There is a lack of Asian American representation in Hollywood. Let’s talk about it.
Now don’t get me wrong, there has definitely been progress. Especially in recent years with releases such as Crazy Rich Asians and Everything, Everywhere All at Once, but in the general landscape of modern media, there is still a clear deficit of Asian American voices.
I came to this realization more recently, as I was interning at a multicultural marketing agency. I noticed as I was pursuing the casts of new titles, I would struggle to find Asian American talent. There would often be one or two actors in a sea of Caucasian faces, and it made me start to wonder how far we’ve really come.
An analysis of the top 10 TV show programs done by Neilsen in 2021 showed that only half of these programs included AAPI characters in their main cast, and in 2020, this number was zero out of ten shows. When Asian Americans make up a significant demographic in the United States, these numbers are unacceptable.
And apart from just a lack of representation, the representation that does exist often plays into harmful stereotypes. One study showed that 35% of movies with an AAPI main cast member include some kind of Asian stereotype in their portrayal, such as martial artists, IT workers, etc. It’s not just about representation in the media, but accurate portrayals that celebrate and uplift these cultures and don’t just use tokenized Asian actors for a diversity requirement.
And some shows and movies do a good job at including AAPI cast without making that their sole personality trait. One example I can think of off the top of my head is To All of the Boys I’ve Loved Before, which stars Vietnamese-American actress, Lana Condor. Condor’s character emulated feelings and experiences any teen girl could relate to, without making it about the Asian American teen dating experience. And while there is a time and a place for this, all media that include Asian Americans shouldn’t be focused on this. Having minorities in film and TV is about uplifting their voices, but also not boiling their identities down to a singular characteristic.
And the problem exists beyond representation and extends into other forms of modern entertainment, such as talk shows. In 2022, The Late Late Show with James Corden faced backlash as they spread harmful messages about Asian American culture through their game “Fill Your Guts or Spill Your Guts”, where Corden pressured celebrities from the likes of Kendall Jenner to Harry Styles to gossip about their lives to avoid eating “disgusting foods” that were often popular in Asian cultures. One example of this is the use of chicken feet, which are eaten by many different Asian ethnic groups.
Even with these facts in mind, I will say there are still some amazing feats being made within the AAPI community that shouldn’t go unnoticed. Crazy Rich Asians was an incredibly important film, because it was the first movie in decades to feature an all-Asian cast. It cracked open the doors for actors in Hollywood to see more AAPI faces on the big screen, and inspired actors, such as Academy Award-winning Ke Huy Quan, to get back into acting.
This leads me to Everything Everywhere All At Once, a movie that is continuing to make history with its release. With a predominantly Asian cast, the movie not only won Best Picture, but accomplished an even more incredible feat — Michelle Yeoh secured the win for Best Actress, making her the first Asian American woman to do so.
While there are still leaps to be made in making Hollywood a more inviting place for Asian Americans, we can celebrate the wins along the way in the journey to progress. Asian Americans need to see representation and are willing to put up an active fight for it.