Charlie Chan in... LA?

I was in Los Angeles last week on holiday. It was nice... cold. 
Anyway.
I was driving around downtown LA when I passed this...

Charlie Chan Printing. What?!
Did the owner of the business know about the movies and thought that the name would draw buyers? Or was the owner actually named Charlie Chan? 
Funny coincidences. Either way, it made me go:

The Mask of Fu Manchu

I was supposed to watch this one three whole weeks ago... but because Netflix is stupid (kinda) I didn't get to see it until now. Better late than never, I suppose. 

The Mask of Fu Manchu is about a group of English archaeologists, commissioned by a certain Sir Nayland (Lewis Stone) who race against the power-hungry Dr. Fu Manchu (Boris Karloff) for the contents of Genghis Khan's tomb in the Gobi desert. But before the expedition can begin, the lead archaeologist, Sir Lionel Barton (Lawrence Grant) is kidnapped by one of Fu Manchu's henchmen and taken away to his palace, where Fu Manchu tortures him for the information about where the tomb is. He is kept there for many days until his daughter Sheila (Karen Morely) and her fiancé Terry (Charles Starrett) begin to worry. They go to Sir Nayland and tell him that they will continue the expedition without fear of Fu Manchu and that they will try to find Sir Lionel anyways. Nayland lets them go, but soon accompanies them on the journey as well. The expedition team starts off and soon finds the tomb with no problems. There, they take the Mask and Sword of Genghis Khan to put in the museum, but Fu Manchu wants the Sword and Mask to "become" Genghis Khan and take over the world! They get the artifacts back to where they are staying for the night and set a guard to watch them just in case. The guard is killed in the middle of the night but the sword and mask aren't stolen. The next day, one of Fu Manchu's henchmen comes to the house where the team is staying and offers to trade Sir Lionel Barton for the sword and mask. Sheila jumps at the offer despite Terry's doubts, so Terry brings the sword and mask to Fu Manchu's palace, where he is looked over in strange ways by Fu Manchu's Dragon Lady-China Doll daughter Fah Lo See (Myrna Loy). Fu Manchu takes the sword and tries to do some freaky electrical stuff to it, demonstrating his scary powers. However, Nayland secretly swapped the real sword of Genghis Khan's for a fake, so Fu Manchu's special electricity experiment doesn't work. Terry is whipped as punishment under supervision of Fah Lo See, who later plans to make him her sex slave and then kill him. Fu Manchu steps in and injects Terry with a mind-control serum and sends him back to bring Sheila, Nayland, and the real sword and mask to Fu Manchu. He does so and they all walk right into the trap. Fu Manchu plans his world domination strategy and decides he needs a ceremony to celebrate it. He sends Sheila off to get ready to be sacrificed at his ceremony, who gets angry and says to him, "You yellow beast!" He sends Terry off to be bedded by Fah Lo See. He sends Nayland off to be eaten by some crocodiles. And he goes off to put on his fancy robe for the ceremony. Nayland then manages to escape and rescues Terry, while Fu Manchu assembles his army of Middle Easterners, black guys, and some other Asian-looking people for a pep rally where he wears the mask and wields his sword. Nayland and Terry find a big electronic death ray zapper and zap Fu Manchu as soon as he is about to stab Sheila. Then, for good measure, Nayland and Terry zap his followers as well. Fast forward several days, and Nayland, Sheila and Terry are aboard a boat back to England. They toss the sword over the side of the boat (but not the mask?) so that it will be safe from any future Fu Manchu.

Watch 6 - The Mask of Fu Manchu [1932].avi in Horror  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com
"Will we ever understand these Eastern races?" -Sir Nayland
Remember how I wrote about Flash Gordon and Ming the Merciless? He is Fu Manchu, just from outer space. 
The horror. Quite literally, I'm afraid. This movie is the embodiment of Yellow Peril. It's the Perpetually Foreign and Inherently Evil Scary "Oriental!" Because Dr. Fu Manchu wants to take over the world! He wants to lead all of Asia in an uprising against the accursed white race! He enjoys torturing people! He injects funky serums into the bloodstreams of next-to-naked white men! He wants to sacrifice a white woman to an accursed pagan god! The horror! The indignity! 

"Should Fu Manchu put that mask across his wicked eyes and take that scimitar into his bony, cruel hands, all Asia rises. He'll declare himself Genghis Khan come to life again. And that, my friend, is what you have got to prevent." - Sir Nayland
Some background on Fu Manchu: Originally conceived by British author Sax Rohmer, Fu Manchu was "yellow peril incarnate" an an evil scientist to boot. 

"Imagine a person, tall, lean and feline, high-shouldered, with a brow like Shakespeare and a face like Satan, a close-shaven skull, and long, magnetic eyes of the true cat-green. Invest him with all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present, with all the resources, if you will, of a wealthy government--which, however, already has denied all knowledge of his existence. Imagine that awful being, and you have a mental picture of Dr. Fu-Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man."
-- Nayland Smith to Dr. Petrie, 

The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, Chapter 2

Scared, huh? I know I am. He's everything scary and bad about Asians compiled into one dude with freaky long fingernails and some funky facial hair. In fact, this sounds like a Moriarty-type criminal mastermind trapped in Sherlock Holmes' body! Whoa! Strangely enough, the Fu Manchu books were sort of like Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series, featuring Nayland Smith and Dr. Petrie versus the (apparently) insidious Fu Manchu. Except that Nayland Smith isn't brilliant, and neither is Dr. Petrie. They're just racist and often voice the anti-Asian sentiments of the book (and presumably Sax Rohmer as well). It's just Fu Manchu that's cunning and clever and supremely evil and anti-white. So not only do you fear his evildoings - you have to fear his intelligence as well! 
What does this remind you of? The model minority? This fear that China will take over the world? Yes and yes! He's super smart (model minorty) and he wants to take over the world (China takes over the world)! Captain Obvious, reporting for duty!

