Tag Archives: Joy Luck Club

Orientalism in Joy Luck Club

In Slaying The Dragon the history of Asian American women in American cinema is presented. There are several prominent stereotypes of Asian women: the dragon lady, Suzy Wong, and the “China doll”. For the purposes of this post, I’d like to examine what I’m calling the “China doll” stereotype, which positions Asian women as being exotic, deferential, and submissive. Quiet and subservient, Asian American women are seen as catering to and pampering their husbands.

As a viewer, I enjoyed some elements of Joy Luck Club, I also realized how it was pandering to Western audiences and relying on stereotypes of Asian women. The film centers on mother-daughter relationships, bringing generational trauma to the forefront. Using flashbacks, the film showcases the four mother’s traumatic childhoods in China. At some point in the childhood narrative, each mother is presented as a “China doll”, submissive, and helpless. China is seen through an Orientalist lens, exotic, inscrutable, mists, and mountains. The traumatic experiences that the four mothers face at the hands of Chinese men, and the atrocities they commit for survival are presented through the misty haze of Orientalism. The West and China stand in dire contrast to each other. China is patriarchal, hierarchal, a site of sorrow and loss. The West is the place of new beginnings, of middle class lifestyle, and “hope”.

The mothers themselves are Others, representative of the East. While their daughters represent the West. Each narrative involves a cultural clash between mother and daughter. In Orientals, Lee talks talks at length about the Victorian domestic sphere, a concept that I found to be particularly intriguing. A central theme of Joy Luck Club is divorce, and marriage. All of the women go to great lengths to accommodate their husbands and maintain their domestic households, even to the detriment of their own needs. It’s interesting to note that the film presents the disruptions in the daughter’s domestic lives as being caused by their internalized generational trauma passed down from their mothers, instead of relating it to gender or sexism within marriage as an institution. For example, Rose gives up her chance to study aboard and becomes completely deferential to her husband’s needs. Yet, her submissiveness attributed to her Chinese heritage, rather than the structure of the marriage itself.

Joy Luck Club has interesting things to say about generational trauma, and is one of the only well-known Hollywood movies that centers around Asian American women. I actually did enjoy this film, at the same time, it relies on Orientalism and stereotypes to get across its message.

Week 4, Tuesday. Film representations & Lee.

**Note: For my other thoughts on the end of Lee’s Orientals, go here!**

One of the reoccurring themes throughout the end readings in Lee’s Orientals, the 1988 documentary Slaying the Dragon, and 1993 film Joy Luck Club was the theme of opportunity. There are the opportunities perceived to be had in America, influencing immigration, as well as the opportunities that existed and were created by the Asian immigrant and Asian American community. But even the triumphant success of creating new opportunities in a past time can now be looked at with a more critical lens. Because the opportunities now have grown and because the relationship between Asian Americans and representation has changed (albeit, arguably not enough) we look at the past through eyes that have only known the future.For example, when there were no other starring roles for Asian American women it would be an achievement to play a role that, in hindsight, was problematic and stereotypes Asian women. We saw this through Nany Kwan’s characters Suzie Wong in The World of Suzie Wong and Linda Low in Flower Drum Song. Both of these characters were discussed and analyzed as negative representation these roles created in Orientals as well as Slaying the Dragon. However, in Slaying the Dragon Nancy Kwan speaks out about how there were no other starring roles for her as an Asian American actress; her defense comes from the success of any representation. With this in mind, it is important to consider how activism changes for the time and  when creating a relationship between theory and history to balance our modern, critical lens and our understand-of-the-past lens.

Another theme that I found was that of requiring a white person in a film as the lead so the “audience can identify with them [the white lead]“. (This was influenced by the reference to Farewell to Manzanar.) This is very telling about who movies are made for– if the audience needs someone to relate to and that relatable person must be white, then who is assumed to be the audience? Who is it meant to be consumed by?

