Asian americans in american cinema images and counter images of the model minority

UNIVERSITÉ SORBONNE NOUVELLE - PARIS UFR LANGUES, LITTÉRATURE, CULTURES ET SOCIÉTÉS ÉTRANGÈRES DÉPARTMENT : MONDE ANGLOPHONE Mémoire de Master Recherche - Etudes Anglophones ASIAN AMERICANS IN AMERICAN CINEMA: IMAGES AND COUNTER-IMAGES OF THE MODEL MINORITY TRIỀU Nguyễn Quỳnh Như Sous la direction de M COHEN et Mme THOLAS Septembre 2019 ACKNOWLEDGMENT First and foremost, I would love to express my gratitude to Mr Cohen, my supervisor Without him, the completion of this thesis would have been more difficult I am also thankful to Ms Tholas, who guided me in the establishment of my movie corpus and who inspired me to explore the issue of the model minority Last but not least, I am deeply grateful to my family and Tùng, whose love has always been a great source of emotional support in whatever I TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT i TABLE OF CONTENTS ii INTRODUCTION CHAPTER REPRESENTATIONS OF ASIANS AND ASIAN AMERICANS IN AMERICAN CINEMA: AN OVERVIEW 1.1 Dominant cinematic representations of Asians and Asian Americans .9 1.1.1 Orientalism: Asians and Asian Americans as the “Other” and perpetual foreigners 10 1.1.2 Yellow face 11 1.1.3 The yellow peril 13 1.1.4 Gender and sexuality .15 1.1.5 The model minority .20 1.2 The Asian American independent cinema 20 1.3 Conclusion of the chapter .22 CHAPTER THE MODEL MINORITY MYTH 24 2.1 The model minority myth 24 2.2 The model minority myth in American cinema 28 2.3 The model minority and the yellow peril 30 2.4 Counter-visions of the model minority .31 2.5 Conclusion of the chapter 31 CHAPTER IMAGES OF THE MODEL MINORITY 32 3.1 Overview of the movie corpus 32 3.2 Images of the model minority 35 3.2.1 Excellent students 35 3.2.2 Nerdy, robotic, and physically weak students 39 3.2.3 Well-paying professions and great capacity 43 3.2.4 Economic success 47 3.2.5 Law-abiding citizens 62 3.3 The model minority, the yellow peril, and the racial hierarchy 62 ii 3.4 Conclusion of the chapter 66 CHAPTER COUNTER-IMAGES OF THE MODEL MINORITY 68 4.1 Problems faced by Asian Americans 68 4.2 Laid-back attitude .78 4.3 Crime 82 4.4 Conclusion of the chapter 86 CONCLUSION 87 APPENDIX 90 Historical and cinematic milestones of Asian Americans 90 BIBLIOGRAPHY 95 FILMOGRAPHY 100 iii INTRODUCTION Background to the study We now live in a world where media has become more and more pervasive in every area of life Our contemporary society is one of “hyper-information”, in which media, in an increasingly significant way, contribute to our ways of making sense of ourselves as well as of our relationships with others (Ono and Pham 3).1 Indeed, media play crucial roles in our construction of mental images of lands, events, and people with which and whom we have little, if any, first-hand knowledge and material interaction Thanks to media, particularly cinema, a millennial who has never stepped out of the United States can still get an idea of the Vietnam War through such movies as Apocalypse Now (1979), Platoon (1986), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989) Also, a person who has little real contact with people of Asian descent can still form images of them, watching movies from classics as Breakfast at Tiffany‟s (1961) to contemporary blockbusters as Crazy Rich Asians (2018) Whether such images correspond to the reality is uncertain, and that is where studies on the issue of cinematic representations step in But why we need to scrutinize cinematic representations? In other words, why they matter? First and foremost, it is worth noting that movies are discourses, i.e constructed objects of signification rooted in a specific social environment (MacDonell 1-2).2 As all discourses, their meanings are derived from the institutions, both within and outside the film industry, and the historical, social and cultural circumstances surrounding their production.3 Cinematic representations, especially those concerning race, class, and gender, are closely linked with social power relations: they reflect, construct, and reinforce ideologies concerning power and identity, which, as Gramsci pointed out, have to with hegemony within any Ono, Kent A., and Pham, Vincent N Asian Americans and the Media Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009 MacDonell, Diane Theories of Discourse: An Introduction New York: Basil Blackwell, 1986 That is not to say, however, movies are objects which exclusively carry social meanings In fact, they are objects of aesthetic creation; but this aspect is not the focus of the current study certain society in any given time.4 What we see in movies, however, may be