Representation In Hollywood

An Analysis of Asian American Representation in Modern Hollywood Film
Gia H. Ha
George Mason University
An Analysis of Asian American Representation in Modern Hollywood Film
While Hollywood has come a long way from blatantly portraying racism as it did in the past, it is still prevalent in modern day film and media. For instance, yellowface, which was portrayed in classic films of the mid-90’s, is still an issue in Hollywood today. With the recent controversy following the filmmakers of “Ghost in the Shell” trying to digitally yellowface actress Scarlett Johansson, there is no doubt that Hollywood still has a race problem (“Ghost in the Shell,” 2016). Racism has manifested itself in a new sneakier way; it is not gone, it just does
However, the ideas of harmful Asian stereotypes and the objectification of Asian American women is not useful to creating diversity. Hollywood still has a long way to go in terms of racial equality, but film is a good platform for discussing contemporary racism experienced by Asian Americans because it actively struggles with reinforcing internalized racial oppression and deconstructing stereotypes such as orientalism, the model minority myth, and the fetishization of Asian
Using USC’s study as a model, a study analyzing Asian American representation is developed (Smith, Choueiti, & Pieper, 2015). To ensure that the study has a large sample size of films, the study will look at the 100 top-grossing Hollywood films from the years 2010 to 2015. The study uses data from American Multi-Cinema to identify the 500 films. The films are spread out over several years in order to study variations in Asian American representation over time. The data will be collected by four graduate students with a background in film and media studies. They will examine and identify the films independently after they are trained to analyze films in a similar manner on a separate sample of films. If any differences arise between the four students, an additional graduate student may be recruited to review the data collected. Also, it should be noted that identifying Asian Americans solely based on their appearance can sometimes be challenging, so the data collected by the researchers will be entirely based on perceptions of certain physical characteristics. Focus questions will be designed to analyze Asian American representation in films, specifically looking at on-screen prevalence, on-screen portrayal, and behind the camera involvement. The study will also examine different aspects of Asian American