Asian-American Stereotypes In Hollywood

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Identify five Caucasian people in the American entertainment industry only by their names. Next, try doing the same with African-American people. Now, try the same thing with
Asian people. Notice how difficult it was to name five Asian entertainers by name? This lack of knowledge has always existed in American culture, not gaining much attention until the 2010s.
While Asian actors have been offered roles that were meant specifically for a person of Asian descent to portray a stereotype, many are not offered roles meant to accept any person, regardless of his or her ethnic background. (Chow) According to a report from the Annenberg School of
Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California, more than “half of film,
television, …show more content…
For example, ABC’s sitcom Fresh Off the Boat is centered around a
Taiwanese family; however, the show demonstrates that the roles are not unique to just one ethnic group. The actors in Fresh Off the Boat happen to be of Asian descent and they are portrayed as an ordinary family living in America. Despite this progress, there is still a lack of
Asian-American representation in Hollywood. The American entertainment industry continues to oversaturate the number of Caucasian actors on the screen because many believe that doing so reduces the risk of smaller audiences and increases the chances of maximizing profit. One of the most common issues in Hollywood is whitewashing (otherwise known as the act of having Caucasian actors take on roles meant for a specific ethnic group). In 2016, an
Internet movement called “#StarringJohnCho” demonstrated how much of a lack of diversity there was in leading roles in Hollywood, specifically with regard to the Asian community.
William Yu, the creator of the movement, sent his message across by editing films such as The
Martian and Spectre – which feature Caucasian lead actors – with Korean-American actor John
Cho, who is commonly known for his portrayal of Harold in the movie series Harold
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