"Men of Asia! The skies are red with the thunderbolts of Genghis Khan! They rain down on the white race... and burn them!" - Fu Manchu 
Let's ignore Fu Manchu's scary intelligence for a moment, shall we? Let's focus on his sadistic scariness instead. He puts Nayland on a weird seesaw that gradually lowers him into a pit of (presumably) hungry alligators (or are they crocodiles?). He puts some other white guy on a platform between two walls of spikes that inch closer and closer together until... well, you get the idea (Said white guy is rescued, but not before he freaks out sufficiently). He has Terry whipped into a pain-induced stupor and then injects him with funky serum. He puts the good Sir Barton under a giant, endlessly clanging bell for days without food or water or reprieve from hearing the sonorous clanking, eventually driving poor Sir Barton insane. What does this do, you ask? This makes Fu Manchu an even more frightening character. Not only will he kidnap you, he'll torture you too! It's another little aspect to this already disgusting character that makes his foreignness and his evilness even more intolerable. He'll torture you in ways unimaginable! And he'll get a kick out of it! And on top of that... he's Asian! Asian and evil! Evilly Asian! Asianly evil! My eyeballs are rolling in terror!

Then there's Fu Manchu's army of Asians. Of course, this screams of perpetual foreigners and peril of all types - that's to be (hate to say it) expected from a movie from this time period. However, the only "East Asians" we see in the movie are Fu Manchu and his creepy little daughter, plus or minus a few mute extras. The rest of Fu Manchu's army is made up of... Middle Easterners? What's the subtext here? That the East Asians are the power-hungry ones, and the Middle Easterners are the ones who will follow their leaders like little woolly sheep? I have no ideas. Care to help me out on this one?

This one's right up there on the So-Racist-it-Makes-Me-Violently-Sick list with Mr. Moto. Shame.

Amy Chua Reconsidered

After all that venting about Amy Chua's crazy article "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," I read her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. Yes, I read it. I read it and I enjoyed it, laughing at the tongue-in-cheek-ness of some of the book and frowning at the bits that still struck me as... questionable. 

The article that preceded the release of the book wasn't written by her - it was compiled by some unknown editor at the Wall Street Journal. The article was deliberately cut-and-pasted into the article that we're all familiar with and, honestly, detest. Chua didn't even choose the snarky, arrogant title of the article (Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior). However, it's very interesting to see that in the above interview, Chua states that "[She doesn't] think Chinese mothers are superior" when the caption on the cover of her memoir states "This was supposed to be a story of how Chinese parents are better at raising kids than Western ones." Just that sentence alone is enough to make one wonder - but wait, there's more! The cover caption continues with "But instead, it's about a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how I was humbled by a thirteen-year-old." Doesn't Chua now sound... less arrogant? It's much better! Chua accepts her defeat! 
This book isn't a parenting manual - it's a memoir that just so happens to be written by a mother who is Chinese. She's definitely not as crazy dictator as the article made her sound (thank goodness) and she comes across as a strict, but not unloving mother. Chua definitely still sounds like an uppity, holier-than-thou person, but she still retains enough humility that perhaps she was a bit too extreme with her parenting, and she does express some regret in her past decisions. It's a journey.

There are still things, however, that I disagree with. Like when she says that playing drums will lead to drugs. Uh, no. There's a part in the book where Chua talks about her parents and their stories, and she describes her grandmother as a (you'll get a kick out of this) a Dragon Lady. When I first read that, I was a wee bit shocked. I'd always been under the impression that the term "Dragon Lady" was kinda derogatory, belonging in the same category as the "Lotus Flower" or "Fu Manchu" stereotype. But here's Chua, using it to describe her own grandmother! I may be reading a little too much into it, and Chua's grandma may have been born in the year of the Dragon, but who knows? All I know is that she's applying cultural stereotypes to her own grandmother, and showing that it's okay to embrace and essentially perpetuate these stereotypes! Then there's this idea of training and pushing her daughters to just get the A. Get the A and everything will be fine. Get a B and you'll work your butt off until you get that A. GET THE A! I'm a little biased, having gone to schools that value learning for the sake of learning as opposed to learning to get the grade. Maybe that's why the emphasis on "getting the A" was so infuriating and confusing to me. Either way, it's still bothersome - how on earth are her children going to learn from their mistakes if they never make mistakes? 

She does, however, keep on categorizing herself as the "Chinese Mother" and makes it seem like there is only one kind of "Chinese Mother," which only furthers the stereotype surrounding an ethnicity-based parenting style. And, as we all know, stereotypes can be unfairly applied to anyone who seems to fit the bill - in this case, be Chinese. Only once in the book does she acknowledge that there are many different types of parenting, Chinese or otherwise. Unfortunately, she states it only once, in one smarmy paragraph in the very first chapter of the book. Chua highlights the diversity of Western parents and leaves them under the umbrella label of "Western parents" but categorizes the über-strict parenting style as Chinese, even going as far as to categorize an anecdotal white mother as a Chinese mother. So... basically... you are a Chinese mother (regardless of ethnic background) if you are as strict as Chua is. Not an Asian mother. A Chinese mother. To be a "Western" mother is to be somewhat free in your label, while it seems like there is one way and no other way to be a Chinese mother... Right? What's up with that? 

Chua still says that in order to be Chinese (or a Chinese mother, for that matter), one must raise one's children exactly as she did. I still have a problem with this. It's like saying that I'm not Chinese or my mom isn't Chinese because I wasn't forced to play violin or piano or get A's in every single class except gym and drama. It's just a wee bit, you know, wrong. 

In the end though, Chua has every right to raise her children as she wishes, and it's not really our place to make a pariah out of her for doing so. What's really annoying is the fact that she labels this the "Chinese" way. Of course, she hides behind this idea of "the immigrant thing." Well... Chua's not an immigrant. Her parents were. So... was adopting their strict parenting style necessary? Was it because she just didn't know any other way of raising children, and she couldn't be bothered to read up on some child psychology? It seems she did it because she was worried about future generations of children and she wanted filial piety. It's odd. 
Fun Fact: Chua's book (Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother) is currently being sold in China under the title "US Mom." 
Long story short: Amy Chua isn't as bad as the article made her out to be. 

