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| Actors Chris Pang, left, and Henry Golding go shirtless in “Crazy Rich Asians.” |
By Ed Diokno
AsAmNews
Early in the movie, Crazy Rich Asians actor Henry Golding stands shirtless — bare-chested with modest six-pack abs — eliciting titters from the audience.
Three young women sitting in the row in front of me repressed full-on swoons, but I could hear their excitement. Throughout the movie, there were several times when the Asian men appeared without their shirts, displaying well-defined abs. By the time, Harry Shum, Jr., appeared near the end, the women could no longer hold back — letting out spontaneous, uncontrolled shrieks.
Until recently, the pop-culture image of Asian males perpetuated by Hollywood bounced from the goofy, buck-toothed character played by Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s to the neutered nerd Long Duk Dong of 16 Candles to the hyper-masculine Bruce Lee-type who although physically powerful, could never express sensitivity;
When the women in the audience in an advance screening of the highly anticipated Crazy Rich Asians reacted as they did, I mentally gave a fist-pump. Yes!
At last, Asian men were being depicted as normal people — well, as normal as the handsome hunks in the cast can be — without a pair of thick glasses or a flying round-house kick in sight.
Indeed, Crazy Rich Asians is presenting Asian males in a whole new light that could break down the negative stereotypes presented in American pop culture and history books. In the movie, Asian men are depicted in a wide spectrum of characterizations: from the oversexed, approval-seeking, overcompensating, and outlandish attention seeker to the confident, articulate, sensitive and romantic man-about-town — all complex attributes, negative and positive, hardly ever attributed to the best friend, sidekick or loyal-assistant roles usually offered to Asian American actors.
The infamous study by dating site OkCupid published in 2014 concluded that Asian men were considered by women of all races as the least attractive of men among the races. Even Asian women, the study showed, thought White men were more attractive.
Sam Louie, a Washington-based psychotherapist, wrote in Psychology Today about the hurdles Asian American men face when trying to date.
“While there are different theories for the reasoning, the clients I work with all agree with the premise of not being able to fit the hyper-masculine culture perpetuated by Western society,” Louie wrote in the PT article.
The stereotype is so insidious and pervasive, that many Asians, men and women, begin to believe it as true. I must admit, it took a long while for me to overcome the self-hatred that became part of my persona in my younger days.
The Men of “Crazy Rich Asians”:
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| Some of attractive male actors featured in “Crazy Rich Asians” include, top to clockwise: Harry Shum Jr., Chris Pang, Michael Teol and Remy Hill. |
During its production, Fresh Off the Boat star Constance Wu, who plays Rachel Chu, the Asian American girlfriend of Singaporean native and uber-rich Nick Young, convinced the director John M. Chu to remove some dialogue from the book in which her character boasted about never dating Asian men — which would have reinforced the “unattractive Asian male” stereotype. That might seem like a small concession, but speaking on behalf of Asian American men who grew up with that albatross hung around our neck, I’d like to give a huge” thank you” to Ms. Wu.
The movie is redefining what it means to be an Asian man, said director Chu, in Los Altos, California to AsAmNews.
When asked if presenting Nick Young and his friends in such an unaccustomed light was purposeful on his part, Chu said, “Absolutely!” He then related how his brother reacted upon watching the movie. When Golding walked into a scene wearing a White suit and open-collared suit, striding confidently as if he owned the scene as Singapore’s most eligible bachelor, Chu’s older brother teared up because for the first time, an Asian male — albeit a charming, handsome male — was being depicted onscreen to whom he could relate.
The Nick Young character is not your typical macho ass-kicking martial artist male, nor is he the geeky, almost-invisible non-speaker. Chu points out that Nick is sensitive, articulate and caring. Instead of a wild bachelor party with loud music, semi-nude women romping around, the Nick Young character prefers being alone with a friend on a raft floating in a quiet bay having a sincere discussion about their lives.
In the context of the #MeToo movement, “I think we are in the middle of redefining masculinity,” Chu said. “What does it mean to be a man?”
“You don’t have to be a leading man to be noticed,” added Golding pointing out that each of the Asian male characters in Crazy Rich Asians, have stories to tell … To have confidence is what Asians have been missing.”
Years ago, in search of positive role models to counter Long Duk Dong, I discovered the old samurai movies where Asian men were the main protagonists and latched on to the iconic Bruce Lee image. But even those strong male images were only a tiny fraction of what a well-rounded contemporary man could be — or, should be.
Psychotherapist Louie writes what we see in the American media is just “a sliver of reality.”
“You don’t have an experience that an Asian American can be normal,” he said. “We can be funny, we can make jokes, we can be witty. We can be everything underneath the sun.”
The challenge, Louie said, is exposing non-Asians to Asian males beyond what the media has historically constructed. Crazy Rich Asians with its positive male images is refreshing, but it represents only the first step on a long journey. We would need a whole string of movies like Crazy Rich Asians to undo centuries of negative brainwashing about Asian men.
There are hopeful signs the image of Asian men is expanding with several movies and TV series. For example, I think John Cho’s role in Columbus is the most complex played by an Asian American man in contemporary media.
Cho isn’t the only Asian American male helping to turn the tide: Newcomer Ross Butler in 13 Reasons Why is a favorite among high schoolers; Keanu Reeves continues to churn out action-oriented movies; Daniel Wu’s character in Into the Badlands continues to evolve and Aziz Ansari will continue to search for love and identity in a third season of the award-winning Netflix series Master of None; and let’s not forget Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park’s nuanced performance as loving father Louis Huang. Even the Emmy-nominated performance of Darren Criss in The Assassination” of Gianni Versace, in its own way, helps to chip away at Asian male stereotypes.
Whether or not all of these projects represent a trend depends a lot on how Crazy Rich Asians is received when the film hits theaters nationwide on August 15. Judging by the audience reaction in the preview audience, the journey begins with a strong, assertive first step.
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