Source Based Essay – Theory of Writing

Source Based Essay final draft: Asian Representation in Media

Funny accents, strange wisdom, and martial arts were what Asian actors were mainly known for back in the day. Most of the time people would only enjoy old Chinese kung-Fu movies not for the story or message, but instead for the noises the martial artists would make after kicking someone through a wall, and for how they would speak. People would only watch these movies for a laugh, unlike if they were to watch another film such as Star-Wars.

However, as the years go by, different forms of media have been produced like movies, tv shows, etc. This boom in media has caused Asian Representation in media to evolve. An example of this would be the first Ip Man movie, this movie was no joke and anyone who watched knew that. It’s known for both its story and well-choreographed fight scenes, and how it’s supposed to be based on the real Ip man’s life. Due to the success of the first film, three other films followed and the actor who plays Ip Man, Donnie Yen, was casted in other extremely famous movie franchises. One in particular would the Star Wars movie spin off, Rouge One. Because of movies like Ip Man and Crazy Rich Asians, the situation many Asian actors are faced with continue to improve, so you’ll start seeing more serious roles being played by Asian faces.

Representation in media for Asian actors will continue to make headway as evident in, a tweet from one of the lead roles from the movie Crazy Rich Asians, Constance Wu, “Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television?” by Thessaly La Force, Matthew Choi’s newspaper article “Wong Fu Productions screens new movie, discusses Asian-American representation in media”, and my scholarly source “Racial accents, Hollywood casting, and Asian American studies” by Shilpa Dave.

In the Taiwanese American actor Constance Wu’s tweet, she tells her story of how she had to deal with the hardships of being an Asian-American actor. Additionally, she talks about how both Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians made history for since they were the first in over twenty years to be about an Asian-American’s story. She then talks about how everyone should go out and watch Crazy Rich Asians, how it’s meant to inspire Asian-Americans to become the center of their own story.

The author of this source is Constance Wu, an Asian-American Actor who is known for playing main roles in Fresh Off the Boat, Crazy Rich Asians, and Hustlers. Her audience would be Asian-Americans and/or Asians in general, this is evident in her tweet when she says, “My dear Asian-American friends, we are building our own damn houses” (Constance Wu). She has a very uplifting tone throughout her tweet, when she’s talking about her hardships it was wasn’t meant to make the reader sad but instead to inform those that don’t know what many Asian actors are going through. The purpose as to why she wrote this was to inspire Asian-Americans to leave the background and stand their ground in the foreground. You’ll find the evidence supporting this when she says, “I hope Asian-American kids watch CRA (Crazy Rich Asians) and realize that they can be the heroes of their own story” (Constance Wu). The genre of the tweet would be more considered a letter, and the medium she uses to spread her message is the social media website/app Twitter. Her stance would be that she is for uproar in Asian representation caused by Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians, she displays this when she uses phrases like “help our movement.” Her language in her tweet would be positive because she uses words like “love”, “proud”, “best gifts”, etc.

In the magazine article “Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television?” by Thessaly La Force, she starts out by listing off cases where white actor plays an Asian role. She then transitions into talking about her own life as a half Chinese American, and how she was never really considered “Asian” by others. Next, Thessaly La Force explains how there are only a few Asian actors who’ve had an impact on her growing up. One in particular were George Takei’s performance in Star Trek. In Star Trek, Takei played a major role, without the need of an accent, officer Hikaru Sulu who then ends up leading his own ship and crew. She believes the reason as to why there are so little roles being played by Asian actors is because Hollywood just refuses to see them. She explains this idea when she says, “Perhaps, other Asian-Americans have argued, we aren’t vocal enough… But I don’t buy it. I think that you refuse to see us. To look at us for who we are” (Thessaly La Force).

The author of this magazine article is Thessaly La Force, and her audience would be those that are ignorant to Asian representation in media. She uses a very informative tone when she talks about her purpose for writing this, which is to spread awareness of how Hollywood chooses to cast Caucasian actors over Asian ones, even for characters that are written to be Asian. She explains this idea when she says, “Tilda Swinton, otherworldly in her beauty, as always, but monkishly bald as the Ancient One, a character originally intended to be Tibetan, in 2016’s Doctor Strange” (Thessaly La Force). The genre of her text would be a magazine article and the medium she uses to display it would be the New York Times Style Magazine website. Her language in this article would be casual, while her stance on the topic Hollywood’s choices when it comes to casting would be that she’s against their decisions.

