China Doll Stereotype in Literature

      We already talked about The China doll in Film and The China doll in Musical in the previous posts. If we think about it, the premise of those pieces to exist is that the authors have to create the screen play first, which lead us to the main point of the post, why literature portray the China Doll stereotype like the way it did, and what problems it causes.
      It is very hard for writers to enter the mainstream market in these days. After all, It is all about grab reader's attention. Most of time, they are required to “expressed in terms of conflict between East-West cultural values, views on interracial marriages, the generation gap, the pursuit of the American dream, the native born’s imperative to assert Americannes” in order to be included into the mainstream culture (Yin 119). Therefore, the authors keep write about the mysterious myths about the Asian in their work, especially the exotic stories about Asian American. Here is an example that how Asian American literature portray the China doll stereotype. 

The Joy Luck Club

This is the poster of the film that was based on Amy Tan's novel. 
 Yes. It is one of the best film!

      Storyline: see the post here from my group mate Lynn for the storyline.The post is about the film named also "The Joy Luck Club" which was based on a Amy Tan novel.

      Comments: The characters of The Joy Luck Club are exactly what the readers would expected Asian Americans female would be like, which is the submissive women who takes pride by taking care of their men. Amy Tan (the author), had the chance to change those images, to dispel the public's misconceptions and to forge a new Asian American identity, instead, she copped out on her obligations, meekly reinforcing every conceivable stereotype” (Guiyou 89). Amy Tan took the easy way out by giving the readers what they believed in. Although the novel was the best seller, she sacrificed her dignity as a Asian American writer, and ran away from her responsibility. The Joy Luck Club made its massive effort to reinforce the negative stereotypes about Asian American female, and the “Asian American female need to be rescued by white man” pattern appears again in the novel enforces the stereotype even more.
      The negative China doll stereotypes can lead to a lot of serious problems for Asian American women, such as discrimination in romance relationships and low self-esteem. Even someone may argue that there are the some positive aspects of China doll such as Aasin women are allure, the stereotypes still could create negative self-evaluations due to a failure to live up to others' expectations, which comes from the implement from the literature. The writers should have the nerve to write something real about Asian women. Meanwhile, take the responsibility to  rectify the reputation of Asian female in the media.

Word Cited

      Yin, Xiao. Chinese American literature since the 1850s. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000. Print. 
      Huang, Guiyou. Asian Americans Literary studie. 22 George Square, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd, 2005. Print.

Miyoshi Umeki

Miyoshi Umeki is a Japanese actress that started her fame in the 1950's. Umeki characters were  all portrayed as humble and innocent typical Japanese female. She most likely the cause of the rise of the Lotus Blossom stereotype in her movie from Sayonara (as shown in a previous post from Lotus Blossom in Full Bloom). In all her acting she projected herself as stereotypical Lotus Blossom women who caters to a man as a servant, housekeeper and in one case is arranged to a marriage to someone she has never met! Miyoshi Umeki may have played stereotypical roles in her films but she was granted an Oscar for supporting actress.

 "This docile and deceptive-looking talent with the cropped hair and heart-shaped face radiated charm and innocence so effortlessly, she managed to make history at Academy Awards time as the first Asian performer to receive an acting Oscar for her superb work in the tragic post-WWII film drama Sayonara (1957)" -IMDb

Miyoshi Umeki winning Supporting Actress in 1957
with costar Red Buttons for Sayonara

The History about China Dolls

"There are china dolls and China dolls." According to Annie Nakao there is a traditional version that is not so know which consist of being a delicate porcelain doll treasured as a passed down heirloom. Then the other version  is applied to young asian women to be exoctic and obident. The only reason that a porcelian doll can be associated to Asian women that is obident is because of her porcelian-white skin the represents a doll.


According to the China doll stereotype, Asian women are meant to be tossed around and played with like dolls. Their value consist on their appearances and how they present themselves to men. China dolls refers to every Asian ethnicity, which makes the stereotype even more offensive to oneself. This stereotype could have originated when Chinese were the first among the groups from Asia to migrate to America in the 19th and 20th century, around this time period Chinese women had difficulty finding employment and got into the sex trade.

