasubramanian, 2020). In doing so, the presentation of Asian-Americans as models for other, poorer ethnic groups sets Asian-Americans against other racial minorities and generates the racial hierarchy by seemingly elevating Asian-American closer to whiteness, which is seen as an elevated socioeconomic level. As such, the Asian-American dream as portrayed through the lens of the model minority myth is a quest for whiteness, with all the social, economic, and cultural capital that comes with it. Thus, the idea of the model minority props up whiteness as the dominant social tier, and divides the opposition to this social order in pitting minority groups against each other.
For example, the Hoang family in the television series Fresh Off the Boat are a picture of the model minority family in the sense that they are a family of immigrants who have acclimated to American living and live as a comfortably middle-class family as a result of hard work and business acumen. Though the show and its characters poke fun at the model minority stereotype and their status as racial outsiders in the community, their socioeconomic status and relative acceptance by the existing white dominant group paint them with a privileged, conditional, and isolating proximity to whiteness as compared to other racial ethnic groups.
The Lotus Blossom
The lotus blossom stereotype is one with deep roots in U.S. colonialism and systemic discrimination, painting Asian and Asian-American women as sexual, exotic, and submissive. This stereotype originates from “immigration policies and policies of the United States” and “U.S. military involvement in Asia in the 20th century” which saw the sexualization of Asian women as prostitutes for American soldiers and in the U.S. itself (Sun et Al.). As an arm of colonial thought, Asian-American women in film and television are still depicted as being demure and deferential to white males, in addition to existing as love interests and prizes for white protagonists in media. Essentially, Asian-American women in film and television are stereotyped as being sexual wish fulfillment for white male Americans. Furthermore, my content and character analysis of Asian-American women characters helps confirm this statement, as Asian-American women in film and television are shown to be love interests to a white male character in virtually every instance where an Asian-American woman was a love interest. It is also worth noting that the portrayal of queer relationships for Asian-American women (or men) was almost non-existent in the data analysis of over 54 popular American films and television shows.
The continued objectification of Asian-American and Asian females to white audiences as love interests and sexual objects in media perpetuates the racial hierarchy in objectifying Asian and Asian-American women and therefore placing whites as the dominant social group. For example, the main Asian-American protagonist of China Girl, Tye, spends much of the film as pining and submissive to a white male character. This character archetype finds itself in a variety of other media, such as To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, Miss Saigon, The Forbidden Kingdom, Enter the Dragon, and Rush Hour, exposing viewers to the lotus blossom stereotype and thereby cultivating a sociocultural reality of racial hierarchy. The play Miss Saigon in particular paints the relationship between a Vietnamese woman and an American GI in a tragic, romantic light while failing to condemn the larger colonial power dynamic of sexual relationships between the two.
The Foreigner
The stereotype of the Asian-American as a perpetual foreigner maintains the white dominated social order through the other-ing of Asian-Americans, denying them status as a fully accepted and assimilated social group, while simultaneously painting them with conditional status through the model minority stereotype so as to isolate them from all other social groups. According to Zhang (2010), the foreigner stereotype paints Asian-Americans as:
“...exotic, non- American, foreign, inassimilable, and acting FOB (fresh off the boat), and are routinely treated as if they do not belong in the U.S. to the same degree as other racial-ethnic groups”.
This characterization of the foreigner can be seen in characters such as Ben Mercado from The Debut, Detective Lee from the Rush Hour franchise, Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid franchise, and the Huang family from the television series Fresh Off the Boat. These characters bear traits that paint them as perpetual outsiders who retain stereotypical elements of their origin culture and are disconnected from the norms and nuances of American culture, connecting them to the social reality created through media that reinforces the idea that Asian-Americans are not fully assimilated Americans as compared to other racial ethnic groups. Furthermore, the painting of Asian-Americans as foreigners, combined with the model minority stereotype they are also paradoxically portrayed as, often results in resentment and perceived grievances leveled towards Asian-Americans through these media stereotypes. The resentment that is generated by this relationship between the idea of the foreigner and the model minority can be seen in racist actions such as the passing of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1892, the internment of Japanese-Americans at the outset of WW2, and the imprisonment of US-based, Taiwanese-born scientist Wen Ho Lee on charges of espionage for China (Zhang, 2010). Thus, Asian-Americans are punished for their racial image as foreign aliens, while simultaneously being portrayed as model immigrants who have achieved wealth and status, generating an attitude of isolation from all other racial groups in America and therefore upholding white hegemony through alienation from other marginalized groups and granting conditional status to Asian-Americans that can be taken away at will.
Conclusion
In my research into Asian-American racial stereotypes in film and television, I sought to answer the question of how said Asian-American representations in the media upholds the white-dominated racial hierarchy that exists as a cultivated social reality. Through character analysis of 55 Asian-American portrayals in films and television series and cultivation theory, I surmise that Asian-American racial stereotypes help to cultivate a social reality of white hegemony through exposure to alienating and subversive racial stereotypes in film and television. These both conditionally prop Asian-Americans up closer to the societal standard for whiteness through stereotypes such as the model minority, while also painting Asian-Americans as deferential and lower than the white social group on the social ladder through the emasculation of Asian males and the fetishization of Asian women. Furthermore, the lack of intersectionality in regards to the intersection of Asian-American identity to sexuality, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity within character portrayals alongside new and evolving stereotypes also conveys this idea. Essentially, the stereotypes that often define Asian-American representation in films and television, assisted by the lack of intersectionality in Asian-American representations, cultivates a social reality of racial hierarchy through exposure to these pervasive stereotypes in films and television and makes Asian-American media racial stereotypes accessories to white hegemony.
Work Cited
Dixon, T. L. (2019). Media Stereotypes: Content, Effects, and Theory. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media Effects: Advances in Theory and Research (4 ed., pp. 243-257). Taylor and Francis.
Ramasubramanian, Srividya, et al. “Positive Stereotypes and Counter-Stereotypes: Examining Their Effects on Prejudice Reduction and Favorable Intergroup Relations.” Oaktrust -- Texas A&M Universities, 21 May 2020, hdl.handle.net/1969.1/188013.
Stamps, David. “Is It Really Representation? A Qualitative Analysis of Asian and Latino Characterizations in Broadcast Television.” American Communication Journal, vol. 21, no. 1, 2019, www.ac-journal.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Stamps-.pdf
Stamps, David (2020) Race and Media: A Critical Essay Acknowledging the Current State of Race-Related Media Effects Research and Directions for Future Exploration, Howard Journal of Communications, 31:2, 121-136, DOI: 10.1080/10646175.2020.1714513
Zhang, Qin. “Asian Americans Beyond the Model Minority Stereotype: The Nerdy and the Left Out.” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication , vol. 3, no. 1, Feb. 2010, doi:10.1080/17513050903428109.