It was sitting in the middle of a packed theatre in downtown Toronto that I noticed racist jokes aren’t just funny to white people.
Fu-gen, Asian Canadian Theatre Company operating out of Toronto has recently produced some plays that are a bit questionable in their reproduction of East-Asian/Asian-Canadian stereotypes. Brown Balls features three Asian men complaining about their lack of luck with white women while fawning over their technogadgets. Banana Boys is a similar plot, reliant on the effeminizing gaze of white stereotypes of Asian males, the play propping itself up with homophobic jokes/innuendos and failing to speak to any Asian male sense of self-worth, or pride in the beauty of Asian women. As if there isn’t anything else for Asian-Canadians to make plays about.
The crowd around me? 50% Asian males. Howling in laughter. Cheering at the recognition of a common stereotype.
But why?
Some theories on the phenomenon of Asians’ fondness for stereotypes of themselves:
- It’s funny. When we tell the joke, we aren’t only the butt but the comedian (too bad the joke is still on us)
- Being funny is cool (and its not often we think of ourselves as cool)
- Craving for recognition: as poet Ishle Park put it, “Where are our Martins? Our Malcolms? All we have are fathers with thick tongues.” We don’t see ourselves in the popular imagination, pop culture or otherwise. No strong figures we can rally around and be proud of. So when we see something we recognize that other people recognize as Asian, we embrace it as one of our own children (only it wasn’t ours, it was the child of that white kid in the schoolyard who beat us up everyday for being Asian).
- We don’t recognize our strong figures as strong figures, or the things that aren’t the butt of a joke that we have as Asians which we can be proud of.
This is not all bad news, however. Because there seems to be such an absence of the Asian-American/Asian-Canadian persona in popular imagination, this gives us the room to start promoting people who we feel are deserving of this kind of recognition. Right now, we have the power to shape how Asians are seen in North America. We don’t have to take what was given to us.
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11 Comments to “So Why Do Asians Love Stereotypes of Themselves?”
tiennguyen wrote:
It's perfectly a natural occurrence among Asians, and other races.
Many Chris Rock (and other black comedians) sketches revolve around how black men are deadbeats who can't get jobs, can't raise a family properly, and who abandon their kids.
For example: “You know the worst thing about niggas? Niggas always want credit for some shit they supposed to do. A nigga will brag about some shit a normal man just does. A nigga will say some shit like, “I take care of my kids.” You're supposed to, you dumb motherfucker! What kind of ignorant shit is that? “I ain't never been to jail!” What do you want, a cookie?! You're not supposed to go to jail, you low-expectation-having motherfucker!”
It's not the concept in and of itself that's funny, it's the delivery and penchant of the acts that make it funny. You can easily make fun of your own cultures in ways that end up degrading and completely unfunny, but done with taste and you have a winning combo.
Posted on 06-Jul-09 at 3:47 pm | Permalink
Tristan Dewar wrote:
You fail to mention, however, that Chris Rock dropped that kind of routine because he felt that the “in-house” nature of the material was actually producing racist parodying beyond the black community. Same thing with Dave Chapelle.
I do agree, however, that it's all a matter of comedic genius. Carlos Mencia ain't funny. He's a hack and pretty damned offensive. Dat Phan isn't funny to me, nor is Esther Ku. These people drudge up the same tired stereotypes for laughs, but I've never found their work to be particularly layered or socially daring.
Another reason I think some APAs gravitate toward this kind of humor, although I think the author of this article already articulated it in a way, is because it's a quick and easy way for alienated members of the community to feel like they're a part of the fold. I went through an idiotic AZN PRIDE stage as a youth, but it was simply because I couldn't find any more meaningful a way to relate my experiences to those of the larger community. These kinds of jokes, no matter how inane, are an easy way to shore up an identity with the “me-too” kind of mentality. If a third generation kid can't speak his grandparents' native language, but can feel at ease because hey, he or she loves to throw-down in some Street Fighter, then any sort of reference to that commonality is a comfort, no matter how small.
Posted on 06-Jul-09 at 11:40 pm | Permalink
Tristan Dewar wrote:
Sorry for the separate post, but I also want to add that, in reference to the author's advice about promoting “strong figures” of the community, this should be carried forth over the generations, but not at the cost of downplaying things society perceives as “Asian.”
Sure, ninjas and the dating conundrum have received overexposure perhaps (and I don't necessarily believe that), but let's not avoid discussing or promoting people or traditions or whatever JUST BECAUSE there's a cultural association with APAs. That can quickly become internal oppression.
