There doesn’t seem to be enough noise and celebration on the history making Oscar nominations for actors of Asian descent (specifically East/Southeast Asian). With the recent Oscar successes of Parasite (2019) and Minari (2020) and the fact that Asian people dominate the world’s population (specifically those in China, who make up nearly 60% of the world’s population) it’s easy to forget that Asian faces are still barely and infrequently seen on the North American big screen. Because of that, it’s easy to recall the handful of times when movies starring Asians and featuring Asian stories were in the cinematic consciousness of the Academy.
1957 was a good year for Asians in cinema
The first shot came with 1957’s Best Picture win for The Bridge on the River Kwai. Though the movie was set in Thailand, the main cast and perspective of the film was told through the eyes of the white British and American soldiers. But shockingly, the film was the first time an actor of East Asian descent, Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa, was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor.
But that’s not all, also in 1957, there was a film called Sayonara starring Marlon Brando as a USAF soldier who falls in love with a Japanese woman. The Japanese actress who plays his love interest, Miyoshi Umeki, won the first Oscar ever for an Asian actress for Best Supporting Actress.
Best Picture winner The Last Emperor wins without its actors
The next shot came with yet another sprawling epic, but this one was actually about a Chinese character in the form of 1987’s The Last Emperor. The Best Picture winner was directed by legendary Bernardo Bertolucci and starred John Lone and Joan Chen.
Despite the movie being about Puyi, the former Emperor of China, John Lone who played the lead character was not nominated for an Oscar. You’d be hard pressed to find lead actors who play the title character in a critically acclaimed movie not be nominated (Annie Hall, Schindler’s List, Annie Hall, Gandhi, Rain Man, Forrest Gump, Jerry Maguire, The Artist, etc.). But the film managed to receive 9 nominations ranging from Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Costume, Sound, and Cinematography. Or, seemingly everything else but the acting was considered Oscar worthy by the Academy.
The Asian cinematic renaissance of the 90’s and early aught’s
The 90’s finally brought us the first Asian Hollywood film tied to the Asian American experience with 1993’s The Joy Luck Club. Directed by one of the pioneers of Asian American cinema, Wayne Wang, and written by Amy Tan and Ronald Bass, The Joy Luck Club was ground breaking for bringing the Asian but American experience into the mainstream. But despite the critical acclaim, the film failed to garner any Oscar nominations or any recognition from the major awards associations. It seemed the Academy is fine with rewarding Asian films that are set in Asia, but Asians in America who are also Americans didn’t seem acceptable, yet.
The late 90’s and early aughts was quite possibly the first real shot Asians either ABC’s or CBC’s or those from Asia had as being seen as mainstream or viable Hollywood stars. On the small screen, we had Hong Kong action star Sammo Hung starring in CBS’ Martial Law. And on the silver screen, Asian actors were finally featured heavily. Some of the notable stars of that time included: Chow Yun-fat (The Replacement Killers, The Corruptor), Gong Li (Memoirs of a Geisha, Miami Vice), Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies), Lucy Liu (Charlie’s Angels, Ally McBeal), Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Sideways), John Cho (Better Luck Tomorrow, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) and of course Jackie Chan (Rush Hour, Shanghai Noon).
Taiwanese director Ang Lee finally broke through the first floor ceiling by ushering in not one but two ground breaking and genre bending films: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Brokeback Mountain (2005). Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for 10 Oscars and we actually got to see its two stars, Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh, present at that year’s Academy Awards. A very rare sight indeed.
And although this article is focused on primarily East and South East Asian actors and film makers, an honorable mention for the South Asians for dropping Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Slumdog Millionaire (2008).
But as the first decade of the 21st Century was complete, it seemed as if the Asian stars faded into the background once more.
The Oscar love, especially for East Asian films, disappeared for almost 20 years from the time of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to Parasite. But before we see how far Asians in cinema have gone today, let’s take a closer look at the Oscars and how Asians, particularly East and Southeast Asians, have fared since the first Oscars in 1929.
Oscar winning and nominated performances by East and Southeast Asians who played roles that present and identify as such
It’s interesting to see who makes the cut as the definition of “Asian” as per Wikipedia standards. Apparently Salma Hayek, Cher, and Vivien Leigh all made it. Depending on where you live, how you interpret racial makeup versus how you present and identify, sure, all three can be Asian.
