More ANAs in REALITY!

 Sunny Fong                                             Ronald and Christina

I'm a little bit of a reality TV junkie. BUT here's another dose of memorable and well performing Asians on Reality TV.

First of all, Tammy and Victor are still on the Amazing Race - despite a few close calls! But they are still on the show - could they take the win?!?!!? Quite possibly.

Pictured above to the left is Sunny Fong! Winner of Project Runway Canada - He was one of my favourites to begin with - ( I started watching this show after my girlfriend recommended it haha ). And I am sooooo glad that he won because his designs were simply amazing! GO show them what Asian male designers can do!

Pictured above to the right is the father and daughter team Ronald and Christina from Amazing Race two seasons ago - They also performed very well and came in second out of 11 teams in the race.

Pictured below to the left is the very loveable YAOMAN from two different seasons of survivor (he was so popular he was on the show twice) - He also performed very well but was voted off due to his strong performance and also high likeability.

Finally pictured below to the right we also have ANOOP DESAI - who unfortunately got voted out of American Idol recently. But he had a decent run and showed that ANA can sing! woot.

    Yao Man                                                         Anoop

....some not so good examples?

Tila Tequila Bai Ling

Along with some positive role models - I decided to throw in a few who I think are not few good examples of 'what ANA females are like'

Pictured above are Tila Tequila (on her show - A Shot at Love) and Bai Ling - two examples of ANA females who are conforming to mainstream North America's idea of an attractive ANA female. Both of them are 'exotic' and very sexual beings....... some people may even go as far as calling them slutty or whores. (which may or may not be true)

The main message here is simply that they are sending the WRONG message. Even though they might not know this..... but because there are so few ANA in media - whatever people see they tend to over generalize and judge. Thus if both Tila and Bai Ling are both sexual and exotic - people may think that is just the way that ANA females are....... not cool. Combined with the Page Act of 1875 ( see other post) - which banned 'prostitutes' from entering the country, the image of slutty, exotic, Asian prostitutes is strengthened and cemented in some peoples minds...... not cool at all.

Movie Reviews: Ping Pong Playa and Saving Face

I chose to review these two movies simply because they may not be as well known as some other movies with ANA in them. Also, I thought both these movies were done well with some excellent acting - unlike some other films that I have seen lately.

First, lets look at PING PONG PLAYA ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0991167/ - imdb info here) When I first heard of this movie - after my sister had watched it - I had pretty low expectations.... I had low expectations because: 1. I have not heard much, if anything at all, about this movie 2. really?!?! a movie about PING PONG? COME ON! 3. It just seemed to be full of cheesy cheese cheesieness. But I gave it a try anyways! And I was entertained throughout the movie and found myself quite enjoying it. The premise of this movie is indeed a little corny as it follows a wannabe Basketball player and his journey in withholding is family's tradition and business by competing in the local ping pong tournament. The kids in this movie are great - and the lead is decent given the character he had to play. All in all lots of fun poked at 'stereotypes' and it was a good showcase of talent. Go see if you can!

Saving Face was a delight - so refreshing and just great (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384504/ - imdb info here). I was also pleasantly surprised when they started speaking Shanghainese in this movie! ( I am Shanghainese myself - and you hardly get to hear the dialect unless you are in Shanghai... or speaking to my aunts and uncles). The plot of this movie is much more unconventional as it combines two things which are not seen on mainstream film too often -- 1. Asian people and 2. Lesbians ....... and also 3. Asians who ARE lesbians. Amazingly done film as it really captured a sense of the ANA community and the struggles with 'old school' parents and 'new school' children. Lots of good acting here and all in all a love/comedy/ almost chick flicky - but good film to watch. Go see as well!

Practicing.... Yellow Face.... BLECH

Yellow Face - Is the portrayal of Asian characters in media/film by caucausian actors/actresses. 

R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S....

