Opinion | In a time of US racial reckoning, can Asian-Americans find their voice?
- Considering how Asian-Americans are increasingly part of the social and political conversation, their lack of representation in mass media is especially jarring
- It remains to be seen whether the ongoing reckoning on racial relations will extend to the country’s growing and diverse Asian population
My first true introduction to American culture came following my family’s move to Hong Kong in the 1930s, in the form of Hollywood movies. Watching films such as Gone with the Wind spurred my lifelong interest in film and partially inspired my decision to travel to the United States as a student in 1949.
Throughout my time at the University of Maryland, I took advantage of every opportunity to engage in American popular culture. I frequented the cinema, dabbled in play writing and took journalism classes at night at American University. Ultimately, my career took me in a different direction as I was bound for scholarly rather than media pursuits.
The Hollywood film industry that so piqued my interest in the 1930s is one of the most glaring examples of this. According to a 2019 study by the University of Southern California, only 2 per cent of leading roles in the top 100 films of 2018 went to Asian actors.
Only one Asian-American has won an Academy Award for acting: Miyoshi Umeki for Sayonara in 1957. There are also plenty of ugly examples where roles that should have been played by Asian-Americans are instead given to white actors.
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I remember seeing the film adaptation of the Pulitzer-winning book The Good Earth in Wuhan in 1939. While the film’s main character was a Chinese farmer, he was portrayed on screen by Austro-Hungarian-born American actor Paul Muni.
