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The
Asian I (cont'd...)
by Pauline Nguyen,
Staff Writer
When
The World of Suzy Wong was released, a new conception of Asian
fantasy was created. Suzy Wong had both the bad girl and good girl image.
She was a prostitute but deep down, she was just trying to be a good
girl. Suzy Wong had embodied the two separate archetypes of the time:
the subservient good and pure female, and the seductress. It struck
another chord in the male fantasy: having a good girl with an inferno
of passion inside. Suzy Wong became the standard for modern day actresses.
Even Hollywood has not overcome its fascination with Suzy. Guy Lee,
a talent agent with the Betty Loo Agency, confesses that Hollywood has
not advanced far from 1960. They have fallen in love (or in lust) with
Suzy Wong and continually ask aspiring actresses to emulate her. Guy
advises some of his female clients to sometimes forgo their reluctance
to play the archetypes because Hollywood is not finished with their
love affair with Suzy Wong.
The
Asian American Camera.
In the documentary, Slaying the Dragon, several white males are
asked about their general opinion of Asian American women. Most men
refer to their fantasies of the Asian female in films and explain their
attraction to the exotic and mysterious characters. Somehow, the Asian
film characters have become synonymous with Asian American women. Through
the lens of the male camera, Asian women are seen through the eyes and
minds of a man's fantasy. With Deborah Gee as director, the camera lens
finally gets a pair of Asian American eyes. She explores the creation
and development of the Asian film stereotypes and how these expectations
have been transposed onto Asian American women.
...I can clean your American house, I can
be your Japanese wife, and I can be your Chinese cook.
The
Asian American I.
I remember my first experience with my Asian I. As I climbed the stairs
of a subway stop, I felt the presence of a woman continually trying
to cut me off. I kept my face forward and allowed this woman to pass
me. As I took my last step, this little old white lady called out "Slanty
eyes." I turned around to look straight at her and glared. She was shocked.
As I played the incident back in my head, I realized that her obscenities
became fiercer after she had tried to pass me. From the back, she did
not know that I was Asian. Did she suddenly gain courage once she saw
my slanty eyes? Did she see the slant of my eyes and assumed that it
also carried the history of subservience? When I had tried to let her
pass and kept my face forward, I wonder if she thought I was satisfying
her knowledge of the history by averting my eyes. Did she think that
I, a slanty-eyed person, would not have the gall to confront her?
There
was no denial that the slant of my eyes displayed my Asian heritage.
She saw the history of my culture's subservient nature drawn from popular
culture. She thought she knew my eye's history and tried to predict
that it would cower from confrontation. Patricia Williams in her essay
"The Pain of Word Bondage" expresses the duality of seeing: "But the
lesson I learned form listening to her wild perceptions is that it really
is possible to see things- even the most concrete things- simultaneously
yet differently" (Williams 150). The little old lady saw the eye's history
and tried to extrapolate upon that knowledge. I saw the slant of my
eyelids as the result of genetics and biology. She assumed differently.
She thought she knew the truth behind these eyes.
The Asian
eye has a slanted eyelid. But the position of this line contains a history
of subservience that Asian Americans Is are trying to defy. The public
has only seen the Asian I from film portrayals, but they do no know
the Asian American I. They see the depiction of Suzy Wong and assume
these images must be the same ones that Asian American women see. What
causes the fascination with the Asian eye? Is it merely the angle of
which the eye slants? If the slant of the Asian eye were removed, would
the Asian I still be as desirable? In Robert Haas's "A Story About the
Body," a woman learns a cruel fate when her intended lover rejects her
because she has lost both her breasts. Although he has never been preoccupied
with her body before, his desire withers away when the symbol of her
femininity, her breasts, are gone. Would the male lose their attraction
to the Asian I if there was no Asian eye? When the Asian I's symbol
of sensuality, the eye, is removed, will there still be the fantasies
and expectations?
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