either distortions or merely subjective snapshots of a broader life (Ono and Pham) Indeed, media produce the illusion of proximity, by which people imagine they are close to and thus know one another while in fact, there is little, if any, material contact among them.5 As Benedict Anderson argued, “communities are to be distinguished, not by their falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined” (6).6 With the pervasion of cinema, especially American movies, cinematic representations arguably make significant contributions to our process of forming and shaping mental images of ourselves and of others When it comes to cinematic representations of Asian Americans in particular, “shockingly few books and articles have been written about Hollywood‟s treatment of Asia and Asians.”7 The remark of Gina Marchetti, author of the 1993 celebrated book Romance and the “Yellow Peril” on the depiction of interracial relations in the American popular cinema, is still true today Since then, there have certainly been more works of research on images of Asian Americans in American cinema, but they are without doubt limited in number This fact, in turn, is linked to the fact that Asian Americans have not been sufficiently represented in the media, including the cinema Indeed, although composing 4.5% of the U.S population, Asian Americans occupy less than 3% of film, television, and commercial parts Further, only 1.7% of lead roles across the mainstream entertainment are performed by them.8 Gramsci, Antonio Selections from the Prison Notebooks, ed and trans Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell-Smith New York: International Publishers, 1971 This argument is developed from Benedic Anderson‟s ideas expressed in his book Imagined Community According to him, all communities larger than primordial villages of face-to-face contact are imagined because the members of a certain communities never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, but each of them has in mind the image of their communion (6) Anderson, Benedict Imagined Community: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism New York: Verso, 1983 Marchetti, Gina Romance and the “Yellow Peril”: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 Yuen, Nancy W “Performing Race, Negotiating Identity: Asian American Professional Actors in Hollywood.” Asian American Youth: Culture, Identity, and Ethnicity, edited by Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, Routledge, 2004, pp 251-267 In a broader frame, Asian Americans are often left out from important debates and discussions, where race relations are too often seen in terms of a black-white paradigm.9 In such a context, the current study is hoped to be not only a work in a field which has yet to be thoroughly cultivated but also a call for attention to the question of cinematic representations of Asian Americans Those reasons, together with my own interest in cinema and Asian Americans, prompted me to research on representations of Asian Americans in American cinema The focus is put on the model minority myth, a soil which has been scarcely cultivated by studies on cinematic representations of Asian Americans Definition of “Asian Americans” Before any analysis and arguments are made, it is crucial to establish a working definition of Asian Americans The term “Asian American” was coined by Yuji Ichioka at the San Francisco State University Third World Strike in 1968.10 That reflects the political roots of the term, which, indeed, continues to be descriptive of a particular epistemology that challenges racism and seeks empowerment and democratic power relations (Ono and Pham) At the same time, it has become a simple term of classification used in official forms, for example standardized testing and even the U.S Census.11 “Asian Americans” is a panethnic term; it refers to all people of Asian descent in the United States Their ethnicities run from “Cambodian to Indian, Pakistani to Indonesian, Wen, Edith, Chen, Chu, and Yoo, Grace J “Introduction.” Encyclopedia of Asian American Issues Today, edited by Wen-Chu Chen and Grace J Yoo, ABC-CLIO, 2010, pp xvii-xxi 10 Kim, Ryan “Yuji Ichioka, Asian American Studies Pioneer.” SFGate, 12 Sep 2002, https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Yuji-Ichioka-Asian-American-studies-pioneer2799156.php Accessed 23 Apr 2019 11 “Who Are Asian Americans?” Center for American Progress, 28 Apr 2015, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2015/04/28/111694/who-are-asianamericans/ Accessed Sep 2019 Rao, Sonia “The term „Asian American‟ Was Meant to Create a Collective Identity What Does That Mean in 2018?” The Washington