Huey Tran photoCast of 'Hundred Percent' with
Garrett Wang, far right.
Actor Wang aims
By Tim Ryan
to break Asian
stereotype barrier
Star-BulletinIN 1990, when English actor Jonathan Pryce was selected to play an Eurasian pimp in the Broadway production of "Miss Saigon," members of the Asian-American artistic community protested not only "Pryce's" "yellowface" performance but the show's producer's refusal to allow Asian-American actors to even compete for the role.
The controversy brought national attention to two long-standing traditions in the United States' theater and film: the business part of show business where the bottom line takes precedence over artistic and ethical considerations; the practice of white actors performing in "yellowface."
While in recent years there have been more roles for Asian-American actors -- especially women -- finding an Asian-American on a television show or in a movie is still difficult.
Garrett Wang, who plays Operations Officer Harry Kim on the United Paramount Network series "Star Trek: Voyager," says "easily the majority of roles" that he auditions for requires some kind of "Oriental" accent even when the character was born in the United States.
"One acting niche that hasn't been filled is the Asian-American character who speaks without an accent," said Wang, a panelist tomorrow in the Hawaii International Film Festival's discussion on Asian American stereotypes in U.S. films and television.
"Hollywood in general has not been very creative in creating honest, dignified roles for Asian-American males..."
Even in getting roles, Asian-American actors are at the bottom of the heap, with African-Americans on top, Wang said. Roles up for grabs for any ethnicity tend to go to African-Americans, he said.
Citing a Screen Actors Guild survey over a 12-month period a few years ago, Wang said 21 percent of the acting roles cast that year went to African Americans while their presence in the United States amounts to only 13 percent; Asians, at 5 percent of the population, were cast in less than 1 percent of the roles.
When Asian-Americans do get a role, it's often as "some kind of Asian national," a Japanese businessman, Chinese short-order cook, or yakuza, Wang said.
"It's very frustrating. They let us play the waiter, kung-fu artist or a drug lord from Hong Kong, but not someone ordinary like a marriage counselor."
Born in southern California to Chinese-immigrant parents, Wang lived in Indiana, Bermuda and Memphis while his father pursued careers as a plant pathologist and then as a wholesale craft importer. He attended UCLA majoring in Asian studies and dabbled in theater. Wang left school in his last quarter to star in a Los Angeles theater production, "Porcelain," for which he garnered major critical acclaim.
He appeared in a series of national commercials, including spots for Burger King followed by a guest spot on ABC TV's "All-American Girl" starring Margaret Cho. Then came the "Star Trek: Voyager" role, one of the very few examples of a three-dimensional Asian-American character on a continuing television series.
(Almost 30 years ago, George Takei boldly went where no Asian had gone before as Sulu, the helmsman for the Starship Enterprise, on "Star Trek.")
"I am one out of only a handful of Asian-American males in the past four decades who have appeared as a series regular, so I feel a particular responsibility," Wang said. "Hollywood established the Asian stereotype and I hope to be instrumental in abolishing it."
Wang recently completed a starring role in the feature film "Hundred Percent," an action/comedy directed by Eric Koyanagi who shares Wang's desire to abolish Asian stereotypes.
Asian American males are seen as two-dimensional and as the enemy, Wang said. "But Asian American women are a different case because they are seen as more desirable and exotic by Cau-casians who have an Asian fetish."
But Wang says responsibility for breaking the Asian-American stereotype also belongs to his own ethnic group.
"Hollywood does not care what color you are if you make money," he said. "If I write a film, star, direct and produce it and it makes a lot of money, the industry will make more films with Asian-Americans. But no (Asian-American filmmaker) has stepped up to do that."
Wang says Asian-Americans must fight the stereotype battle head on.
"The surest way to get the bully to stop picking on you and get respect is to stand up for yourself," he said.
Talking film
What: Asian-American Images in U.S. Film & Television panel discussion including actors Garrett Wang, Amy Hill
