Telling It Like It Is
By Sharon T. Ching, Staff Writer

In the business circles of American society, "diversity" is a word of golden esteem.  The more varied the employee population is, the more one truly encompasses the masses of Americans who make up this country.  There is a purported sense of understanding and acknowledgement of different cultures, races, ethnicities, and sexualities.  Regardless of any doubts or considerations concerning a pool of employees, my question comes in the telling of these people’s stories.  There is a general consensus that there is a lack of diversity in the Hollywood filmmaking industry.  Though my question is one that has been frequently touched upon time again on why we don’t see more Asian faces on screen, my primary question concerns the possibility of creating an Asian American story on film.

In recent years, there has been significant crossover of Asian cinema.  The international box-office success, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, has assisted in propelling that notion that the West has finally welcomed the films of the East.  With that success, there can international releasing of In the Mood for Love and an older film, The Road Home that featured a younger, more innocent Zhang Ziyi before she became associated as the sword-wielding princess.  So, of course, this automatically means that Asians have broken through all barriers of racial and ethnic seclusion in Hollywood.

Yet, these stories are about Asians in Asia.  I am looking for films that truly embrace and express Asian American experiences.  When will the time come when Asian American stories are finally brought to the screen, when our experiences as both Asians and Americans can be shared and understood by others?  However, I would be naïve to think that it would all happen overnight, and part of the problem is not solely at the hands of those who have the final word on whether a film is made.  Though not necessarily a problem, it is more so the difficult task of expressing a truly Asian American story.  There have been such films as The Joy Luck Club, but it allowed for the perpetuation of images of submissive Asian women with empty, distant Asian men who reach happiness by being rescued by white men.  There have been some Asian American film festivals, notably the San Francisco Asian American Festival, which has screened many directors work including The Debut, noteworthy in the sense that there is a lack of Filipino-American stories told.  Yet these all bring about greater questions and in particular, one that has reverberated in my mind.  What is an Asian American story?

The first and foremost realization must come to the understanding of the great diversity of Asian cultures. Simply counting the numerous languages and dialects reveals the variety of people and indicates the expansive possibility of different experiences.  For example, in China with its over billion population, the innumerable distinct ethnicities and dialects have spread over to the formation of different cultures.  A supposedly simple, collective term as "Asian" used to encompass all the nationalities of Asia comes to me as a Western terminology to group everyone together. It does not consider that long history between nations and the bitter political conflicts that consistently divide these countries including the ongoing legacy of Japanese imperialism over Korea and China.  Also, the term "Asian" breaks down into varying components from "East Asians," comprised of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese, to "Southeast Asian," Vietnamese, Laotian, Thai, and Cambodian, and other parts.  This does not including Russia or the former Eastern bloc of Russia; in some ways, to look at this politically, "Asian" can be seen as a nicer word than the derogatory, "Oriental."

All these different cultures and languages all come together to comprise "Asian American" in the United States; and thus, pose the original question at hand.  Is it possible to truly have a film about the Asian American experience?  Given the complexities and layers within that experience, my instinctive reaction is that it is not necessarily impossible, but it would depend on the theme of that story.  Perhaps a film discussing general racism experienced by Asian immigrants could encompass a greater Asian population.  Even then, though, there is difficulty for the experience of racism may differ between say an illegal sweatshop worker from Thailand and an upper-middle-class businessman from Japan.

Despite all these differences that are held together fragmentally and fragilely under the Asian American coalition for solidarity and strength over cultural diversity, it does not deter me from hoping for the day that we would have our own Spike Lee.  There would come a time when we would have a heralded director who told Asian American stories and brought them into mainstream America.  I want to see the day when films about all kinds of Asian American experiences are brought to light, films that don’t have to embody typical themes of discrimination, racism, family pressures, and identity issues.  It may appear that as Asian Americans, we are frequently preoccupied with trying to find our ancestral heritage or trying to combat parental pressures of pursuing a certain profession.  I am looking for stories that are as varied as about a Vietnamese high school athlete with Olympics dreams or a Thai-American wanting to become a rock star.  I look forward to the day when these Asian American stories are not only told and acted by Asian American actors, but also filmed by Asian American directors.  We bear witness to the success of directors such as Ang Lee whose crossover has given him the opportunity to jump from films such as The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink, Man Woman, to Emma Thompson’s adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and The Ice Storm.  However, it was his success in Taiwan that propelled his overseas success.  When will there be an Asian American Ang Lee who can replicate that success?  Surely we have Asian directors working in the United States, notably, M. Night Shymalan.  However, despite his talent and his skillful ability to become an established director in the United States, his stories are not about Asian Americans.  There are no significant Asian American characters in the plots of his films.  In the end, there must be solidarity and support with the numerous communities through America to encourage the artistic and creative dreams of aspiring filmmakers and to those who are already making films to tell the stories of Asian American experiences.  There is no singular experience, but in time with continual support and consistent pursuit, perhaps there will a manifestation of all Asian American stories.