As we enter the age of the Covid-19 pandemic, the flaws in Chinese representation have worsened. To better understand the effects of Chinese representation in American media, I turned to Elaine Sei, a third year Drexel undergraduate with a Chinese background.

 

“It was mostly infuriating,” was Elaine’s response to the Chinese hate that flooded American entertainment and individual social media pages. However, ‘hate’ would be an understatement. The belittling critique and framing of Covid-19 origin stories painted both China and her people as the enemy and often dehumanized them. “It kind of always upset me how people just say ‘Asian hate,’ but in reality it was racism.” Elaine then went on to make the comparison of the ‘bad apple’. To have a distaste for one apple is a preference, but to assume the entire batch is bad for its association is racist. Chinese ‘hate’ was targeting a people, not a person.

The generalization of Chinese people is not shy to American media and social culture. In fact, the Chinese identity is generalized to the extent of being the face of all Asian communities. This is a consequence of Hollywood’s tendency to use Asian actors and languages interchangeably. In particular, Tina Fey's Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt used a Korean actor with a Korean accent to impersonate a Vietnamese immigrant. 

 

The roles ascribed to Chinese people within American media misrepresent their realities in the U.S. The childhood Disney show Suite Life of Zack and Cody’s Asian-American character, ‘London,’ contributed to the stereotype of being rich. More importantly, her privileges outweighed that of her White-American counterparts, perpetuating the belief that Asian-Americans could achieve systemic and social equality in today’s society. “Not every Asian person is rich.” Elaine made the rebuttal that because of stereotypes like these, Chinese Americans are seen as top tier minorities, which hinders the conversation on the routine social and systemic oppression they face. “Not to be controversial, but this is why the ‘minority model’ is a myth.” 

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The minority model is the belief that Asian-Americans are inherently more successful in society than other minorities such as Black, Latino, and Native American people. This fallacy buries the history of Chinese Americans within the United States. To better understand the generational setbacks of the Chinese American community, it is important to go back to the year 1790.

 

The Naturalization Act of 1790 conveniently came after the first wave of Chinese immigrants in 1785. This act strategically made it harder for them to live in the U.S. as it restricted their right to work, vote, own property, and appear in court. These factors suppressed the opportunity to generate generational wealth, comfortable living, and more importantly, social respect (Office of the Historian,). The United States government continued to systematically oppress Chinese Americans and immigrants in the mid 1800s. Specifically, passing laws that forbid Chinese and Mongolian immigration in 1858. At some point even explicitly forbidding the immigration of ‘coolies,’ a slur used against cheap labor immigrants coming to work in the United States. In 1878, the United States banned naturalized citizenship to be granted to Chinese Americans, which contradicted the 14th amendment just passed in 1865. The government even went as far in the 1890s to mandate all Chinese persons walk with permits similar to what was done later to Jews in the holocaust and currently to Palestinians in Israel. 

 

Elaine then goes on to talk about the sexualization of Chinese women and men in the media. She gave the example of Amy Schumer’s portrayal of Asian women as hypersexual, submissive, and compliant, which is a portrayal that has roots in the horrific sex trade of Chinese women of the 1800s (Yuan, 2019). In Mostly Sex Stuff, Amy Schumer states, “It doesn’t matter what you do ladies. Every guy is going to leave you for an Asian woman. They’re smarter...You know how they bring it all  home for the win? Oh, the smallest vaginas in the game.” Elaine then went on to say, “They think every woman who is Chinese is slim, pale, fragile. It’s kind of gross how men will find that attractive, but I think that’s one of the worst parts.”

 

Chinese people also deal with butchering of Chinese fashion. “Chinese women wearing traditional Chinese garments will be sexualized.” Elaine mentioned the traditional long Chinese gowns would often be cut short by American fashion designers. Asian women, however, are not the only victims. “I think Asian men in the past years and even right now they’re sexualized because they think Asian men are usually very elegant and not manly. They usually feminize Asian men...” Elaine also mentioned the popularity of K-Pop has contributed to the sexualizing of Asian men.

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We are in the 21st century, and the unaddressed hate of the 18th century has only seemed to gain a new face. When talking about the indirect racism Elaine has witnessed, the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, words were not exempt from the conversation. During his nationally broadcasted Independence Day speech, Donald Trump made sure to put the trembles of the United States’ economy and well-being on China’s ‘deception’ and ‘many diseases’. Additionally, the upsetting tweets of Americans in 2020 even going as far to say, “I wish all Chinese people would die,” painted an unwelcoming America for any Chinese person. “It’s really upsetting and makes me very angry that not a lot of people will understand that what we’re going through is really bad.” For this reason, Elaine emphasized the dismantling of the Model Minority myth. Chinese Americans are not as privileged as White-Americans, and this concept only furthers their struggle.

 

Elaine’s final thoughts were, “Chinese people are not the same as they were hundreds, thousands, or even ten years ago. Chinese people respect and acknowledge their amazing history, but Chinese people do not necessarily live so "’traditionally.’ They are a lot more normal and modern than the media makes them out to be.”

 

Works Cited:

Office of the Historian, Chinese Immigration and the Chinese Exclusion Acts. https://history.state.gov/milestones/1866-1898/chinese-immigration

Lynne Yuan, China’s Lost Women in the Far West. October, 2019. https://www.historynet.com/chinas-lost-women-in-the-far-west.html