South Pacific

Another Rodgers and Hammerstein (same guys who did Flower Drum Song). Mediocre musicals for the win! 

The entire musical takes place during WWII in the Solomon Islands. There is an American naval base on one of the islands, and the rest are occupied by the Japanese.  An American lieutenant, Joe Cable (John Kerr) lands on the island occupied by the US in order to plan an attack on the Japanese-occupied islands. He lands there and is greeted by Luther Billis (Ray Walston), another sailor stationed on the island, and Bloody Mary (Juanita Hall), a Tonkinese grass skirt vendor. Bloody Mary shamelessly flirts with Cable while Billis sees Cable as his chance to get to the one unoccupied and seemingly magical island, Bali Ha'i. Cable falls in love with the idea of the island as well, and Bloody Mary sings a song. Then a Captain Brackett (Russ Brown) arrives and shoos Bloody Mary and her grass skirts away from the navy base while introducing himself to Cable. Cable tells him of his plans to take the islands from the Japanese, but he'll need the help of a certain Frenchman living on the island, Emile de Becque (Rossano Brazzi). Meanwhile, Emile de Becque is entertaining a certain Nellie Forbush (Mitzi Gaynor), a naval nurse working at the hospital. They fall in love quite instantaneously and sing a song about it. Then Emile proposes to her (what? It's only 35 minutes into the film!) and Nellie says she'll think about it. Then Emile tells her that back in France, he killed a man (nice timing, bro) and she's slightly horrified but still wants to marry him. She returns to the hospital for work and is summoned to Capt. Brackett's office. Brackett and Cable have learned about Nellie and Emile's romance, so they question her about it and Cable tells Nellie to forget it all. Then Nellie goes and takes a shower and vows to "wash that man right outta [her] hair." Then the captain talks to Emile and tells him to join in the secret operation with Cable. Emile refuses because he loves Nellie and Cable is distraught. Captain Brackett tells Cable to take some time off, and Cable seizes the opportunity to go to Bali Ha'i with Luther Billis. They both get a boat and sail to the magical island where native women cover them with flowers and they watch a pig-killing ritual. Then Bloody Mary shows up and drags Cable off to her house, where he meets her daughter Liat (France Nuyen). Liat and Cable fall in love/lust and stay with each other until the bell for the boats rings and Cable has to return to the other island. Meanwhile, Emile has hosted a grand party for Nellie to meet all of his friends. She speaks horrible French, by the way. Both are rather drunk, so they sing a song. Emile decides to introduce Nellie to his two children, who he had with his previous wife, a woman of Polynesian descent. When he tells Nellie this, she becomes remarkably upset and flees his house. INTERMISSION! Act II begins with Cable returning to Bali Ha'i to be with Liat, where he is told that a rich French planter wants to marry Liat. Bloody Mary tells Cable that he must marry Liat to make her happy. Cable says that he can't, but he gives a watch to Liat as a keepsake. Bloody Mary is unsatisfied, so she takes the watch and gives it back to Cable, who returns to the other island depressed. Thanksgiving is nearing, and Nellie is planning to put on a comedy show in celebration. However, she is depressed as well, and she demands a transfer to another island. Captain Brackett talks her out of it, and after the show, Nellie receives some flowers and a note from Emile. Distraught, she runs from the stage and out... away... to where she bumps into Cable, who has just recovered from malaria (what?!). They talk about love, and Cable confesses that he loves Liat, and Nellie suggests that they both need to go back home to America. Emile shows up to talk to Nellie, who confesses that her racism made her hate the fact that Emile used to be married to a Polynesian woman, while Cable decides against going back to America and decides to marry Liat. Emile then reluctantly joins Cable's mission to take back the Japanese-occupied islands. The two of them make it to the other island safely and are able to relay information back to the naval base. Unfortunately, the Japanese detect their presence and open fire on them, killing Cable. Nellie hears of this and must comfort Liat, who has refused to marry anyone but Cable. Nellie realizes that she still loves Emile despite his past marriage, and she goes to his house and begins to care for his two children. Emile returns safe and sound and they all eat soup together. The End!

