The Sun Also Rises

Larson’s Media and Minorities explores the various ways in which- you guessed it- minorities are portrayed within the media. I really enjoyed how Larson examined various minorities, such as Native Americans and Asian Americans, as I seldom come across such material (at least not yet).

In the chapter "Asian Americans in Film and Television Entertainment," Larson claims that Asian women are generally portrayed in two ways: that of the docile, subservient female or the hyper sexualized, cunning "dragon lady." When reading this chapter, I did a quick mental scan on the Asian women I could remember seeing in films and TV (it didn’t take long- Asian women are severely underrepresented). For the most part, Laron’s assessment was fairly accurate; O-Ren Ishii, portrayed by Lucy Lui, featured in Kill Bill was a clear example of the sexualized dragon lady, just Lui’s other character in Ally McBeal (for whatever reason I could only remember Lui roles, I guess). There are also countless examples of the fragile Asian female.

There is a notable exception, however: Sun-Hwa Kwan, a Korean character in ABC’s Lost, challenges these stereotypes. While Sun was initially portrayed as meek and docile, she was soon revealed to be an intelligent and valuable member of the island’s castaways. Sun’s flashbacks on the show revealed that she has, on several occasions, saved her husband- thus combatting the stereotype that Asian women are dependent on their husbands. Sun has also physically protected and defended herself on many occasions, and the show eventually made her part much larger and significant.

I’m not suggesting that Lost’s portrayal was perfect- I’m sure if I sat here I could find plenty of issues with Sun’s character that are detrimental to the Asian American culture. But I do think its nice that such a strong, independent female character was Korean, combatting various Asian stereotypes.