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/husband-of-tiger-mom-speaks-out-24025828
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9hTvzbo8AE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nx8iXyKe4-Q

Flash Gordon: The Emperor Ming and Other Offensive Stuff

I honestly don't know why I watched this miserable excuse for a movie. The worst thing I have ever had to sit through - and not just because of the twisted, odd little racist plot details.

The only good thing I can say about this pathetic bit of "filmmaking" is that Queen wrote that catchy, soaring theme song. Yes, that's dear old Freddie Mercury belting out that "FLASH!.... AAAAH!... Savior of the universe!"  
Did you see that Fu Manchu-esque evil space lord dictator guy? Yeah? That's Emperor Ming. MING! And not just any Ming - he's Ming the Merciless! He's an alien and his name is Ming. Translation: They're implying that the name "Ming" (a very stereotypical Asian name) is alien. Foreign. Different. And, judging by the context of the character, evil.

There's really no need to explain the plot, because there isn't one. Long story short: Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones), the white-as-white-can-be, all-American football star, teams up with some other white aliens to take down the Oriental-esque Emperor Ming (Max von Sydow) from destroying Earth (never mind any other planets that might be in danger).

Ming the Merciless was originally conceived as Flash Gordon's nemesis in the comic strip of the same name in the year 1934. This was one year after Chang Apana, the inspiration for Charlie Chan, died, and a year after Filipinos were barred from immigrating to the US. An odd mix of pro-Asian and anti-Asian sentiments, don't you think? Yeah. And then came Emperor Ming the Merciless, a demonic, intimidating evildoer with a penchant for torture and for bedding white girls, not to mention a creepy (incest implied) relationship with his daughter Aura. Now, nowhere in the comic nor the movie (the 1980 version) is Ming the Merciless ever referred to as being of Asian descent or claiming some allegiance to an Asian country. However, the itty bitty hints and details surrounding his character have definitely been inspired by debilitating stereotypes surrounding Asian people. 

1. The name. I said it before. "Ming the Merciless." The "Ming" bit just screams "Asian!" The "Merciless" bit screams "EVIL ASIAN!" So all together, it screams, "Asian EVIL ASIAN!" And believe you me, it's not a pleasant sound.
2. The clothes. It's obvious that the clothes are not authentic Asian garments (well, specifically Chinese garments), but everyone's wearing flowing silky-looking robes that look extremely "Oriental!" Mr. Ming's harem girls are all wearing Chinese-style headdresses that look like they were made out of tinfoil. He's wearing plenty of tinfoil Chinese emperor robes himself. It's all so otherworldly, yet distinctly Asian. Again, fetishizing and making Asian-ness something unnatural and, no pun intended, alien. 

3. The facial hair. Classic Fu Manchu stuff. All that drawn-out beard and moustache? The arched and overgrown eyebrows? Coincidence? I think not!
4. The harem. The harem. The harem. Ming's harem. Ming's harem of white women. Ming's harem of white women who wear "Oriental" clothes. Just like Fu Manchu, Ming has an insatiable appetite, it seems, for white women, or just women in general. And this is no Charlie Chan or Mr. Moto. One needn't worry about the Honorable Detective or the Sly Secret Agent stealing and raping your women. But beware of Ming the Merciless, otherwise known as Fu Manchu! He'll seduce your women and add them to his collection of scantily clad alien whores!
5. The not-so-subtle reference to opium. When Flash's would-be girlfriend ends up in Ming Manchu's harem, she is offered a drink that will alter her mind and make her enjoy her (ahem) experience with Ming Manchu that night. She drinks it and is completely infatuated with the magical beverage. It's a little too reminiscent of opium for my taste. And we all know about the connotations of opium and Asia were...
6. Ming Manchu's hypnotism ring. He uses it to hypnotize Flash's would-be girlfriend into a session of pseudo-masturbating... It's weird. It's hypersexual, just the sort of thing you would expect from this character. And in our quasi-Puritan society, this is seen as horrific and savage - so the audience begins to make this connection between hypnotism, forced (albeit tame) masturbation, evil men, and Orientalness! All represented by this one character and this one scene! All leading to more distrusting of the "Yellow menace!" And this came out in 1980! The indignity!

This is a good example of a trend in Hollywood that's been around since the birth of the Fu Manchu stereotype - the idea that Asia is evil, inherently evil, and that they are determined to crush or take over everything Western society holds dear. It's a classic example of fear of the other and fear of the exotic and mysterious "Orient" taking over and overruling Western society. And this fear suddenly begins to manifest itself in oddball characters (like this guy) that are not designed to spark outright anger and fear of Asian people, but instead to breed a sleepy hate and distrust of those "Orientals." It's really sickening.

The one good thing I can say about this film is that it was completely panned by critics. They blasted it mostly on campy dialogue and ugly costumes - not on the racial undertones of the character of Ming the Merciless. And because this "movie" was shot down by critics, it did poorly at the box office and was reduced to a cult classic.  

Mr. Moto Takes a Chance

Just when I thought I would be moving into less racist, more accepting/progressive roles, I go and watch this movie. Dear God.