Posted on 06-Jul-09 at 11:52 pm | Permalink
csc3 wrote:
I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one that thinks Carlos Mencia, Dat Phan, and Esther Ku are awful.
Posted on 07-Jul-09 at 10:21 am | Permalink
jeffat8asians wrote:
So next time you get ready to write a blog post about Asians as ninjas or Asian men who can’t get with white women, first think about how you want to be seen as an Asian.
Help me out here, Mitsuru. You say that the post on “Ninja Warrior” perpetuates negative stereotypes. Ninja Warrior is a game show from Japan about an obstacle course (not about martial arts) that takes tremendous physical ability to complete. The post mentions how creative shows like this helps to dispel the stereotype that Asians are not creative. It also mentions how Asian fishermen completed a course that Olympic level athletes and other high level professional Asian athletes could not complete, countering another stereotype about Asians not being athletic. One comment even says “great to see some athletic and strong asians representing.” I think that the post makes Asians be seen as creative, strong, and athletic, but you say it portrays Asians stereotypically and negatively. What do I seem to be missing here?
Posted on 08-Jul-09 at 12:35 am | Permalink
Kevin Lee wrote:
I agree with Jeff on this. The author's world is too black and white and it seems to, as Tristan warns, “downplay things society perceives as 'Asian' “, which I agree shouldn't happen.
I know you're trying to get us to change our thought process in posting, but those two posts you referenced do anything but promote a negative stereotype. i think they both address a stereotype and put it to discussion in a public forum.
Plus I think there are a bunch of people Asian are proud of.. Yuri Kochiyama, Ishle Park, Tiger Woods, Helen Zia, just to name a few. Hell, this last week we had posts on Mike Kim, Shi Pei Pu, Garrett Yee and Dan Choi. Just because they aren't recognized by American society as a whole doesn't mean that the AsAm community doesn't recognize them. Sure, there needs to be more exposure, but its not because they're not strong figures or because we don't recognize them as strong figures… it's because we don't see them AT ALL.
@Tien and Tristan, there've been constant discussions about humor and how racism/stereotypes play into humor. Russell Peters is a big discussion.
Yan showed this to me awhile back, it might pique your interests.
http://www.racialicious.com/2008/08/01/in-defen...
http://www.racialicious.com/2009/03/20/russell-...
I've made a couple posts about it, but I'm nowhere near as elegant or enlightened. Look up Yan's post about Dartmouth
- Kevin
Posted on 08-Jul-09 at 5:33 am | Permalink
mitsuru_mitsuru wrote:
thanks for all the feedback folks. glad this generated some discussion. i do apologize however for the passive aggressive mentionings of other 8asians blogposts in my original post. have since edited them out.
although my post doesn't mentione anything about downplaying asianness, nor did it comment on 8asians as a whole group blog, i like the suggestion that we don't just throw out things that are seen as asian because they could be perceived as stereotypes. i have my own issues with deciphering what makes up the different facets of my racial identity from what racism has cast me as, for sure! while i know that asianness does not equal asian stereotype (positive and negative included) why is it that we (myself included as i mentioned in the beginning) can't tell the difference often? this says a lot in respect to post. an unfortunate by-product of racism, wouldn't you agree?
at the same time, things that are clearly not essentially asian, like 'slant-eyes', bad-driving, or can't-get-no-white-girl jokes really need to be carefully considered before putting them out there especially when you are perceived as asian yourself…since that gives you this whole weirdo authenticity-factor and authority of voice in these matters.
Posted on 08-Jul-09 at 8:44 am | Permalink
mitsuru_mitsuru wrote:
not sure that the n-bomb was in fact necessary to tiennguyen's comment. i think i'd ask folks to please refrain from using this word in comments to any of my blog posts.
Posted on 08-Jul-09 at 8:44 am | Permalink
jozjozjoz wrote:
Mitsuru, I wish you'd left the original post in tact and edited with strikethrus. The comments from Jeff and Kevin now don't make much sense without them.
Posted on 08-Jul-09 at 10:50 am | Permalink
ErnieAtLYD wrote:
Agreed.
Posted on 08-Jul-09 at 1:16 pm | Permalink
ErnieAtLYD wrote:
Mitsuru, I appreciate you not tolerating any hate speech. That said, Tien isn't just throwing the n-word around, he's addressing the fact that is how Chris Rock is responding to other people in their communities, similar to the very post you wrote about Asian comedians. Like the comedy you watched and had an opinion about, there's an element of context that's a gray area, and I think that's the underlying issue here.
For what it's worth, I think the context is completely appropriate.
Posted on 09-Jul-09 at 12:11 am | Permalink
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