This week it was announced that a network TV show set in Hawaii was losing two asian amercian actors because they were getting paid 15% less than the two caucasian stars. Kudos to them for giving up pretty lucrative gigs.
Of course, there's an irony in that a show set in Hawaii which is predominantly asian in terms of population now has no asians in the cast. More significantly, Kim's departure reduces the types of roles available to asian men in network TV back down to three (3):
- grocers who don't speak english;
- martial artists who seldom speak english;
- geeky lab tech/doctors who speak english with an accent;
while asian women get plenty of roles as babes who play the hot love interest of white guys.
It's fair to note that while asian immigrant men do typically fit the caricatures put forth by mainstream media, those caricatures do not represent a significant percentage of the asian male population, and because of mainstream perception and projection, we are not allowed to be who we are. We hide in plain sight. We are secret asian men.
No comments:
Post a Comment