Bali Ha'i,

Bali Ha'i,

Bali Ha'i!

Someday you'll see me floatin' in the sunshine,

My head stickin' out from a low fluin' cloud,

You'll hear me call you,

Singin' through the sunshine,

Sweet and clear as can be:

"Come to me, here am I, come to me."

If you try, you'll find me

Where the sky meets the sea.

"Here am I your special island

Come to me, Come to me."

This movie is part of a whole other aspect of Asian American-ness that I haven't really investigated prior to this. I've mostly stuck with exploring East Asian stereotypes, but I've never really gotten into the Pacific Islander thing. It is definitely included in the Asian/-American thing, but Pacific Islanders usually get left out of these considerations. I realized this and thought that I needed to include a movie or television show that showed potential stereotypes surrounding Pacific Islanders as well. I lucked out, huh?

I watched this musical mostly for Juanita Hall's performance as Bloody Mary. Hall, an African-American woman, played the Tonkinese woman who sells grass skirts to the sailors stationed on the unnamed island. She's loud, and brassy and pidgin English abounds. Everything about Bloody Mary is disgusting. She can't say the word "lieutenant" - she's forced to call Joe Cable a "sexy Lootellant" in that halting, fingernails-on-chalkboard accent. She sets up her daughter with the "sexy Lootellant" and purrs at him, "You riiiiiiiiiiiiike?" Once he refuses to marry Liat, she calls him a "steen-gee steen-kah" and waddles away in a huff. Accent aside, however, there's the issue of yellowface. Is it considered yellowface to have an African-American playing a Pacific Islander? She's not playing an East Asian, but she's still playing someone of a different race - a race that, nowadays, is grouped with East Asians. What's up with this? I'm unsure how to classify this particular casting choice at all. The role has been played by women of all races, but that doesn't excuse the fact that this role is based on cheap stereotypes and lowbrow comedy based on her preposterous accent. The character of Bloody Mary is basically creating another stereotype, but this time only one that can be applied to Pacific Islander women of a certain age - middle-aged, roly-poly and sassy women. Bloody Mary seems to be made fun of all the time by the sailors stationed on the island, and she doesn't seem to have any love interests - she's just there for kicks and giggles. Bloody Mary is kind of like Charlie Chan in this way. Both are subservient, rotund, laughable, and speak their own brand of pidgin English. She's like an old, un-innocent Suzie Wong - now ain't that too damn bad?

Then there's the island girl Liat. She's pretty and sweet and mute. Another Lotus Blossom - although it begs the question of whether or not she should be a Hibiscus Blossom or something. Liat has only one line in the entire movie - "Je parle francais - un peu." And that's it. Nothing more. When she's onscreen she's either kissing Lootellant Cable or smiling at him or, in the above video, doing some sort of funky hula-esque/sign language dance. Liat represents the white man's fantasy - a young, pretty, exotic island girl who doesn't talk but dances and is pretty all the time. Eye candy. That's all Liat is. And she's completely devoted to her Lootellant - what more could the guy want? (Sidenote: That actress is France Nuyen (19 at the time of the shooting), who played Suzie Wong on Broadway and later starred in Joy Luck Club)

Then of course there's the plot line surrounding Nellie Forbush and Emile de Becque - Nellie loves him but can't get over the fact that he was once married to (God forbid) a Polynesian woman! And had two mixed-race children with her! How horrible! Obviously, the French guy had no problem with marrying a Polynesian woman - makes you wonder whether his previous situation was similar to Cable + Liat's, eh? Yeah. This whole White Guy + Asian Woman thing? Yeah, tanned-white-as-white-can-be Nellie Forbush doesn't like that all that much. It's the Reverse Fu Manchu effect: Watch out for those innocent, Bambi-eyed, pretty Polynesian women! They'll enchant and steal your white men! This prompts Emile to (somehow) still believe in Nellie's love and ability to love him and his children. Then Lootellant Cable bursts into song!

