Hannah’s Final Project

Featured Image: Chu, Jon M. “Crazy Rich Asians.” © Warner Bros., 2018. 

Crazy Rich Asians Deconstructs East Asian Stereotypes in Hollywood Films

Introduction:

The movie Crazy Rich Asians, directed by Jon M. Chu, was the first Hollywood film in 25 years to feature an all East Asian cast.

 The film, based on Kevin Kwan’s trilogy, partnered with the Warner brothers in order to gain publicity and the stats that a theatre release offered. And because the movie worked with a specific race, there was pressure to perform well because of the representation it offered an East Asian identity. Crazy Rich Asiansworks against the stereotypical representation of East Asians and Asian Americans by presenting stereotypes within the movie and deconstructing these ideas through cultural and social context. With this, it is important to understand how the ways in which gender and race are portrayed in film to identify the issues surrounding little representation of people of color that allow both minorities and the majority to identify minorities as easily consumable one-dimension characters and characterize them as the “other.” While this film works with many East Asian stereotypes, this post will focus on the representation of females within the film, more specifically with the idea of American vs. Asian Identity and passion vs. duty.

Background on Stereotypical Identities of Asian Women within Hollywood Films:

Within the film industry in Hollywood, the use of stereotypes is often used to describe all “others” outside a very white maleThe chapter, “Race, Ethnicity, and Film,” in the book Film Studies, creates an understanding of the burden of representation that has fallen onto independent films. Eugene Wong in this chapter describes stereotypes as, “a form of representation in film that produces non-white cultures and characters as static and one-dimensional.” With this Crazy Rich Asiansbeing a Hollywood film

Minh-ha Pham in his article, “The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood,” speaks about the harmful representations of Asian characters in the late 1990s and early 2000s as they mimic a shift in the inclusion of Asian identities in an American social context, yet only include these characters in a very specific role. 

Pham goes on to say:

Hollywood is not threatened by the increased presence of Asian and Asian American actors and filmmakers; instead, the so-called Asian invasion enhances Hollywood’s image as a racially inclusive, equal opportunity, global industry. Moreover. Asian actors and filmmakers are not invading Hollywood as much as they are finally being admitted into Hollywood— under very specific conditions and for very specific roles. Despite the increased presence of Asian actors in Hollywood, the struggle for equitable and fair Asian American representation in Hollywood has not ended. (122)

His article speaks specifically about the movies like Rush Hour and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the one role of an Asian male being a martial arts crime fighting master, and how this leads to others identifying Asians men within this context.

Another article written by Hanying Wang offers other one-dimensional Asian characteristics that are all too familiar within the Hollywood film industry such as, exaggerated accents, very smart and nerdy characters, or short and dainty structures. Her article specifically focuses on East Asian women and their portrayal in Hollywood films saying, “This paper focuses on the “cultural work” being done in some of Hollywood movies about Chinese women’s depiction. It
does not ask if the films are good art, but rather what they are good for. (82)” Wang

continues by providing an understanding of
female characters such as the “dragon lady,” that is a strong, deceitful and mysterious and the “china doll,” that is wholesomely beautiful, innocent, and precious.
However, based on a cultural understanding of Asian women, Professor Catherine Tang in her article, “Asian Women’s Gender Role, Work-Family Balance, and Mental Heath,” speaks about how in society it is typical for Asian women to stay at home and take care of the family. She further states, “In particular, some of the senior women leaders in China took pride in the recognition of their success in work and family. A happy family was regarded as a measure of the success of their work. Other researchers have also argued that in contrast to American culture, social roles of the individual and family are blurred in Asian culture, where work serves a utilitarian function for the long-term benefits of the family.” These ideas offered as Asian characteristics is different from the “American Dream,” which The University of Michigan offers a long list of defining American ideals including, “Americans believe in freedom of choice” and “Americans are extremely independent, individualistic, and like to be different from each other.” These characteristics come straight from the foundation that America was built on, freedom and the ability to choose identity. These are important ideas to understand in the context of the film as it is mentioned later the relationship between Asian and American identities within Rachel.

Film Examples:

Now how does this play into the film Crazy RichAsians? Well this film, while working within the constraints of a romantic comedy, focuses to create multi-dimensional characters that may work within certain stereotypical frameworks, but are not limited to these specific single trait identities. The film is focused around the character Rachel Chu, who finds herself dealing with the what it means to identify as an American Asian as well as an East Asian, while working on creating an identity that both supports her Asian identity yet allows her to create the American ideal of independence and a self-made individual. The first moment the audience sees Rachel wrestling with her sense of identity in when she is on the plane to Singapore. She is on her way to meet the parents and family of boyfriend Nick Young, who she finds out is extremely rich. In this scene we see that she is still pretty sound in herself and isn’t necessarily ashamed of her identity, yet she is able to recognize that everything that she thought she knew began to crumble. She starts to become visible uncomfortable at recognizing that Nick’s identity is broader than she had once believed.

Airplane Scene: Chu, Jon M. “Crazy Rich Asians.” © Warner Bros., 2018. 