This reminded me of a current, popular series that has been released through on Netflix’s original network, Orange is the New Black. For those who are unfamiliar, here is the description of the show from Netflix:

“From the creator of “Weeds” comes a heartbreaking and hilarious new series set in a women’s prison. Piper Chapman’s wild past comes back to haunt her, resulting in her arrest and detention in a federal penitentiary. To pay her debt to society, Piper trades her comfortable New York life for an orange prison jumpsuit and finds unexpected conflict and camaraderie amidst an eccentric group of inmates.”

What this description does not reveal is that the majority of “eccentric inmates” are Women of Color. The creator, Jenji Kohan, talks a little about why she uses white Piper Chapman as the focal point of the show:

“In a lot of ways Piper was my Trojan Horse. You’re not going to go into a network and sell a show on really fascinating tales of black women, and Latina women, and old women and criminals. But if you take this white girl, this sort of fish out of water, and you follow her in, you can then expand your world and tell all of those other stories. But it’s a hard sell to just go in and try to sell those stories initially. The girl next door, the cool blonde, is a very easy access point, and it’s relatable for a lot of audiences and a lot of networks looking for a certain demographic. It’s useful.”

The importance of this quote is that it allows us to see how those who are making the popular shows feel: they can sell a stereotype or a body but without a white vehicle, they cannot sell a voice.

I thought of Joy Luck Club as a good example of allowing Women of Color to use their own voice in telling their stories and a good example of differing opportunities. It also showed us a brief example of the influence that Sayonara and Flower Drum Song had and have on both the western lens of Asian American women and the internalized feelings Asian American women have of themselves. In the beginning, during the piano receital scene, there is a brief clip where another young girl is singing “I Enjoy Being A Girl” from Flower Drum Song (a scene shown more than once in Slaying the Dragon). The Asian/ Asian American casting of the main women (while not all Chinese) allowed for us to look at a certain kind of representation, the influence of other representations, and the total possibility to have an all Asian leading cast to tell a beautiful, heartbreaking story.

Also, fun fact: Nancy Kwan is said to have “replaced” France Nuyen (Ying Ying in Joy Luck Club) in the film The Life of Suzie Wong. I fond this to be interesting because it shows us the “small world” of Asian American roles and actresses/actors.

The Perfect Woman

 

 

She would be exotic, mysteriously sensual, obedient, and pamper her man like a real woman should. In Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women In U.S. most of the Asian women were seen in that tone. Whether the character they played was evil, good, or a stand-by character, they definitely got the attention of the white man. One of the few things that was introduced at the beginning of the movie was how many men commented on how Asian women were “exotic” and in movie clips the women were wearing fitted dresses with slits half way up each side. Then, there was this clip about Suzy Wong and how she was seen as this very sensual being that created this trend of the long haired, party Asian girl. I feel like she portrayed the mysterious sensual role that most Asian women have in most movies. Lastly, Sayonara portrayed the image of Asian women having this role of pampering their husbands and being obedient to them. Overall, all these qualities create this image of the stereo-typed Asian woman.

In 47 Ronin there were 2 main women who played the different sides of the Asian woman stereotype. The woman that Kai fell in love with, Mika, portrayed the obedient, quiet, and polite role; on the other hand, the Witch was sensual-like with her graceful movements, she was very exotic, and pampered her master. In Joy Luck Club the June’s aunties, Ying Ying, An Mei, and Lindo, were young Asian girls who broke the stereotypes that were presented in Slaying the Dragon. For instance, Ying Ying married a man who was a cheater and could careless about him, yet she stayed in the relationship and did what he asked. An Mei and Lindo were like the outspoken ones. An Mei spoke out against her Father and “Big Mother” at her mother’s funeral and Lindo lied to her mother-in-law and everyone else present to get out of a marriage. They were all obedient; however, none of them grew up to still be obedient (in a way to roll over and do what they were told), they all became independent women.

Lastly, in Orientals I feel like the stereotypes of Asians in general, were created by the media. For instance, the “Third Sex” was a suppressing label for Asians. How this relates to the stereotypes of women, is how media affects the views of people. Everyone now has an expectation for Asian women to be sexual deviants, for pampering slaves, or Asian men to be this weird in-between sexual being. Overall, stereotypes have shaped peoples view of Asians in today’s society.