You've got to be taught

To hate and fear,

You've got to be taught

From year to year,

It's got to be drummed

In your dear little ear

You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid

Of people whose eyes are oddly made,

And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,

You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,

Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate,

You've got to be carefully taught!

Well damn. Couldn't have said it better myself (I think?). Now here's the kicker. The tune of this song sounds like a happy-happy-joy-joy song, right? But those lyrics don't... fit? I mean, "You've got to be taught to be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made"? Wow. Ouch. And in a way, Cable's right. You probably have been taught to fear people with "oddly made" eyes. That's what this study is about, right? How the media teaches us to fear the other - regardless of what kind of other it is. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that this song is supposed to be sarcastic and spiteful, as Cable (at this point in the show) is upset that he can't marry Liat. This song seems to be shedding some light on this idea of inherent racism that is really... nurtured racism? Environmental racism? Interestingly enough, this song was deemed "Communist" by a Georgia legislation when the show was first on tour in the 1950s (Communist? Really?!? I resent that remark!). It claimed that the song "[justified] interracial marriage [and] was implicitly a threat to the American way of life." Ouch. Thankfully, Rodgers and Hammerstein stated that they would continue the show without the cutting of this one song. Progress, people, progress!

Overall, this musical is... odd. At some points, it directly draws from and expands upon crude stereotypes surrounding Pacific Islanders, not to mention some East Asian characterizations. But then it has songs like "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" that open one's eyes to the racism that has been, well, carefully taught. It's a mixed bag - but again, it's some crap songs. 

Joy Luck Club

There's no way I can claim to have a decent Asians/-Americans in the media blog without mentioning this movie. No way. 

Based on Amy Tan's book of the same name, Joy Luck Club (1993) is the story of four Chinese immigrant mothers and their relationships with their grown Chinese-American daughters. Su Yuan, Lindo, Ying Ying, and An-Mei were all born and raised in feudal China, and get together once a week to play mah-jong and drink tea and hope to be lucky in their lives. Their daughters, June, Waverly, Lena, and Rose, were born and raised in America. Su Yuan (Kieu Chinh) has passed away before the movie begins, and her story is told by June, her daughter. We learn about all of the seven other women in their various flashbacks to adolescence and childhood. Su Yuan was married in China to a different man and had twin baby girls. The Japanese invade China and she is forced to evacuate her village and head for Chungking with nothing but her babies. Along the way, she contracts dysentery and is worried that if she dies, it will bring bad luck on her babies and they won't be rescued. So she leaves them at the side of the road with a note asking whoever finds them to contact their father. She then winds up in America, remarries, and has her daughter June (Ming-Na), but she is forever haunted by the loss of her babies. Su Yuan has June begin to play the piano, hoping that she is gifted and will be a child star. However, June doesn't really want to do that, and she doesn't get why her mom wants her to - in fact, she doesn't get her mom at all. Lindo (Tsai Chin) was given away by her mother at age sixteen as part of an arranged marriage to a boy who was sixteen as well. Her husband had no sexual interest in her at all, and they became like brother and sister. Unfortunately, the boy's mother wants Lindo to produce a grandson for her, so she restricts Lindo to her bed until she gives birth to a baby. Lindo makes a plan to get out of her marriage which relies on her mother-in-law's belief in superstition. She escapes to America, remarries, has a daughter, Waverly, and becomes Su Yuan's best friend. The two women raise their children together, and Waverly and June grow up as rivals. Lindo makes Waverly (Tamlyn Tomita) into a chess champion, but has very high expectations of Waverly. When Waverly thinks her mom is using her champion status to draw attention to herself, Waverly quits chess and never plays again, but remains constantly afraid of her mother's criticisms. Ying-ying (France Nuyen) grew up meek and quiet and ended up marrying an abusive douchebag who sleeps around and treats her like dirt. They have a son together, but Ying-ying, wanting revenge, drowns the son. Her husband dies, and she goes to America with her new husband. They have a daughter, Lena, who grows up like her mother, quiet and unable to express herself. Lena (Lauren Tom) winds up in a marriage where her husband makes their relationship financially "equal" and therefore saps their relationship of all tenderness and caring. Lena ends up divorcing her husband and meeting someone new. An-Mei's (Lisa Lu) mother was raped by a wealthy man, and, having nowhere else to turn, she becomes his Fourth Wife and leaves An-Mei to be raised by her grandparents. Eventually, An-Mei's mother comes back for her and brings her to the house of her new husband, where she gave birth to a boy (as result of the rape) who has been adopted by Second Wife, a cruel and manipulative woman. An-Mei's mother commits suicide by eating opium before New Year's. An-Mei realizes her worth, and what has been going on in her new home, and demands that her "stepfather" treat her and her half-brother like they were his children from a First Wife. When An-Mei moves to America, she marries and has a daughter, Rose. Rose (Rosalind Chao) ends up marrying a white man who married her just to spite his racist mother. She is entirely dependent on him and he makes all of the decisions in their relationship. However, he ends up losing interest in her and having an affair. Rose and he decide to split their property and custody of their daughter, until Rose finally learns to stand up for herself and ask for her proper share of the property. All of these flashbacks are occurring during a farewell party for June, who will be going to China to meet the lost twins, who are now grown women and want to meet their mother. However, they don't know that their mother has died, so June must be the bringer of bad news. She goes to China and tells them that their mother has died, but that she came to take her mother's place. And so it ends, with an abundance of Kleenex and tears. 

