8 Asians

Categories:

• mike_le

  I don’t think ANY of the women in the film get to be more than two-dimensional props. It’s the story of “our generation” and (surprise!) it’s all about white men.

  The fact that the one Asian actress gets lumped in with all the other women as objects to be conquered or crazies to be avoided doesn’t, in my mind, speak to any kind of increased “relevance” in film and television. Her character didn’t break ground. Oh yeah, and in a little homage to “21,” the one dark-skinned male player in the real-life story was replaced with a light-skinned actor. Hurray.

• nomargins

  You don’t mind that Asian women only get to be cast in movies to play “groupies”??? There are so many things wrong with that that I don’t even know where to start. What is the point of putting Asians and women and other minorities into films when they’re just there just to be there? Maybe the whole “groupie” character is actually a very one-sided depiction of an real Asian women in Mark Zuckerberg’s life. Does she get to tell HER side of the story?

  Also, props to your comment, mike_le!

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  Ehh. The Social Network = rental in my book. There hasn’t been a single “startup” movie that I’d want to watch on the big screen including this one. And I’m supposed to be all wowed because it’s Mark Zuckerberg? hahaha..

  Asians are more prevalent in general in television and movies now. Just check out Hawaii Five-O and a whole slew of others. It’ll come. I’m not too worried about it. Course, I’m not militant like Dino-Ray either.

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  Ehh. The Social Network = rental in my book. There hasn’t been a single “startup” movie that I’d want to watch on the big screen including this one. And I’m supposed to be all wowed because it’s Mark Zuckerberg? hahaha..

  Asians are more prevalent in general in television and movies now. Just check out Hawaii Five-O and a whole slew of others. It’ll come. I’m not too worried about it. Course, I’m not militant like Dino-Ray either.

• http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

  @darkmoon It’s an Aaron Sorkin movie – you are watching it for the West Wing like dialogue, and the betrayal stories, not because it’s Techcrunch in a movie.

  In regards to the way Asian girls are played out, the movie conveniently leaves out that Mark Zuckerberg has actually had a girlfriend for the past five years. Priscilla Chan. Who is Chinese. Who he met at an AEPi party (the Jewish frat party, the exact fraternity portrayed in the movie.)

• http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

  @mike_le Exactly. Also: did anyone else see the scene where he’s in the Computer Science class? Did anyone notice how many Asian people they were NOT?

  Now, there’s no win either way — if there are Asians in a CS class he is playing to stereotypes, if he’s not he’s playing to the fact that Asian males can’t be in a movie — but come on, I have never seen such a diverse sciences class in my life.

• moye

  @ErnieHsiung @mike_le There were Asians in the room, competing to win the coveted intern slot. I think one of them won. Just saying.

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  @ErnieHsiung West Wing Schmest Bing. Whoopiedeedoo. I hear that some people like American Idol too, but not I said the little bunny, not I.

  Unless I’m seeing Mark Zuckerberg’s character beat the living crap out of someone, then I’ll pass. Have to be in a certain mood to watch those types of movies AND pay $9 for tickets. Hell, I’m more inclined to give my money to the Owls of Ga’hoole.

  And I did know about Priscilla Chan. But what’s the point of a movie if you can’t leave out important details and make it more exciting? At the very least, they didn’t cast like Halle Berry to play Chan.

• Liz_Money

  There’s very little objectification. Every other ethnicity can claim the Asian Fetish. This was actually the first time I’ve heard it with Jewish boys. (it makes sense though. Overbearing guilt dispensing parents in common.)

  Brenda Song’s character was a girl who happened to be Asian. Which is a move forward from The Token Asian that I have grown up seeing. (I grew up having to bear the Sixteen Candles Long Duck Dong stigma of Asian perception)

  Don’t look for a fight where there is nothing to get upset about. And there must be something different in San Francisco, because everywhere else I’ve lived, Asian girls can get down on the dance floor.

• moye

  @darkmoon Okay, seriously? You’re putting a show like the West Wing on the same level as a reality singing competition like American Idol. So basically you’re saying that you’d rather watch a Michael Bay version of a fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg (complete with explosions) over a compelling narrative about friendships vs. money with a great creative team (writer/director/music) attached?

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  @moye When I don’t watch either, they’re on the same level. Yup.

  You’re trying to convince me of a genre that I don’t watch usually. So they might as well be on the same level. Actually, I’d probably go for a more Tarantino version of Mark Zuckerberg, but again, it’d depend on my mood.

  I mean it’s like me trying to convince you to watch Satisfaction, or some other television show I watch that you have absolutely no interest in. If that’s the case, then on the same level, they drop in appeal to… about… yes, the same level as reality television.

