David Chiu

Over at the Rice Bowl Journals forum I am in an interesting discussion started from my initial post “Asians Dissin Asians” mirrored here. The current reply to my post raised an interesting question: “are we (the Asian community) too sensitive?” Are we complaining about every little instance that we feel is remotely racist? Should we just be passive about these issues as to not perpetrate an image of humorless whiners?

I’m not sure I quite agree that we should be passive.

Yes, I do agree that as a community, we should not be “too” sensitive, but where is the balance? Here in Hollywood, the Asian community has been in an uproar about several issues over the past year: the “Fu Man Chu” costume put out at Halloween by one company, the “Charlie Chan” TV series being re-aired on TV, the “racist” t-shirts being sold at Abercrombie and Fich, the Bonzai show on FOX, the lack of Asian representation on TV shows, etc, etc, etc. Should we not complain about these things? Moreover, if fellow Asians are perpetuating Asian stereotypes, does it not give a signal to the rest of the world that it is ok to make fun of Asians? The only way this will change is if there is a balance of Asian representation. If there are more positive Asian images that break stereotypes this would offset the negative ones. But that is part of the problem. How do we get more positive images in the media when Hollywood does not think Asian people are “marketable” or “bankable” in the box office? Forget about Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Chow Yun Fat. Yes they are superstars and marketable, but here in Hollywood they still perpetuate negative Asian stereotypes - Asian people don’t speak good english, Asian people are foreign, and all Asian men known Kung Fu (although not necessarily a bad thing).

Then there is the whole “Asian community” issue. Are we really a community? Yes we are trying to help each other but I still do not see a complete cohesiveness. We are still segregated into our own ethnic groups with our different cultures and pride. I think an analagous question would be, would there ever be an “Asian Town” as opposed to a Chinatown, or a little Tokyo, or a Korea Town, or a Filipino Barrio, etc, etc, etc? I don’t think so. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work together.