Mr. Moto Takes a Chance takes the Japanese secret agent to Angkor Wat in Cambodia, where he is spying on the king of the village/country/city of Tong Moi for unknown reasons. While he is there, an adventuress, Victoria Mason (Rochelle Hudson) "crashes" her plane after it "catches fire" (she set it with a flare) but survives and is taken to Tong Moi. Two reporters, Chick (Chick Chandler) and Marty (Robert Kent), are doing some wildlife filming when they spot Victoria's plane going down, so they rush on over to the crash site and do some filming. However, Victoria has already been taken to the King of Tong Moi (J. Edward Bromberg) by his magical adviser Bokor (George Regas) after meeting Mr. Moto (Peter Lorre), who is posing as an archaeologist. Marty and Chick catch up to Victoria, Bokor and the King of Tong Moi and want to film them. Unfortunately, the King's favorite wife drops dead from a poisoned arrow, but Bokor blames it on Marty and Chick's demon camera, and orders them to be taken away for a "trial by the gods." Bokor takes the two reporters to the Temple of Shiva where he burns them with hot metal and it hurts them (of course). This deems them guilty of their crime and they are about to be thrown in a big pit to die when an elderly guru interrupts them. The guru proves how magical and powerful he is when he doesn't get burned by the hot metal and he charms a snake, so he orders Bokor to let the reporters go. Bokor does so and he is mad. The next day, Moto approaches the reporters and tells them that he would pay a hefty price for pictures of the inside of the temple. Chick and Marty agree and go off towards the temple, but Victoria Mason follows them! However, when they arrive, Bokor and an unnamed servant try to kill them with poison darts too! They duck down and hide, and, lo and behold! The guru! He rescues them from Bokor and the servant but throws Chick and Marty's camera down the well. Bokor sees this, and contacts the guru after Chick, Marty and Victoria leave, and asks the guru if he can kill Moto. The guru agrees and returns back inside the temple. He digs around until he finds a secret trap door that leads to an underground room. In it, there are loads of ammunition. Then another unnamed servant climbs down into the underground room and tries to stab the guru, but the guru strangles the assassin with his own two bare hands! Then the guru runs away through a secret passageway, and reveals himself to be Mr. Moto in disguise! Mr. Moto then writes a secret note saying that Bokor is in charge of a rebellion against the King and that he (Moto) has found the secret stash of ammunition and sends it off via carrier pigeon. The carrier pigeon is then shot down by the King of Tong Moi, who sees the message and reads it. That night, the King hosts a big party with faux-Cambodian dancing and announces that he is going to marry Victoria Mason (airplane girl). He then serves roasted pigeon and gives the one that was a carrier to Mr. Moto, who finds a message on it and realizes the King found out his secret! Later that night, Moto is marking the ammunitions cellar on a map when Bokor and another unnamed servant attempt to stab him. But, in a display of badassery, Moto stabs the servant with his own knife, takes the servant's clothes and runs away. Victoria Mason goes to visit Mr. Moto but finds the stabbed servant. She pokes around in the itty bitty house until she finds Mr. Moto's map hidden in a spear. Bokor spots her and throws a dagger at her, which misses her narrowly. She is then kidnapped by Bokor and taken away to the Temple of Siva for questioning! They are about to subject her to the hot metal torture until - huzzah! - the guru appears. He "hypnotizes" Victoria and whispers to her that he is Mr. Moto. Victoria follows along and is a good hypnotee, until Marty (who followed them to the temple) bursts in and attacks guru/Moto and "rescues" Victoria, although he ends up getting tortured too. Bokor commands his nameless servants to light bonfire signals so that this one Captain Zimmerman (Frederick Vogeding) can bring him his guns. Bokor wanted the guns so that he could overthrow the King and "[drive] every foreigner from Asia!" Then he has his unnamed servant shoot Captain Zimmerman and Victoria lets slip that the guru is really Mr. Moto. Then Mr. Moto busts out his karate chop hands and fights everyone. Bokor escapes and rounds up the rest of Zimmerman's men, while Moto, Victoria, Marty, and Chick (who tagged along) become friends and find guns in the temple. There is a big shootout between our Fab Four and Bokor and Zimmerman's dudes, and Chick gets shot in the arm. Then Victoria Mason reveals that she's not a plane girl - she's a spy! And Mr. Moto reveals that he isn't an anthropologist - he's a spy! They're both spies! Then the King arrives with his troops and goes after Bokor and Bokor's guys - but the King wants to take Bokor's ammunition and stage a revolt against the French! The King is revolting! He plans to kill Marty, Chick and Mr. Moto but Victoria distracts him and somehow the King ends up in the ammunition cellar, which Mr. Moto sets fire to. Everyone except the King escapes from the temple before it blows up. And then our Fab Four gets on a boat to go... somewhere else. The end!

"No devil in box, just a movie camera! Miss Mason, will you tell Dracula there that we're not gonna hurt anybody?"
You know how everyone talks about how racist the stereotype of Charlie Chan is? Mr. Moto takes the cake. 

God, the yellowface. It's so awful. I had never seen any prosthetic teeth until I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's with my best friend Mr. Yunioshi. These are some serious prosthetic teeth. They don't stick out as much as some caricatures that I have seen, but these are pretty bad. They're large and black around the edges. They're just silly, and painful to look out. And some pretty serious taping of the eyelids. If you look at Peter Lorre's real teeth, they're not much better. But would his teeth be forgiven because he's really Hungarian? Lorre also adopted a horrific accent for this too - lots of slurring of the speech and mixing up the "r"s and the "l"s - pretty standard "Oriental" accent, but it's worse than Charlie Chan's (lack of an) accent. He also says "Oh so?" all the time. All the time. Every time there is something of interest, it gets the "cute" little "Oh so?" and an inquisitive bow. Of course, you can't tell if Peter Lorre had his skin darkened in order to appear more "Japanese," but the bows at the waist, the buckteeth and the slanty eyes are enough! Shame! 

