Historical Stereotypes: Film Analysis

Asian and Asian American culture are historically known for having a strict, distinctive boundary between the traditional roles of women and men, where, in the domestic sphere, women are submissive to male authority figures, which are typically embodied in the father or husband. One well known example that calls to mind this subordination of women to men is China’s one-child policy, which often leads to ill treatment, abandonment or leaving up for adoption of female infants and children as a result of wanting a male child to lead the family and carry on the family name. While this might be a more extreme result of this stereotype, there are many other similar historical stereotypes that subordinate the woman to the man in Asian and Asian American culture. Regardless of historical stereotypes, however, it is clear to many individuals today that times are changing and causing culture to
Alice Wu’s Saving Face and Ketan Mehta’s Spices note a number of historical stereotypes, but more importantly, they open up dialogue about the shifting functions of female and male roles. Through the combination of symbol and metaphor, setting and situation, and most importantly, contrast between traditional and non-traditional, Alice Wu and Ketan Mehta enable a different understanding of Asian and Asian American femininity and masculinity in their respective films, Saving Face and Spices. Several historical stereotypes characterize traditional Asian and Asian American culture; Alice Wu and Ketan Mehta address these stereotypes and more. Many historical stereotypes of Asian and Asian American culture revolve around the way a woman should act in and outside of marriage and the way in which her individual role contributes to the identity of a given cultural or familial group. Both Wu and Mehta present the traditional heterosexual married couple where the