That Asian in the Background

Answer: It's Ensign Harry Kim, Star Trek's "other Asian"...
In all fairness you may have not noticed him because he is
being blocked by Seven of Nine and her... ahem... implants.

With the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness this week, I am thinking this might be a good time to address an issue which comes up so often in geek and mainstream media (We call that normedia), the stereotype of Asians as sidekicks/partners/background dressing/etc... It's a trend that started around 1931 when (the very white) Warner Oland put on make-up to impersonate the detective Charlie Chan in the movie, Charlie Chan Carries On. The movie was a success, but only because they had a white guy (offensively) playing the titular role of the Chinese detective (who was based on the real Chinese Hawaiian detective, Chang Apana.) In fact, two different studios had tried making Charlie Chan adventure movies before 1931 and both failed miserably because they cast an Asian actor as the lead, and only featured the  titular character as background to the other white characters. The American audience just couldn't conceive of an Asian as a hero, except when being played by a white guy, and ever since Asian characters have been regulated to the role of sidekicks (many of whom tend to be infinitely more interesting than the hero they are assisting).

Just take a look at the ultimate Asian sidekick (literally), Kato, the masked chauffeur of the Green Hornet. Now Kato is an interesting example, because in most ways he is waaaaaaayy more competent than the lead character, Green Hornet (a fact that the Seth Rogan/Jay Chou film goes to great lengths to illustrate.) Kato is a martial arts master (especially when played by the great Bruce Lee), a gifted mechanic, and has a genius-level intellect. By all accounts of comic book lore and law, those three are enough to make anyone into a top-tier successful superhero, but not Kato, because he is Asian... A sad fact of the matter is that in white mainstream American media that means he has a handicap. Thus, not only is Kato not the hero, he doesn't even have a dual identity. He is simply called the "masked chauffeur," or "masked companion of the Green Hornet." This ambiguity is so bad in fact, that most incarnations can't even seem to agree where Kato is originally from, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines. When the Chinese actor, Bruce Lee, played the character he was Japanese. In the newest incarnation he was Chinese, and in the old radio serials two of the three voice actors who played him were white, and his nationality was flipped several times, eventually settling on "generic oriental," but I mean... what's the difference, Asian is Asian, right?

 

"Due to their emasculated nature an Asian man could never
be considered a sex symbol in Ameri... Look at that guy's
abs... What was I saying?"

I can only hope that my above statement will never be taken out of context to come back and bite me during some future political campaign, because it is incredibly offensive and incorrect. That would be like saying, "French? German? What's the difference, European is European, right?" or "Canadian? American? It's all the same." Even when you think about the term Asian American, it is at least slightly derogatory. I mean do we call anyone "European American" or "South American American?" The only other people who get identified by their continent, in fact, are Australians, but that's only because their continent is the same as their whole entire kangaroo-damned country. (Also, Africans, which is also racially motivated....) (Note: I will keep using the term Asian in this blog due to its wide recognized connotations and because many of the people I will talk about have been labeled as such without any specific country qualifiers.) The real fact is that the people of the different East Asian cultures are very different from one another. It is a distinction that most Americans tend to glance over, because "they all look the same," or "they all can't speak English," or because of: any of the other thousand ignorant statements you might overhear at the dive bar in the small town I grew up in, and because of these justifications we tend to devalue them as people and as heroes.

Take a look at Indiana Jones' eleven year old Chinese sidekick, Short Round. I am not claiming Spielberg or Lucas are knowingly racist, (In Lucas' case I doubt if he is even knowingly competent,) but there is a reason why Indy's Asian sidekick is a child. It devalues him as a masculine figure when compared to the white male hero of Indy (like Robin compared to Batman). Short Round's English is broken and comical, and his child-like naivety and lack of formal education fulfill the type-cast mold of what a movie-goers might expect from a helpless Asian sidekick who needs to follow around the stronger American for protection. However, much like how Kato turns certain stereotypes on its head, (Asians are supposed to be bad drivers, yet Kato was the chauffeur,) so does Short Round. Despite his lack of formal education, the kid is exceptionally quick thinking and even manages to save Indiana on more than one occasion in the movie. It can even be argued that he is the true hero of the story. When Dr. Jones is off having unfulfilled romantic tension with some hitchhiking lounge singer, its Short Round that picks up the slack and keeps the story on pace. His strong moral compass not only help keeps Indiana Jones on track, but saves a few hundred unfortunate slave children.

Most people forgot about Mr.
Miyagi's former career as owner
of the 1950's diner, "Arnolds."

Of course Asian partners aren't just kids, they can also be really old men, such as the famous Mr. Miyagi. His quirky "old manness" is often pointed out as fitting the stereotype of the wise man or even the mystical Asian. In many ways Miyagi is a caricature of Asians, speaking with a Yoda-like speech pattern, being a master at karate, and directing Daniel with cryptic and confusing instructions. However, he also eschews the mold by having a very real history and proving he is not just another one-in-one-thousand sensei wannabes. He not only served in the American military with distinction, during World War II, but his wife and son died in the Manzanar Internment Camp. The character of Miyagi is able to break his mold by being a real person. He is also as an admittance by the movie that America destroyed a lot of lives with forced Japanese internment, (to put it mildly.)