"What do you make of that gravedigger?" "If I was castin' a horror picture, I'd have him play the murderer."
The character of Mr. Moto was created in response to the death of Earl Derr Biggers, author of the Charlie Chan novels. Once there were no more fresh Charlie Chan novels, readers needed another Asian sneaky guy to satisfy their Oriental mystery fetishes. Enter Mr. Moto. 
Mr. Moto is sly and sneaky and smiley. He knows martial arts (judo, jiu-jitsu). He is more than adept at disguise. He speaks 4 languages. He works alone. If Jackie Chan is the son of Charlie Chan, then Bruce Lee is the son of Mr. Moto, and Moto is the brother of Mr. Yunioshi. It's a whole family of stereotypes! But I digress. Mr. Moto is (possibly) an even more damaging and offensive caricature than Charlie Chan. He's not as subservient as Charlie Chan is - he's more sly and shifty and doesn't seem to be trusted by anyone, whereas Charlie Chan is everyone's favorite roly-poly, subservient detective. There's also the fact that Mr. Moto is a secret agent - it's his job to deceive people. Coupled with the fact that during this time, the Japanese were the "bad Asians," this makes a caricature of Japanese men (showing them as manipulative and untrustworthy). It's really disgusting. 

"Them Nipponese sure are peculiar birds."
In contrast, I've seen a lot of accounts that state that Mr. Moto is not a racist portrayal after all. They state that his politeness, combined with his cleverness, presents a sort of heroic character. It's insinuated that Mr. Moto is a sympathetic character, regardless of his shiftiness in the beginning of the story and how you don't learn he's a good guy until the very last 10 minutes of the film. They also state that while casting Warner Oland as Charlie Chan and Luise Rainer as O-Lan in the Good Earth was racist, casting Peter Lorre (a white guy) as Mr. Moto was not racist. Uh, what? Mr. Moto is just as humble and polite as Charlie Chan - why does the casting make any difference at all? Was it because Peter Lorre regularly played evil characters, and the role that turned him into a star was a (slightly) more sympathetic role? 

"Everything is possible here in the Orient."
What's really interesting is that this movie takes place in Cambodia. Cambodia? Really? What happened to things happening in Shanghai, or Canton, or Beijing, or something? Cambodia? This seems to be very odd... It seems to be the beginning of this division between East Asians (Japanese, Chinese, Koreans) and Southeast Asians (Cambodians, Vietnamese, etc.) and it's not... all... that great. Everything in this movie is fetishizing Cambodians and making them into mysterious, bloodthirsty savages! Evil Cambodians took away the reporters! Evil Cambodians burned the white reporters with a hot metal rod! They threatened to throw the white reporters into a deep dark well! One white reporter fell into  a mysterious tiger pit! Evil Cambodians assassinated the King's favorite wife with a dart-gun-thing! Mysterious Cambodian dancers who are really white danced around as entertainment to the white male guests! Victoria Mason was going to have to marry the Cambodian King of Tong Moi! Mysterious killing Cambodians! They tore off her shirt threatened to burn Victoria Mason with more hot metal! Oh no! It's all... so... bad!

"There's something about those ruins that Mr. Moto wants to find out, and it isn't archaeology!"
There are very few Asian extras in this film. Most of them portray servants and peasants, whereas the harem women are all white as white can be. I don't think there's a single sympathetic speaking role for any actual Asian actor in this film. It's become so expected that it isn't bothersome anymore - it just is. The fact that there are lots of unnamed Asian extras seems to justify the whiteface - but it really doesn't. It's all disappointing.

Amy Chua: The Tiger Monster

 Amy Chua's recent article in the Wall Street Journal has sparked much controversy and angry outbursts from the blogosphere, Asian-American and non-AAPA. Her snarky essay, entitled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior," was an explanation of "how Chinese parents raise such stereotypically successful kids." And here is how she did it. It's a shocker...

"Here are some things my daughters, Sophia and Louisa, were never allowed to do:

• attend a sleepover

• have a playdate

• be in a school play

• complain about not being in a school play

• watch TV or play computer games

• choose their own extracurricular activities

• get any grade less than an A

• not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama

• play any instrument other than the piano or violin

• not play the piano or violin."

I'm not sure what's worse, her treatment of her daughters, the fact that her daughters accept this sort of dictatorship, her snooty, higher-than-thou attitude, or the fact that she states that this method is exclusively for Chinese parents. This, in her twisted mind, is the right way, the "real Chinese way" to raise robots (whoops, I mean children). The "real" Chinese way? Amy Chua states that she "[knows] some mothers of Chinese heritage, almost always born in the West, who are not Chinese mothers, by choice or otherwise." Meaning that because my mom (and probably lots of other Chinese mommies) didn't raise me the same way Chua raised her offspring, my mom is not Chinese? Um...

Amy Chua is totally buying into the model minority stereotype by saying that "A lot of people... wonder what these [Chinese] parents do to produce so many math whizzes and music prodigies, what it's like inside the family, and whether they could do it too. Well, I can tell them, because I've done it." She embodies this stereotype and, most horrifyingly, is proud of it, stating that "the Chinese strategy (of parenting) produces a virtuous circle" whereas the "Western parents tend to give up" and that they "can only ask their kids to try their best." She praises the (in her mind) distinctly and only Chinese work ethic, saying that is where the "math whizzes and music prodigies" come from. At the same time, she belittles the Western parenting style as being not strict enough and too "concerned about their children's psyches." (Because everyone knows that the emotional stability of your child isn't worth crap next to academic excellency...) Chua turns the model minority on its head by essentially saying that Chinese kids aren't inherently gifted - it's the parents that push their children into being gifted and brilliant. It's the "Chinese way" of having high expectations that gets them so far in academics. Chua, making another grand, arrogant statement, proclaims, "If a Chinese child gets a B - which would never happen - there would first be a screaming, hair-tearing explosion. The devastated Chinese mother would then get dozens, maybe hundreds of practice tests and work through them with her child for as long as it takes to get the grade up to an A." So really, she, as the all-powerful "mother," should be praised for the successes of her children. Chua called her daughter, Luisa, self-indulgent when she was having trouble learning a musical piece - if anything, the way Chua screams for attention and praise for her parenting style is more self-indulgent than her daughter ever was. 
 