"Numbers of imported Chinese women were sold as prostitutes, wives, or concubines to the much larger numbers of Chinese men living and working in San Francisco. Many of these prostitutes were sold into the sex trade by their impoverished families and suffered abuse at the hands of their owners as well as their clients." -Jingwoan Chang

This photo was taken from
"My Little China Doll, Searching for ourselves at the toy store."
Hyphen Magazine

Work Cited
Nakao, Annie. "Sensitivity training around 'China doll'". SFGate. Web. 4 July 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/Sensitivity-training-around-China-doll-2825152.php>

Sapigao, Janice. "Breaking Down Sexualized Stereotypes of Asian Women". Bakitwhy. Web. 17 Sept. 2008. <http://www.bakitwhy.com/articles/breaking-down-sexualized-stereotypes-asian-women>

Problematic

 

These representations of Asian Americans are problematic because the audience receives negative information and it limits the roles in films for Asian Americans.  Normally these representations cause a stereotype over Asian Americans because we tend to have certain expectation over them. For instance in an article Geisha raises fears of stereotypicalmovie roles by Jae-Ha Kim mentions, “In both the book Memoirs of a Geisha and its film adaptation, women fall into two categories: sexy geisha and conniving dragon ladies, two stereotypes about Asian women that linger today” (Kim 1). This explains how this can affect Asian Americans in a negative way because of how the media portrays them.  These representations can cause for them to have trouble in succeeding in Hollywood. Whenever they appear in films they play the same role, it seems as they have fallen into a cycle in where it is difficult to break. Asian Americans should not be judged based on how they are represented but in who they really are.

Year of the Dragon

Year of the Dragon (1985) directed by Michael Cimino. The main character, Stanley White,  is a white police chief from New York who is racist towards Chinese. His purpose to get rid of any violence in New York Chinatown. He makes friends with Tracy Tzu a Asian American female news anchor to get his Chinese violence story onto the news. Although the police officer plays a conceited and inconsiderate, Tracey dislikes the person he is due to all the rude remarks about her ethnicity and eventually refuse to air his story in the news. He eventually goes to her house later on and pressures to having sexual intercourse but finally she caves in to his proposal despite many rejections in the past. This is a perfect example of portraying Tracy as a China doll for letting her sleep with man who disrespected her at first and had previous arguments. This movie not only portrays Asian American females to be passive and indecisive and characterizes them to be China dolls, but it also stresses that Asian American females want to engage in having sexual intercourse with white men, even after saying no.

Work Cited

"Negative Stereotyping of Asian Americans" modelminority. Joomla!. 2 March. 2013

Chinese Geishas Don't Exist!

Bestselling novel "Memoirs of Geisha" by Arthur Golden became a film in 2005 which was directed by Rob Marshall. The main character Sayuri (Zhang Ziyi) played as a Geisha had many controversy due to the fact that she is Chinese playing in a Japanese tradition. Although the topic was unsure about the casting, many believe that it was a negative representation to the diversity of Asian cultures and the misleading image of the traditional geisha. Throughout the film geishas were portrayed as prostitutes, submissive young girls which follows up to the main stereotype known as a china doll.

Geishas are not known to be prostitutes but instead  their status is to be known as entertainers. Since the production of the film and novel were developed by Americans and not Asians, they tend to add these stereotypes to help make it more profound to the media. Although the film carried many misconceptions of the definition of a true geisha by making Asian women to be these submissive prostitutes when the actual meaning of a geisha is to be the complete opposite. The problem of adding these stereotypes in the movie could be the cause that it was developed by a American man, which lead to a misconceiving idea of a geisha.