One would htink that this was only practiced in the past when there were more anti Asian sentiments - however, it is STILL practiced today in many films. For example most recently it is seen in the films Avatar The Last Airbender and Dragonball Evolutions. Both are cartoon adaptations and the main characters are originally of Asian decent in the comics/cartoons yet they are played by caucasian actors in the film version. What is further disturbing is that in both films, the directors are of asian decent - James Wong for Dragonball and M. Night Shyamalan and yet they allowed the casting of non-Asians in roles that are originally meant to be Asian. I believe this is setting a very bad example and I am not looking forward to watching any of these movies.

Justin Chatwin as Goku and Emmy Rossum as Bulma

In the past, yellow face was even worse as many caucasian actors would be covered in heavy makeup and have extremely slanted eyes or be squinting at all times. A prime example of this is the portrayal of Dr. Fu Manchu - a very evil character to begin with...... still not able to be portrayed by an asian actor but by Warner Oland instead. 

Warner Oland as Fu Manchu

It is noted, by people in the media and those in the documentary Slanted Screen, that many times producers and executives feel that they will make more money with caucasian main characters - but the fact that Asians cannot even play Asians anymore is horrible! It sends a very negative message to all those aspiring ANA actors and actresses and I bet many of them give up after seeing things like this being done in Hollywood.

Again, yellow face was inforced mostly becuase caucasians wanted job protection and they feared losing jobs. At least in the past, this made a little more sense because media reflected the anti Asian sentiments felt by the caucasian community. However it is still practiced today as seen above and I am not sure how and why this is being accepted.

Asian presence in...... reality TV?!

Lately, I have been noticing a pleasant increase in ANA presence in popular American reality TV shows. I am not going to lie, I am an avid follower of some of these shows, so it may be more apparent to me than others who do not follow these shows.

Tammy and Victor on Amazing Race!

Currently there is an Asian brother and sister team on this season of the Amazing Race. Tammy and Victor are both Lawyers from California and they are performing quite well on the show. They both seem very intelligent and also athletic - to me they are good ANA role models as they show a balance of different traits and they are not just seen as nerdy Asians or Asians who know kung fu. However, even though I think they are positive role models, it is a little ridiculous that they are BOTH lawyers - which is contributing to the stereotypical view of many Asian parents who think that only real professions are Lawyers and Doctors. But nonetheless, they seem very successful in life and also on the show.

"The Asian Tribe" - "Puka" on Survivor Cook Islands 

In the 13th season of survivor the producers decided to include 4 different tribes each of a different race (of course to increase viewer ratings) - included were White, Blacks, Spanish, and Asians. This was one of the first times that I have seen so many ANA on a reality TV show and I was very pleased to see the representation. In the end of this season, an ANA eventually won - and I was very pleased to see how well an ANA played the game of survivor.

Why not another 'Flower Drum Song' ?

Dvd Cover for Flower Drum Song

As my very first introductional post, I draw your attention to the movie made in 1961 called Flower Drum Song. Before taking HIST 483 at UBC and watching 2 documentaries (I'll leave those documentaries for another post) I have never heard of this movie and was shocked to find out that it is a North American movie that features a full Asian cast AND that it was made in the 1960's. Immediately, after discovering this I thought 3 things:

1. I must watch this movie

2. Wow how did they manage to make a film with an all Asian cast in 1960?

3. Why the heck have there not been any other widely successful films (this film was nominated for Oscars) with full Asian casts made since?

Since my initial thoughts, I have seen the movie....and actually quite enjoyed it. Of course, part of my enjoyment stemmed from the novelty of seeing an all asian cast on a North American screen, but there were many other commendable attributes to the film....

• it was a musical - not only was it a full Asian cast, but they were singing and dancing as well! It made me happy to see that
• there were no prominent Asian gangsters or martial artists - which was refreshing as presently, these are the roles that most asians are confined to
• the cast had a range of Asian 'looks' - I feel like currently there is a certain typical Asian look that is cast and I do not feel like it is representative of the ANA community - I felt like this movie did not try to cast 'the typical Asian' and did a fair job at showcasing varying Asian looks.

There has been a lot to say about this movie and I think future posts will be addressing the issues that people had with this movie negative and positive. But for now I will leave you with that and a link to its information on imdb.com (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054885/) - I think everyone should definitely check it out.