Post by Santa Claus on Sept 4, 2006 21:24:05 GMT -5
Tinted love
Stars are created because audiences fall in love with what they see on screen," says Asian-American filmmaker Greg Pak.
And sometimes, it seems, people fall in love in the same way that they see people falling in love on screen. In movies, says Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, "Asian women fall in love with the first white guy who walks in the door. They ignore all the Asian men around them. Asian women are always paired with white men; Asian men aren't paired with anyone."
That pattern is partly reflected in the dating scene in the real world: it's a commonplace in the Asian community that white men date Asian women far more often than Asian men date white women. Statistics show that Asian-American women are twice as likely to marry outside the race as Asian-American men. Aoki sees a direct link between that and what we see at the movies. "I'm not against interracial dating," he says. "But when you get one message, and one message alone, it has an effect."
The greater the imbalance, the more resentment Asian-American men seem to feel. On www.asianjokes.net, the "How to be a cool Asian" list includes these directions: "If you're a guy, start having insecurities and complain about the 'theft' of your women."
It's a particularly raw issue in the balkanized environment of today's college campuses. At a meeting of BU's Asian Student Union, 19-year-old sophomore Peter Chen says: "I'm not saying I have mad game, but I have some game, okay? And white girls just don't give you the time of day. You can be all SMGed out [that is, dressed in School of Management chic], in all your A/X digs; you will still not get a second look. They're still like, 'Oh, he doesn't know how to speak English.' " Only one of Peter's friends at the meeting disagrees.
Aoki's solution is simple: agitate for more Asian-American sex symbols in show business. When sit-coms offend, for example, Aoki goes after their advertisers, so far with great success.
Greg Pak is himself the product of an interracial marriage, and as a filmmaker, he has a more narrative response to the problem. Among other things, he's produced a satirical fake commercial, in which the playwright David Henry Hwang appears pushing a new video, Asian Pride Porn! Spoofing the "exotic Oriental beauty" porn that's as common as chopsticks, Hwang hawks a tape that features a power-suited (at first) woman and a virile, suave-looking guy smearing duck sauce on each other. "Smart Asian women and sexually empowered Asian men!" Hwang crows.
Pak is currently working on a period piece called Rio Chino, about a Chinese gunslinger in the Old West. He wants to cast an Asian "name," but so far he's having trouble finding one. Sadly, Pak says, the actors in Asian Pride Porn! were thrilled to find an opportunity to play strong Asian parts, even in jest.
"Do we really have to go this far," he wonders, "to create an Asian-American star?"
-- MC
Stars are created because audiences fall in love with what they see on screen," says Asian-American filmmaker Greg Pak.
And sometimes, it seems, people fall in love in the same way that they see people falling in love on screen. In movies, says Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian Americans, "Asian women fall in love with the first white guy who walks in the door. They ignore all the Asian men around them. Asian women are always paired with white men; Asian men aren't paired with anyone."
That pattern is partly reflected in the dating scene in the real world: it's a commonplace in the Asian community that white men date Asian women far more often than Asian men date white women. Statistics show that Asian-American women are twice as likely to marry outside the race as Asian-American men. Aoki sees a direct link between that and what we see at the movies. "I'm not against interracial dating," he says. "But when you get one message, and one message alone, it has an effect."
The greater the imbalance, the more resentment Asian-American men seem to feel. On www.asianjokes.net, the "How to be a cool Asian" list includes these directions: "If you're a guy, start having insecurities and complain about the 'theft' of your women."
It's a particularly raw issue in the balkanized environment of today's college campuses. At a meeting of BU's Asian Student Union, 19-year-old sophomore Peter Chen says: "I'm not saying I have mad game, but I have some game, okay? And white girls just don't give you the time of day. You can be all SMGed out [that is, dressed in School of Management chic], in all your A/X digs; you will still not get a second look. They're still like, 'Oh, he doesn't know how to speak English.' " Only one of Peter's friends at the meeting disagrees.
Aoki's solution is simple: agitate for more Asian-American sex symbols in show business. When sit-coms offend, for example, Aoki goes after their advertisers, so far with great success.
Greg Pak is himself the product of an interracial marriage, and as a filmmaker, he has a more narrative response to the problem. Among other things, he's produced a satirical fake commercial, in which the playwright David Henry Hwang appears pushing a new video, Asian Pride Porn! Spoofing the "exotic Oriental beauty" porn that's as common as chopsticks, Hwang hawks a tape that features a power-suited (at first) woman and a virile, suave-looking guy smearing duck sauce on each other. "Smart Asian women and sexually empowered Asian men!" Hwang crows.
Pak is currently working on a period piece called Rio Chino, about a Chinese gunslinger in the Old West. He wants to cast an Asian "name," but so far he's having trouble finding one. Sadly, Pak says, the actors in Asian Pride Porn! were thrilled to find an opportunity to play strong Asian parts, even in jest.
"Do we really have to go this far," he wonders, "to create an Asian-American star?"
-- MC