For purposes of this article, the definition of Asian is focused on East and Southeast Asian heritages. And more importantly, focused on those who played characters that present and identify as Asian. So the Tilly sisters, Hailee Steinfeld, Merle Oberon, and Yul Brynner (although Yul’s Asian heritage claims seem to be disputed) won’t make the cut here.
In the entire history of the Oscars up to the time of this article’s publication, there have only been 7 actors and 6 actresses of East/Southeast Asian descent who played characters that were also of that same descent who have been nominated/won an Oscar:
1957: Miyoshi Umeki, Sayonara, Winner - Best Supporting Actress
1957: Sessue Hayakawa, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Nominated - Best Supporting Actor
1966: Mako Iwamatsu, The Sand Pebbles, Nominated - Best Supporting Actor
1984: Haing S. Ngor, The Killing Fields, Winner - Best Supporting Actor
1984: Pat Morita, The Karate Kid, Nominated, Best Supporting Actor
2003: Ken Watanabe, The Last Samurai, Nominated – Best Supporting Actor
2006: Rinko Kikuchi, Babel, Nominated – Best Supporting Actress
2020: Youn Yuh-jung, Minari, Winner – Best Supporting Actress
2020: Steven Yeun, Minari, Nominated – Best Actor
2022: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Nominated - Best Supporting Actor
2022: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Nominated - Best Actress
2022: Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Nominated – Best Supporting Actress
2022: Hong Chau, The Whale, Nominated – Best Supporting Actress
Notice that a third of the nominees came just this past week. And before the 2020’s, the nominations were very few and far between. But before this resurgence of Asians being recognized in mainstream cinema, let’s go back to the beginning.
Starting in 1957, it would take nearly 10 years until the next nomination. And from 1966, it would be another almost 20 years until the first win ever for a male of East/Southeast Asian descent, Haing S. Ngor for The Killing Fields. After that historic win, the Asian cinematic breakthrough would go back into hibernation for yet another 20 years until Ken Watanabe’s nomination for The Last Samurai in 2003 and Rinko Kikuchi's nomination for Babel in 2006.
Perhaps the quality of Asian performances can only be acknowledged by the Academy in 10/15/20-year increments as it would take yet another 15 years for an actor of East/Southeast Asian descent to be nominated again. Youn Yuh-jung won Best Supporting Actress for Minari and Steve Yuen finally captured the first nomination for an Asian male for Best Actor in 2020.
What is behind the lack of Asian representation?
If the Asian population is the largest in the world, statistically speaking, why would there be so little representation in Hollywood and by the Academy?
Asians are not top of mind for roles especially when race is secondary
If you look at the types of roles that actors and actresses we tend to see everywhere on screen, most of the roles can be agnostic of race and ethnicity. It could be the top of the Hollywood food chain with your George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet, Timothee Chalamet, and so on. It could be the next level of up and comers like Florence Pugh, Saoirse Ronan, Anya Taylor-Joy. It could be character actors or reliable supporting actors that work consistently in great films like J.K. Simmons, Kevin Bacon, Woody Harrelson, Judy Greer, Tilda Swinton, and so on. The roles these actors get offered or have the opportunity to audition for are not roles that are top of mind for casting directors when it comes to Asian actors.
Sure, some roles are dependent on the race and ethnicity, but a lot of roles are not. Despite that fact, the roles that these and many actors get don’t seem to be the roles that would be given to say a John Cho or Ken Jeong or Lucy Liu or Jackie Chan or any East/Southeast Asian of notoriety.
If Black and Latino or Latinx actors already have a tough time being cast in Hollywood films, Asians are not far behind and have the additional hurdle of being seen as foreign. It’s okay to have a typical European look or have a cute Irish or French accent, but the Asian accent and Asian physicality still screams of fresh off the boat or “forever foreign” to a lot of people.
When I think about the movies I grew up on that I love to watch over and over again, many of them can be swapped out from white performers to Asian performers (if you really wanted to). My Best Friend’s Wedding. 13 Going on 30. Heat. You’ve Got Mail. While You Were Sleeping. Home Alone. These are some of my favorite films of all time from my youth. These films could technically have starred any actor of any kind of racial background. So why not make one of the leads a Chinese or Japanese actor?
Sure, there could be arguments of bankability and likability because film making is a business. But you often see white actors who are untested newcomers carry a film or at least play a significant role in ensembles. You rarely if ever see that with an Asian actor. For example, would we have seen a Stephanie Hsu be offered a comparable role to Cameron Diaz’s in My Best Friend’s Wedding?
