Ever since its start, the entertainment industry has had a massive impact on society which is often underestimated. It has the power to depict events with a different light and influence people’s opinions. The entertainment industry, specifically Hollywood, has been guilty of producing films and television shows that dehumanize Asian-Americans by perpetuating stereotypes the community often faces. Among these are the stereotypical nerd role and having characters with exaggerated accents, along with the use of yellowface and brownface which is when a non-Asian actor plays an Asian character.
The earliest documented example of yellowface was The Orphan of China in the thirteenth century. Since then, discriminatory laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Alien Land Laws, along with many other factors, have enabled the continuation of the unrealistic and blatant racism in American film into the 21st century.
A recent controversy caused by yellowface that gathered a lot of media attention was about the 2017 movie Ghost in the Shell. Scarlett Johannsen, a white woman, played Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character. Once Johannsen\’s casting was confirmed, fans started a petition to recast the lead role. This issue brought light to other examples of the whitewashing of Asian-American roles in Hollywood that further perpetuates common stereotypes against minority groups.
The whitewashing of Asian characters has also occurred to South Asians, primarily in animated films and TV Shows. Main characters Aladdin and Jasmine in Disney\’s Aladdin were both voiced by white actors, as were the majority of the supporting characters. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, a recurring character in The Simpsons, was voiced by Hank Azaria, a white actor. In The Social Network, Divya Narendra, an Indian student, was played by Ashton Kutcher. Even Mahatma Gandhi, in the 1982 film Gandhi, was played by American actor Ben Kingsley.
Along with wrongful representation, many of the roles offered to Asian-Americans consist of fulfilling stereotypes and forcing accents. In the children\’s television show Phineas and Ferb, Baljeet Tjinder is an Indian American boy who was portrayed as having a thick accent and enjoying studying subjects such as math and science. Similarly, in Jessie, Ravi Ross is also an Indian American character who has an accent and enjoys studying. He is also shown on multiple occasions being bullied by other characters and not being able to stand up for himself because of his lack of athleticism. Tiffany Chen in Bunk\’d, a spinoff of Jessie, is an East Asian girl who studies hard, plays the violin, and aims to go to Harvard University.
Although Asians are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the United States, they continue to be the most underrepresented in the entertainment industry. As of 2017, only 4.4% of speaking roles and 1% of Academy Awards have been given to Asian or Asian-American actors.
However, recently, Asian-Americans have been getting more positive media attention and are being given less stereotypical roles. Hasan Minhaj, an Asian-American comedian and actor, spoke at the 2017 White House Correspondents\’ Dinner and concluded his Netflix original series, Patriot Act, last year. Mindy Kaling is a first-generation Indian American who has written and starred in TV shows and created the Netflix series Never Have I Ever. Riz Ahmed is also a first-generation Indian American who was in Time Magazine\’s list of top 100 most influential people in the world.
For several decades, the entertainment industry has gotten away with blatant discrimination against Asian-Americans. Even though their intentions might be to encourage diversity, their poor execution deepens the racism in society. The portrayal of Asian Americans has been dehumanizing but hopefully, with the rise of a more tolerant generation, the discrimination against Asian-Americans in American film may eventually be eliminated for good.