Post, 30 Jul 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-term-asian-american-was-meant-tocreate-a-collective-identity-is-it-necessary-in-2018/2018/07/27/c30e7eb0-8e90-11e8-b769e3fff17f0689_story.html Accessed Sep 2019 Nepalese to Thai.”12 Such people share experiences forged in contact with American culture, policies, and history Hence, scrutiny of cinematic representations of Asian Americans may technically encompass all such sub-groups Nevertheless, in reality, American cinema, especially Hollywood, has favored narratives concerning groups who have been in the United States in larger numbers and for a longer period of time, namely Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese (Kim; Marchetti; Okada) On the one hand, this focus is reflected in the movies mentioned in the current study, which, accordingly, does not aim to, and also cannot, cover all groups of Asian Americans On the other, interestingly, three of the movies chosen for close analysis feature less represented groups, namely Indians (in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle), Hmongs (in Gran Torino), and Singaporeans (in Crazy Rich Asians) It is worth mentioning, however, that the two latter are closely linked to the Vietnamese and the Chinese respectively Purpose of the study, research questions, and organization of the thesis The current study examines the ways in which American cinematic narratives work to create, sustain, and challenge culturally accepted notions of Asian Americans as the model minority Exploring this subject, it endeavors to answer the following questions: How are Asian Americans represented as the model minority in American cinema? Are Asian Americans also portrayed in ways that contradict the model minority stereotype? If so, how are they pictured? The first research question concerns stereotypical images of Asian Americans as the model minority In order to answer this question, analyses will be performed on the corpus movies in ways that show how the plot, the characterization, and the iconography contribute to the cinematic construction of Asian Americans as members of the model minority In contrast, the second research question deals with images which are opposite or subversive to the stereotype, the underlying hypothesis being that such images exist In other words, it explores how Asian Americans are also projected on the screen with characteristics not conforming to the model minority myth 12 Okada, Jun Making Asian American Film and Video New Brunswick, Rutgers University Press, 2015, p These two questions are addressed respectively in Chapter 3, Images of the model minority, and Chapter 4, Counter-images of the model minority Before that, Chapter provides an overview of representations of Asians and Asian Americans in American cinema while Chapter discusses the emergence, persistence, and consequences of the model minority myth in both American society in general and American cinema in particular These two first chapters seek to prepare the reader with background knowledge required for better understanding of representations of Asian Americans with visions and counter visions of the model minority It is important to underscore that when movies are regarded as part of the larger social formation, they should be understood in relation to other discourses involving race, ethnicity, class, gender as well as other pressing social and political concerns Thus, throughout the study, discussions of Asian Americans‟ images in movies are more often than not accompanied by facts and opinions concerning Asians and Asian Americans in the West in general and in the U.S in particular Movie corpus The corpus for close analysis is constituted by seven movies, namely The Joy Luck Club (1993), The Wedding Banquet (1993), Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), Ethan Mao (2004), Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (2004), Gran Torino (2008), and Crazy Rich Asians (2018) These movies spanning from the 1990s to the 2010s, the diversity in time of production would bring us a more comprehensive view of representations through time, and hopefully a sense of evolution It is also worth nothing that these movies all have Asian Americans as central characters, which helps build a corpus concrete enough for thorough and detailed analysis of representations of Asians and Asian Americans The only exception, a minor, though, is Gran Torino, in which white American Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) is of more focus than Hmong Thao (Bee Vang), the second leading character Nevertheless, its attention directed to Asian Americans, Hmong Americans in particular, is considerable