 "it’s unfortunate that the production didn’t make more of an effort to use native Japanese actresses, but what else would you expect from an adaptation of a fictional Geisha memoir written by an American man and filmed in ultra-fake California"-Chris Nelson

Work Cited

Gritten, David. "Memoirs of a very controversial geisha". Memoirs of a very controversial geisha. The Telegraph. Web. 2 Dec. 2005. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3648434/Memoirs-of-a-very-controversial-geisha.html>

Sterotypes

Lotus Blossom/ China Doll relates to other Asian American stereotypes because of the way the media has portrayed them to the audience. For example in the films or TV series Asian American have the same roles which are either detectives, nerds, involved in the mafia, martial arts experts, wise, easily picked on, or prostitutes. These stereotypes are negative.

Although each stereotype has its own different concept they all relate because this is the way Asian Americans are being labeled to society. Disappearing this idea from the audience is difficult because of the media;it displays false informatin that could lead into a wrong interpretation. An example of how an Asian American is easily picked on and has an incredible ability in fighting is in the film The Spy Next Door an action, adventure and comedy film directed by Brian Levant released in January 15, 2010 starring Jackie Chan as an international spy. His girlfriend’s children constantly harass him and a sudden twist comes when Jackie Chan has to return as a spy to protect his new family and uses his gadgets and abilities in defeating the villain. However in contrast to this in the film Better Luck Tomorrow tries’ to depict the opposite of these stereotypes. For instance it demonstrates how a group of four high school students are involved in committing felonies such as creating cheat sheets, drug dealing, stealing computer parts, fighting and killing. These actions stirred up what traditionally is seen because this film was unique in the way it depicted a different version of Asian Americans. In the beginning it seemed as a traditional film because it showed how most of them are hardworking students involved in school activities, but the twist came when they began getting involved in committing crimes and never getting caught. My first expectation was that the film was going to be based on Asian Americans who were hard working students who tried fitting in but never getting involved to the extreme of killing someone.

The article 6Asian Stereotypes From Film and TV by Jericho breaks down the different types of Asians that appear in films are Yellow Peril, they are Asian men who try to destroy the western civilization. Charlie Chan a detective who has brought a positive stereotype due to his intelligence and heroism. Dragon Lady is evil, hyper-sexualized and deceitful. Lotus Blossom (China Doll) is known for the most demeaning characterization of Asian females as it reinforces the idea that Asian women are subdued and subservient toys meant to be played with and tossed aside by white men. Nerdy Asian are shown how they are shown how they are always good in mathematics and science. Idiotic Goofball is known as the most offensive of stereotypes due to how many films add an Asian character as comedy relief such as broken English and goofy mannerism (Jericho 1). This quote depicts how Asian Americans are viewed because of the media.

In conclusion all these stereotypes connect because they can lead to negativity. Having a certain expectation on someone can affect them because not everyone is the same and should be judged the same way. Although there might be positive stereotypes according to others but not everyone sees it in that manner.

China Doll Stereotype in the Musical

      The China doll stereotype root in the musical field quite deep too. It make its appearances in the early 1900s, and have been inherited and adapted ever since. Here is two of the most controversy opera that exacerbated the stereotype.
 
Madame Butterfly

      Madame Butterfly is an opera with three acts by Giacomo Puccini. It was first performed in 1904, and setting in Japan. It is the story of a Japanese maiden (Cio-Cio San), who falls in love with and marries a white American navy lieutenant. After the officer leaves her to continue his naval service away from Japan, Cio-Cio San gives birth to their child. Cio-Cio San loyally awaits the lieutenant's return, unaware that he already married to a Japanese woman. He later discovered that he has a child with Cio-Cio San. He decide to go back to Japan and take the kid, then raise him with his American wife. The poor Japanese girl killed herself because of heartbroken (Madama Butterfly Synopsis).There has been much controversy about the opera, especially its sexist and racist themes, which is female Easterner sacrificing love and life for the male Westerner. The author of the play claim that Madame Butterfly is developed by real life story. And it is true, only the one who committed suicide is the American navy, not Cio-Cio San. Ironically, it ranks as number 7 in the Operabase list of the most-performed operas worldwide. In the fact, it is a major hit that will perform at the LA Opera later this year. The fact that such a offensive opera is still widely performed all over the world would even intense the bad situation that Asian American females are already facing.
For whole opera, click here.
 

