Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

“Show me Show me Show me/How you do that trick”

I’m an actor but when I sing, I’m not the greatest at remembering lyrics. I remember the melody and the vocals. I remember The Cure though, and recently had to commit their Just Like Heaven to memory.

When I got an audition for a pilot for Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, the call was to learn that song. The role was a singer at a Chinese restaurant. No more information was given. I created a sleazy lounge singer/Elvis character. When I performed for the casting directors, they wanted more karaoke than King. To my surprise, they asked me to return for a callback.

I arrived early. I saw several actors I recognized, including Ping Wu who has over 75 film credits to his name, not to mention the countless theater productions he's been in. The role they were trying out for had one line asking the Caucasian leads if they liked the food. It could be turned into a recurring character, but it was disheartening to find that future projects for television will still relegate APIs to the background.

They called back several types for the singer role. I realized that I was the only American-born actor or actor who wasn’t going to be doing an accent. I do not do accents. I’m a hard-liner when it comes to ching-chongy accents.

When I left, I heard someone say that I was the “Americanized” version -- as if that were monomorphic. As if there were a singular “American” type. As if those with real accents weren’t American.

What do they say when a person of Caucasian descent tries out? That was the “Euro American” version?

The shoot was last week. They shot without me.

I’m deducing they went with the ching-chong.

Disheartening is that producers still propagate API images like that. Because they still see us like that: foreign backdrops. Disheartening is that some of us are willing to be that for them.

And, as we know from our friends at Racebending.com, they displace API characters completely off the screen. The Last Airbender continues the tradition of 21 and Dragonball Evolution in which API characters are morphed into Caucasian. They use the term ‘whitewashing’;' I used ‘yellow-out’ in the 80s. Same thing -- another method to circumvent charges of ‘yellow-face’ or racism cosmetics; just eliminate APIs completely.

And while we may adore Jake Gyllenhaal, he’ll be playing another videogame Asian for the big screen in Prince of Persia. And Q'orianka Kilcher, a native South American will be playing a native Hawai’ian in Princess Kaiulani (formerly titled Barbarian Princess). While she may have been raised in Hawai’i, she’s not kanaka maoli. She’s not Pacific Islander. It’s a movie about Hawai’ians being f---ed over. But it doesn't address the casting.

These two films premiere in May. Yes, Asian Pacific Heritage month.

And just in case you didn’t know, The Last Airbender is directed by M. Knight Shyamalan. An American of Asian Indian descent.

That he helms a movie that methodically erases APIs, relegates them to set décor, and otherwise utilizes them as the evil counterparts to the white-morphed heroes -- is not surprising, but still disheartening.

Historical photo taken from website Barbarianprincessmovie.com, which addresses inaccuracies of the movie.