Notice how the entire main cast is all Asian/-American women? There are hardly any white people in this film too - two husbands (of Waverly and Rose, respectively) and extras. Everyone else is Asian. Really Asian. No yellowface here, no sir. Remember Flower Drum Song? How it boasts an all-Asian American cast, and being the first of its kind? How it was applauded for being such a great portrayal of Chinese-Americans? Remember how it focused so much on being the first of its kind that it lost sight of the plot, dragged on too much and generally sucked? Not so with Joy Luck Club! It's a cast with talented, relatively unknown (back then) Asian-American women and it never loses sight of its plot, never has any contrived dialogue - it's solid all the way through. It tugs at your heartstrings. It's well-made, real, with no cheesy song-and-dance numbers or Monkey King ballets. There are real Asian people in both of the casts, but Flower Drum Song relies too much on its "groundbreaking" cast and forgets that there is something called plot, and it's rather important to a movie. Joy Luck Club has an all-Asian main cast, but it moves beyond that and strives to be a good movie. Sure, this movie deals with being Chinese, being Chinese American (the book even more so), but it doesn't get lost in that. It acknowledges it and moves on. The film uses the Chinese-ness as a backdrop to a compelling story about love and family and moms and daughters. I love this movie. Why did it take so long to make a movie with a primarily Asian cast that wasn't bad? Probably because we had to wait for Amy Tan to write the book, and because it wasn't a musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein. 

There are some really lovely, normal bits in this film, like all the scenes at June's farewell party before she leaves for China. Watching those scenes is like watching any party video. Everyone is acting normal, being regular human beings. If you were to cut out all of the flashbacks and just watch the party scenes, you would see normality, where (in the words of John Cho) "race is a fraction of their identity rather than the sum of their identity." We saw this a little bit in 21 Jump Street and a little more in Harold & Kumar - cool people in America doing regular people things and they just happen to be Asian. They're not smoking opium in dark corners (and there are no references to opium at all in this movie! Joy!) or something. True, there's a mah-jong game being played, but... that's still pretty normal. The people at this party are chatting, eating, drinking (not excessively), being pleasant. There are moments of tenderness (when June is telling Rose's daughter a story), short moments of happiness and gaiety (when a bottle of champagne is opened and it goes everywhere and everyone laughs), moments of chuckle-to-yourself-sweetness (when June is invited to join her mother's best friends at their mah-jong table). It's incredibly human, and that is some REAL representation. Normality! It's great! 