Miss Saigon

      A contemporary example would be Miss Saigon, a 1989 musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, a modern adaptation of Madame Butterfly (TheBroadway Musical). The LA times called it "a celebration of stereotypes".Similar to Madame Butterfly, the opera tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover. The setting of the plot is relocated to the 1970s Saigon during the Vietnam War. In Madame Butterfly, the marriage is between an American lieutenant and Japanese girl. It is replaced by a romance between an American GI and a Vietnamese bar girl in Miss Saigon. As of January 2013, Miss Saigon is still the eleventh longest-running Broadway musical in musical theatre history (Long Runs on Broadway). This musical has received a lot of criticism because it again portrayed Asian women as "virginal prostitutes" and as subservient. There is a protest regarding its portrayal of East Asian men and women in 1995 in the Paramount Theatre. There was 25 shout, sign-carrying protesters argued that the show exploits Asian stereotypes. Miss Saigon has a history of protest. Its original London production in 1989 was picketed for using non-Asian actors in Asian roles (seattletimes). The reason why people Asian start to fight back is that they realized stereotypes like this promote racism and sexism, and can lead to more oppression and violence in the long run.

      The Asian woman is portrayed as delicate, shy, subservient, quiet, alluring, and faithful in the musical. The play writers let the Asian woman be the excellent love interest, but not as a wife or long-term partner (one need a white woman in that role after all). Although there are some effort, the racial and sexual stereotypes Westerners hold about Eastern culture still remains powerful and wrenching.

China Doll Stereotype in the Film

      China Doll is defined by media as a hyper-sexualized Asian stereotype for quite a long time. It is considered one of the most demeaning characterizations of Asian females, and it imply the idea that Asian women are weak, shy, sextuelized, and always rescued by white men (Sheridan). Here is few examples that how film industry usually portray Asian American female, expecially the China Doll stereotype.

Return to Paradise

      The movie is about three white male Americans take a vacation in Malaysian. They spend their time laying on the beach, sniffing cheap cocaine and sleeping with the local girls. Then one of them was arrested for drug possession, and the other two trying to help him (Mahdzan). In the beginning of the movie, there are few Asian female showed as eager, sexy women who take pride in sexually serving white men because the men are white and rich. Even though the girls were not Asian American and only appeared for a few minutes it still delivered the idea that Asian women are exotic, feminine and eager to please man. When Asians are constantly seen as this way in media, it affects the way people see Asian Americans.

The World of Suzie Wong

Suzie and Robert 

      This one is pretty famous. The World of Suzie Wong, directed by Richard Quine. It is one of the few Hollywood production that can be analyzed as the movie full of Asian stereotypes. Suzie Wong is a prostitute who initially fits into the role of a typical Chinese seducer. She tries to get Robert Lomax (an white artist) to sleep with her to increase her own prestige. Later, as the film continues, she transforms into a fragile woman who needs to be cared for by her man, which lead to another classic Hollywood pattern, the Asian women being rescued by the white men. In the movie, Suzie’s seeming desire to be beaten by Robert. If she doesn’t want it to actually happen, then she’s more than happy brag to her prostitute friends about how Robert beats her in a jealous rage if she even looks at another man. Of course, Robert doesn’t do anything of the sort, but Suzie’s belief that violence equals love is more than a little problematic. It sure did enhance China doll stereotype some favor.

 Here is clip of Suzie Wong  doing Cha cha, how alluring, just see how men look at her

The year of dragon
      Another example that how film portray Asian American Female. See the post titled "The year of dragon" form my group mate Lynn Santisteban for the further analysis.  
      Overall, the way haw Asian Americans female was portrayed in the movie are mostly negative. The negative stereotypes can lead to discrimination in romance relationships and low self-esteem. Even someone may argue that there are the some positive aspects of China doll such as allure, the stereotypes still could create negative self-evaluations due to a failure to live up to others' expectations, which comes from the implement from the film. The filmmakers should focus on how to represent Asian American female as multifaceted and uncategorized, instead of produce the same thing over and over again.

