Course Assignment: Unpacking Asian Stereotypes in Hollywood Film

Context

This essay was composed within a Film, Race, and Politics course, which was a required elective for completion of my degree. I selected the course because I was curious to learn more about stereotypes placed upon three minority groups within the United States (i.e., African Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans). This essay was the first one assigned, and it required students to select one of the three minority groups and discuss one or two stereotypes placed upon them within Hollywood films. After close study of Asian stereotypes during lecture and discussions, I was interested to learn more about that minority group and uncover stereotypes specifically within Asian American women. I’ve personally seen several films depicting them as submissive and all-serving towards men. This stereotype is referred to as the China Doll, and it’s often countered by the Dragon Lady stereotype, who is seductive and threatening towards majority group control. With that being said, my essay addressed each stereotype through the context of four 20th century Hollywood films in order to support my argument–that thematic perceptions of the stereotypes perpetuate degrees of violence towards 21st century Asian American women. I initially intended my paper to be directed towards movie-goers, since they would be actively watching harmful stereotypes embedded within the plot, character roles, dialogue, and setting. However, the paper’s information and argument could benefit any individual that may be blind to cinematic bias, or perhaps they want to learn more about the impact of racially-driven stereotypes within modern society.

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Rhetorical Strategies

I intended for my essay to strike a solid balance between fact-supported argumentation and observational argumentation. Regarding the first, I included recent events, datasets, and news write-ups to support an increase of violence towards Asian American women during the 21st century. It was important to demonstrate this argument factually before presenting my conceptualization of the China Doll and Dragon Lady stereotypes. I also made references to these pieces of fact later on in the paper. Observational argumentation was presented in my analysis of the two stereotypes within four 20th century films. I included relevant plot information and dialogue to argue the harmful effects of cinematic portrayal onto a minority group. My paper additionally included a counter argument, which provided an opposing view that would further strengthen my own arguments. I discussed how the 2020 live-action version of Mulan depicted a strong, self-sufficient version of Asian American women within film. I was able to disprove this argument quickly, as it was just one instance of positive change and cannot reverse decades of thematic marginalization and stereotyping. However, it was useful to provide my audience with an additional perspective, which was further supported by this combination of factual and observational argumentation.

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Reflection

I believe that my essay was effective in demonstrating how argumentation can be portrayed within specific concepts (i.e., previously researched stereotypes), thematic elements of plot, characters, and dialogue, and current events and datasets. I also addressed a point of counter argumentation, which balanced out my thoughts on 20th century films with one from the 21st century. Further revisions might include a second counter argument relating to another modern film, or comparing the two stereotypes to a 21st century one to show how they intersect and/or disprove each other to support findings of minority-targeted violence.