ASIAN AMERICANS IN MEDIA

Week 9: Meanwhile, in Hollywood…Year Of The Dragon

Key Terms:

• Postmodernism• Spectacle• Interracial romance and sexuality• The crisis in “grand narratives”• The return of the Yellow Peril• Yellow Perils meets Model

Minority

Year of The Dragon (1985)

Dir. Michael Cimino

Screenplay by Oliver Stone and Cimino

Produced by Dino De Laurentiis

Starring Mickey Rourke, Jone Lone, & Ariane

• A Hollywood studio production (MGM/UA), adapted from a novel by Robert Daley

• Set in New York’s Chinatown

• The film was protested by Chinese American and Asian American groups when it opened.

• As a result, a disclaimer was attached to its opening credits: “

"This film does not intend to demean or to ignore the many positive features of Asian Americans and specifically Chinese American communities. Any similarity between the depiction in this film and any association, organization, individual or Chinatown that exists in real life is accidental."

Director Cimino responded to the controversy in an interview in Jeune cinéma: "The film was accused of racism, but they didn’t pay attention to what people say in the film. It’s a film which deals with racism, but it’s not a racist film…”

Discussion Questions:

Discussion Questions:

Based on the opening of the film, how would you characterize its depiction of the New York Chinatown as a community?

Discussion Questions:

Based on the opening of the film, how would you characterize its depiction of the New York Chinatown as a community?

Do you think the film is racist?

Discussion Questions:

Based on the opening of the film, how would you characterize its depiction of the New York Chinatown as a community?

Do you think the film is racist?

If so, how does it differ from the “Yellow Peril” films of the 1920s and ‘30s?

Discussion Questions:

Based on the opening of the film, how would you characterize its depiction of the New York Chinatown as a community?

Do you think the film is racist?

If so, how does it differ from the “Yellow Peril” films of the 1920s and ‘30s? How is it similar?

Discussion Questions

How are the Chinese/Asian Americans are portrayed in the film, in terms of their relations with white community?

Discussion Questions

How are the Chinese/Asian Americans are portrayed in the film, in terms of their relations with white community?

• Racial segragation goes on both ways.• White superiority• Chinese/Asian's personal salvation

• E.g. Stanley's white identity is established through his exploitation of Joey and Tracy.

White Superiority

• Joey Tai & Stanley White 02:06:12

What are the parellels between Joey Tai & Stanley White?

White Superiority

• Joey Tai & Stanley White 02:06:12

What are the parellels between Joey Tai & Stanley White?

• White's ethnic self-identity as white, male, and heterosexual is shown in crisis at the beginning, which is confirmed by Tai's suicide, through White's dominance over nonwhite, feminized, foreign threats.

What are the endings of being a Chinese/Asian American in this film?

What are the endings of being a Chinese/Asian American in this film?

• Bad endings, Self-destructive - no matter you are a “bad” Chinese gang member or a “good” Chinese American who tries hard to melt into the mainstream white culture

What are the endings of being a Chinese/Asian American in this film?

• Bad endings, Self-destructive - no matter you are a “bad” Chinese gang member or a “good” Chinese American who tries hard to melt into the mainstream white culture

What are the criteria of being accepted as American? Are there any exceptions?

Personal Salvation

• Tracy Tzu & Stanley White

• Interracial romance & sexuality, act as both personal salvation and social corrective - transformation from "Dragon Lady" to "China Doll", forming a new stereotype of Chinese

• Differences from the "Yellow Peril" films

• The romance has its contradictory aspects.

e.g. Working class fantasy

What is the function of the desire for class equality?

• The romance has its contradictory aspects.

e.g. Working class fantasy

What is the function of the desire for class equality?

• It obscures the film's otherwise too obvious racism and sexism.

Discussion Questions:

Why do we care about these stereotypes? What are the possible effects of some of these images?