  I think a Michael Bay version of Mark Zuckerberg would MAYBE be more interesting, but then again, I never really did care for the whole Zuckerberg story. Of course, if Bruce Willis played Zuckerberg, I might be inclined to at least sit through it as long as he mentions “Yippiekiyae…”

• mike_le

  @ErnieHsiung I don’t think it’s wrong to represent Asian faces where it makes sense. The reason showing us in a computer lab raises a “stereotype” flag is because American media is so bad about showing us ANYWHERE except a few select cases.

  That’s why no one bats an eye when the only Asians seen in a cop show are all hanging out at Chinatown. The fact that Asian Americans outnumber African Americans in Los Angeles is something you’d NEVER know from watching our media.

  I wouldn’t shy away from showing us as engineers and doctors, but I would fight for us to be represented in more than a few token scenarios.

• RezRek

  The fact that some people freak out over the “supposed” stereotype of being a computer expert is actually an outcry of one’s own personal insecurities. There’s nothing wrong with being a computer expert. In fact, this movie is all about how being a computer expert gets you laid. What some are missing is HOW certain races are allowed to be portrayed. Some asians proclaim they’re tired of being portrayed as computer experts in the media.

  Yet, can anyone name any recent mainstream movies that actually do this?

  Matrix 1, 2, and 3 were about hip edgy computer experts. None of them were asian.

  Hackers the movie starred Angelina Jolie as a sexy computer expert who hooks up with some hip edgy male computer expert. Their main circle of friends are computer experts. They’re all sexay and hip. None of them are asian.

  Some asians complain how they’re tired of being portrayed as math experts.

  Yet, can anyone name any recent mainstream movies that actually do this?

  A Beautiful Mind stars a white guy as a math expert who has a beautiful woman fall in love with him.

  21 was based on a true story about a group of asian guys from MIT who take over casinos with their amazing math skills yet in the movie version, the main guys are replaced with white guys.

  Good Will Hunting is about a humble white guy math expert.

  This isn’t about asians being portrayed as math experts or computer experts. It’s a matter of how asians are portrayed in whatever role. If it’s a white guy doing it, it’s hip and edgy and cool. If it’s an asian doing it, it’s usually crime-oriented or whorish.

  I don’t care if an asian woman was casted in this movie. She comes off as a whore. Some of the biggest roles for asian women have been roles about whores–Miss Saigon, Madame Butterfly, Full Metal Jacket, any Bai Ling movie, etc.

  Asians couldn’t even get casted as heroes in The Last Airbender, a movie about asian heroes. Producers and their supporters say it was because of a money thing. Well, then going by that logic, why couldn’t a white woman be casted as the whore in the Facebook movie since it would theoretically garner more box office income?

  Those who praise this movie are sheep and are the same type of people who get shocked and don’t know what to say when they’re racially accosted on the street due to a lifetime of wearing rose-colored glasses. Or blinders.

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  @RezRek Asians were in Transporter. :p And the the latest movie: Bunraku. And wasn’t there an Asian in Inception? ehhh? It’s not necessarily crime-oriented, or whorish now. I know what you’re getting at, but I respectfully disagree.

  And, I’d like to add that they don’t usually screw up the translation now. They used to screw up subtitles ALL the friggin’ time. Not so much the case anymore.

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  @RezRek Asians were in Transporter. :p And the the latest movie: Bunraku. And wasn’t there an Asian in Inception? ehhh? It’s not necessarily crime-oriented, or whorish now. I know what you’re getting at, but I respectfully disagree.

  And, I’d like to add that they don’t usually screw up the translation now. They used to screw up subtitles ALL the friggin’ time. Not so much the case anymore.

• http://www.merchantsmirror.com darkmoon

  @RezRek Asians were in Transporter. :p And the the latest movie: Bunraku. And wasn’t there an Asian in Inception? ehhh? It’s not necessarily crime-oriented, or whorish now. I know what you’re getting at, but I respectfully disagree.

  And, I’d like to add that they don’t usually screw up the translation now. They used to screw up subtitles ALL the friggin’ time. Not so much the case anymore.

• John

  Actually, I think this would be a bigger issue if the issue of how true this movie is to the facts wasn’t the main controversy. Maybe I need new glasses, but I really didn’t notice that the models at the club with Sean Parker were Asian.

• nomargins

  @Liz_Money I get that she’s a Crazy McCrayCray that just happens to be Asian. But, there is plenty to be upset about. I’m upset that out of the handful of movies I’ve seen that feature Asian women, the majority of them are portrayed negatively (i.e. they’re off their rockers). Whether that’s intentional or not doesn’t matter. The second they start giving girls like Brenda Song roles that depict Asian women in a positive light, then maybe I’ll have nothing to critique. Nobody’s “looking for a fight.” We’re all just trying to critique a film.