Even before her success in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Hsu has already made a splash in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and Shang-Chi. She could in theory pull off a strong supporting role in a big romantic comedy like My Best Friend’s Wedding. But when have we ever seen an actress of Chinese descent play a romantic comedy lead of some sort that wasn’t called Crazy Rich Asians? Was Lucy Liu ever in anything like that in the 90’s that I’ve forgotten about?
Or, how about Matthew McConaughey in A Time to Kill? Would John Cho or Simu Liu ever have the opportunity to play a young lawyer defending a Black man in a Southern court? Sure, you’re going to say, but Asian people don’t exist in the American South! Oh, but there’s a significant Chinese community in the Mississippi Delta that dates back to the years after the Civil War that you probably didn’t know existed. Just because you don’t see something on TV or the movies, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
This all reminds me of the time several years back when there was some buzz on social media about John Cho as being re-imagined as the lead of various roles including 007 with the hashtag #StarringJohnCho. Oscars may have been so white back around this time, but it’s also more than just a Black and white thing. Asian actors and other groups of people they take the Census for also want to be seen.
Asians are usually top of mind for roles when race and culture is integral to the story
In this lengthy interview with The Independent, John Cho touches on some of the barriers he’s faced as a working actor trying to make it in Hollywood but with an obvious Korean face. And it’s a face that many may be surprised that he doesn’t think much of whenever he wakes up for the day. The article even makes a point to point out how Cho is the “rare Asian star” who has played roles that have “recently at least, have little to do with his Asian-ness.” This is very true.
Of all of the Oscar-nominated roles for East/Southeast Asians, all except Hong Chau’s nurse character in The Whale are critically tied to the character having to be of Asian descent. Let’s face it, it’s kind of hard to make a movie like Everything Everywhere All At Once without primary roles for Asians. Or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Or Shang-Chi. Or Crazy Rich Asians. Or The Joy Luck Club. Or Parasite. Or Minari. And so on. By default, Asians have to be casted in order for the story to be told.
But as we have seen throughout mainstream Hollywood history, starting with The Joy Luck Club which was the first attempt at the Asian American experience in Hollywood, these types of films are not bountiful. But even if they were, do we only want to see Asian actors limited to stories that are just about the immigrant or First Gen experiences? Is the only way to cast more than one or more Asian leads is to have it be about an Asian family?
Daniel Dae Kim recently caused a bit of controversy by keeping it real about the state of Asian stories being told on the big screen. In an interview panel at the Sundance Film Festival, he lamented how Crazy Rich Asians was a double edged sword. People only want to do Asian projects as long as the Asians were portrayed like those in Crazy Rich Asians: super wealthy and super happy. As Kim stated,
“If you had a project that spoke to something other than people being super rich and super wealthy and super happy, then they weren’t interested."
It’s very applicable in other industries and settings as well. If you’re not portraying the model minority character who’s okay to break their back working but with gratitude and a smile, then people get really angry with you and tell you to back to China.
In the same article from NBC News, sociologist Nany Wang Yuen puts it succinctly how “Every ‘big’ Asian-American film has been an immigrant, first generation story. We get annoyed with being conflated as being from Asia, but all the representation that’s been big still has the ‘Asian foreigner’ label. It’s a legitimate story, but there’s a glut of those.”
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t have more movies like Crazy Rich Asians or even Parasite, but inclusivity can only work when paired with diversity. Let’s have more different stories being told. There are Asians who live in poverty, go through divorce, commit crimes, are gay, on drugs, are obese, dying, play professional sports, are in politics, are artists, and so on.
In my article about the Andrea Riseborough controversy, I wondered if an Asian actress could have been offered the role of Leslie.
Or, would it not be believable because people are biased to think that Asians are super rich and super happy? I can tell you with real life experience that many Asians in my world live more like Leslie than the Crazy Rich Asians.
The recent mass killings in California would be a place to start for inspiration for a different kind of Asian American experience to be told on the big screen. We just had the Jeffrey Dahmer story, so why not the story of the farmworker who killed 7 people over an alleged $100 bill to fix a forklift? Last I checked, True Crime is a total trend these days, so this story hits all the checkboxes for potential box office success.