The chosen movies not fit into a certain genre; rather, they range from comedies and dramas to crime-drama films Although they are all well-known (to different extents, though), not all of them are considered as belonging to the mainstream cinema In other words, some of them, basically those directed by Asian Americans, are independently made A combination of mainstream and independent productions will demonstrate more wide-ranging representations of Asian Americans Literature on Asians and Asian Americans in film Literature on Asian and Asian American film representation has flourished since the late 1960s and early 1970s, its focus being stereotypes as ideological phenomena, and institutional aspects of racism (Xing 53).13 Besides the movie corpus as the primary sources, the current study refers to works belonging to this body of literature as its secondary sources The most important references include Gary Okihiro‟s Margins & Mainstreams: Asians in American History and Culture, Kent Ono‟s and Vincent Pham‟s Asian Americans and the Media, and Gina Marchetti‟s Romance and the “Yellow Peril‟: Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction.14 As the titles themselves suggest, the first book concerns historical and cultural issues at large while the others concentrate on the issue of representation Okihiro‟s work offers provocative sections on how Asia has been regarded as one of the “Other” of Europe, and then of white America Moreover, the prominent Asian American author discusses the connection between two seemingly unrelated concepts about Asian Americans, namely the yellow peril and the model minority This question is also addressed by Ono and Pham, who are interested in how the link is found in the media, including film In fact, Ono and Pham‟s Asian Americans and the Media is the most vital source of reference for this thesis; the greatest asset of this book is its comprehensiveness Surveying representations of Asian Americans, Ono and Pham investigate both historical and contemporary images, with both mainstream and independent media examined 13 Xing, Jun Asian America Through the Lens: History, Representations, and Identity Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, 1998 14 Okihiro, Gary Y Margins & Mainstream: Asians in American History and Culture Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1994 Ono, Kent A., and Pham, Vincent N Asian Americans and the Media Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009 Xing, Jun Asian America Through the Lens: History, Representations, and Identity Walnut Creek: AltaMira Press, 1998 Marchetti, Gina Romance and the Yellow Peril Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993 rebellious as Kumar, and any band of high school students can commit crime as Ben, Virgil, Han, and Daric In other words, there may be blur boundaries between images that counter stereotypes and those that simply tell universal stories Examining both movies made by white directors and those by Asian American ones themselves, the study assumed that the latter provide better portrayals of Asian Americans, with less stereotypical images and more exact reflection of the Asian American experience Nevertheless, the analyses did not seem to confirm that hypothesis Asian Americans themselves, particularly those making movies targeting the mainstream public, did not seem to escape from stereotypical representations of people of their own culture For instance, Jon M Chu‟s Crazy Rich Asians is loaded with stereotypes At this point, it is worth re-mentioning that the production of a movie involves various factors, including the financial and commercial ones, which are bound to affect what is projected in the movie Contributions of the study In a context where Asian Americans are often left out from important debates and discussions as well as insufficiently represented in the media, including the cinema, the current study is hoped to attract attention to this group Its central focus is the model minority myth, a stereotype which has significantly impacted Asian Americans‟ lives but whose cinematic representations still have not been sufficiently scrutinized Different from earlier studies which concentrate on historical representations, this thesis underscores contemporary ones Its combined analyses of mainstream and independent movies hopefully provides a more comprehensive picture of representations of Asian Americans on the big screen Limitations of the study and recommendations for further research Fundamentally, the current study includes both mainstream and independent movies in its corpus It is worth mentioning, however, that some of the latter are not