Empowering towards women (especially Asian women), this movie is. The plot, the characters, the relationships - all showing women in a positive light. The only women who are really portrayed as evil or corrupt are left back in China or ignored. The mother figures are shown as caring albeit misunderstood leaders who channel their inner strength in times of need. Almost all of the mothers had previous marriages and escaped them. Their daughters find their inner strength and overcome their own obstacles as well, with nothing but themselves and their mommy's anecdotes to get them through it all. Three of the daughters also end their primary marriages and pursue new ones. Almost none of the Asian stereotypes surrounding women are perpetuated here. There are no murderous, scheming, devilish Dragon Ladies. None of the women act in the manner of Suzie Wong. They don't parade around in body-hugging qipaos doing the cha-cha or seducing white men or selling themselves. The only stereotype that you see here is the one of the Lotus Blossom; however, that stereotype is overcome and pushed aside as the characters mature into stronger women. Joy Luck Club shows this transformation and rejection, not of the stereotype, of the role and oppression of their situation which causes them to act in accordance of that stereotype. The daughters might begin by subscribing to the model minority stereotype (the prodigy children, June and Waverly), but they end up quitting those roles and going on to be themselves. Strong women and the mother-daughter relationship is at the center of the entire film. So watch it with your mom and I dare you not to cry.  

I understand, however, how this film could not do so well in representing men. There's the creep who got his Fourth Wife by raping her, who doesn't end up feeling bad until she dies and her daughter (An-Mei) tells him that her mommy's ghost will come back to settle scores. There's the abusive and manipulative husband who sleeps around and isn't afraid to show it in front of his wife (Ying-Ying). There's the money-grubbing, unloving control freak (Lena's husband). Two sexual predators, one eunuch. All are misogynistic. The eunuch we can immediately classify as a Charlie Chan spin-off - uninterested in love, roly-poly, comical-looking, annoying. The two sexual predators are descendants of our favorite Fu Manchu, or maybe General Yen. Preying on women all the time, being manipulative, sly, crafty, cunning, you name it - they are portrayed as overly sexualized, threatening men. 
There's only one good portrayal of an Asian man in this film, and that is of June's father. June is about to leave to go meet her half-sisters in China. She finds her father sifting through a box of her mother's possessions to find things for the half-sisters to have, because "We have memories of Mommy in here [points to his head], and now they can have memories of Mommy." It's heartbreaking. And sweet. Because June's father loves her and loved her mommy. Reach for Kleenex, go ahead. But this character, who spends maybe all of seven minutes on the screen, is the only really positive male character we see in the film. 
Granted, neither the movie or the book are about men. It's about women, and the relationship between mother and daughter. But the men still matter. And I am unsure whether a movie like this one, with all it's groundbreaking, it's heartfelt-sobfest-ness, can be considered "real representation" if only the women get the proper portrayals. True, women have historically been the more repressed sex, but we can't call it equal representation if it's segregated by gender towards the female side. And, historically, Asian men haven't been represented in that great of a light either. This film is great for the portrayals when you ignore all the men (except June's dad) and focus solely on the women being mommies and daughters. 

Fun Facts About The Film (just because):
Russell Wong, who plays Ying-ying's abusive and cheating husband, also had a lead role in the episode of "The Dragon and the Angel" on 21 Jump Street. Amy Tan has a cameo in the very first scene. She enters the party with her movie family and gives a hug to another guest. My cousin was an extra. Ming-Na, who plays June, was also the voice (talking only, not the singing voice) of Mulan in both Mulan and Mulan II. In the scene of June's piano recital, the girl who is before her is singing "I Enjoy Being a Girl" from Flower Drum Song. Nancy Kwan is not in this movie. Neither is James Shigeta. I wonder why?
Dissenting Opinions
And more!

