Trang Nguyen
ENGL 304
Fall 2018
Midterm Research Paper
Recently, Asian movies and movies with Asian-American lead actors and actresses have been making remarkable records to the audience. Some of these movies have both the main actors and authors are Asians, and they have brought lots of attention and received support from both viewers of the movies and readers of the books they are adapted from. Hollywood is trying to bring new perspectives about Asian-American lives to the American audience by showing more in-depth views of Asian households that have never been, or rarely, brought up before. This research paper will discuss how movies of Asian-Americans has brought a new perspective on the life of the Asian American community and its influence on young adult audiences.
For instance, the movie “Crazy Rich Asians” shows lots of the Asian culture and another perspective of life in Singapore. In contrast to the command stigma that most of the countries in Asia are poor, Singaporeans are actually wealthier than most Americans think. It shows a different viewpoint of the Asian community, which is always considered as minority group in America. On the other hand, the movie “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, which is adapted from the same name novel for teenagers, shows the similarity in the mindset of Asian-American teenagers comparing to the American teenagers. This movie also shapes a more open view regarding Asian-American for the young adult audience.
Until now, Asian people, in most books and movies, are depicted as either the nerd or the white-want-to-be. They are assumed to always have a petite figure, speak broken or not so influent English, have single eyelid, good at math or some science subjects and are often called “FOB”, which stands for “Fresh off the Boat”, etc. Those stigmas have been in most of the Americans judgements for so long that people assume all Asians have such characteristics. It is also concerned that most Americans believe there is no significant difference among diverse Asian groups of different countries. Therefore, Asian characters in books and movies that show sides other than the mentioned characteristics would be considered bizarre. Additionally, books and television shows that focus on Asian American are very limited, and mostly the main characters are normally portrayed by the White American or Europeans. The Asian-American community nearly cannot find any movies or books that truly resemble their cultures and people. In fact, in the Quick Picks and Best Books list from 2000-2005, there is only 17 percent out of 241 books that feature Asian American characters and they vaguely mention the diversity of Asian culture (Younker and Webb, 198).
The novel “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” by Jenny Han has become so well-known and successful that it is adapted to the big screen on Netflix and received lots of attention, not only from the Asian American community but also the young adult audience around the world, who have not had a chance to read up the book (Enderle). The book is about the love story of a sixteen years old teenage girl named Lara Jean. Since Lara Jean is an introvert she always chooses to express her feelings to her crushes through love letters that she will never send. This plot is a typical teenager book, which usually begins with the regular day of the main character and a narrative voice about herself and life around her. Like many books for the young adult, the main character is a shy, almost “invisible” girl who will eventually fall in love with the famous and handsome boy. And “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” is not an exception. The only difference is the main character is happened to be an Asian American girl. In this book, Lara Jean’s parents are a Korean and a white American. Just like any American teenagers, she is in her teenage years and has multiple crushes: the boy next door named Josh Sanderson; the boy in a group of friends named John Ambrose McClaren; and the famous athlete at school named Peter Kavinsky. In an interview, the author said that there were many actresses and actors who did the casting for this movie but she turned them all down. The fact that Lara Jean has to be an Asian and it does not change how people see her personality and feelings; it is just who she is (Lee). Lara Jeans’ teenage life is just as normal as many other girls at school. One important point to help the book make a good impression with the young audience is how the plot is focused on Asian community and the characters are diverse in ethnicity, culture, and background, not just white American boys and girls.
However, in the book, even though the main focus is not about the cultural difference, there is a time when the author mentions the stigma of American to the Asian community. For example, in Halloween, Lara Jean has very limited options to dress up because whatever she wears, people will ask her whether she is a manga character; therefore, there is one Halloween that she costumes as Cho Chang in Harry Potter so people will stop asking her what she is. This detail is not only hilarious but also shows that for whatever Lara Jean tries to do, she cannot escape from her Asian background stigma and will never do. It is the best for her to accept who she is and go along with it.
Another example is “Crazy Rich Asians” by Kevin Kwan. Unlike “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before”, this novel, as well as the movie adapted from it, shows how even an Chinese-American like Rachel Chu, who was born and raised in the U.S., can have the “reverse culture shock” when she visits Singapore (Lee). The remarkable thing about this movie, which also made it so famous, is that “Crazy Rich Asians” is the first movie that has all Asian casts and has brought lots of controversies. The movie raises a question, “Can a person experience culture shock in her mother country?” Not only Rachel experiences different lifestyle when she visits Singapore, she also experiences disrespectfulness from many Asian people that she met. In the movie, Rachel’s mother said that Rachel might look like a Chinese on the outside, but she has the logic and the mind of an American. This is also the reason that Nick Young’s mom thinks that Rachel is not good enough for Nick, since Rachel is not one of the “real” Chinese and she does not belong to the true Asian community. This scene deeply implies that Asian-Americans may experience discrimination even when they are in Asian countries, as well as in Western countries.
Besides revealing other perspectives of some Asian people regarding the Americans, “Crazy Rich Asian” also contains traditions that are unique in the Asian culture, especially the part when Rachel plays mahjong with her boyfriend’s mother, Eleanor Young, or when Nick’s family gather around to make dumplings. Young adult audiences might find this movie interesting because it shows that being an American sometimes is not a privilege and there are differences in cultures and lifestyles that cannot be mixed up. It also imparts them how to accept diversity and racial equality. The voice of the Asian people is finally heard all over the world, even in a country that have a long history of considering Asians as the minority such as the United States (Yasharoff).
Similar to “Black Panther,” a famous representative of the African community recently, “Crazy Rich Asians” and “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” are the voices of Asians in Hollywood, which is a current new trend in the Hollywood film industry. The hype in those two movies show that people are now more and more favoring the story of people from different cultures that difference in appearance is not the only issue (Yasharoff). It can be said that similar to Americans, Asian Americans also have issues with defining who they are, what they want and where they belong to. Culture difference is not the only story about Asian-Americans. It is a good news that Hollywood is promoting more Asian-American culture, which shows a real equality. The Asian-Americans finally have their own voice as strong as the Americans. Racial equality movement is not starting from the government or laws; it starts from the perception of people to others. It is good to know that it comes in the form of books and movies, which are both interesting and able to reach young audiences the most. Young adults, which they are now in the age of exploring and understanding the social world around them, should notice this movement to prevent discrimination and appreciate the difference.
WORKS CITED
enderle4@earthlink.net [Dotti Enderle]. “[yalsa-bk] Overbrook Sets Annie Neal To Pen YA Adaptation 'To All The Boys I've Loved Before”. YALSA, 11 Jul 2014, http://lists.ala.org/sympa/arc/yalsa-bk/2014-07/msg00164.html. Accessed 27 October 2018.
Lee, Christine. “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before: how Hollywood woke up to the Asian-American experience.” The Conversation, 13 September 2018, http://theconversation.com/to-all-the-boys-ive-loved-before-how-hollywood-woke-up-to-the-asian-american-experience-102632. Accessed 27 October 2018.
Yasharoff, Hannah. "Netflix's 'Boys' rides 'Crazy Rich' coattails." USA Today, 20 August 2018, p. 02D. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A551047798/OVIC?u=drexel_main&sid=OVIC&xid=2b496f69. Accessed 27 October 2018.
Younker, J. Marin and Sarah M. Webb. “Mind the Gap: What’s Missing in Realistic Teen Fiction About Minorities.” Voice Youth Advocates, 28:3 (August 2005): 197-201. Accessed 27 October 2018.