Jan 28, 2023
Beyond Stereotypes
In Enter the Dragon, the director Robert Clouse wanted Bruce Lee to wear a yellow outfit as part of the costume. Bruce refuses.
Yellow inHollywood means coward. Note that the flag of the antagonist Han is yellow. In the cinema of stereotypes from Hollywood, Asians were always thought as cowards. In the film, Bolo enters the room and reminds Lee to wear the yellow outfit. He does not.
Half and Half
Bruce Lee fought hard against stereotypes. He was born in San Francisco, but when he helped to create the role of the protagonist of television show Kung Fu, he wasn’t Asian enough for the role. Oddly to Hollywood, only a white man can portray an Asian well. The role is supposed to be a half Chinese and half Caucasian person.
The truth is that Bruce Lee’s grandmother was part German. In actuality, Bruce Lee was part Caucasian. But Hollywood didn’t care.
Bruce fought against racism. When he started to teach kung fu to White and African Americans, someone was sent to his school to teach him a lesson. Bruce did not back down. Kung Fu was supposed to only be for Chinese.
In Hong Kong, when Yip Man’s students wanted to kick Bruce Lee out of the Wing Chun school for not being Chinese enough, Yip Man refused. To some Chinese, Bruce was not Asian enough, in Hollywood Bruce was too Asian. Bruce could not win. The irony is that he would make some of the most nationalistic Chinese action films ever highlighting Chinese vs. White and Japanese antagonists.
Yellowfacing: Pretending to Be Asian
Inaccurate portrayals of Asians have and continue to affect how people view Asian Americans. Indeed, Jessica
Hagedorn, a Filipino American writer, calls the movies of Hollywood a type of God (xxii). Thus, their power is omnipotent in framing how Westerners think of Asians.
Yellowfacing has had a powerful impact on framing the Western mindset on what it mean to be Asian. Yellowfacing occurs when White actors portray Asian characters. White actors did the same for other minorities. Many became famous for Blackfacing which was part of minstrel shows.
Warner Oland
For example, Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan, a sort of yin and yang of good and evil stereotypes, were always portrayed by White actors. Indeed, Warner Oland (1879-1938) played both in his career.
David Carradine
David Carradine (1936-2009) portrayed Kwai Chang Caine in Kung Fu (1972-1975), a role denied to Bruce Lee. Elements of Charlie Chan can be felt in David Carradine’s fortune cookie wisdom when yellowfacing Kwai Chang Caine.
Madame Butterfly as one of the most famous operas of all time was often portrayed by White female singers.
Work Cited
Hagedorn, Jessica. Charlie Chan is Dead. An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. Print.
“One constantly returns to the scene of the cave: real effect or impression of reality. Copy, simulacrum, and even simulacrum of simulacrum. Impression of the real, more-than-the-real?”
–Jean Louis Baudry
Both the “Manifesto of Bruce Lee” and “The Cave of the Dragon” have the similar theme of cinematic samsara. The psychologicalreality of life rules over our being rather than the physical nature of reality. The samsara represents that power of dreams over reality, the wandering through a life as illusion that we all do.
We are stuck in a state of samsara which represents the state of existence, alternating between dying and living. Each moment we die to be reborn to the next moment. Nothing is permanent. You don’t have to believe in Buddhism to understand that each moment is unique, while nothing remains original.
We live in the mind or the cave of thoughts, only seeing the reflections of our thoughts or the cultural thoughts of our family, society, religion, or government against the wall. This shadow world of institutional thoughts have brainwashed us to follow the laws or rules.
This question was once asked by Buddha.
“Which do you think is greater: the water in the oceans or the tears you’ve shed while wandering on?”
He answered “The tears.”
The Cave
Underground Chamber
Fire
Shadows on the Cave’s Wall
Chained Prisoners face away from the fire
Stereotypes are reborn again and again because Hollywood recreates them again and again. It is hard to break out of the wheel of stereotypes. This is samsara of stereotypes, a state of thought, of habit, of history.
Bruce with his fist of fury tried to break out from this prison, this cave.
In Asia, life is an illusion or dream, and films are just as extension of this reality.
The Cinema
Dark Theatre
Projector
Images on the Screen
Audience face away from the projector
The films of postmodernity record the insanity of our times.
Bruce Lee had to fight for his right for self expression as a film artist. What other forms of expression do we continue to silence?
So the next time you criticize a film for being different, weird, or strange, you might be responsible for the dread of sameness and boringness that Hollywood continues to produce.
Demand the Other and you might get it. Look for films that are unique.
Crave the unusual and the cave might change.
Watch the films in this class with a new critical eye!
Doc Nirvana
AKA Doc Wayne Stein