The Rise of the Asian Love Interest - From Undesirable to Desirable

From Anna May Wong’s appearance as a provocative Mongol slave in Douglas Fairbanks’, 1924 film The Thief of Baghdad’ to Kunal Nayyar recently playing the caricature of a character Raj Koothrappali in the highly commendable American sitcom, ‘The Big Bang Theory’, Western media is no stranger in perpetuating  harmful stereotypes suggesting the desirability, or lack thereof, within the Asian community. 

The concept of attractiveness forAsian people has been a constant establishment and re-establishment, though deeply rooted  in the early colonisation and military presence of western armies (e.g. the States) in Asian countries. . The hope  was to promote a sense of western imperialism to ‘uncivilised nations’, who were in fact ancient civilisations and states (e.g. India, China and Japan). The Western military presence of the time, recalled the ‘ordinary’ military culture normalising gambling, drinking, partying and prostitution. It could be further assumed that brothels were set up in the camps, as women ended up either forced, tricked or ‘willingly’ settled into the role of comfort women to feed in the needs of these men. This encouraged a fantasy fixated in the mind’s of these foreign troops that Asian women were able to feed in their desires and conform to their benefits. Submissive, pleasurable, quiet and tolerant; otherwise known as the ‘Lotus Blossom’. As upon their return to their respective countries, new’s quickly spread - eventually reaching Pop-culture -  with the earliest recollection of these fantasies being a novel-turned-opera (‘Madame Chrysanthéme’), dating back from 1887. It describes an affair between a French naval officer and a temporary Japanese ‘bride’ in 19th century Japan. The writer describes the bride as a ‘delicate and graceful figure [which]  seems strangely fantastic, and the darkness that envelops us conceals the fact that her face is quite ugly, almost without eyes’. Not once does he describe the woman as more than an object that needs saving. The implication that can be made is that the role feeds on the white saviour complex as it explores the notion that Asian women are these ‘fragile’, ‘quiet’ and innocent beings that make their ego’s bigger.

In contrast, a more rugged and rebellious stereotype was placed to subvert the ‘Lotus Blossom’, which is the more film favourite: ‘Dragon Lady’. The characterisation of this persona flips the characteristics of the ‘Lotus Blossom’, portraying Asian women as manipulating their sexuality, in order to complete deadly needs. A notable figure of this stereotype is the infamous early Hollywood actress: Anna May Wong (or Wong Liu Tsong). Wong was highly considered as the first Chinese-American movie star in Hollywood, who starred in countless movies, expanding from silent to sound films, yet was always subjected with the same stereotypical supporting roles. These roles supported the evident Yellow Peril-era that played on the irrational fear of the boom of Eastern people emerging and migrating to Western countries, therefore posing an existential threat to their livelihood and way of living. An example of one of Wong’s roles can be seen in her big break in 1924, starring in Douglas Fairbanks film (The Thief of Baghdad) playing a Mongo slave. The movie became an instant success, catapulting Wong into stardom…as well as the discriminatory and racism that came along with it. She expressed her displeasure with the way Hollywood treated her continuously pushing her into a box, saying: 

“I was so tired of the parts I had to play. Why is it that the screen Chinese is nearly always the villain of the piece, and so cruel a villain - murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass. We are not like that. How should we be, with a civilization that’s so many times older than that of the West. We have our own virtues. We have our rigid code of behaviour, of honour. Why do they never show these on the scream? Why should we always  scheme, rob, kill? I got so weary of it all - of the scenarist’s concept of Chinese characters. You remember ‘Fu Manchu’? ‘Daughter of the Dragon’? So wicked.” 

Unfortunately, this would only fall on deaf ears as for the remainder of her career, she played the same ‘dragon lady’ role in a list of B-side movies, and others, eventually leading to her surprising retirement.  

Alternatively, the fetishisation of Asian women in the media iscontrary to the de-sexualisation of Asian men, with most of them being represented through a narrow wind of stereotypes that had them conform to the unattractive, geeks and nerds, or more commonly, a taunting jab at their ‘femininity’. Although, there is a vivid social and societal construct that values and upholds men as the providers, masculine and dominant from both the West and the East, the stereotype of the feminisation of Asian men can be deprived from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which seeked to prevent an ethnic group from immigrating to the U.S. The consequence of this legislation not only stopped Chinese nationals from making their way to the States, but also prevented Chinese men (who were currently in the country, due to the promise of the American dream) from bringing their family, until the repeal of the law in 1943 through the Magnuson Act. The societal implications of the Chinese Exclusion Act were broad as many men felt their masculinity was stripped, as well as from their separation from their families; in order to earn a living many men found themselves forced to seek other areas of employment - most offers came from female-typical professions like restaurant and laundry work, which ultimately led to the dismantle of their statuses as ‘men’ in American society. Hollywood saw this as an opportunity to be able to influence the narratives of people in America to strengthen the Yellow Peril-Era as they tediously used the vulnerability of these men to their advantage. One of the most famous examples, could be seen by the by the American sitcom ‘2 Broke Girls’, which follows the recurring side character, called Han Lee played by Mattew Moy, who’s entire character play’s on his undesirability from his looks to his geeky personality, were (as both the show and character point out) is not attractive in the long run. We see this typical trope be a continuous running gag in sitcoms that need a tokenized character to be able to get some diversity points, yet have no idea what to do with them other than servingas a punch line.

Despite this, the slow emergence of Asian character’s stepping out of these stereotypical roles and taking the limelight reached a climax in 2018, with the high-profile movie: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ showing an ensemble of a full Asian cast (a first in 25 years) that had complex 3-dimensional characters, who not once conformed to the concepts that Hollywood had continuously boxed them in to. The incredible success saw the movie be the highest grossing rom-com in the past decade, as well as gave the much needed momentum that kicked open the doors for an entire community. It gave acknowledgement that Asian’s can be sexy, yet not have their entire character be surrounded by that, but instead stand as a byproduct with their extension of personality, goals and agency that everyone (not only Asians) can relate to. 

From then, the outburst of Asians finally being seen in desirable roles like Laura-Jean’s (from ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’) journey navigating her first boyfriend to Jimmy O. Yang starring as an unlikely love interest in the movie: ‘Love Hard’ and even Kamala Khan (Aka. Ms. Marvel) having her fair share of admirers, proves countless and countless of times that the need of portraying characters such as you and me beyond our racial identity, heritage and ethnicity will only be capable if Hollywood, producer’s and director’s alike look past the generalisations placed on our backs and focus on the bigger picture. Together we can unsay what they say about us when we begin telling our own narratives.