Let's talk about Asian accents in movies
Their harm to Asian American identity
As an Asian American (Thai/White) I have and still sort of struggle with my identity and where I fit in within American society. There are stereotypes and sometimes outright racist things that people blatantly say in front of me because they are not aware that I am Asian, and while many of them are wrong, some of them are also true about myself and it personally makes me feel uncomfortable being put in a box like that.
The biggest stereotype I see in real life comes from movies where the actor speaks in broken English. According to the Census Bureau, Asian Americans only make up 5.7 of America’s population.
That means for many people, they saw Asians depicted in TV and media rather than in real life. Cultivation theory holds “Cultivation theory holds that long-term exposure to media shapes how the consumers of media perceive the world and conduct themselves.”
So in that regard, it makes sense that people would regurgitate harmful Asian accents because they don’t know what an Asian person can sound like.
For myself, I came from a small town of about 5,000 people. Growing up in school, I could literally name all the Asian kids in my school.
I was often not seen as Asian because I didn’t have a very strong “Asian accent” and I take a lot after my dad’s side.
So when I saw people imitating accents they saw in movies or TV, I would think, “I don’t sound like that.” But this bias comes from people who see someone completely different than themselves.
In the 1987 movie “Full Metal Jacket” there is a scene where a Vietnamese Prostitute comes up to the two characters and says “Me so horny. Me love you long time.”
Within the scene, you can hear the actress mispronouncing letters like “l’s” and “r’s.” It doesn’t matter that the actress was someone from Vietnam, it often gets rolled into Asian people as a whole, like Japanese accents, and whenever someone thinks of Asian people and what they sound like.
There has also been the stereotype that Chinese and Japanese language sounds like, “ching chong.” This often gets skewed towards Asians as a whole. In this clip from The Colbert Report, Rush Limbaugh is seen mocking the Chinese president, saying
“When I hear Chinese or Japanese, it all sounds like the same word.”
He then mimics it by saying “Ching chong…” and a bunch of other inaudible dialogue.
In the movie “Karate Kid,” Mr. Miyagi is portrayed as having broken English when in real life the actor Pat Morita sounds nothing like his character in the movie.
Again, people begin to believe that Asians say things in mixed order like Yoda or mispronounce certain letters.
And to myself and others, this is harmful. I grew up thinking there was something inferior about me for something I couldn’t control like genes.
Recently the Actress and rapper Awkwafina apologized for adopting a “black accent” to further her career.
My immigrant background allowed me to carve an American identity off the movies and TV shows I watched, the children I went to public school with, and my undying love and respect for hip hop. I think as a group, Asian-Americans are still trying to figure out what that journey means for them — what is correct and where they don’t belong. — Awkwafina
Her apology resonated with me for a number of reasons, as a kid I tried to distance myself from Asian stereotypes and that came in the form of imitating kids I hung out with or movies I would watch about white people.
So I don’t blame Awkwafina for adopting another accent because ours has a lot of negative connotations.
I’m not sure if anyone benefits from depicting Asians in movies like this but there sure isn’t as much representation of the Asian American in movies or TV shows.
The entertainment industry made money from portraying prominently white actors/actresses because no one wanted to see a movie with an Asian main character as the lead.
At the same time, I have to question, what is the Asian American identity? I like to skateboard, exercise, play video games, watch movies.
Playing video games is seen as nerdy which is a typical Asian stereotype for men in movies, but it’s also something other people from different races like to do.
My English breaks sometimes because my mother’s English was second to her and I was around her a lot growing up.
At the same time, I say expressions that I can only describe as American or Californian because my mom would never say in Thai, “Dude, no f*cking way!”