particularly independent That is, despite being indies, they are more or less well-known: in other words, they are among the most popular indies made by most prominent Asian American directors On the one hand, this choice of corpus makes the thesis more accessible to potential readers: at best, they may have already watched those movies; if they have not, it is not difficult to get access to them On the other, if the current study were able to examine more obscure movies, 88 its contributions would be more significant in terms of work on a less cultivated field This limitation is due to the fact that the author of the thesis herself, as a Master‟s student with no funds, had considerably limited access to such movies.63 Cinema is only one domain in which issues of representations of Asian Americans can be studied Other domains, including literature, theater, music, and fine arts, are to be explored as well in order to establish a more comprehensive picture of Asian Americans in the American public mind Also, representation of Asian Americans is only one question of media representation in general, an issue which still requires tremendous reflection and discussion no matter how much attention it has drawn It is because media representation makes significant contributions to our process of forming and shaping mental images of ourselves and of others, which, in turn, determines how we treat one another and how we live together, harmoniously or discordantly, in this world 63 Examples of such movies include Shopping for Fangs (1997), The Journey (1997), and Yellow (1998) 89 APPENDIX Historical and cinematic milestones of Asian Americans This appendix offers a chronology of the most important historical events and movies concerning Asian Americans 1763 – First recorded settlement of Filipinos in America 1842 – China is defeated by the British in the first Opium War and is forced to give up Hong Kong 1848 – The California Gold Rush draws Chinese immigrants to the West to mine gold 1882 – The Chinese Exclusion Act comes into force This federal law prohibits all Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States 1915 – Cecil B DeMille‟s silent movie The Cheat features Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa as the villain 1919 – D.W Griffith‟s Broken Blossoms stars white Richard Barthelmess as “The Chink.” 1924 – Anna May Wong has her first major role in Hollywood with The Thief of Baghdad, in which she acts a villainous slave girl 1931 – Charlie Chan Carries On, the first of many Charlie Chan movies, is released It stars Swedish-American actor Warner Oland as Chinese-American Charlie Chan 1932 – The Mask of Fu Manchu, the first of many Hollywood‟s Fu Manchu movies, is released It stars Boris Karloff as the first of many Fu Manchus 1937 – An adaptation of Pearl Buck‟s novel about life in China, The Good Earth features white actors in all key roles 1941 – Phantom of Chinatown stars Chinese-born American Keye Luke as Mr Wong, an ace detective 90 On December 7, Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, Hawaii The United States enters World War II 1942 – Executive Order 9066 puts 110,000 Japanese, many of whom are second and third generation, in ten internment camps in the U.S while hundreds of Japanese Americans enlist in the U.S armed forces 1943 – Magnuson Act repeals the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act 1945 – Japan surrenders after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki All internment camps are closed The War Brides Act prohibits unmarried Japanese women to immigrate to the United States 1946 – The Philippines becomes independent; all Filipinos living in the U.S can become U.S citizens 1948 – The Displaced Persons Act gives permanent resident status to Chinese caught in the U.S because of the Chinese Civil War California repeals law banning interracial marriage 1949 – The U.S breaks off diplomatic ties with the People‟s Republic of China 1950 – The Korean War breaks out 1951 – Go For Broke, a movie about the 442nd Infantry Regiment, is released This regiment is best known for its composition of almost entirely second-generation Japanese American soldiers who fought in World War II and for being the most decorated unit in U.S military history 1956 – The Teahouse of the August Moon stars Marlon Brando as an Okinawan interpreter It satirizes the U.S occupation and Americanization of the island of Okinawa following the end of World War II 91 1957 – With The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Sessue Hayakawa becomes the first Asian actor to be nominated for an Oscar The movie itself wins seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture Sayonara, featuring Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka, is released 1959 – The Crimson Kimono, set in Los Angeles‟ Little Tokyo, stars James Shigeta It is one of the rare movies in which an Asian man wins a white in a love triangle 1961 – The Flower Drum Song, directed by Henry Koster, becomes the first Hollywood movie to feature an all-Asian American cast 1965 – The U.S enters the Vietnam War 1973 – Enter the Dragon, which popularizes Bruce Lee and martial arts film, is released world-wide 1982 – Wayne Wang‟s Chan is Missing is released, helping to bring Asian American independent movies to a broader audience Set in San Francisco‟s Chinatown, it features two Asian American male lead characters The murder of Chinese American Vincent Chin becomes a critical turning point for Asian American civil rights engagement 1984 – The Karate Kid, the first installment in The Karate Kid franchise, is released In the movie, Mr Miyagi (Pat Morita) teaches teenage Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) karate to defend himself and compete in a tournament against his bullies The Karate Kid helps revitalize the career of Pat Morita, who was previously known mostly for comedic roles, and earns him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1985 – Michael Cimino‟s Year of the Dragon, depicting gang wars in New York‟s Chinatown, sparks controversy and protests by Asian Americans In response, the studio later agrees to add a disclaimer stating that the movie‟s depiction of Chinese American gangsters does not reflect the majority of Chinese Americans 92 1986 – Ron Howard‟s Gung Ho, a movie about American and Japanese auto workers, is released 1987 – The 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act becomes law It raises the Hong Kong quota and allows certain aliens to apply for temporary status and eventually come citizens 1988 – Deborah Gee‟s Slaying the Dragon, a documentary examining Asian female stereotypes, is released The Civil Liberty act of 1988 apologizes and offers redress and reparations to Japanese Americans who were denied their civil and constitutional rights during World War II 1990 – Alan Parker‟s Come See the Paradise, a well-known movie about the Japanese American internment, is released 1992 – Korean businesses are looted and burned as a result of riots in Los Angeles due to outrage over the Rodney King verdict 1993 – The Joy Luck Club, Wayne Wang‟s movie based on May Tan‟s best-selling novel, is released nationwide Ang Lee‟s The Wedding Banquet hits the theaters 1996 – Rumble in the Bronx - Hong Kong‟s Jackie Chan finally breaks into the U.S mainstream after an earlier failed attempts Over a dozen Hollywood-produced films quickly follow, including Rush Hour 1997 – Britain returns Hong Kong to Chinese rule Graduating from film school, Quentin Lee and Justin Lin produce their first independent feature, Shopping for Fangs Both of them later produce other movies starring Asian American lead characters 1998 – Disney‟s Mulan, an animated movie based on a Chinese folktale, with Ming-Na as the lead character‟s voice, is released 2002 – Justin Lin‟s Better Luck Tomorrow is picked up and distributed nationwide by MTV The movie helps bring Lin to the mainstream movie market, with the production of such 93 movies as Annapolis (2006) and The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006), and Fast Five (2011) 2004 –Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, is the first major Hollywood movie to feature two Asian American men in lead roles, is released Quentin Lee‟s Ethan Mao is released 2018 – Crazy Rich Asians is released It is the third well-known movie with an all-Asian cast after Flower Drum Song (1961) and The Joy Luck Club (1993), is released 94 BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Anderson, Benedict Imagined Community: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism New York: Verso, 1983 Bordwell, David, and Thompson, Kristin Film Art: An Introduction (10th ed.) 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The History and Relevance of a 1982 Killing.” NBC News, 15 Jun 2017, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/who-vincentchin-history-relevance-1982-killing-n771291 Accessed 15 Jul 2019 “Who Are Asian Americans?” Center for American Progress, 28 Apr 2015, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/reports/2015/04/28/111694/who-areasian-americans/ Accessed Sep 2019 Wu, Frank H “Why Vincent Chin Matters.” New York Times, 22 Jun 2012, https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/23/opinion/why-vincent-chin-matters.html?mcubz=2 Accessed 14 Jul 2019 Yam, Kimberly “Asian Americans Have Highest Poverty Rate in NYC, But Stereotypes Make the Issue Invisible.” Huffpost, May 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/asian-american-povertynyc_n_58ff7f40e4b0c46f0782a5b6?