LAist: I remember sitting in a meeting a few years ago, casting extras for a major feature film. We were going down the list of scenes, all very routine, discussing what type of people should be in the background for each one: A 50-50 male-female split at the café — no problem. Older crowd at the charity benefit, fine.
Then we made it to a scene in a fictional paralegal's office, and someone said "This would be a really great spot for an Asian." The whole room erupted in a murmur of agreement.
3 comments:
As I read this article I was captivated by how similar I was to the author. Much like her, I am German, British (altho also Finnish and Swedish in my case as well) and Chinese. My great grandfather also immigrated to the United States in the late 1800s/ early 1900s. He also had a paper son like the author's great grandfather. Both of our great grandfathers also joined the US military and later brought over the rest of their family members. Both of our grandmothers were in Hong Kong when Japan invaded and had to hide as to not be killed. Our families both ended up in California. We both grew up hearing Cantonese but never learning to speak it ourselves, our cultural identities based strongly around food. We both struggled with being "Chinese enough". We both are in the performing arts industry. And we both have experienced racism in this industry.
Yep, here is an article about microaggressions against Asian people, here I am commenting on it. Nobody is surprised. Obviously, oppression is not a competition, nor should it be used to determine how "valid" people of color are, but the Asian American plight is one that is heavily glossed over, or, possibly worse, normalized. I know that I too don't feel represented onstage or in film or TV, although it has been slowly improving. When it comes to being behind the scenes, I definitely feel a distinct lack of Asian and Asian American presences. It is extremely disheartening. I have found a nice community of Asians here at the School of Drama, but at the same time we few have to shoulder all of the activism for Asians within our curricula and such because we are so often overlooked. Hopefully, one day we'll see Asian-led teams and projects, especially about Asian topics.
I always thought microaggressions against asians was a very interesting topic especially because I couldn't understand the ramifications those microagressions have on the big picture. I remember when slumdog millionaire came out and my parents would not let my brother and I watch the movie, at the time we were just really upset with them and thought they were stopping us from watching a movie because it was too violent or too inappropriate. What I didn't know until I watched the movie because the movie was very much poverty porn for most of it. I think it lacked the nuance of why India operates the way that it does and instead of uplifting the voices of the lower class it makes them seem like zoo animal for white people's enjoyment. And the messed part is even with all of those problems in the movie, my brother and I were just happy to see someone that looks like us on screen. I think the bamboo ceiling is such a real thing and I truly hope one day in my lifetime I see it fall and see asians accurately represented on screen, work on the shows off screen, and own the company that producing the show. Asians have been used in this country as a way of controlling poc and we are kept at arms length due to not being different enough but also not being similar enough. While I can personally only speak for my experience as an indian american, I hope these troubling times can allow for all the various asians within the united states to have their voices heard, because asia is a big ass continent with tons and tons of different cultures and perspectives.
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