The title that Chua slapped on her parenting method (The Chinese Way) is also concerning. The damages from this newly named parenting style will be enormous and hard to get rid of. Chua's "Confucian filial piety" method on steroids is, so far, the only example of an ethnicity-based method that is at the forefront of everyone's consciousness. The fact that it is so tied to being Chua's interpretation of "Chinese" makes the horrific treatment of the children even worse. This is not an issue of raising children a newfangled way - it's the issue of raising them the (specifically) Chinese way. For people who have never met an Asian person (let alone someone of Chinese descent) or cannot even begin to fathom the existence of this type of dictatorship (sorry, parenting), this title becomes synonymous with Chinese people and therefore, Chinese parents. It may prompt people to think that "those Chinese parents are horrible people who have no love for their children" or something along those lines. It prompts me to think that Any Chua ought to be excommunicated from the Asian-American community. 

Those poor girls...

The dangers of an article like this one is that there are no other Asian American women with that level of fame who are mothers who could contradict her. Sure, there are other Asian American women out there in the media and whatnot, but they aren't mothers or they aren't recognized for being mothers. We're now left with only one representative of an Asian mother, and it's this Mom-zilla who is "happy to be the one hated (by her children)" and resorts to "[using] every weapon and tactic [she] could think of" in order to make her daughter learn one measly piano piece. Even more depressingly, this article was published in the Wall Street Journal, which, last time I checked, was a pretty widespread newspaper. Any rebuttals to her frankly horrifying methods of "raising" children are only showing up in blogs that may or may not have as big an audience as the Wall Street Journal. Therefore the damage that this article has done will be even harder to rectify, and all the work we've done to diminish the model minority stereotype is going down the drain and into the unfathomable bowels of hopelessness. 
This woman is a monstrosity. A smarmy, self-serving, arrogant "mother" with Machiavellian "ends-justify-the-means" and "extreme tough love bordering on abuse" parenting techniques. Ironically, she mentions "all these new books out there portraying Asian mothers as scheming, callous, overdriven people indifferent to their kids' true interests." Was that a shameless, self-indulgent plug for her own book, Battle Hymn for the Tiger Monster? Oops, I mean "Mother." 


Check the comments section below for further discussion!
An elegant rebuttal to Chua's techniques and the psychological damages to children that her methods will have.
More links all over the web - Especially this one.

Sherlock: The Blind Banker

Sherlock, a modern day adaptation of the awesome books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is a fast-paced, funny series (with three episodes), produced and written by Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat (writers for Doctor Who). It's a BBC program that debuted on PBS' Masterpiece Mystery in October and many wonderful blurbs have been written about it. I really really enjoy this show (understatement - I'm ever so slightly addicted to it) except for this episode, entitled The Blind Banker. 

Adapted from the original stories of The Valley of Fear and The Adventure of the Dancing Men, this story involves a Chinese smuggling gang, a China Doll/Lotus Blossom, a Dragon Lady, an ancient form of Chinese writing, Chinese acrobatics and a tea ceremony. Oh yeah, and two white people get murdered. 
Is it any wonder that I was more than slightly offended while watching this?
My Complaints:

1. Soo Lin Yao (played by Gemma Chan) - The China Doll. She's pretty and innocent-looking, all wide-eyed and silky black hair and a non-whore-y, British Suzie Wong. She works at some museum in London where she performs a tea ceremony for tourists, spewing silly aphorisms about tea and shiny teapots. She escaped from China after being orphaned and joining a gang (called The Black Lotus - cringe) and smuggling drugs. Off she goes to London to a new life where she can do cute little tea ceremonies and have dorky little English boys try to ask her out. But alas! She is not safe! The Black Lotus catches up to her and BANG! She's shot dead by her own brother. Soo Lin Yao is pathetic and lacking in a backbone. 

2. The Black Lotus Gang - Also referred to as a tong*. The gang, posing as a Chinese circus troupe, threatens their victims by spray painting yellow characters as part of a mysterious cipher onto a surface close to their victims. Then they track down their targets, kill them, and then plant a black origami (which is Japanese, people...) lotus somewhere on their body. The yellow paint is a clear indicator of the sickening racism embedded in the fetishized "Oriental" aspects of the story. Yellow? Can you get any more obvious? The origami lotuses are another indicator of ignorance and dismissiveness. Origami is Japanese. While there were forms of paper folding arts in other places in the world (even China), the art of origami remains a specifically Japanese art form. It is this sort of mixing of the two cultures without research that is increasingly annoying and offensive. The fetishization of the lotus flower doesn't help either. 

3. "The One They Call 'Shan!'" (not even listed in the Casting Credits - the indignity!) - The Dragon Lady. She controls The Black Lotus. She tortures John Watson. She wields a gun. She speaks with an awful, exaggerated accent, with her l's and her r's getting mixed up all over the place. She is ruthless. She dons a traditional-looking Chinese opera outfit and facilitates "death-defying acts from the Yangtze River!" She doesn't seduce anybody (Thank goodness) but she does watch Sherlock and John Watson do their mystery-solving from behind shady (pun intended) black glasses with an evil warlord-esque smirk on her face. She's the female Fu Manchu, with Sherlock playing the role of the great good white knight out to save the day and prevent "The One They Call 'Shan!'" 
4. The Villain of Indeterminate Race But is Obviously Not White - This character makes a brief appearance in the very beginning of the show as a samurai-sword-brandishing, turbaned, long-robed assassin enters 221B and attacks Sherlock! But, with Sherlock being the great white knight, this Assassin of Indeterminate Race is no match for our white-as-white-can-be hero (no slights on Benedict Cumberbatch intended), who easily defeats him with no weapons at all. For starters, the samurai sword being wielded by the man dressed in Berber-esque clothing? Mishmash of cultures, even a culture that deserves its very own independent study. Uncool, making that mishmash of cultures into the villain. And even worse, the bits of Sherlock versus Villain of Color and interspersed with John trying and failing to do the self-checkout line at the grocery store, so that the entire opening sequence really comes off as slapstick. All in all, it's a slapstick Unnamed Villain of Color versus White Knight Sherlock. Come on, we can do better than that, BBC!

