Throw the egg rolls away:
On the stereotyped Chinese in American movies or video games
By: Chang Liu
Issue date: 11/16/09 Section: Entertainment
Nowadays there are more Chinese exchange students showing up on campus. When you see some of them while driving your big truck on the way to a house party, what kind of images were thrown into your mind? If the only thing you can think of is the Chinese images showed in American movies or games, grab a drink and let's chat about it for a while.
When I watched "Lethal Weapon 4", the "Rush Hour" trilogy or any other action movie, I noticed that Chinese were always stereotyped as owners of restaurants or trained society gang members who knew Karate. Usually, a Chinese man looks like a "Wimp" who keeps a handlebar style mustache with a goofy smile, he always looks submissive but may stab you in your back at sometime.
Chinese women always have small eyes ("Mulan" style), wearing traditional clothes and speaking witch-like language. When I played the video game "Hitman 3 The Contract", there's a mission in Hong Kong with the assassination target as a gang leader in his own restaurant, I found Chinese people depicted in the game as weird and their clothes are from various periods-- the gang members wear the costume of Qing dynasty, which is the last dynasty of ancient China and the gang leader wears the costume of a Qing chancellery. However, the populace wears clothes like the people from the Cultural Revolution era which belongs to the late 1960's. Again they look stupid and awkward. It seems like Abraham Lincoln wears the costume of Louis XIV era and George Washington is dressed up like a hippie.
Meanwhile, it's hard to hear the Chinese in those movies and games speak Mandarin; but they always speak Cantonese (Dialect of Guangdong province in China) instead. I believe that's why when I talked with another Chinese student who come from North of China, my American friend was surprised--"What kind of language are you speaking, it's beautiful and there's a smooth flow and rhythm in it, why don't you guys speak 'Ching Chong Chong'?"
I was wondering there are really some Chinese looks like the one in movies? So when I went to Chicago, I visited the Chinatown on purpose to find out whether there's any gang member who will beat me up with karate chops. Unfortunately, I can't find any clue, except some Chinese shops selling something I will never use in my whole life. But I did realize why Americans think Chinese eat egg rolls everyday, although I never find it in my hometown.
When I watched "Lethal Weapon 4", the "Rush Hour" trilogy or any other action movie, I noticed that Chinese were always stereotyped as owners of restaurants or trained society gang members who knew Karate. Usually, a Chinese man looks like a "Wimp" who keeps a handlebar style mustache with a goofy smile, he always looks submissive but may stab you in your back at sometime.
Chinese women always have small eyes ("Mulan" style), wearing traditional clothes and speaking witch-like language. When I played the video game "Hitman 3 The Contract", there's a mission in Hong Kong with the assassination target as a gang leader in his own restaurant, I found Chinese people depicted in the game as weird and their clothes are from various periods-- the gang members wear the costume of Qing dynasty, which is the last dynasty of ancient China and the gang leader wears the costume of a Qing chancellery. However, the populace wears clothes like the people from the Cultural Revolution era which belongs to the late 1960's. Again they look stupid and awkward. It seems like Abraham Lincoln wears the costume of Louis XIV era and George Washington is dressed up like a hippie.
Meanwhile, it's hard to hear the Chinese in those movies and games speak Mandarin; but they always speak Cantonese (Dialect of Guangdong province in China) instead. I believe that's why when I talked with another Chinese student who come from North of China, my American friend was surprised--"What kind of language are you speaking, it's beautiful and there's a smooth flow and rhythm in it, why don't you guys speak 'Ching Chong Chong'?"
I was wondering there are really some Chinese looks like the one in movies? So when I went to Chicago, I visited the Chinatown on purpose to find out whether there's any gang member who will beat me up with karate chops. Unfortunately, I can't find any clue, except some Chinese shops selling something I will never use in my whole life. But I did realize why Americans think Chinese eat egg rolls everyday, although I never find it in my hometown.