Who Am I Supposed To Be?
How the media and pop culture have influenced perceptions of Asian Americans

Having grown up in Koreatown, I wanted to give back to the community that has given me so much. My career goal to enter the public sector has led me to work at KAC. As deputy director of KAC’s Census Information Center, I am currently working on the Koreatown Blueprint Project, a needs assessment research project that will voice the opinions of Koreatown residents, along with Census data analysis and collective surveys from the community.

As an Asian American studies major and a fan of popular culture, I wrote the following article for our 1.5 and second generations. Is pop culture a reflection of society, or does the media instill ideas of how society should be?

I am a dog-eating, liquor store-owning, swap meet-running, “two for five dollar”-shouting, nail-polishing, martial arts-performing, bowl-cut, chinky-faced, glasses-wearing mathematical genius.

Is this who I’m supposed to be? Popular culture influences the way we perceive our identity and our place of belonging in American society. Countless movies and shows insist on typecasting Asians as objects for comic relief. Characters or sketches depicting negative stereotypes of Asians hurt the image of a young yellow man.

Ethnic mockery started as early as the 1900s, when whites performed in blackface. It was predominantly recent Irish immigrants who blackfaced themselves in an effort to fit in. You can call it a scapegoat tactic, in which you join the majority by going against the minority. That is why today Irish people are considered white, although they were once persecuted by racism in the early 20th century.

In earlier days, few Asians were allowed onscreen, and white actors and actresses were given Asian roles for which they taped their eyes. A typical female Asian character would be an exotic lotus blossom or a dragon lady. For men, it was often the Fu Manchu character with his evil grin and mustache, or a docile servant from a foreign land. These characteristics are still evident in many Asian roles to this day. It is apparent that some writers have no clue how to depict Asian Americans. Also, since World War II, racism and xenophobia have played huge roles in depicting negative characteristics of Asians. Propaganda is used in every country to unite their own in a battle against foreign opponents. America used its media and pop culture to direct people’s views against chinky factions.

The word “Oriental” categorized people with Asian faces as a foreigner or someone exotic. It wasn’t until the early 1990s that we were considered “Asian Americans.” Throughout America’s entertainment history, Asians were portrayed as the foreigner that didn’t speak proper English. The concept of creating a mystique around Asian characters has labeled Asians as foreign in nature and limited the availability of leading roles. This creates a glass ceiling for Asian Americans and demoralizes an individual’s right to choose and become whomever he or she wants to be.