The World of Suzie Wong

Freakishly enough, there's a reggae song by Jacob Miller references Suzie Wong... And I thought this whole thing was painful enough already...

You can watch the movie online too

Robert Lomax (William Holden) is going to Hong Kong to start a career as a painter after dropping his architecture job for reasons unknown. He hops on the ferry boat taking him to Hong Kong and he meets a girl who calls herself Mee-Ling (that's how it was spelled in the subtitles!) who accuses him of trying to steal her purse and doesn't want to talk to him. He proves her wrong and they begin to talk. Mee-Ling tells Robert that her father is very rich and that she is very proper and a virgin to boot. That's why she she didn't want to talk to him. Robert is obviously very taken with the girl but the boat hits shore and everyone departs. Robert heads off to a cheap hotel where he decides to rent a room for a whole month. Then he goes on down to the hotel bar where he sees... gasp... bar girls in qipaos cha-cha-ing it up with sailor boys. And the real nature of the hotel is exposed. Robert sits at the bar and sees Mee-Ling across the way with a sailor boy! He approaches her, calls her by her name, and she doesn't recognize him! She tells him that her name is Suzie Wong (Nancy Kwan) and she admits to being a prostitute. The next day, Robert goes to the bank and sets up an account there. He makes friends with the banker and the banker's daughter falls in love with Robert. That night he asks Suzie to come to his room - but not for screwing! Robert wants Suzie to pose for him! They eventually becomes friends and Robert learns that Suzie was forced into being a prostitute after her evil uncle threw her out of his house when she was 8. She never even learned to read or write! Suzie begins to fall in love with Robert and so does he, but he can't get past the fact that she's a prostitute. She keeps on seeing other clients and he keeps on painting her. One night, Robert goes to a dinner party with the banker and the banker's daughter. However, one of Suzie's clients, Ben, is at the party too with his wife. The two men immediately recognize her and the banker's daughter keeps on hitting on Robert. A few days later, Ben comes to Robert and tells him that he's leaving his wife for Suzie, which Suzie accepts to make Robert jealous. A few more days later, Ben tells Robert that he actually wants to break off his relationship with Suzie, but he doesn't want to tell her himself, so he makes Robert do it. Robert tells Suzie and she is so hurt that he confesses his love to her, and they begin a happy relationship. However, Suzie disappears for several hours every day, and Robert, becoming suspicious, decides to follow her. He finds her in a small shack outside of the city with a baby boy and a nurse. Suzie tells him that this is her son and this is where she has been going every day. She asks him whether or not he will love the child, and Robert promises to. This makes them even more happy. Unfortunately, Robert's paintings of Suzie haven't been selling very well, and this inspires the banker's daughter to try to help out Robert financially. Suzie offers to go back to prostitution so that she can make money and Robert can keep painting; however, Robert's pride prevents him from accepting either offer. When he finds out Suzie paid his rent for him using her own money, he throws a fit and tells her to go away. He realizes his mistake when Suzie doesn't come back and it begins to rain, so he asks his banker and the banker's daughter to help. Unfortunately, the jealous banker's daughter refuses to help, thinking that if Suzie cannot be found, Robert will fall in love with the banker's daughter. Robert has a big uh-oh moment and runs away to find Suzie. But alas! There's a giant rainstorm and the city might flood, so nobody is allowed to go to the outskirts of the town. Robert runs around until he finds Suzie, who is worried about her son. They run to Suzie's old house, where they find that the baby died in the flood. The last scene is a small funeral for the baby boy with Robert, Suzie, and Suzie's prostitute friends. At the end of the scene, Robert and Suzie decide to live the rest of their days together forever and ever. 

