00:00 And the Oscar goes to Michelle Yeoh.
00:04 When I saw this now iconic moment at the Oscars, I was shaking with tears of gratitude.
00:10 It feels so immensely heartening to see Asian representation in Hollywood reach this level
00:15 after a long history of erasure.
00:18 I have been an actor for several years now, and I know that the acting field is difficult
00:22 and competitive to begin with, and being a minority actor makes things even harder.
00:28 I was so encouraged by the success that Asian American filmmakers achieved at the Oscars,
00:33 but I also know that we didn't get to this point overnight.
00:38 What were the pivotal moments that paved the way?
00:41 What were the challenges that Asian American filmmakers had to overcome?
00:45 In early Hollywood films, characters of color, including Asians, were played by white actors.
00:57 Pioneers like Anna Mae Wong had to fight to get themselves on the big screen
01:02 and be represented authentically.
01:04 On January 3, 1905, Anna Mae Wong was born into a second-generation Chinese American family in Los Angeles.
01:14 Her family owned a laundry business because, at the time,
01:18 Chinese Americans were only allowed low-paying, working-class jobs.
01:24 But Wong had a secret obsession.
01:27 Fascinated by cinema, she'd skip class to watch movies using her lunch money.
01:31 Fortunately for Wong, this was a time when film productions were booming in her backyard.
01:37 In the 1910s, the film industry was moving from New York to California,
01:42 and lots of new productions were taking place in L.A.
01:45 By 12, she'd already begun appearing in films as a background actor.
01:50 By 17, Wong had landed her first lead role in a silent drama called The Toll of the Sea,
01:56 starring as a character named Lotus Flower.
01:59 This was a classic "Madame Butterfly" role,
02:03 the trope of a helpless Asian damsel in distress, which first appeared in opera
02:08 and still persists today in adaptations like Miss Saigon.
02:13 Despite the limiting role given to her, Wong's acting shined through.
02:18 It was subtle and sophisticated,
02:21 with critics saying that she should be seen again and often on the screen.
02:25 Which, in some ways, came true.
02:29 But with a catch.
02:30 Hollywood would spend years casting her as exotic and villainous.
02:35 Wong fought hard against these harmful tropes.
02:41 She was determined to start her own production company to make more authentic films.
02:46 But the deal fell apart.
02:48 Wong spent several years between Hollywood and Europe,
02:53 where she found slightly more complex roles.
02:56 But she still faced exoticism and stereotypes.
03:03 Frustrated by the reality of Asian misrepresentation,
03:07 Wong asked, "Why is it that the screen Chinese is always the villain,
03:12 and so crude a villain, murderous, treacherous, a snake in the grass?
03:18 We are not like that. How could we be,
03:20 with a civilization that is so many times older than the West?"
03:24 And these stereotypes had a deeper, real-life impact.
03:28 Despite being the lead star in "Daughter of the Dragon,"
03:32 Wong was paid only $6,000,
03:35 half the salary of Warner Oland as Dr. Fu Manchu,
03:39 who had less screen time than Wong.
03:41 The vengeance shall be mine.
03:43 In 1935, MGM started casting for the movie "The Good Earth,"
03:48 a story set in China about the hardships of farmers.
03:52 When I go back in that house,
03:56 Wong auditioned many times for the main character, Olan,
04:00 but was turned down, with the producer saying that she
04:03 "deserves consideration," but "does not seem beautiful enough for the part."
04:09 In my own journey as an actor, I've been to countless auditions,
04:14 where I would come close to getting a role
04:16 before it ended up going to someone who was already established.
04:20 In Anna Mae Wong's case, she was already Hollywood's superstar,
04:25 and she still couldn't get the roles that she wanted.
04:27 So who played the role?
04:29 A white actress named Louise Rayner,
04:32 who would go on to win Best Actress at the Oscars for it.
04:35 They offered a side character to Wong instead,
04:39 Lotus, the evil seductress.
04:42 If I please you.
04:44 And Wong turned it down.
04:45 She said, "How dare they ask me to try out for the only negative role in this film,
04:51 me being the only person with Chinese blood.