In the newspaper article “Wong Fu Productions screens new movie, discusses Asian-American representation in media” by Matthew Choi, he talks about the YouTube filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions and their new movie (at the time), Everything Before Us. Additionally, Choi talks about the Q&A Wong Fu Productions had where the creators, Wesley Chan, Ted Fu, and Phillip Wang, talk about their opinions on representation in media for Asian-Americans. They say, “as there are few opportunities for Asian-American actors in media…producers told them a large cast of Asians was ‘bad business’ for attracting audiences…This is why it’s really important to share this movie, … To show those companies: No, there is an audience.” So, with their movie, which had a mainly Asian American cast, they were able to prove those producers wrong.

The author of this newspaper article was Matthew Choi and his audience would be followers of Wong Fu Productions. Choi used an informative tone to display his purpose of this article. His purpose for writing this article was to inform readers about Wong Fu Production’s film, Everything Before Us, and their opinions on representation in media. The genre of Matthew Choi’s text is a new article, and the medium he uses is UWIRE Text. His stance in this text is very unbiased because he doesn’t display his own opinion in the article, and the language he uses is a bit robotic since he doesn’t use first-person pronouns and he just states facts.

In the scholarly source “Racial accents, Hollywood casting, and Asian American studies” by Shilpa Dave, he talks about the many factors that representation in media for Asians is dependent on. However, the one he goes in depth into is accents and how it allows Asians, particularly south Asians, to be “racially identifiable”. He puts this idea into words when he says, “by rethinking racial representations through the use of the accent, we are able to see connections between other ethnic representations and to open up alternative forms of research that lead to a larger discussion about performance…” (Shilpa Dave). Dave believes that accents can be used as a bridge to create more ideas, which will alter our ideas on “racial difference”.

The author of this text is Shilpa Dave, who also wrote Indian Accents: Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film. The audience Dave is writing to is to anyone who is studying or doing research on representation in media for Asian-Americans. The tone Shilpa Dave uses is informative and the purpose is to inform the reader on the idea of how accents can be used in the film industry and the choice some Asian actors need to make. Dave is able to express this when he says, “to perform the accent means success and recognition in standard Hollywood narratives, but it also denies the individuality, variety of experiences, and diversity of the actors who long to challenge the preexisting character stereotypes” (Shilpa Dave). The genre of “Racial accents, Hollywood casting, and Asian American studies” is a cinema journal entry, the medium Shilpa Dave uses for this would be an e-book. His stance would be that he is for the idea of accents, he believes that accents do have a positive effect on representation. His use of language is formal since he uses words like “longevity” and “racializing characteristic”, there’s no use of slang.

The main similarity between all the sources is that they all talk about how representation in media is unfair for the minority groups in the film industry, specifically Asian-Americans. Constance Wu’s tweet and Thessaly La Force’s magazine article both mention a piece of their own life and how they dealt with their situations. A difference between all my sources would be the purpose as to why they were written. Although all of them are about Asian representation in media, they all have different main ideas. Constance Wu’s tweet was meant to inspire, while Matthew Choi’s news article is meant to inform those about Wong Fu production’s film. Even though the audience for each of these sources can technically be everyone, each of the authors had a specific demographic in their mind, Thessaly La Force wrote to those who aren’t aware of the inequality in film business while Shilpa Dave wrote to researchers. Constance Wu approached representation by first telling her own story, and then by promoting the movie Crazy Rich Asians. Thessaly La Force went a similar route, she first described her life as a being half-Asian, then she started talking about the film business and how you barely see any Asian faces playing serious roles. Matthew Choi had a very monotone way of addressing the topic of representation, he mainly just quoted Wong Fu Productions from their Q&A. Shilpa Dave approach to the topic of representation was very informative because he gave multiple relevant examples.

All in all, representation in media is continuing to get better thanks to different sources like celebrity tweets, articles, movies etc. They all give awareness that Asian actors can do so much more than be your stereotypical kung-Fu master with an accent. As representation in media gets better so will representation in general for Asians will improve. Slowly but surely, the idea that one race is above another will return to just being a thought and it will be replaced with the idea of everyone being equal.

Citations:

Newspaper Article

Choi, Matthew. “Wong Fu Productions screens new movie, discusses Asian-American

representation in media.” UWIRE Text, 3 May 2015, p. 1. Gale OneFile: News,

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A412091187/STND?u=cuny_ccny&sid=STND&xid=06c138ba. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Scholarly Source

Dave, Shilpa. “Racial accents, Hollywood casting, and Asian American studies.” Cinema Journal

56.3 (2017): 142+. Business Insights: Global. Web. 2 Oct. 2019. http://bi.gale.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/global/article/GALE%7CA491136668/51304cf8d88119117b7e39aa03e41d53?u=cuny_ccny. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Magazine Article

Force, Thessaly La. “Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and

Television?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Nov. 2018,

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/t-magazine/asian-american-actors-representation.html. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019