5. The Dangerous Mystique of London's Chinatown - I don't think there was a single shot that was located in this setting that didn't scream, "This is a creepy, shadowy, mysterious place full of shady people who may or may not be assassins, and who knows? Maybe you'll find an opium den if you look hard enough!" Not only that, but Sherlock and John decide to go into the "Lucky Cat Emporium" to look for clues, where an old lady tells them, "You buy Rucky Cat? Onry ten pound! Your wife, she will rike!" In the "Lucky Cat Emporium," an old Chinese lady tries to sell a "Rucky Cat" to John, which he politely refuses. I am not joking. Do I even need to explain the incredibly blatant racism in that one little bit of a scene?

6. The Code! - There's a cipher code thing used to communicate with other members of the Black Lotus, and the code starts with a series of numbers that refer to page numbers in a certain book and then the first word on that page. The numbers are written in Suzhou (mistakenly called "Hangzhou" by Sherlock - tsk, tsk, writer of the script, do some research!), which then refer to the book "London A to Z." Again, more mysteriousness for shading dealings of drugs and other goods... Sneaky sneaky. 

7. The Music - The Sherlock theme and the usual background suspenseful music is stellar. But whenever Soo Lin Yao or The One They Call Shan showed up on screen, there was a sudden bout of Zen-like flute and some atmospheric zithers to accompany it (Thankfully, no obscenely loud gongs a la Long Duk Dong). I'm getting sick of zithers. And when Unnamed Indeterminate Race Villain of Color made his dastardly appearance there was - you guessed it - some funky funky sitar sounds. It was painful. 


It's really frightening that this slipped under the noses, maybe even was applauded, by the producers of the show. But is it because it was made in Britain? Is being Asian different over there? Would all the things I found offensive be considered offensive in the UK, or all over the world? Should I just start lowering my expectations for media that features either a token Asian or some sort of Asian-themed thing? Who knows?


Predictable and degrading stereotypes aside, the most frustrating this is that the original plot of The Dancing Men does not involve a Chinese gang at all, nor does The Valley of Fear. The Dancing Men has an American criminal chasing down an old flame and the Valley of Fear has no foreign criminal involvement at all. So why incorporate a Chinese crime ring involved in smuggling drugs and other goods around the world? That decision seemed to come completely out of left field with no real reason for it other than the fact that it would provide cheap entertainment and mystique to a story that would have been just as exciting as if it didn't have that "Oriental" vibe going on. 


I can only hope that next season doesn't feature stuff like this again. 

*The word "tong" has come to have unfortunate connotations because of its association with the term "tong war," referring to armed conflicts between rival Chinese groups seeking to control illegal activities such as gambling, opium smoking, and prostitution. "Tong" actually means "hall" or "parlor," in the sense of a society or association, and most Chinese tongs were men's fraternal or social organizations that existed to provide benevolent services to their members. (From http://www.uiweb.uidaho.edu/LS/AACC/SENSITIV.HTM)
A super great review of the Blind Banker, please read for more insight on the topics above!

Looking Backwards

Warning: Somewhat incoherent and wiggly wonderings ahead. Enjoy!
As the year/semester draws to a close, I have begun thinking about all of the things I've learned, gotten mad at, felt offended or inspired by, or that have just left me speechless. 
It's daunting, actually, to scroll back through all my other posts and summarize what I've learned. It's like completing grade school and then having to go back and remember what you did on the 100th day of school in kindergarten. Daunting.

Before I went into this study/blog/craziness, I had relatively little understanding of how Asians have been represented in the media, how they have been treated in America, and how it continues to exist today. I had virtually no idea about what it means to be Asian American. 
I'm not saying that because of this blog I've had this great epiphany and I know and understand every single Asian American's experience. Instead, I have a deeper understanding of the stereotypes that still exist today and a better understanding of why I may have perceived something as racist (with historical context to boot). 

What are the connections between social and historical forces and the representations we see?

Why is yellowface still acceptable? When and how did yellowface turn into whitewashing?

How do these representations create and/or perpetuate stereotypes that are present in our world? What is the impact?

These questions have been hanging over my head all semester, and I keep wondering if I'm answering them fully. Or if I'm keeping them in mind as I type and try to analyze the movies and television shows I see. Or if my readers even stopped to read these questions. Sometimes I'm even wondering if these stereotypes matter. I know that's a blunt way of putting it, but what if nobody else sees the things I do? Is it my job to get up on my soap box blog and tell the world about these stereotypes and how damaging they are? Do people care? I care. That's kinda why I did an Independent Study in it...
I'm also wondering if yellowface is acceptable to other people, or if it's even part of society's consciousness. I've read so many comments on the IMDB listings for the movies I've watched that have yellowface, and they all say things like, "Ignore the fact that there's Caucasian actors playing Chinese people, this movie is awesome!" Or "I don't think this movie is racist. It's so funny when the white guy imitates the Oriental!" Or "LOL i luv jake gyllenhaaaaaaaaaal!!!!!!11111!!!!1!!!!!1111111111!!!!!1" These comments make me not only concerned about the state of humanity, but also whether or not yellowface is accepted and... liked? Or is it even given a second thought except for me and a few other people? 

Look at my first post ever. I've come a long way. Seriously, I have.
Be prepared for 2011. Even more analysis and soap box soliloquies to come. 
More reflections to be posted in the comments section below!

 

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

Just when we thought there was going to be a lot more movies with some REAL representation, this little film came along and screwed everything up. 