• Pingback: The “Asian Women” of The Social Network | Audrey Magazine

• hugh.smith

  This is just another example of insecure asian males (in this case, our buddy “dino-ray”) trying to promote the mythology that all non-Asian men who show interest in asian women are “obsessed.” Yep, yet another whole post hinting that everyone has “asian fever” and everyone is out to marginalize asian men. Here’s a news flash for (some of) the Asian world: while you self-deluded Asians sit around pondering the mythology that everyone is obsessed with Asia here’s the truth: the only “fetish” or “obsession” for asia is the one that Asians have. Sure, some people have fetishes for people of all races (you never hear that from insecure asian males. Hmm) But Asians fetishize themselves to the extent that they are convinced that everyone else does, too. You all are so obsessed with yourselves and your “pure cultures” to the point that you create mythologies about other people being “obsessed” with you, confusing it with simple attraction, or interest, or even academic study. LOL.

  And then of course the ones who ultimately drive the whole “asian obsession” mythology are the insecure asian males (the so-called “foi boys”) chirping and whining about asian women and non-asian men. “OMG – watch out! He’s only after you because he has “asian fever.” Is that so? Well, Mr. Hong, why do you, yourself, ONLY date asian women? Hmm.. Here’s the reason: it’s because YOU are actually the one who is obsessed with asian women.

  Insecure asian men are so sensitive about this to the extent that for asian women to cross racial lines is an ACT OF WAR on their very self-worth. Yep: if the object of your obsession favors the object of your dread and hatred, then that affects you to the point that you must have a strategy to turn the object of your obsession away from the object of your hatred.

  Others have said it and I will say it too: IN NO WAY ARE ALL ASIAN MEN LIKE THIS!! And I apologize to those of you who are not caught up in the foi boy mentality to reject and punish asian women for sometimes dating other races.

  But the foi boys who keep up their creepy and subtle commoditization of the asian female as a product that only THEY are worthy to own, protect, and enjoy, a product with which they transact in self-worth, is disgusting and creepy. They rely deeply on the lie-quest that only THEY are truly and honorable to asian women. Yeah – what a laugh. Question for Asian Females: How does it feel to be an inanimate, creepy weapon in the hands of an insecure asian male? How does it feel that you are shaped into a weapon that will be leveled at anyone who tries to date you who is not asian. He deeply depends on the very good chance that you will entirely cave in to his racist mythology that only Asian men are honorable. Only Asian men should be with Asian women. Only Asian men should be with Asian women — DAMMIT.

  Question for Asian women: How does it feel to be either accepted or rejected by your asian male friends and family based on whether you are willing to nurture, preen and caress only asian males, while ignoring and acquiescing to his pathological need for you to favor his racial makeup alone, and also rejecting non-Asian men as having a bizarre obsession simply because they are doing the same thing he is – dating an asian woman.

  It’s so painfully obvious and it has been so clear for years. Only recently did it dawn on me: In the end, Asian men are the most obsessed with asian women. They need Asian women to reject everyone but them in order to feel worth. And when asian women do not reject everyone but them, they become enraged, and reject and ostracize asian women with impunity. Koreans do this wholesale. Korean men justify this behavior by citing their “ethnic duties” as a man. LOL.

  AGAIN: some of you asian men are saying WTF? because you are not like this. But if you don’t move in this pattern, you are not part of the accusation here. And you should speak out against this nonsense. I acknowledge that there are white men who are idiots toward asian men, and I speak out against them. Do you speak out against the foi boy mentality?

  Just sayin…..

• http://www.erniehsiung.com/ Ernie H.

  @mike_le Looks like Aaron Sorkin goes on the defensive on another blog where he specifically called out in regards to female roles. The post is here:
  http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2010/10/aaron-sorkin-responds-to-commenter-in.html

  (Thanks Joz)

• Hugh.Smith

  OK – while I do not retract any of the post above concerning “asian fever” mythologies, I absolutely owe Dino-Ray an apology. I had hastily read his post, and commented without reading it well. He is obviously not a foi-boy, and I apologize to him and for the remark about him at the beginning of my post above. I respect that he is trying to deal with the sometimes sparse representation of Asians in media in a really thoughtful way. I believe there are many non-Asians who want to help with that. And Dino-Ray’s attitude is good.

  Aside from that, I am not apologetic about my remarks above. I truly police the sometimes ridiculous conceptualizations of Asian men in the white world. So do my friends. So, please understand when I am offended that Asian men are sometimes – to my surprise sometimes – aiming a cultural ICBM right at my head just because I date asian women, or am interested in Asia in some way. It is really weird sometimes how it gets blown out of proportion.

