Asian Women, Courtesy of Hollywood

In light of the horrible shooting of six Asian women in Atlanta and the recent spike in Asian hate crimes, I would like to revisit the moments in Hollywood entertainment history that helped create and perpetuate the harmful stereotypes that lead people to take violent action solely based on gender and race. These tropes have led greater society to believe erroneous things about what Asian women are like.
To understand where we are, we must first start at the beginning with the first Chinese-American starlet, Anna May Wong. Wong faced hardship in finding roles that were for Asian characters, since those roles usually went to white people in yellow face, as in The Good Earth and The Crimson City. Many of the roles that she accepted at first were the hypersexualized Asian (almost always a minor character) like her role in The Thief of Bagdad, where she played a Mongol slave. This was the role that skyrocketed her career, helping her to get longer screen time. The movies made in this era of Hollywood reinforced the already pervasive sentiment about Asian women - especially Chinese women - coming to America to be sex workers, which led to legislation in the previous century. But this is just the beginning.
Following the tragic history of Anna May Wong, we turn to the Madame Butterfly inspired Miss Saigon, a Broadway musical premiering in 1989. This play follows the story of Kim, a Vietnamese woman who turns to sex work to earn money and an American soldier who falls in love with her. All of the Asian female main characters were sex workers and the play promoted the white savior complex through the American soldier, Chris. On top of that, Kim was a shy and submissive seventeen-year-old when she met Chris. Miss Saigon promotes so many stereotypes that Vietnamese people who watch this musical cannot connect themselves to the characters onstage.
Entering the 21st century, the hit film Mean Girls also played off of Asian stereotypes, the nerdy Asians and the “Cool Asians.” As usual, the nerdy Asians only got their spotlight at the mathlete competition and the “Cool Asians'' were sexually active, with the coach nonetheless, an older white man. They also only spoke in Vietnamese for the duration of the movie. These people were once again relegated to the only spaces Asian characters can take within the film industry.
All of this and more has culminated in the current racism Asian women are faced with today. Whether it’s the subtle fetishization or the murder of six, every act has an impact on the person and their community. As an Asian-American, seeing myself represented on screen in such limited roles made me feel insignificant. When I saw and read about characters like Lara Jean Song Covey from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Daisy Johnson and Melinda May in Marvel’s Agents of Shield, I started to realize I could leave the model minority myth behind and create space for myself. Accurate portrayals are so important because they give examples to people who are not of that culture a better understanding of the other and people who are of that culture strength within themselves to believe that everything is within their reach.
So if you haven’t heard (and if you already have and need a reminder), my existence is not a temptation. I am not your fetish. I am not your sexual addiction. I am a loud and proud Korean-American woman, and more than that, I am a human, just like you.