04:54 To hell with Hollywood."
04:56 Perhaps a change of climate is just what I need.
05:00 "The Good Earth" proved to be a turning point for Wong,
05:04 who set off to China.
05:06 But did she find what she was missing in Hollywood there?
05:09 But were the struggles that Anna Mae Wong faced
05:20 unique to Asian women in Hollywood?
05:23 What about Asian men?
05:25 Setsu Hayakawa was Anna Mae Wong's co-star in "Daughter of the Dragon,"
05:29 and shared a similar fate in Hollywood.
05:33 Hayakawa rose to stardom for his role in the 1915 film "The Cheat,"
05:38 where he played a dangerous Asian merchant
05:40 who would literally use a burning iron to stamp a white woman,
05:44 marking her as his property.
05:46 Like Wong, Hayakawa dealt with the horrible character he was given
05:50 with extremely elegant and composed acting,
05:54 which garnered him a massive fan base of mostly white women.
05:58 Rumor has it that when Hayakawa wanted to cross a puddle,
06:02 his fans would throw their fur coats at his feet to step on.
06:06 But his popularity wasn't enough.
06:10 And just like Anna Mae Wong,
06:12 Hayakawa was also boxed into stereotypical Asian roles.
06:16 And it was Hayakawa himself, not Hollywood, who got backlash for it.
06:21 The Japanese-American community actually condemned him
06:25 for perpetuating racist stereotypes on the silver screen.
06:31 Did Hayakawa break free from the dangerous Asian lover stereotype eventually?
06:35 In 1958, Miyoshi Umeki won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
06:43 This was a huge moment for Asians in Hollywood.
06:46 But why did she throw away her Oscar trophy afterwards?
06:50 Born in Japan in 1929,
06:53 Umeki came to the States to pursue acting and singing.
06:59 Just a few years before her big win.
07:01 Within those short years, she had landed a breakthrough role in Sayonara,
07:06 alongside Marlon Brando and Red Buttons.
07:09 Don't you think you're taking a risk in marrying this Japanese girl?
07:12 Look, Major, the Army and the Air Force and the State Department
07:16 have all ganged up to keep me from getting married.
07:18 I'm going to marry my girl if I have to give up my American citizenship to do it.
07:22 The film focused on the topic of interracial marriage
07:25 between American airmen and Japanese women.
07:28 Filmed at a time when interracial marriage was still taboo in the States,
07:32 Sayonara was viewed as progressive for its time.
07:35 Let's not go on over there and say hello.
07:38 However, it still exoticized Japanese women,
07:41 posing them as mere love interests for white men.
07:44 Similar to the Madame Butterfly trope,
07:47 and fueled by the hyper-sexualization of Asian women
07:50 during Western military operations in Asia.
07:52 You excuse me? I finish cooking.
07:57 You go ahead, darling. Go right ahead.
07:59 Miyoshi's role in the film is the soft-spoken,
08:02 submissive wife of an American airman.
08:04 Despite her limited screen time,
08:07 her heartbreaking performance won over both the audience and the critics.
08:11 For the role, she won the Best Supporting Actress at the 1958 Oscars,
08:17 making her the first Asian actor of any gender to receive the honor,
08:23 and for a long time, the only Asian actress to win an Academy Award.
08:28 I didn't expect, so I had nothing in my mind,
08:33 but right now I thank you for everyone who helped me,
08:39 and all American people.
08:41 But the win proved to have an adverse effect.
08:44 Miyoshi could only lock in submissive Asian female roles,
08:48 like the one that made her famous.
08:51 She had no choice but to take them on to survive as an actor.
08:54 This is a problem that many minority actors grappled with,
08:58 to take on the stereotypical roles, or to not be seen at all.
09:02 It's clear that 2023 was a tremendous year of achievements
09:07 for Asian Americans in Hollywood.
09:09 But what issues that plagued our predecessors still haunt us today?
09:14 And what can we learn from the past
09:17 to create meaningful representation for ourselves moving forward?
09:22 [END]
09:25 [END]
09:27 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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