MovieChat Forums > The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) Discussion > Western media fuels self-hating Asian ph...

Western media fuels self-hating Asian phenomenon


Excerpt from the following post:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415234/board/thread/104987920

"How come in Hollywood flicks we see mostly see Black-Black couples, or Latin-Latin couples, but Asian women are always paired with a White guy? It seems like most TV shows and movies in the past ten years exclusively pair an Asian girl with a White (or Black) guy romatically. Asian men are being completely suppressed and excluded in television and film.

It blows my mind that no Asian actresses are willing to object to the scripts, or fight against these negative stereotypes. They don't understand the power of TV/film to mold the way people think. Way too many AA writers and creators these days have self hate or White worship.

These shows affect kids. Teens, especially girls, judge themselves on others' opinions, and are easily influenced. Young, insecure Asian girls are conditioned through social norms/media to 'act White' and want only White men (self hate), and young Asian American boys growing up in the US are conditioned to think they are unattractive. Some Asian youth resolve identity conflict by developing self-hate and bashing their heritage, family, and people (ex 'I won't date Asians', or criticizing other Asians).

Whether it be fashion magazines, gossip mags, TV, movies, or our friends, all of us are influenced and emulate in some way what we see on screen. Entertainment can be as influential as advertising. So many shows and movies in America demean Asian men, while perpetuating an 'Asian Girl Fetish' in this country. It is Hollywood Colonialism."

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Excerpt from Steve Penner's “The Truth About Dating” article:
http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070511/OPIN ION04/70511017/-1/OPINION05

"Of all the races, African-American women were the most insistent about wanting to meet only African-American men. But most of those women excluded black men who had recently moved to New England from Africa or the Caribbean.

The one major exception to the finding that women wanted to meet men of their own race was Asian women, a vast majority of whom stated that they strongly preferred meeting non-Asian men.

The primary explanation offered by most Asian women was that they wanted to be matched with tall men, and they insisted that practically all of the Asian men they knew were short. But when I would ask if they would be willing to meet an Asian man if he were tall, most would simply shake their head and say they would rather not."

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Gina Choe, an unfortunate casualty of the brainwashing Western media:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1T0Lj7AnrM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AhDP97jnnU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HIUQlQNPEY

Self-hating issues related to asian people seem almost acceptable and regarded as casual conversation topics:
http://www.hyphenmagazine.com/blog/2008/05/self-hating-comedian-on-las t-c.html

Asian-American media figures do very little to combat the racist portrayal of Asian people and in Lucy Liu's case, have no problem perpetuating the negative effects of mass media brainwashing:
http://www.dailyllama.com/news/2002/llama169.html
http://www.wiretapmag.org/stories/16300/

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...and in other news, IMDb users wonder how many times kelly hong is going to keep posting the same topic.



No tears please, it's a waste of good suffering.

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...and in other news, IMDb users wonder how many times kelly hong is going to keep posting the same topic.


Word.

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"My God, my country, my Harley Davidson. But not necessarily in that order."

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good article, dont sweat the haters.

Let's put a smile on that face!

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You need to find a new drum to beat on, this ones all worn out.

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I don't know what to tell you. It's an American film, and American men like Asian women, so there's a bit of playing to the audience going on.

That said, I don't see the outrage. I watch a lot of foreign films, and I don't see Americans being "fairly" represented. Why is it that Hollywood is being held to a standard of "equal" representation that no other film makers in the entire world are? In some ways it's flattering, but it's also tiresome.

Hollywood is fighting 2 different outrages here. On the one hand, if they only ever show same-ethnicity couples, then people accuse them of being racist for not portraying mixed-ethnicity romance/friendship. When they mix it up, they get accused of discrimination for a totally different reason, like this. You can't win. It seems to me that you, and the author of this article, are simply wanting to be angry and offended by something, and nothing will stand in the way of that. Maybe you should lighten up just a bit?

Personally I think that portraying mixed-ethnicity relations to be very progressive, but perhaps I am biased. I am a white American with a Chinese girlfriend, and I deal with a lot of racism. Not from other white folk, but from her own family and other Asian people I meet. Racism is a insidious ill that effects people from all ethnicities, and I would think you would applaud any effort to dispel this instead of looking for things to complain about. To me, being offended by white + Asian romance is in itself a pretty racist point of view.

I agree that Asian men are not prominently represented in American film outside of typecast Kung Fu roles, but seriously, it's not Hollywood's job to make every damn person in the entire world happy. Don't give them your money if it bothers you so much.

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"meh, Asian girls like white me, but white girls don't like Asian men... sad truth.

I live in taiwan at the moment and i know many American, Canadian, British guys with asian girlfriends or wives. I only know one white girl with an Asian boyfriend (and i think their splitting up.)

