Why The Joy Luck Club Sucks Essay

, Research Paper

Just last night I saw the movie, The Joy Luck Club (JLC), which played on television for the first time in Los Angeles. I had been meaning to see this movie but never got around to it until now. Since many female friends recommended this 1993 movie to me, including my own sister, I was looking forward to experiencing a great work of art. Up to this point, I have heard nothing but glowing reviews about this movie.

Near the end of the movie I found myself thinking,

There is something terribly wrong here!

All the Chinese men are portrayed as bad and weak!

Why is this movie getting good reviews. Are the critics all blind.

Then I started to get angry. What a rip-off! I’m glad I didn’t spend money to see the JLC in the movie theater. I only spent 3 hours of my time at home.

I noticed there were very few reviews mentioning there were Chinese stereotypes in the movie. (One review even claimed there were none!) I am a first generation Chinese-American male, born and raised in the USA. I am living the reality of the Asian experience. I am not a Militant-Chinese-Power-Fanatic but since none of my Chinese brethren appear to be commenting on the JLC, I feel compelled to write this review. (Why aren’t there any well known movie critics of Chinese descent.)

According to the 1990 US Census, Asians make less than 3% of the US population. I can unofficially confirm this during my travels. Asians appear to be concentrated near the ports-of-entry cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. In the Mid-West and Southern states, usually I draw stares being the only Asian in the crowd. At first, I thought this was rude. Then it occurred to me, perhaps they have never seen an Asian before! In the flesh.

We are less than 3%! This means most Americans will get their exposure to Asians and Asian culture through the media, i.e. newspapers, magazines, television and movies. The JLC does a great disservice to Chinese and Asians in general by perpetuating stereotypes to Middle-America, giving a distorted view of our culture. Does anyone else see this.

For those of you that have not seen the JLC, it’s about the mother-daughter generation gap between four Chinese mother-daughter pairs. All the Chinese mothers appear to have been raised in China before World War II although this isn’t stated. They all go through amazing hardships which has scarred them emotionally before coming to the US. All the daughters were born and raised in the US. The movie appears to be occurring in the present time although this isn’t stated. It is definitely a feminist type movie with the male characters taking a back seat to the female characters. That isn’t bad. What’s bad is the negative Chinese male characters and stereotypes the movie portrays.

No Stereotypes. You Must Be Joking!

From: The Washington Post, Desson Howe, September 24, 1993

…”Joy Luck Club” is nourishing for its avoidance of Asian stereotypes. There isn’t the slightest trace of a laundry man, kung fu killer or aphorism-spouting, pidgin-English-speaking detective…

Huh. Avoidance of Asian stereotypes. Did we see the same movie.

The JLC has perpetuated at least two major Chinese stereotypes and has all but set back the Chinese-American image by 30 years. The two obvious stereotypes perpetuated by the JLC are what I call the Gangster and the China Doll. I describe them below with other generic Chinese stereotypes. Sadly, many Chinese-made movies, especially the older ones, also perpetuate these stereotypes.

Asian Male Stereotypes

The Gangster

Rich, powerful but evil.

Can be a young punk or grown man.

Cold blooded killer.

Rape your daughter/wife/girlfriend without blinking.

Drug/weapons dealer.

Surprisingly, this stereotype speaks perfect English more often than not.

Yellow Uncle Tom

Can be an ineffectual old man or weak young man.

Can be very wise or very stupid.

Usually talks like he doesn’t have a pair. Whiny.

Generally no one listens to him.

Broken English.

The Mystic Fighter

Powerful, fights for good but usually not rich.

Fights well.

Can have supernatural powers.

Intellectually aloof.

Not quite human, more demigod/terminator.

Broken English.

Bruce Lee introduced the Mystic Fighter. Whereas this is an improvement over the Yellow Uncle Tom and The Gangster, it doesn’t go far enough. The character is an inhuman terminator and has now been stereotyped too often.

Asian Female Stereotypes

The China Doll

Beautiful.

Young, thin, willowy.

Weak.

Subservient, demur, innocent.

Soft spoken.

Sexual toy.

Runs off with the white guy.

Speaks perfect English more times than not.

The China Doll may even speak with a British accent. This, of course, implies a fine, expensive, foreign education. Not bad as Chinese women are also portrayed as second class citizens who are lucky to get an education at all, let alone a fine education. A contradiction in stereotypes here.

Stereotype Notes

These are the generic stereotypes and they may not have all the characteristics listed. And not all ster

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