  Here’s the deal: I love *women.* There are many times when I will choose a non-Asian over an Asian woman. I am not obsessed with any kind of woman. For that matter, I am not obsessed with *anything.* Further, I have no “Asian fever” or fetish or anything like it at all. If an asian woman is attractive to me, then I will get involved with her. If a white girl is attractive then the same with her. But sometimes I do date asian women. I get tired of the asian women who have these silly “asian fever detectors” up and running when I just happen to cross their paths. Get your “asian fetish” myth off my life, thank you. Some of you Asian women (not all, of course) will walk by me on the street like “oh yeah, white boy, you KNOW you want some of me, right? You got some asian fever, right? huh???? Yeah????”

  Part of it is that I am a good looking guy. Most women of all groups give me looks. BUT MY GOD, THE WAY ASIAN WOMEN DO THIS IS THE CREEPIEST THING I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE. It is like I am some kind of animal that is robotically entranced by asian women just because they have black hair and dark eyes. And not to be offensive, but all asian women are NOT hot. You are not deeply attractive to someone just because you are asian. Period. And if you are not good looking, then men of the same status will be after you. Period. There is nothing special about a pudgy, fat little asian girl who has drunk the kool-aid that I am obsessed with her just because she is from Korea. And I hate to bring up Korea so much, but you all are by far the worst with your self-fetish. Koreans have the worst ASIAN-ASIAN FETISH out there. And, unfortunately, in my opinion, probably the least attractive asian women. So I don’t get it with Koreans.

  In the end, I really, really want to qualify all of this. All asians, and of course ALL Koreans do not think this way. Unfortunately, I see a disproportionate amount of Koreans who are incredibly arrogant about themselves. They are obsessed with themselves and they inscribe that obsession onto the world. It is creepy and disturbing. They get mad when other groups (including other asian groups) do not think they are superior in every way. And some of the women are just fascinatingly arrogant and puffed up — even when they are simply not attractive physically at all. I would bring up personality, but that is drowned out in their arrogance, so who cares?

  But again: ALL koreans are not like this. ALL asian do not have a fetish for themselves. And of course, there are really kind, sweet, grounded, beautiful asian women out there who are perfectly capable of deciding who they are attracted to aside from any pressure from the foi-boy population.

  In the same way, just because non-Asian men are involved with Asia in some way in no way implies, proves, or even comes close to any “asian fetish.”

  I commit to continue working to break down stupid stereotypes of Asians.

• Pingback: Five Otherwise Decent Films Ruined by Asian Stereotypes | You Offend Me You Offend My Family

• TzeMingMok

  Hey, I just saw The Social Network and I’m pretty sure the line was “and they *can’t* dance”. Which totally nailed it. Especially as right afterwards, Eduardo’s character does the dorky-dance across the room.

• Pingback: The Rover: Film: Barney's Version | The Rover

• Pingback: Brenda Song is NOT Pregnant with Trace Cyrus’s Baby, Unfortunately | Entertainment | 8Asians.com

• Pingback: Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Gets A New Asian Wife! | (simple) | 8Asians.com

• http://www.facebook.com/cmkwon Christina M Kwon

   Hugh.. please don’t help us. Your comments are actually offensive and not helpful at all.  If you were a Korean woman you would know why we have these fever detectors.  When I tell a guy they have yellow fever, its because I am the one that is being objectified.  If i had a dime for everytime a guy (non-asian) made a comment about happy endings or never having been with an asian woman then looking at me as if their chance has struck, i’d be seriously rich and also a depressed woman.. cuz now i have the proof in the bank of how “worthless” guys really perceive us… You have no problem stating multiple times that you are good looking guy, why is it bad that we korean woman can admit that honestly too. 

  hugh you need to get off your high horse cuz you are not the white man that will save our kind from the prejudice of the white man’s world… Just like Japan was not waiting for Tom Cruise to come along and be their “last Samurai”

• http://www.facebook.com/cmkwon Christina M Kwon

  Thanks to everyone that is truly colorblind.. Proactive Procreation – we just have to become one race so we can start hating on ppl for other reasons than color!

• http://www.facebook.com/cmkwon Christina M Kwon

   one more thing – how dare you use the term foi-boi in the same paragraph you say you want to help break down stupid stereotypes.  That’s like some black people sayin they want respect but go around callin everyone the N-word.. That’s like a person converting to Judaism, just to be able to make fun of jews and not come off as offensive… IT’S OFFENSIVE!!

  I suggest that if you really want to be of help and not be the one stereotyping us… remove “all you..” Koreans, Asians whatever.. from your vocabulary…  then you don’t have to keep apologizing in your statements that it doesn’t really mean all you.. Stop saying it then!!