Or what about a drama featuring the Chinese and Latino immigrants who work on these farms and live in deplorable conditions? Apparently the Governor of California just found this out and has pledged an investigation into this. There’s tons of juicy and incredible stories to be told that’s not just about the Asian struggle of living between the native and American cultures.
Being Asian isn’t a guaranteed job for Asian roles
What’s even more baffling is that even when the starring roles are tied to a racial identity, oftentimes the Asian actor is left to the smaller roles and the white actor takes centre stage. And I’m not even talking about the Emma Stone and Matt Damon whitewashing controversies. Here are some of the actors who went so far as to secure Oscar nominations for playing Asian characters:
1936: Akim Tamiroff, The General Died at Dawn, Nominated Best Supporting Actor (Played Chinese; Armenian heritage)
1937: H. B. Warner, Lost Horizon, Nominated Best Supporting Actor (Played Chinese; White English heritage)
1937: Luise Rainer, The Good Earth, Winner Best Actress (Played Chinese; German heritage)
1944: Aline MacMahon, Dragon Seed, Nominated Best Supporting Actress (White American heritage; Played Chinese)
1946: Gale Sondergaard, Anna and the King of Siam, Nominated Best Supporting Actress (Played Thai; Danish American heritage)
1983: Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously, Winner Best Supporting Actress (Played Chinese; White American heritage)
It’s not just in front of the camera, but behind the camera that Asians can often find themselves pushed aside for white actors. Last week, maybe because it was Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year, all three Kung Fu Panda movies were being played on repeat on various channels on cable. It’s obvious by the title that this animated Panda is of Asian descent. In fact, Kung Fu Panda is actually set in China.
Yes, this is a cartoon, but then you’d think that this would make it easier to cast actual Chinese or East Asian actors as the main characters, right? Amazingly, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, AND James Hong are featured as voices, but they all play minor characters.
Think to yourself, how in the hell can you have Jackie Chan play a teeny tiny voice role in a cartoon movie about Kung Fu and set in China?! How does this happen? Why couldn’t Jackie be Master Shifu at least?
I’m not of that sort that thinks all roles should match exactly to the actor whether it’s race, age, weight, sexuality, whatever. Again, Hollywood is a business and I’m certain the producers felt there would be more interest in Kung Fu Panda if Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, and Angelina Jolie were the primary characters of the movie.
But on the other hand, at least in this case, since China is so critical to the international box office ticket sales of Hollywood studios, why wouldn’t you want to put Jackie Chan’s name in the marquee? Wouldn’t it make sense to push a Chinese actor into a prominent role in a China-set cartoon to get more of that international box office revenue?
This strange phenomenon reminds me of the time the department I worked in had a conversation with some documentary film producers. There was a bit where they discussed how they wanted to produce something connected to Indigenous peoples, but they were insistent that they couldn’t find any to cast or work with. That it’s more difficult than you think it is.
Now, these are highly educated, highly experienced professionals in their field. But having worked around these sorts and been in the conversations where names were bandied about to host shows or promote ads, I’m very skeptical of how hard they worked to find any Indigenous person to work with. My guess is they have a vision in mind, but the vision hasn’t been vetted by actual Indigenous people and hence the inability to find a partner to work with. But I’m purely speculating based on experience. I have to take their word for it.
Conquering systemic bias and racism to enable Asians to remain in Hollywood's consciousness
Recently, everyone has been re-introduced to the acting skills of former child actor, Ke Huy Quan. Some interviews and articles have glossed over Ke’s struggles by simply describing his 20-year (there goes that number again) absence from film as a retirement from acting or his choice to go behind the camera.
The truth is not pretty for those who live it
But I loved how Ke would gently push back to clarify that it wasn’t really a choice. He had to enroll in school and try something else because the acting jobs for an Asian actor were not available to him. He talks about how finding opportunities to audition for was hard. Never mind not being casted at all.
He would often end up fighting for (and losing out on) auditions that were for characters with no names and maybe a couple of lines. That was and probably still is the reality of many Asian actors like Ke in Hollywood. This Vanity Fair article deep dives into some of the darker moments of Ke’s time struggling to get back in front of the camera. This interview with Josh Horowitz brings the sentiment of the article to life. It’s very sad and infuriating when you hear about his experiences.
In a lot of YouTube comments, you’ll see people say things like “Who can I sue in Hollywood for robbing us of Ke’s talent!” and a variety of other righteous statements similar in nature. But what’s probably ironic is that many of those posting those comments would not be able to handle a serious discussion about racial equity and systemic racism.