In the remake of Karate Kid, the wise and venerable master is played by everyone's favorite "zany" martial artist, Jackie Chan. Now you might want to hold up Chan as someone who breaks the old stereotypes. After all, he is a major Hollywood actor, a leading man, and he plays respectable characters, but think about that for a minute... Take a look at Chan's best hits, Rush Hour or Shanghai Noon. Is Chan really the star or just a second banana to Owen Wilson and Chris Tucker? It is even hard to argue that the acclaimed Chinese actor plays different roles in both movies. Other than a change in time and location he essentially plays the same person over and over again. In fact, Chan himself expressed frustration over the limited roles available to him in Hollywood, and he's a freaking A (maybe B) list celebrity, which is part of the reason why he started his own production company, where he produced movies such The Myth and Rob-B-Hood. Never heard of them? That's because Chan chose not to play the same old roles, and the American public lost interest.

As with most stereotyping there is a true danger of internalization, not only by white audiences, but by Asian American audiences as well. After all, America tends to think of the Asian population as the "model immigrant." They are smart and hard working. They are the kids that sit in the back of the class, get straight A's and never complain... but that is part of the problem. The media generalizes them to background characters because for some reason we have incorrectly labeled them as background characters in our culture. Yet, when small Asian girls and boys watch these movies or TV shows what are they supposed to think about themselves? Is the highest rank of herodom they can attain, truly be "Emasculated Sidekick," or "China Doll," or "Quiet Smart Kid," or "Kung Fu Master?" Do Asian boys grow up and think that they can never get the girl, or that they are always destined to stand behind some white man and be his tech nerd or silent underling?

Thankfully, the trends are changing. For example I would point to Pixar's Russell, the Asian American boy scout in Up. He is still not considered the hero, but neither is he a silent and passive character meant to solely compliment Ed Asner's old man character. Russell is integral to the plot. He is the driving force behind all the adventures and even the eventual change of heart experienced by the old man. He is also obnoxious, not particularly smart, and has no discernible accent of any type. I'm not saying he is exactly the type of character one would look to emulate, but he is also not the typical Asian American stereotype.

Despite all his progressiveness, Glen does sort of have the
Short Round look going for him.

We also cannot ignore, Glen, from Walking Dead, who (in my opinion) is probably one of the most complete and successful Asian American characters on TV today. He is smart, resourceful, and so important to the show that if he dies I think I might actually start some kind of protest campaign. Even better he has completely thrown off the old ideas of the non-masculine Asian male to prove that he is not only kick ass in a fight, but has won the affections of Maggie, played by the very attractive (and very white) Lauren Cohan. In the past you almost never saw a male Asian character "save the princess." Asian men often suffer from a stereotype of being asexual or non-sexual beings. They are emasculated in the white media. In years past it was simply deemed too unbelievable that an Asian male character would ever "get the girl," (especially a white girl), but the Korean American Glen not only helps to buck that trend but practically shatters it.

Another actor breaking trends is John Cho of Harold and Kumar fame. The actor is coming to epitomize the new breed of Asian characters coming into prominence of both nerd and mainstream media. No longer regulated strictly to the background, actors like Cho or Ken Jeong (who has played such notable parts as a flamboyant gangster, a LARP'ing king, and a Spanish teacher,) are helping to break the old molds of what Asian characters can and can't be. Of course this brings us back around to Star Trek: Into Darkness, where Koren American Cho plays the roll of Hikaru Sulu, despite the fact that the role was originally held by a Japanese American, George "God Among Men," Takei.

“It’s really hard to hate someone for being different when you’re
too busy laughing together.”  -George Takei

The veteran actor portrayed Sulu on the original run of Star Trek and its movies. Now the old Star Trek series wasn't perfect in its progressiveness, (as Romulans started as nothing more than "Evil Asian" stand-ins, in much the same way that Klingons were so Russian you could smell the vodka,) but for 1960's TV it was (pardon the pun) light years ahead of most. One of the principal characters was Lieutenant Sulu. Mainly a glorified background character to Shatner's Kirk, he may have never gotten the type of screen time that Leonard Nimoy or DeForest Kelley got, but his appearance on the show was a leap forward in its own right. Not only was Sulu a hero character, but he was the pilot of the USS Enterprise, an incredibly important and prestigious position, as any first year cadet of Starfleet Academy will tell you. Even further, Sulu went on to captain his own ship in time, and even found time for a family. Similar to Kato, in a lot of ways it can be argued that Sulu was the superior officer to the womanizing, workaholic, punch-first-ask-questions-later Kirk.

Despite being regulated to the background, Sulu marked an important step forward for Asian depictions on television and in the media. Maybe that is why it is so fitting that John Cho be the actor selected to take over the reigns of Sulu. The upward trend of Asian characters in the media has been heart-breakingly slow, but thanks to a new generation of actors, like Cho, we are finally coming to realize the importance of the Asian standing in the background, because sometimes they can be a heck of a lot more interesting than the white guy standing at the front.