Dear Suzie. Dear Suzie Wong. She's so complicated, for goodness' sake! Suzie Wong is not a dragon lady. She does not desire to kill anybody or poison them or seduce them so they will give her information about stuff. Suzie Wong is (kindof) a butterfly. She is demure, sweet, and swears her subservience to her dear "Lobert Romax." Good grief make it stop. But at the same time, she is outspoken and brave, able to take care of herself and her baby boy - not really a butterfly characteristic. Sure, she's dependent on her man and she loves him unconditionally and promises to do whatever he tells her, but... Does this mean that Suzie is the "happy medium" between the two stereotypes? No. Suzie Wong is a Suzie Wong. She is the whore, the Asian "hooker with a heart of gold." But does this make Suzie Wong merely an extension of a non-race-specific stereotype? And while this stereotype of an Asian whore falling in love with a white guy does not appear in the media as often as Fu Manchu or Charlie Chan did, the connotations continue to exist today. Her image (in addition to the stereotypes the 1957 film Sayonara put out) set up the ideas that  "Oriental" women are better at sex, that they are subservient and adoring of their white men... all that jazz. But do we ever see her again? No, we merely see Suzie's legacy and the stereotype she enhanced now. Does this mean that Suzie Wong is dead? The next semi-close-to Suzie Wong character (yes, we'll exclude Linda Low from Flower Drum Song for now) that we see is the Vietnamese prostitute at the end of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. And that is not the same portrayal as Suzie Wong. That is sick desperation - a representation of the cynicism that begins to pop up in American cinema a few years earlier. Is the reason we don't see another Suzie Wong stereotype because there wasn't time for her to be reproduced? Did a change in what audiences wanted to see affect the longevity of a character like this? Granted, mentioning Suzie Wong to almost anyone who is Asian-American will result in any combination of the following: cringing, rolling of the eyes, a blog-worthy verbal rant, or an upwelling of emotion. But I digress. Is it because of the end of the Hollywood musical that we see no more Suzie Wongs?


Suzie does the cha-cha. How alluring. (That's really not helping my case...) Watch carefully and you'll see the other bar girls demonstrating their proficiency in the cha-cha as well.
 

This was not the first movie to feature a white guy + Asian girl couple. I won't even go into the widespreadness of that trend. It's responsible for me and lots of other kiddos. See how this leaves out Asian men + white women, let alone Asian men + Asian women? You won't see that as often as you will a white male and an Asian female. The white men want a pretty, demure, exotic Asian woman to take care of him forever and ever. The Asian women want a good-looking manly man, and historically, Asian men have not been portrayed as manly men (Yes, yes, Bitter Tea of General Yen). However, why do you suppose "Lobert Romax" and Suzie are together? Well, duh, it's for love. But to what extent? Why was Robert initially attracted to Suzie? Homeboy's got some yellow fever, huh? What was Robert attracted to? Was he attracted to the notion of having a sweet "Oriental" girl (read: whore) as his "permanent girlfriend?" Or was he genuinely attracted to Suzie's face? And here's the catch! Robert did not come to Hong Kong looking for a hooker. At first, he did not want to sleep with her - just paint her and her "Oriental" face (Oriental my foot. Nancy Kwan is hapa!). And this could be his "redeeming" quality, if you will. He doesn't just want the Oriental girl for sex! He really loves her! He abstains from sex out of love, while she's gallivanting around with sailor boys even though she really does love him too... And this is what makes the relationship between a white male and the Asian hooker. The purity of it all. (Oh irony.) 

I have a feeling that while there may not be a lot for me to expound upon here in this post, remnants of this performance and the connotations that the character of Suzie Wong has will continue to pop up here and there in future posts. The stereotype may not have persisted, but aspects of it sure have...

Alas! There was no yellowface in this film! It was replaced with the forbidden love between a "Wan Chai streetgirl" and the white artist dude. Forbidden love! But they are so in love! She promises to love him until he says to her, "Suzie, go away!" (Real line from the film...) So no yellowface... have we moved beyond it? Oh no. But this is a step in the right direction. A step towards letting Asian people play Asian people. But at what price? Sadly, the step in the right direction is canceled out by the lasting impression Suzie made on America. And here is where I do a shameless plug and tell you to stay tuned for next time, where I'll rant about Flower Drum Song!