American Asian: Slaying the Dragon Lady

Описание: In 2021, between the pandemic and all the anti-Asian rhetoric, I was having a very hard time getting out of bed. I needed a project to focus on and I thought I'd explore the history of Asian stereotypes. I mean, where do they come from anyway? Why are they so persistent? And how do we flip the story?

I wrote this episode on the Asian women stereotypes and then a few weeks later, the shooting in Atlanta occurred. This put me back in bed for another month. I forced myself to get out of bed to shoot this episode and then tried to raise funds for more episodes without any success. After two years, I've just decided to release it during AAPI Heritage Month.

Some of you may know this history, some may find it uncomfortable. Without looking at the history, though, we can't unravel the reason why we continue being confronted with this stereotype. My original goal was 5 episodes but I only shot two of them on the twin stereotypes that Asian women and Asian men are saddled with. If you like this episode and want more takedowns of Asian stereotypes, please comment! Back to bios next week...

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NOTES
1. More about Afong Moy, the first Chinese woman in America
https://www.nyhistory.org/blogs/afong...
https://librarycompany.org/2021/02/01...

2. The history of the Chinese in NYC is really different than those of the Chinese in the West. For more on the relatively unwritten history of Chinese in the East see "Alas, What Brought Thee Hither" https://www.google.com/books/edition/...

3. More on Chinese-American history by the inimitable Peter Kwong
https://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Americ...

4. There are so many amazing stories of Asian-American women in the 1800s. I sneakily hinted at some of them with photos that are featured in this video:
Polly Bemis https://www.uidaho.edu/class/anthrola...
China Mary https://www.historyandwomen.com/2020/...
Mary Tape https://www.nps.gov/people/mary-tape.htm

5. The Page Act of 1875 was the first anti-immigration act. It later was broadened to bar all Asians from coming to America.
https://immigrationhistory.org/item/p...

6. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933) Ugh Nils Asther in yellowface, but it's a fascinating film with a crazy nightmare sequence.
   • The Bitter Tea Of General Yen  

7. The Toll of the Sea (1922) gorgeous early color film with the teenage Anna May Wong as a Madame Butterfly character.
https://www.filmpreservation.org/pres...

8. Daughter of the Dragon (1931) Anna May Wong, as the main Asian-American female star of the 1920s and 1930s, got alllll the stereotypes.
   • Daughter Of The Dragon with Anna May Wong ...  

9. More about Dragon Lady in Terry and the Pirates
https://comicvine.gamespot.com/dragon...

10. More on the history of the qipao or cheongsam, and the incredible life of Oei Hui Lan
https://www.thecollector.com/how-qipa...

11. The World of Suzie Wong (1960) is definitely white male gaze but she is still a fabulous and liberated character. Of course, such a fierce character needs to be turned into a stereotype in order to be tolerated...
   • The World of Suzie Wong  

12. More on "Me Love You Long Time" - no it's not 2LiveCrew, it's Stanley Kubrick.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment...
https://nextshark.com/truth-behind-lo...

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
Arnold Genthe, street photographer extraordinaire who documented San Francisco's Chinatown 1890-1911
https://www.loc.gov/collections/genth...

Chinese in Northwest America Research Committee (CINARC)
https://www.cinarc.org/Women.html