 

Work cited

Sheridan Prasso, The Asian Mystique: dragon ladies, geisha girls, & our fantasies of the exotic orient, PublicAffairs, 2005.
Elaine Kim, "Asian American writers: A bibliographical review". American Studies International 22 (2): 41–78. 1984.

Misconceptions about geishas

Due to how the media has portrayed geisha’s they have developed misconceptions regarding in who they are and what they do. The role that the geisha’s have is to entertain by painting, dance, playing music or having the ability to sustain a conversation with the opposite sex; the services are paid. Traditionally they use a wig, painted white faces, jewelry, or red lips. This leads for others to see them as prostitutes, the article Helium mentions, “The first reason is that when the first group of geisha’s began trading in japan in the 1700’s, they began in the red- light district. Joining the ranks of the many prostitutes located in the district, the geishas offered more in the way of music, dance and further conversation. Separating from the common red light district, the geishas soon became a profession in its own right and became an elite group” (Hanlon1). “The second reason came when after World War II Japan was occupied by soldiers from the United States. The prostitutes introduced themselves as geisha’s and when they returned home they mentioned they had been with beautiful women named geishas” (Hanlon 2).  Another reason stated in the article mentions, “In the years 1900 to 1945 in Imperial Japan, it was very common for poor families to sell their daughters into prostitution and give their sons to monasteries, it was preferred to find a home in a geisha house for your daughter instead of becoming an unknown prostitute, they would then service the house by cleaning and cooking and hopefully become a successful geisha after their training was finished” (Hanlon 3). These factors have led to the misconception of the geishas. The media as well is another important factor because the audience sees them as something they are not, in this case prostitutes. Before judging someone or a culture research should be done first before stating a false statement that can affect someone. Every culture has their own traditions or beliefs therefor society should respect them.  

                This article helped me understand that before stating a false concept on someone information should be done. It has also given a background on how the geishas began and what their roles are. Based on my personal opinion it would bother me knowing that my culture is being displayed in a falsely manner. There are those who believe and rely on what the media presents to them.

 

 

Joy Luck Club China Dolls/Lotus Blossoms

Joy Luck Club is a famous novel written by Amy Tan, that also got a chance in becoming a film which was directed by Wayne Wang in 1993. Amy Tan's novel was argued that her audience is for Americans  and not for an Asian audience, along with the film. The film did not attract many Asian/ Asian American audience because of how the women played stereotypical roles, despite that the Chinese culture was represented throughout the movie it was still filled with many misconception.  Joy Luck Club is a club that the mothers have created to form a support group that plays Mah Jong. The four mothers are: Suyuan, Lindo, Ying-Ying, and An-Mei which represent the East (China). The four daughters are: June, Waverly, Lena, and Rose which represent the West (America). The Chinese/Chinese-American women are represented unfairly as well. All four mothers and four daughters are or were at some point of time China doll and Lotus blossom to their lovers. The majority of the women are portrayed as insecure, weak, indecisive, and submissive. 

An example of this would be Rose and Ted's marriage,  after trying to reconcile their marriage Ted begged Rose to have an opinion and to fight for herself, who also blames her for the affair , and in the end reconciles his marriage with Rose as the good guy. Rose shows a typical stereotype that Asian Americans carry, a submissive and obiedient wife to her husband by agreeing to everything he said to her.  In her mind, making no decision at all is better than making a bad decision. In this clip it will show the stereotype of a Lotus Blossom because Rose caters to her white husband, Ted and how persistent she is to fulfill his needs and even lying at the end about her happiness in the marriage.

Lena is another daughter who also struggles within her marriage. She and her husband owe each other money, keep track of what they spend, and split everything half and half, she even has to split money on ice cream in which she hates and doesn't eat it. The reason that lead Lena to be so passive in her awful marriage is because she felt like she is getting what she deserves after wishing someone death which eventually came true. 

Throughout the movie the mothers and daughters were always suffering and dealing with painful situations. They never seem happy, always conflicted upon their problems in their previous or current marriages.

The mothers and daughters take a group family picture