The climax of the movie happens during their stay in Singapore when Rachel begins to recognize that she doesn’t fit into Nick’s family or the environment he is used to. People all around them begin to torment her for her lack of money and for the fact that she was raised by a single immigrant mother. The audience begins to see mysterious deceitful women who begin to work against Rachel, which causes a distrust in the identity of East Asians and plays into the role of women other than Rachel as being “dragon ladies” without the physical violence of humans. This also casts her into the role of a sweet, innocent women that is in over her head, which plays into the stereotype of the “china doll.” Further, in order to gain acceptance, she begins to play off other stereotypical roles of Asian identities in order to gain the approval of Nick’s family, such as being smart enough to be an economics professor at a university or by showing others that she is capable of speaking the language. She specifically tries to reach out in the encounter of Nick’s mother Eleanor on the stairs of Nick’s family home. They discuss what it means to be a part of the Young family and how even Eleanor wasn’t not always accepted for fear of not being able to provide, yet in the end Eleanor still does not accept Rachel and her background into the family for fear she does not have what it takes to understand the foundations of providing stability over happiness. This ultimately harms and ends the relationship between Rachel and Nick, which at first was caused by Rachel not feelings like she could measure up. However, Rachel ultimately ended their relationship for the fear of coming between Nick and his family, not because she felt unworthy.

At the end of the movie the audience finally sees Rachel embrace her individuality and what it means to her to identify as an East Asian American. She is able to use both her American and Asian identities to create her identity of passion in her duty. She recognizes her duty within her relationship with Nick and makes the decision for him in order to create a foundation of happiness for both of them. She recognizes that if she doesn’t let Nick go in this moment there will be an underlying resentment in him choosing her or his family, so by making the decision herself to end the relationship she is allowing room for his happiness and stability in the future. This decision and discussion she has with Eleanor in a game of Mahjong, permits Eleanor to acknowledge the responsibility and foundation that Rachel was raised on, regardless if that meant being raised by an low class immigrant mother. The audience in this moment begins to see the characters developing a broader sense of identity within other characters, like Eleanor with Rachel’s identity. The film showing and creating multi-dimensional characters allows the audience, and even the characters themselves, to develop a larger sense of identity within the characters which makes them more sympathetic and easier to identify with. Because of this particular moment of Rachel accepting and defending herself to Eleanor, Eleanor ultimately blesses the relationship between Nick and Rachel because she was able to let go of any stereotypes or preconceived notions about Rachel’s identity.

Mahjong Scene: Chu, Jon M. “Crazy Rich Asians.” © Warner Bros., 2018. 

Conclusion: 

After the release of the film, Asian audience members had mixed reactions about the representation within the film. The article, “How do Asians react to Crazy Rich Asians? We take a look at audience responses from China, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines,” discusses that while some Asian audience members were just happy to have a film that allowed more visibility to the Asian identity and culture, others worried that it didn’t accurately represent saying, “Although the film is supposed to promote racial diversity in Hollywood, some Singaporeans think that it actually ignores the racial diversity in Singapore and Asia. The main characters in the movie are all Chinese-Singaporeans, which make up about 77 percent of population in Singapore.” This can cause concern to some because by only showing the majority, it falls into old habit by clumping identities together rather than highlighting the difference within a very diverse group. However, while the film may not address all Asian identities, the main focus of the film was to work to deconstruct Asian stereotypes within Hollywood films and create multi-dimensional characters. This film begins the process to identify East Asians outside of the stereotypes that Hollywood has created. While a lot of the language is “white-washed” and is easily consumable to a white audience, it begins to work towards a more accepting and broader opportunity for East Asian identity and what roles they are offered inside of Hollywood. By creating a multi-dimensional identity for these characters, it creates more space in beginning to address East Asian cultural and social issues. Lastly, Crazy Rich Asiansis a film that brings the East Asian identity one step closer to breaking out of the “other” category and empowering East Asian issues as being equal to all racial issues.

Citations:

“American Dream.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 9 Mar. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream.

Chu, Jon M. “Crazy Rich Asians.” © Warner Bros., 2018.

“How Do Asians React to ‘Crazy Rich Asians’?” South China Morning Post, 29 Sept. 2018, http://www.scmp.com/magazines/style/news-trends/article/2164260/how-do-asians-react-crazy-rich-asians-we-take-look.

Hu, Jane. “’Crazy Rich Asians’ Is One of the Most Important Movies of 2018. But Is It Good?” The Ringer, The Ringer, 15 Aug. 2018, http://www.theringer.com/movies/2018/8/15/17692934/crazy-rich-asians-review-black-panther-hollywood-representation.

Pham, Minh-Ha T. “The Asian Invasion (of Multiculturalism) in Hollywood.” Journal of Popular Film and Television, vol. 32, no. 3, 2004, pp. 121–131., doi:10.1080/01956051.2004.10662057.

Tang, Catherine. “Asian Women’s Gender Role, Work-family Balance, and Mental Health.” NUS, 2016, pp. 1-2.

“White Wash.” Urban Dictionary, http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=white wash.