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3c uZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABq6SrraxLqFP5WOOsak3F92jEehL tzwz6Yh7W-rk2hSjA4q7p58VGrsCqZNqEb6hhZwDVA8FATJ_Zx8UYOFRiZ0tHsShnq9XqxZg3MVf4LtxKxQOdMF53UaICjS58 eZkR9NZnDTRVTGO8pPszcHitL8c0b58BqwI7NVASOxsAG Accessed Sep 2019 99 FILMOGRAPHY Movie corpus Chu, Jon M Crazy Rich Asians Warner Bros Pictures, 2018 Eastwood, Clint Gran Torino Warner Bros Pictures, 2008 Lee, Ang The Wedding Banquet The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1993 Lee, Quentin Ethan Mao TLA Releasing, 2004 Leiner, Danny Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle New Line Cinema, 2004 Lin, Justin Better Luck Tomorrow Paramount Pictures, 2002 Wang, Wayne The Joy Luck Club Buena Vista, 1993 Other movies of interest from the standpoint of representation of Asians and Asian Americans Avildsen, John G The Karate Kid Colombia Pictures, 1984 Bancroft, Tony and Cook, Barry Mulan Walt Disney Pictures, 1998 Brabin, Charles The Mask of Fu Manchu Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1932 Choy, Christi and Tajima-Pena, Renee Who Killed Vincent Chin? PBS, 1987 Cimino, Michael The Deer Hunter Universal Pictures, 1978 - Year of the Dragon MGM, 1985 Clouse, Robert Enter the Dragon Warner Bros., 1973 Coleby, A.E The Mystery of Dr Fu Manchu Stoil Picture Production, 1923 Corrigan, Lloyd Daughter of the Dragon Paramount Pictures, 1931 DeMille, Cecil B The Cheat Paramount Pictures, 1915 Dong, Arthur Hollywood Chinese Deep Focus Productions, 2007 Dugan, Dennis I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry Universal Pictures, 2007 Edwards, Blake Breakfast at Tiffany‟s Paramount Pictures, 1961 Franklin, Sidney The Good Earth Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1937 Garant, Robert Ben Balls of Fury Rogue Pictures, 2007 100 Gee, Deborah Slaying the Dragon Pacific Productions, 1988 Gilbert, Lewis You Only Live Twice United Artists, 1967 Goulding, Edmund Paramount on Parade Paramount Pictures, 1930 Griffith, David.W Broken Blossoms Paramount Pictures, 1919 Haggard, Piers, Sellers, Peter and Quine, Richard The Fiendlish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu Orion Pictures Corporation and Warner Bros., 1980 Hatta, Kayo Picture Bride Miramax, 1995 Helgeland, Brian Payback Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., 1999 Hepburn, Katharine Dragon Seed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1944 Howard, Ron Gung Ho Paramount Pictures, 1986 Hughes, Allen and Albert Menace II Society New Line Cinema, 1993 King, Henry Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing 20th Century Fox and Film Corporation, 1955 Koster, Henry Flower Drum Song Universal Pictures, 1961 Kubrick, Stanley Full Metal Jacket Warner Bros and Columbia-Cannon-Warner, 1987 Lean, David The Bridge on the River Kwai Colombia Pictures, 1957 Lee, Quentin Shopping for Fangs Margin Films, 1997 Lee, Rowland V The Mysterious Dr Fu Manchu Paramount Pictures, 1929 Lee, Rowland V The Return of Dr Fu Manchu Paramount Pictures, 1930 Lin, Justin The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift Universal Pictures, 2006 Logan, Joshua Sayonara Warner Bros Pictures, 1957 MacFadden, Hamilton Charlie Chan Carries On Fox Film, 1931 Nair, Mira Mississippi Masala Cinecom Pictures and The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1991 Parker, Alan Come See the Paradise 20th Century Fox, 1990 Pirosh, Robert Go For Broke Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951 Quine, Richard The World of Suzie Wong Paramount Pictures, 1960 Reitman, Jason Juno Fox Searchlight Pictures, 2007 Renoir, Jean La Grande Illusion RAC, 1937 101 Rosen, Phil Phantom of Chinatown.Monogram Pictures Corporation, 1940 Schumacher, Joel Falling Down Warner Bros., 1993 Spike, Lee Do the Right Thing Universal Pictures, 1989 Sternberg, Josef von Shanghai Express Paramount Pictures, 1932 Sturges, John A Girl Named Tamiko Paramount Pictures, 1962 Tong, Stanley Rumble in the Bronx Golden Harvest, New Line Cinema, 1995 Verbinski, Gore Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World‟s End Buena Vista Pictures, 2007 Walsh, Raoul The Thief of Bagdad United Artists, 1924 Wang, Peter A Great Wall Orion Classics / MGM, 1986 Wang, Wayne Chan Is Missing New Yorker Films, 1982 Wang, Wayne Eat a Bowl of Tea Colombia Pictures, 1989 Witney, William and English, John Drums of Fu Manchu Republic Pictures, 1940 Wu, Alice Saving Face Sony Pictures Classics 2004 102