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By Jay Ganglani

Often standing behind Hollywood’s white leads, Asian American talent has historically gone unnoticed and ignored. But that’s starting to change, according to Professor Karen Leong, an expert in Asian American history at the University of New Mexico.

“There’s a lot more representation, a lot more complexity and fully fleshed out characters. I think a lot of that’s due to more Asian Americans being behind the cameras, as much as it is to more visibility of actors in front of the camera,” says Leong.

Wicked, for instance, is set to become one of the year’s biggest hits and was directed by an Asian American, John M. Chu. It also features an Asian actress — Michelle Yeoh — in one of the film’s most pivotal roles.

“Hollywood depictions of Asians and Asian Americans have been driven more by foreign policy than anything else,” the University of Delaware’s Professor Peter Feng said, citing examples such as Japan’s favorable representation during the height of its military strength pre-World War II, with Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa achieving leading man status in the silent film era.

Building on recent success

In 2018, Warner Bros. released the romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, a love story between Rachel (Constance Wu), a Chinese American professor, and Nick (Henry Golding), who belongs to one of Singapore’s wealthiest families. It was the first major Hollywood film to feature an Asian and Asian-American cast in nearly 25 years, and went on to become a profitable venture for the studio, grossing over 230 million USD at the global box office. Critics praised the film for being a “satisfying step forward for screen representation.” But the movie also received flack for the lack of nuance in its portrayal of Singapore’s racial politics.

There have been other Hollywood projects, however, that have provided perhaps more exciting opportunities in terms of storytelling, according to Leong, citing examples such as Amazon Prime Video’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, which premiered earlier this year.

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