Hot Topic: I Don't Look Like Lucy Liu

Being compared to an attractive celebrity should be taken as a compliment. After all, we are mere humans dwelling in the world of the stars. But what isn't a compliment is being compared to a celebrity simply because we are of the same race. Not all white men remind me of Brad Pitt, but somehow, all of the comments I receive from foreigners are strictly along the lines of, "you look like Lucy Liu." Do I? Do I really.

Let's get to it:

I have compared many of my white friends to different celebrities. Lana Del Rey, Lady Gaga, Adam Levine, Zach Galifinakis, Seth Rogan, the list is endless. The problem is that in turn, they can only name one female Asian celebrity to compare me with; Lucy Liu. Now, I wouldn't be offended if I actually looked like her, but the only facial feature that her and I share is our yellow-toned skin and jet-black hair. Heck, I'm actually much tanner than her. Comparing me to Lucy Liu is like telling your black security guard that he looks like Seal. 

The problem isn't that white people aren't able to distinguish one Asian from another, but it's that Asian women are so underrepresented in American films and TV shows that we only remember a single Asian female who rose to prominence in the late 90's. Sure, there are women like Sandra Oh from Grey's Anatomy or Jenna Ushkowitz from Glee, but aside from them, who else do we have? Maggie Q from Nikita or Kimiko Glenn from Orange Is The New Black would come to mind, but again, they are part white and exude the Caucasian features that are admired so greatly in many countries. Even then, not many people have heard of these women, and that's the problem, we seem to be nothing more than props to fill in the race quota in every film or show. We rarely play a part worth developing, and even if we do, like Lucy Liu's character as Watson in Elementary, people criticize the poor casting choice. As if Asian women can only play the characters that fit into the stereotypes they have made us up to be. God forbid we have the emotional depth of a normal human being.

I'm really not as annoyed as I sound, but I would just love to see Asian men and women take bigger roles in Hollywood blockbusters. It's funny, Asian women seem to only be in demand either as a sex bomb (due to our 'exotic' sex appeal) or as someone incredibly smart. While Asian men are either nerdy or have a black belt. There is no in between. How odd is it that while we host 60% of the human population, but we can barely make it on the screens of Hollywood. 

Let's take a short quiz. How many Asian men have been nominated for the Academy Awards in the category of Best Actor in a Leading Role? 3. Of those 3, 2 have won in 1956 and 1982 respectively. What about for the Best Actress in a Leading Role? 1 in 1935. She didn't win. 

I've never had an Asian character to look up to growing up. I watched Disney, Nickelodeon, MTV, VH1, Fox, AXN, and a plethora of American channels. Sure, there were Asians here and there; London Tipton from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody being a prominent one, but I wasn't exposed to them as much as I was exposed to all the white people. An argument can be made about my predilection for American TV shows, but growing up in an International school in Indonesia and being forced to only speak English at school meant that I was disconnected from my own country's people and its media. I was pushed headfirst into America even before I even stepped foot on its soil.

America is a melting pot, but to this day I feel like it's melting everyone else except for us. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are household names, but can we be anything but the martial artist? More than the character that only exists for the sole purpose of being laughed at for our accent and our struggle with the English language? Because there is nothing funny about our efforts at tackling a foreign language when many westerners wouldn't even deign to learn ours. 

It seems that whenever Asian men are on screen, they are rarely seen as the heartthrob. Perhaps it's because Asian men are rarely cast as the leading male, which is confusing because there are plenty of attractive East or Southeast Asian men around. But then again, who would believe that the leading white lady would fall for the Asian? Such a conundrum. Might as well just cast Zac Efron for the umpteenth time.

And Asian women? Well, which one would you like to be in your film; a) the hardcore nerdy one, or b) the objectified exotic one with the infinite sex appeal?

The great thing is, comedic Asians such as Mindy Kaling, Justin Chon and Ken Jeong have put our potential on the map. They prove that we can be more than stereotypes. But that's not enough. Our talents shouldn't just be subjected to YouTube (which is basically just AsianTube nowadays) but we should be added into the mix more often. Honestly, why is it so difficult to just make a character not white? Representation is a powerful thing.

If they say there is a character that an Asian cannot play simply because of his race, that is complete bullshit. The only reason why we aren't cast as often isn't because of our lack of talent but because TV and film execs are afraid that Asians will not be well-received if we deviate from the norm. But whatever, if Hollywood wants to continue spreading stereotypical images of Asian men and women, so be it. We'll just be over here with our seemingly unfathomable emotional depth.

"I'll leave you with this tidbit. 73% of all female characters in the 100 highest grossing films of 2013 were Caucasian, 14% were African American, 5% were Latina, 3% were Asian, and another 3% were aliens of fantasy races. Yes. In 2013, American theater audiences were about as likely to see a woman of an animal species or completely made up race as they were to see an Asian woman." -Susana Polo