London, 1923. Lord Southmere (Derek Nimmo) is a Queen's messenger and he has just arrived from China with a piece of microfilm concerning the mysteeeeerious "Lotus X." A group of Chinese spies find out and try to capture him, but not before he puts the bit of microfilm on the bone of a dinosaur in the Natural History Museum. Along the way, he enlists the help of his old nanny, Hettie (Helen Hayes) and her fellow nanny Emily, to thwart the Chinese spies. They are then captured by Hnup Wan (the "inscrutable" Peter Ustinov), the head of the London division of Chinese spies, whose old nanny was friends with Hettie. However, the nannies escape and plan to help Lord Southmere escape as well. Meanwhile, Lord Southmere won't tell Hnup Wan and his right hand man, Fan Choy (Bernard Bresslaw) where the microfilm is. All they know is that it was hidden on a dinosaur in the Natural History Museum - so they decide to steal one of the dinosaurs in order to find the microfilm. The Chinese spies load the dinosaur onto a truck in the middle of the night, but before they can run away with it, the nannies steal the truck and the dinosaur, with Hnup Wan and Fan Choy following close behind. There's a long chase scene, which ends in the dinosaur and truck accidentally running onto a flat wagon of a train, and the nannies and the dinosaur are carried away. The nannies continue to look for the microfilm but are forced to conclude that it just isn't on the stolen dinosaur. Then a little boy points out that there are multiple dinosaurs in the museum, and everybody realizes that the Chinese spies and therefore the nannies stole the wrong one! Hnup Wan gets to the dinosaur first and finds the microfilm of "Lotus X," which he prepares to look at properly, until Fan Choy replaces Hnup Wan as the head of the London division of Chinese spies. The nannies have now realized that Lord Southmere is in danger, so they recruit other nannies and they fight the Chinese spies in a Chinese restaurant, and Hnup Wan saves Lord Southmere. Later, everyone gathers in Hnup Wan's office to see what "Lotus X" was. And the piece of microfilm that started this whole mess turns out to be a recipe for wonton soup. And everyone is happy. 

Wonton soup???? Are you serious? All that plot for wonton soup? Not only is that just stupid... it implies that Chinese people only really care about food! It shows us as greedy gluttons who desire only to keep our precious wonton soup recipes to ourselves! Disgusting!
One of the most racist portrayals I have seen so far is from a children's movie. Horrifying.

Remember how I kept saying in previous yellowface portrayals that the accents weren't all that noticeable or prominent? How they were really only slowing down their speech or using an ambiguous accent that wasn't really specifically Asian? This is the first film I have watched that has that stereotypical, over exaggerated accent. One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing is just the most God-awful representation of someone of Chinese descent that I have seen yet. Every "r" gets mixed up with every "l." The speaking characters add the suffix "-ah" to every other word and butcher the English language shamelessly. Ustinov and Bresslaw employ a funky gutteral "nnnnnnnnnnnnn" noise after every sentence. When Ustinov reads "Chinese" out loud it sounds like this: "foy toy mee shee loo mah tung ah..." 

Then there's the yellowface. It consists of some crazy taping of the eyelids, some blue (blue?) eyeshadow, and some Charlie Chan-esque facial hair. It doesn't sound like much, but man oh man... It's terrifying. It's blue, sparkly eyeshadow! What about smearing blue sparkly eyeshadow across an actor's eyelid makes them Chinese? Absolutely nothing! Interestingly, there was no darkening of the actor's skin or prosthetic buck teeth. Not a single Asian person was seen in this movie either. All of the extras were white men as well, unlike Good Earth or Bitter Tea of General Yen, which at least had the good sense to at least include extras... Combine this level of scary yellowface with the heavily exaggerated and ugly ugly accents and you have got some scary Chinamen.

Hnup Wan is a bad Charlie Chan and a friendly Fu Manchu. He is roly-poly and bumbling like Charlie Chan, and is mysterious, manipulative and sly like Fu Manchu. He dresses in Western clothes and sometimes employs stupid aphorisms like Charlie Chan. He has crazy henchmen like Fu Manchu. Hnup Wan has the Charlie Chan facial hair and the Fu Manchu super-slanty eyes. He is asexual like Charlie Chan and employs funky-strange torture methods like Fu Manchu. And this character was in a children's movie (Ironically, he was played by Peter Ustinov, who then portrayed Hercule Poirot, which is most definitely a Charlie Chan parallel). 

The big fight scene between the nannies and Hnup Wan's henchmen is awful as well. It shows little old nannies beating up kung fu masters. Painful! But that's not all! The "masters"aren't even doing kung fu, or any martial art I know of. They're jumping in the air, doing a pirouette, then landing with a high kick and a hair-raising "HOOOAAAAAAAIIIEE!" Cue karate chop hands. Dear me. Two years after Enter the Dragon and you can't even hire proper martial artists? Shameful. 

Even more terrifying is that this was a Disney film. A children's movie. Hnup Wan and Fan Choy (Heavens to Betsy, those names!) are in the movie for comic relief and as the antagonists. On the one hand, this presents the Asian (male? There are no Asian women in this film at all) as a bumbling, slightly stupid and funny person that is really only good for making fun of. On the other hand, it shows the Asian as one who is sly, manipulative, cunning, dastardly clever and mysteeeeeeeeerious. These contrasting (conflicting?) portrayals end up sending only one message: Make fun of Asians because you can and because it's funny. One reviewer on IMDB wrote about how seeing this movie in theatres led him to do Hnup Wan impersonations. Is that a good thing? Absolutely not. That's like asking the Asian kids on the playground to do Long Duk Dong impersonations despite the obviously painful connections. In fact, Hnup Wan, Fan Choy, Mr. Yunioshi, and Long Duk Dong all belong in a new, separate category - Stereotypes That Exist Solely For Comic Relief and Playground Taunts.

Not cute at all. Listen to that soundtrack. It's got a stupid little xylophone. And the stupid little flutes and zithers and CRAP? It's racist! It sounds like the Mr. Yunioshi theme, only... mysterious. Gross. Makes me wanna cry. This stuff makes Flower Drum Song sound good. 

Children's movies relying on caricatures and stereotypes for comic relief? Shameful. 

Collagin' #12

Ta-da!

Rotate? Crap...

Coming Soon!

One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing

Joy Luck Club