How the hell does an actor like Ke Huy Quan go unemployed for 20 years?
If you really want to know why an Oscar caliber actor like Ke Huy Quan who’s also a humble and loveable guy, lost out on acting opportunities during his prime years as a man (20’s, 30’s, 40’s), you have to be willing to go there. This isn’t about “being woke” or being a liberal, this is about reality. If you can’t handle it, then you can stop reading.
Watching and reading Ke’s many interviews about the time that elapsed since we last saw him, he tells it like it is.
This is what happened and this is why he “disappeared” for 20 years. It’s as simple as that. There were no or not enough opportunities for an Asian man in acting.
He even goes on to say how after EEAAO wrapped, he still couldn’t find another acting job. He even went so far as to call up the producer of the film to confirm if his acting was any good as he had been auditioning for over a year with no luck. If this is all about merit, then how come Ke couldn’t even get a TV guest spot role?
Ke’s both lucky and savvy that he decided to enter film school and reinvent himself behind the camera. But even more so, the critical part of his “comeback” is that there were creatives out there with decision making power who were willing to provide an acting opportunity for him so many years later.
It's about increasing the supply of quality of roles and decision makers choosing to give actors a shot
Everyone always likes to say it’s about who’s the best and it’s about merit and talent and not race or gender or this or that. But we all know, those of us who have been there on both sides of the table, we all know that anyone can be talented. Anyone can be smart. Many, many, many people meet the minimum requirements and have the same CV submitted. But it’s getting the opportunity to be shortlisted, that’s usually the hardest part of getting any job.
The problem is two-tiered. First, there needs to be more quality roles for actors like Ke. Second, there needs to be more decision makers who are willing to take a shot at an actor who doesn’t look or fit the mold of all of the other actors we usually see in X part in X movie. The bias is real and neuroscience studies will tell you that our brains are wired for bias.
Those keyboard warriors who are all for Ke and think he’s so great, would they be willing to support him by supporting others like him?
What they may not realize is that there’s probably thousands and thousands of Ke’s out there that we’re not aware of. And not all may have the same positive energy and signature affability. But they have talent. There’s a lot of Ke’s out there who’s talent we’re being robbed of right now. These no name faces may never get a chance to test their talent because the system is biased against them.
It’s no different than when you’re in the corporate world and you’re the smartest and most hardworking and most liked on the team. But the powers that be don’t think you’re a right fit for that VP job or you need to “do more” to prove that you “deserve” a raise.
This is probably why you always see the same handful of recognizable Asian talent on the screen. Is it a coincidence that it’s often less than six degrees of separation of the current slate of Asian stars who’ve made it in Hollywood? Shang-Chi, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the upcoming Disney+ series, American Born Chinese is a perfect example. The trifecta of Asian acting triumph right now of Michelle Yeoh, Stephanie Hsu, and Ke Huy Quan cross over between the three different shows more than once.
Can the Hollywood system change so more Asian actors can have a shot, so we’re not always recycling the same popular at this moment in time stars?
Not that I have any issue of seeing any of those actors again and again and again. Ke has 20 years to make up for and Stephanie is still a newcomer. But the system needs to evolve so that many more actors of East/Southeast Asian descent can build their resumes and we can have more.
So if everyone is scratching their heads and wondering, how in the hell could an actor like Ke Huy Quan not be employed as an actor in the last 20 years? The answer is systemic bias and racism. I know not everyone wants to hear it and not everyone accepts it, but that’s the life we’re living in. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes in various jobs and times of my life and I’m sure many of you have seen it, too.
I attended a high school where the Mandarin teacher was a white woman. And then I went to a university where the Mandarin teacher was a white guy. Sure, he lived in China and romanced the Chinese girls, but he was definitely a white guy. The schools I attended are in the Pacific Northwest where the population is dominated by East/Southeast Asians.
My friends in the East coast who have never been to the West Coast think it’s all Chinese people here, and they’re not entirely wrong. But you look at who are in the senior positions of various institutions or companies and you wonder how did all of the Chinese people get shut out? You’d think they could’ve found ONE Mandarin speaking professional teacher who was also Chinese, but I guess not.
So with the emergence of Asian talent through the critically acclaimed Everything Everywhere All At Once, let’s hope this latest swing at breaking the cinematic ceiling will be the last attempt that’s needed.
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