Living against the wind: some 2 am thoughts
I saw someone post the casting of the movie of their life on an LJ community earlier today. And I was thinking, hmm, this could be fun to do, especially picking out the actors for my family, friends and teachers, then envisioning some kind of storyline (hah! there’s probably a cute book nerd slash indie rocker in there somewhere as a love interest). I’ve thought about actresses who could portray me before–but I’ve recently come across several things about Asian immigrants and the first- and second-generation descendants while avoiding my thesis, such as:
- the YA novel Good Enough by Paula Yoo
- Racebending.com’s more recent updates about the casting of The Last Airbender
- “Nobody’s Asian in the Movies” from Commentary! The Musical
- asiansinthemedia.com
- Stuff White People Like
- and assorted others that I’m probably forgetting.
My point is, this has been mulling in my brain for a few weeks now, and I can’t help but have all of this in my head as I rethink the casting.
Linda Wasom-Ellam, a Canadian anthropologist, published an article about 10 years ago called Living Against the Wind: Pathways Chosen by Chinese Immigrants. What’s directly relevant to me are her musings on family literacy, which, from my personal experience, is absolutely true. Reading is a tool for education, education is a commodity.
Chinese parents see education as a valued avenue for economic advancement and social mobility. Both families in this study want their children “to get a good job.” In the former studies, the researchers found that Chinese parents contribute to their children’s academic achievement by monitoring school performance and activities that enhance or diminish performance.
Reasons are pretty straightforward. My parents, and most parents (Asian, immigrant or not!), want to give their kids a secure, comfortable life, better than the ones they have. I was badgered at to play piano, do SAT practice tests, finish extra math homework. My parents thought their work was done if I got accepted into an Ivy League university, that I would go on to medical or law school and make six figures and have a cushy life. It was already fire and brimstone when I transferred out of engineering into liberal arts, I can only imagine what would have happened if I told them I wanted to work in Hollywood.
Anyway, the point of this lengthy divergence is that I barely found any notable Asian-American actresses around my age to portray me in the non-existent movie of my life. None of them got a top billing. Some were of mixed descent and used as exotic eye candy, some play the quirky info-dumping best friend in ABC family or Disney franchise tv. I had never heard of most of them, let alone watched any of their work, so I couldn’t really accurately judge on their acting abilities. Or if I had, it was on one of those previously mentioned roles, which is not what I’m looking for. So if this movie about my life were to get made, I would have to resort to whitewashing or unknowns. Neither of these prospects are particularly pleasing to a producer, I mean, I want my film to get a wide release, for heaven’s sake–so why would I want to take a huge financial risk on unknowns?
I know there are tons of problems about representation in Hollywood, from what kind of movies become hits to who gets to become a star. A lot of much more eloquent people have discussed that. I’m thinking, no immigrant parent would ever want their kid to pursue a career in Hollywood, which is financially unstable and culturally foreign. So a young person who wants to work in Hollywood would have to ride double against the wind–against the current Hollywood practices and against their parents.
Three things could change this:
- the Internet becomes a driving force in tv and movies, with more web series like The Guild popping up, and levelling the playing field somewhat
- later generations of Asian Americans will have broken into Hollywood, without that cultural disconnect immigrant parents feel
- China and India will take over the world and Hollywood will no longer have the upper hand in the media industry (though admittedly those countries, China especially, have a lot to learn about communications infrastructure.)
In the meantime, however, the double wind persists, self-perpetuating and circular. “There aren’t any experienced Asian actors who could do this the role,” a casting director says, but they’re the ones responsible for any experience. “Or we could just get someone from Asia.” While aspiring Asian actors hear from their immigrant parents, “what do you want to be on TV for? You won’t make any money!” And then there’s the biggest complaint, too, the one that Racebending.com makes–Asian children don’t aspire to become actors anyway, because they don’t see their race get any sort of meaningful role.
I share most of these points, not all of them, and probably not phrased very elegantly. It’s late. I just keep thinking, the website Asians in the Media concludes that “these problems will pervade into the future, unless the views of Asian Americans change through the proliferation of authentic Asian American stories by Asian American artists and storytellers on the national screen and stage.” In order for this to happen, the Asian American artists and storytellers either have to be really determined, or the Asian American community has to start encouraging such vocations as credible. I expect it to happen over time, in a generation or so from now, hopefully before the stories are lost.
For now, I doubly applaud the efforts to those who live against the wind.
