Students examine Asian stereotypes

Participants in the discussion series "Who are Asian Pacific Americans?" watched, with occasional laughter, images of Asian women ranging from the submissive adoring wife in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" to the sinister "Dragon Lady" in Sean Connery's "James Bond" as presented by the 1992 documentary "Picturing Oriental Girls: A [Re]Educational Videotape" by Valerie Soe Tuesday afternoon.\nFollowing the documentary, participants expressed different views about the causes of the stereotypes of Asian women as subservient and submissive.\nJunior Michael Choi said he thought these stereotypes could have come about because of some Asian cultural values.\n"In a lot of Asian societies, it's very patriarchal, very male dominated," Choi said.\nChoi added that the view of Asian immigrants may have carried over to Asian Americans.\nGraduate student Gary Holbrook suggested the submissive stereotype is an artifact of the feminist movement.\n"Stereotypes of Asian-American women are reconstructed against traditional American feminism," Holbrook said.\nTheresa Chen, graduate assistant at the Asian Culture Center, said what struck her about the documentary was how the stereotypes persist even in recent times.\n"You expect these clips from the 1940s and 1950s, but when they integrate clips from a pretty modern show that is considered pretty open, it got me thinking about images of Asian women today."\nChen, who led the discussion, asked the group what they thought about the images portrayed by more recent Asian-American actresses like Lucy Liu.\nSome participants said they thought these women were helping to start breaking down the portrayals of submissiveness of Asian-American women, but graduate student Jeeyoung Shin thought Liu's characters in particular simply reverted back to another stereotype.\n"Some people think of Lucy Liu as another Asian stereotype, as a Dragon Lady," Shin said.\nShin added that images of Asians in American movies are important because they make an impact, not just in America, but around the world.\n"A lot of international people learn what America is like and what Asian people are like from Hollywood movies," she said.\nSome participants noted even Asian people living in Asia have had surgery to make their eyes bigger in order to conform to America's image of ideal beauty. Holbrook added that the ideal of large eyes has also affected Asian men.\n"Even Jackie Chan had surgery to make his eyes look bigger," Holbrook said.\nHolbrook believes a major problem for Asians in television programs and movies is the lack of Asian Americans involved in their production.\n"I think having more Asians behind the camera would help with the stereotypes," Holbrook said.\n-- Contact staff writer Steven Chung at stchung@indiana.edu.