Asian Stereotypes

Reading Tracey Chin's article "Sayonara Stereotypes" (2003), I couldn't help but remember how horrified I was by Mickey Rooney's performance in Breakfast At Tiffany's (Edwards 1961). I was told by my mother that it was common practice for white actors to play the parts of Asian characters, often unashamedly stereotypical. As Chin discusses in her article, many Asian actors, screenwriters and directors are now taking back their culture and making their mark on Hollywood cinema but it is slow going (2003, 18). Do Asian actors need to completely separate themselves from their ethnicity to be recognised as an artist for their talents? Is it up to Asian actors and directors to do this? Or should studio systems in Hollywood change they way they cast, try to become blind to looks so they only see the talent? Or should any performance still involve Asian culture but be wary of it becoming exploitative?

Works Cited:

Breakfast At Tiffany's. 1961. Dir. Blake Edwards. Jurow-Shepherd Production.

Chin, Tracy. “Sayonara Stereotypes: The Depiction of Chinese/Japanese Americans in Hollywood Cinema.” AlphaVision, Vol. 2(1), 2003: 14-19.