If i go clubbing with some of my female friends they go on the prowl of the 'hot asian stud', but never find him. Whereas i've seen guys who would be classified as arkward back in the west who pull asian girls no problem.

It's just the way it is, i don'y think it can be entirely blamed on the media. "


Try going to South America, white girls over there love asian male. Besides, white girls dont want a Taiwanese green card.

Im asian and I have a white latina girlfriend. (and I have a US green card / lol)

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I'd totally be up for a relationship with an Asian guy if I was interested in all that relationship stuff.

But I'm not so it's a moot point. Can't see the point in relationships and stuff, eh I guess if I didn't have Asperger's (offically diagnosed by an actual doctor, I'm not one of those internet-diagnosed idiots) it would be a different story.

But Asian guys (both the American meaning and the *British meaning) are cute





*In Britain Asian means Indian/Pakistani

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Im south american, im from Chile but have lived in Brasil, argentina, and traveled extensively thru not only south, but also north, Central America and the Caribbean, and I can assure you that the only Latin girls into Asian males are thinking of economic stability. It's not fair, but it's what I have observed, the frontier between Brazil and Paraguay is specially notorious for this phenomenon, here is a common understanding that poor Brazilian and Paraguayan young females will marry wealthy Asian businessmen but will have affairs with black and/or Latin guys.





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'Asian men are being completely suppressed and excluded in television and film.'

That is loads of nonsense! Just look at Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Chow Yun Fat, Tony leung, etc.

'self-hating'? too strong a word that does not represent the truth. When it comes to dating, it is all about attraction, nothing to do with self-hating.

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Jet Li's new general paired up with his own asian female subordinate


Well, I don't think that was a pair-up romantically. I'm glad to hear someone mention this chick though, because she's easily the most awesome female character for me in the movie. The reason for this was because of her ride-or-die attitude and extreme sense of loyalty for Anthony Wong's character. When the story ended with them, I was just so surprised on how deep the movie producers made the General and his subordinate's relationship feel, with the simple act of her never letting go even until the very end. I guess, it was in a sense, romantic, but it can be interpreted as something less but undoubtedly extreme nonetheless.

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//Whilst it is clear you have done some homework on this, it is also clear you are full of *beep*
//jet Li's old general Ming paired up with Li Zhou
//Jet Li's new general paired up with his own asian female subordinate

Great, so the Asian women who paired up with Asian men die. They all die.

And the Asian girl who pairs up with a white guy: lives happily ever after.

Great movie!

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I'm an Asian man, and I'm glad Hollywood is accepting Asian women into their club. It might take a little longer for Asian guys who don't know Kung fu to get in, but we'll get there. I don't hate the fact that White guys go for Asian Women. It's fine by me, I flirt with mostly white women, because I find very little attraction to Asian women. I just think that it's good to diversify. Why must Asian women go for Asian men? not the best way to improve the gene pool. So I say live and let live.

P.S. I don't hate other Asians, but I do find them extremely annoying, and they do stuffs I find embarrassing. Try living near Little Saigon in OC and you'll feel the exact same way. Most of these people act like they're still in the old country, and they retain the same backward third country behaviors. It's shameful.

http://goldentempura.com/
reviews, music, and musings.

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it's really shameful though, that you're a self-hating, whitewashed twinkie boy......

Racist, much?

For all those who are convinced that there is some sort of Hollywood conspiracy to never show Asian guys as romantic leads, and certainly not with a white woman - I noticed that you can get "Shanghai Kiss" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469184/) on PPV here in the UK. Not seen it, but apparently it's about an Asian guy who has to choose between a bunch of girlfriends including Hayden "Heroes" Panettierre and Kelly Hu (it's a tough life). Lower down the page I noticed that the Asian guy/White guy fans aren't left out in "Under One Roof" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337738/).

No tears please, it's a waste of good suffering.

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I saw Shanghai Kiss. If you ever wanted to see that "evil" Asian guy in Ratner's movies (with white hair in Rush Hour 1, and Spiky guy in X3) in a romantic lead, this is a movie for you. For a guy that has only been seen as a arrogant evil dude, he plays a vulnerable and likeable guy very well. In the film, Hayden plays a 16 year old girl (i think she was 16 at the time of playing the role as well) who is infatuated with him. Then his grandmother dies and left him a house, he goes to China and rediscover himself, and Kelly Hu. Then he must choose between the two. IT's kinda like Garden State (or in this case it would be Communist State.. lol). It's cute, and I quite like the film.

http://goldentempura.com/
reviews, music, and musings.

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"No, goldenboy142, it's really shameful though, that you're a self-hating, whitewashed twinkie boy......"


I guess you can say that... it's not entirely true though, I love myself, and have a very clear picture of who I am, and what my values are. I don't have an identity crisis... but I do dislike a lot of Asians.

http://goldentempura.com/
reviews, music, and musings.

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