Pre-Pandemic, it seemed like 2020 would be a big year for Asian and Asian American cinema with the historic win of “Parasite” at the Academy Awards. Hollywood seemed to make a shift in representing more minority groups while a new generation of content creators entered the field.
Asian women could be more vulnerable to certain stereotypes as people might assume, but the real fight they face is being themselves.
Ann Sun graduated from USC with a degree in Film and TV Production. Now Sun is working as a sales and distribution intern under Entertainment One. Though the job is not what she dreamt of, she finds it helpful to learn how to sell a movie in the real world, since in college a big focus of the curriculum was placed on production and creation.
Sun described her college life as “fun and precious." Though the classes were demanding and competitive, she enjoyed spending time doing what she loved. Sun said she built such a strong bond with her cohort that some of her classmates became lifetime friends. The cinematic school is “a happy bubble,” everyone was given an equal opportunity to learn, produce, and create, she said.
However, the real world is not like that.
Outside of her obligations at her job, Sun is also a director and filmmaker where she continuously faces the issue of diversity. “I don’t feel that my voice is not heard because I’m an Asian or because I’m a woman,” she said but the situation is that “a cast full of white actors will sell better, or at least the executives think it sells better.”
According to a report released by USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative last year, white actors still dominate Hollywood in that more than half of all speaking actors in 1,200 popular films from 2007 to 2018 are white. Asian actors only count for 8.2% in that pool, which increased by 3 percentage points from the annual report in 2017.
Certain changes are taking place, but the needle should and could be moved more. “The mindset needs to come first, even for me.” Three years ago, Sun said she used to cast all white actors without thinking because that was what she saw the most in the industry. Subconsciously, she was giving more opportunities to white actors although she herself identified as part of a minority group. The invisibility of Asian actors keeps rewarding white privilege by reinforcing people’s stereotypes, she said. After realizing the responsibility she has as a director to include a diverse cast, now she tries to make more informed choices when choosing actors. If the story doesn’t necessarily demonstrate a cultural message, she would always think of casting Asian actors as the lead when it doesn’t affect the original storytelling.
Another major finding from the report is that, across 1,335 directors over that time period, 4.3% were female and 3.2% were Asian. What’s improving in front of the camera doesn’t reflect what’s behind the scene. But Sun views her future with positivity.
A great film should be entertaining but at the same time make the audience think, Sun said, and “Parasite” winning the Academy Award for best picture proved her right. Seeing a foreign language film winning the award is definitely a milestone. Many young Asian filmmakers like Sun are motivated and inspired to keep working on their projects and then improve the diversity, she said. She believes the industry is pushing forward the trend to some degree, and her generation should take on the responsibility.
“Media is a very powerful tool because it can change the world in a powerful way by starting conversations around social taboos or shedding more light on stories that were never told before,” Sun said.
The stories she wants to tell are not only about diversity, but the culture she grew up with. Sun feels obliged to showcase her Chinese background, but she doesn’t want to be seen as limited to that area just because of her ethnicity.
Born and raised in Beijing, she came to the U.S. for film school. At the beginning she had a hard time fitting into a group because she grew up watching a lot of old Asian cinema. However, everyone else talked about “Star Wars” and “Alfred Hitchcock” which she didn’t really know until she got here, she recalled.
Lizzie Perrin, a film intern under Entertainment One, shares the same worry. From past experiences Perrin said people assume she writes about her culture the moment they see her. Though Perrin’s heritage is Japanese, she was adopted and grew up in a white family in Georgia. “I had this weird feeling of not belonging to either of the cultures,” she said, and “Asian women have the burden to carry out their identity, like I don’t get to be a comedy writer or a historical drama writer, I’m an Asian female writer.” Perrin said.
Lai Jiang, a student in the School of Cinematic Arts, said she also encountered certain cultural backlash when directing her very first film. The inspiration for the film was drawn from her grandparents. However, since it was hard to find Mandarin speaking actors in L.A., Jiang ended up casting two white actors. Because of cultural differences, she had to change several plots because the actors couldn’t identify with certain personality traits of the characters. Certain barriers need to be crossed, she said.
Asian women face many different challenges in Hollywood from film making to writing. But despite the pressure to assimilate and appeal to American audiences, Sun is trying to embrace her identity and feel more confident with what she believes in. “It’s a constant battle, and I’m still in the battle,” she said.