"The Yellow People”?

Why it is that media is so biased against the Eastern Asians? Why does it show them in a specific negative light? Is it really fair to the Asians, when they are misrepresented in the media? The media today, is one heck of a stereotypical, racist and politicized medium. How would you feel if people of your race, colour or ethnicity were being misrepresented on a consistent basis? It is our media which is highly racist and unfair to the people of  East Asian background. Asians are always shown inferior and unimportant in many media TV shows, commercials ,advertisement, etc.Asians are people with just a different culture who share the same planet as who live, eat, breathe, act and feelings and emotions just like us. They are one of us and aren't different from us in any aspect of life. 

With the media portrayal, they are shown as a nerds, spies, gangsters, and people who are excessively close to their culture has only recently emerged; prior to this Asian men and women were shown as spies from Japan. This relates back to the Pearl Harbour incident. Now, since Japan and United States are on good diplomatic terms this hatred has shifted to China; in TV shows today most Chinese people are shown as spies. Overall, one way or the other the media finds a way to crucify the culture of Eastern Asians, rather than celebrate it. This shows that media is politicized; it is not independent in its opinion. 

Moreover, the media has defined a specific role of Asians in our society and our culture. They are known as people who have connections with triads (gangs), they are depicted as nerds, spies and people who have strong ties to their culture. Many times, it has been the case that Asians are not considered a part of the majority. In America and Canada they are several examples that this is the case. For example, in the TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation the forensic doctor of the investigating team is shown as a nerdy and an unattractive person. In the show narrow Asian people are shown as gangsters and part of triads. In NCIS: Los Angeles many episodes show Asian people as Chinese spies. In the Canadian TV show Murdoch Mysteries in an episode Asian people are always shown wearing their cultural clothing. Similarly, in an ad featuring Lebron James, shows him winning from the Chinese god in a one-on-one game. This ad goes way beyond just simple stereotype of cultural clothing and martial arts moves. In my view it shows China against the Americans and shows the victory of Americans over Chinese people. It again demeans them Asian culture.

 Not only that, but the dominant discourse of today’s society proclaimed Asian people who lack communications skills, are shy, overachievers and technologically savvy. There are several of examples of such cases. For example, in Law & Order: SVU, forensic psychiatrist George Huang is shown as a nerdy, and an intelligent man who has extraordinary thinking skills. Moreover, another character from the TV series “Lost”, Jim Kwon is a character who does not speak English at all is shown as a son of poor fisherman from a Korean background. It does not end there, the media find more ways of stereotyping against East Asians such as showing Isabella from “Miami Vice” and Hiro Nakamura from the TV show “Heroes” as untrustworthy, evil, foreign people who could not fully absorb in the American culture. 

Apart from all that, the young famous NBA Asian basketball player Jeremy Lin who currently plays for Houston Rockets was called for a Taiwanese Talk show, and have been reported saying, “I have been racially discriminated when I was in college…There are a lot of slurs being shouted by the crowd” while the games is on. This type of misrepresentation affects the American and Canadian youth who are studying with their Asian peers and problematic situations will appear such as hate crime, racial discrimination, racial harassment and bullying. Now the question arises, why do we let media define our lives?

(In this ad, everyone despite being black or white all the actors are shown 

to have been wearing typical western clothing and speaking English with a

proper accent. In comparison with that, we see two Eastern Asian men dressed

in Martial Art uniform and speak in their weak English accent. Also their dancing style

is the media's art of mocking people's culture. This video hints a little stereotype the 

American media presents in to make fun of someone's background)

Questions to reflect upon:

Have you ever been through racial discrimination at school?

Would there be a time, when we will stop discriminating among your peers and not let media 

shape our perceptions about Asians?

Do you think that these stereotypes hold any truth in them?

If you were to work in the media industry, what would you do to tackle this issue?