How Does the Film Industry Perpetuate the Hypersexualization of Asian Women?

Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882—which helped manifest anti-Asian racism in American society by discriminating against the Chinese community in the United states—any main Asian roles in movies were played by white actresses who used makeup to make themselves appear ethnic, leaving only small roles for people of color. This is the case of Anna May Wong, who plays the secondary role of a Mongolian slave in A Thief in Baghdad (1924). She only appears on-screen for a few minutes for the only erotic scene with a sadistic connotation, in which she is half-naked, sensual, lascivious, and submissive to Douglas Fairbanks. Arousing fantasy, the actress thus received a status of sex symbol which followed her throughout her career. This scene reinforces the cliché of the submissive Asian woman, whose speech is taken away and whose only purpose is to indulge in all kinds of sexual games.

In the 1929 film Piccadilly, the German director Ewald-Andre Dupont gave Anna May Wong a leading role. The actress had gone to work in Europe to escape the stereotypical roles to which the actress was confined in the United States. Unfortunately, her role as a leading lady was mainly afforded for the "exoticism" that she brings to the screen. In this film, she plays Shosho, a young woman who works in the kitchen of a cabaret. Caught dancing by her white boss, the latter is bewitched and makes her a star who is ultimately murdered. It is perhaps an example of how happy endings are written for white actors, but cold and tragic endings are seen by actors of color, specifically Asian women.

At the end of the Second World War, the traditional conception of the family was more than ever a reflection of a society. This model was based on a domesticated woman, whose usefulness was to determined by her ability to look after men who had returned from the front. During this time, the Asian woman is all the more idealized, becoming "half servant-half wife." In the movie Sayonara, actress Miiko Taka plays the role of Hana-ogi, a devoted and shy woman who surrenders completely to her companion, an American soldier stationed in Japan during World War II. The military code prohibited all relations with "the enemy," and their relationship was considered forbidden, a transgression of the rules. The movie also underscores the dynamic between the heroization of the white man as a white savior and the fetishization of Asian women as an "exotic" and docile companion.

With migration, the infantilization and eroticization of the Asian body was reaffirmed in film at the end of the '80s as Asian women left their housewife aprons to play the roles of prostitutes. In Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, a notorious scene in which we see a young Asian woman teasing two American soldiers in broken English, illustrates this point well. These representations refer to the received idea that the Westernized Asian woman is often a sex worker, and has nothing to offer other than a body, as is often stereotyped in adult films.

The bodies of Asian women are often fantasized and idealized by manga and adult movies, but this image intrudes even in the most innocuous scenes of so-called "classic" cinema. Remember the two twin sisters, one of whom is called Fook-mi in Austin Powers: Goldemember? With colored hair, ultra mini skirts, and schoolgirl-inspired outfits, they embody the exuberant side that we attribute to Japanese women in manga. In the film, Austin Powers makes extreme sexist jokes to them, including one about his fantasy of sleeping with Asian twins.

In Luc Besson's Taxi 3, Chinese actress Bai Ling plays the role of Qiu, the fake Japanese intern of Commissioner Gilbert, with whom he is obsessed. Qiu is actually the villain of the film, who uses her charms to seduce the chief and steal data from him, then "tortures" the character of Emilien, played by Frédéric Diefenthal, with sexual acts. Here, the image of the irresistibly sexually dominant Asian woman, erotic and cold at the same time, feeds the public imagination. 

Films such as Memoirs of a Geisha, co-produced by Steven Spielberg, contribute to repeating a certain number of clichés on the perception of geishas. In the film, an adaptation of Arthur Golden's bestseller, we discover a little girl torn from her family to become the legendary geisha Sayuri. Far from representing the reality of the facts, the film takes a Western look at this tradition of Japanese art, which still suffers from an association with prostitution. The film is steeped in stereotypes against a background of colonialist overtones, a reflection of Western contempt for Japanese culture. Geishas are respected in Japanese culture, and their identity has been appropriated by prostitutes to gain the favor of Western audiences, showing the impact of these over-sexualized stereotypes.

The Handmaiden is a psychologic-erotic thriller by Park Chan-Wook, the enfant terrible of South Korean cinema. Although well received—the movie received a standing ovation at Cannes Film Festival in 2016—it perpetuates clichés surrounding Asian women. The feature film tells the story of Sookee, a young woman hired as a servant to a wealthy Japanese woman, and shows a relationship of domination between mistress and servant, in which a form of carnal attraction is formed. While it is a female-led film and gives the women a sense of agency, it also feeds into the hypersexualized imagery of Asian women.