Television misrepresents Asians
Letter to the editor
I am a second generation Korean Canadian. It seems that by all accounts I have fully assimilated into Canadian society. I watch Hockey Night in Canada, not Korean soap operas; I listen to the Hip, not Seo Tae-Ji; I eat Kraft Dinner, not Korean instant noodle soups; I play ice hockey, not tae-kwon-do or kung-fu; and I say `eh' sporadically at the end of my sentences.
To be sure, there are gaping cultural differences between my conservative Korean upbringing and the more liberal Canadian environment that surrounds me. But when I walk down the streets people are not gawking at me, nor are they snapping photos of me, nor are they pointing their fingers at me in curiosity. There seems to be a sense of belonging and feeling at home. This makes sense since I and many other Asian-Canadians have been born and raised here.
Despite this sense of belonging many Asian-Canadians and many Asian-Americans have, it is not indicated in the media. We are rarely cast in television and film roles. Although Asian-Americans make up 7 percent of the population, only .25 percent of all television roles consist of Asian-Americans actors and actresses.
Why is it that Magnum P.I., set in Hawaii where the majority of the population is Asian, had a Caucasian and an African-American sidekick? More recently, the sitcoms Suddenly Susan and Dharma and Greg, which are supposedly situated in San Francisco, do not reflect the 38 percent of the Asian-American population that lives there. MTV's The Real World has only cast three Asian-Americans in its nine years of being on the air — not really indicative of real world demographics. Finally, the CBS breakthrough show Survivor did not have any Asian-Americans cast in its first installment, nor will it have any in this year's Australian series.
Asian-Americans are not only under-represented in the media, but when they are cast, they play stereotypical "Asian" roles. Asian-American actresses are exoticized and fixed with a male Caucasian partner to make it more "palatable" to the audience. The directors of All American Girl starring Margaret Cho purposefully de-raced the show and fixed her up with a Caucasian boyfriend to target a wider audience. Asian-American actors play the kung-fu expert or the passive emasculated unromantic geeky intellectual with buck teeth or the lost tourist with the big camera or a combination of the three stereotypes. All the while, they speak in broken English.
In short, they are cast in "Asian" roles rather than representing fully assimilated Asian-Americans. As a result of the blatant discrimination, there has been a massive exodus of Asian-American actors and actresses away from the screen to the stage. As East Bay actor Lane Nishikawa remarked, "I'm much more interested in exploring the Asian experience in America than playing a Japanese banker in Rising Sun."
Asian-Americans are not only under-represented, but also misrepresented in the media. Blatant racism and discrimination in the media has been an age-old problem. However, there is no Jesse Jackson of the Asian-American/Canadian community to lead protests against these forms of racism. Years of activism have landed five African-Americans out of a cast of 32 on the show Survivor. Somehow Asian-Americans have gotten lost in the shuffle in what has predominantly been a black-white issue.
I then urge all people — Asians, Caucasians and Africans alike — who oppose any form of racism and discrimination to boycott shows such as Survivor, Suddenly Susan, Dharma and Greg and the like. A choice to boycott may seem drastic but this personal choice not only reaffirms your position against all forms of discrimination and racism but it also adds a little to push along the process of change.
Michael Sohn
Canada
February 6, 2001
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, February 7, 2001
