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MEDIA@LSE MSc Dissertation Series Compiled by Bart Cammaerts, Nick Anstead and Ruth Garland Unmasking ‘Sidekick’ Masculinity: A Qualitative Investigation of How Asian-American Males View Emasculating Stereotypes in U.S. Media Steffi Lau, MSc in Global Media and Communications Other dissertations of the series are available online here: http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/ ElectronicMScDissertationSeries.aspx
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Dissertation submitted to the Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, August 2015, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the MSc in Media, Communication and Development. Supervised by Dr. Shakuntala Banaji. The Author can be contacted at: [email protected] Published by Media@LSE, London School of Economics and Political Science (‘LSE’), Houghton Street, London WC2A 2AE. The LSE is a School of the University of London. It is a Charity and is incorporated in England as a company limited by guarantee under the Companies Act (Reg number 70527). Copyright, Steffi Lau © 2015. The authors have asserted their moral rights. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher nor be issued to the public or circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. In the interests of providing a free flow of debate, views expressed in this dissertation are not necessarily those of the compilers or the LSE.
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Unmasking ‘Sidekick’ Masculinity: A Qualitative Investigation of How Asian-American Males View
Emasculating Stereotypes in U.S. Media
Steffi Lau ABSTRACT This paper sought to explore how Asian-American males perceive stereotypical media
portrayals of themselves in relation to their identity and masculinity and conversely, how
they construct identity and masculinity in relation to emasculating media representations.
Through semi-structured interviews, this research explored the inner worlds and life
narratives of 23 Asian-American men. Using thematic analysis, I found that Asian-American
men by and large negatively view and reject media’s emasculating images of themselves and
find resistance in choosing to assert their masculinity and identity in other ways.
Nonetheless, as identity is not produced in a vacuum, but is socially recognized, Asian-
American men suffer from being ascribed unwanted identities out of their control.
INTRODUCTION
I am an Oriental. And being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man. – M. Butterfly
In February 2012, after singlehandedly converting a dismal game into victory for the New
York Knicks, a virtually unknown basketball player, Jeremy Lin, burst into the global
spotlight, as he drove ‘near-superhuman’ point leads that led his team to victory over an
unparalleled winning streak spanning seven games and toppling historical statistics
(Freeman, 2012). Yet what made this underdog’s rise to stardom even more remarkable was
his background: the athletic, charismatic 6’3’ Taiwanese-American was an unprecedented
rarity in the league, defying stereotypes of Asian-American men as bookish, puny and
physically inept.
But even in the whirlwind of popularity dubbed ‘Linsanity,’ disturbing racial undertones
emerged: The New York Post printed a controversial headline that read ‘Chink in the Armor.’
Equally offensively, a Fox Sports columnist tweeted, ‘Some lucky lady in NYC is gonna feel a
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couple inches of pain tonight’ (Freeman, 2012).
Not only did this demeaning statement allude to an oft-repeated stereotype of Asian men
having small penises, it played into a trend cemented in American media over the past
century: the painting of Asian-American men as alternatively lustful outcasts with ‘weak
sexual abilities’ (Wong et al. 2012: 1) or emasculated, diminutive ‘men’ defined by a ‘striking
absence down there’ (Fung, 2008: 237) Altogether, these racially charged media gaffes
highlighted a more unsettling problem: the naturalized acceptability of racism against Asian-
American men in media and society. As one commentator pointed out, it is unthinkable that
even a ‘half-brained TV presenter would use racial slurs against a black player equivalent to
the Asian ones that have been used against Lin’ (Freeman, 2012).
These emasculating media portrayals of Asian-American men can be traced back to the mid-
1800s when Chinese men arrived in the U.S. en masse, fulfilling a need for cheap labour
(Shek, 2006). With laws limiting the immigration of Chinese women, Chinese men largely
lived in bachelor societies. Fearing intermarriage, the U.S. government passed anti-
miscegenation laws threatening to revoke the citizenship of white women who out-married.
Reinforcing these fears was the circulation of Yellow Peril propaganda portraying Asian men
as ‘sexually deviant, asexual, effeminate’ predators (Shek, 2006: 381). Furthermore, job
opportunities were limited to traditionally female work such as laundry and cooking, further
exacerbating their effeminate image (Takaki, 1993). Essentially, early conceptions of Asian-
American masculinity were constructed to be disempowering in relations with employers and
white society (Chua & Fujino, 1999).
As history has progressed, the racial castration of Asian-American men in the media has
continued (Eng, 2001). The 20th century ushered in further pejorative images of Asian-
American men in movies, including supervillain Fu Manchu (1929) who embodied a ‘lack of
heterosexuality’; Sixteen Candles (1984) which featured sex-starved exchange student Long
Duk Dong accompanied by a gong chiming at his every appearance; and The Joy Luck Club
(1993), a movie celebrated for its depiction of Chinese-American mother-daughter
relationships, but with ‘few, if any, redeeming’ (Shek, 2006: 381) portrayals of Asian-
American men, who instead were depicted as chauvinistic and miserly, ultimately driving
female counterparts to white love interests (Chan, 1998).
As evidenced by the Linsanity media coverage, this humiliating narrative around Asian-
American men has continued into the 21st century. Through repeated portrayals on screen of
the socially awkward nerd, passive sidekicks, and the restaurant owner with an unintelligible
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accent, Asian-American males have been Othered and denied their masculinity through
restrictive stereotypes reducing them to comedic tropes. Rarely are Asian-American men
seen as attractive leading men, or depicted as romantic options. In fact, an analysis of the 100
top-grossing films of 2013 found that Asian male characters were least likely to be in
romantic relationships (28%) as compared to black men (68%), white men (58%) and
Hispanic men (57%)—a dramatic gap (Smith, Choueiti, & Pieper, 2013: 7).
Thus far, academics have written about the racial castration, emasculation and ‘queering’ of
the Asian-American male within the national imaginary (Eng, 2001; Parikh, 2002) from a
historical and psychological lens. Yet to date, there remains insufficient literature from a
media perspective on the topic. Therefore, this paper seeks to explore how Asian-American
males interpret these emasculating representations and more importantly, how they
construct and navigate their identities and masculinities in relation to these.
LITERATURE REVIEW Identity and Representation
Media scholars have argued that representations are not only symbolic of deeper societal
sentiments—they are reflective of society’s power relations. Stuart Hall writes, ‘Stereotyping
tends to occur where there are gross inequalities of power’ (1997 a.: 258). Inextricable from
ideology, representations are a form of hegemonic power. Therefore, studying stereotyping is
crucial as symbolic marginalization is likely reflective of a systematic exclusion of Asian-
American men from society. As Hall writes, stereotyping plays a key role in maintaining
symbolic order through binding together ‘all of Us who are “normal” into one “imagined
community”’ (1997 a.: 258). Through positioning Asian-American men as emasculated,
American media place them in binary opposition to the accepted idea of Western masculinity,
as deviants demarcating what is normal and what is not—akin to Edward Said’s (1978) theory
of Orientalism detailing how the West has produced the East as Other and inferior.
Moreover, contextualizing and interrogating these portrayals is imperative, given
representation’s undeniable capacity to ascribe unwanted identities. As Hall writes, identity
emerges ‘in the dialogue between the meanings and definitions which are represented to us
by the discourse of a culture, and our willingness (consciously or unconsciously) to…step into
the subject positions constructed for us’ (1997 b.: 219). Similarly, Woodward asserts that
although we as subjects are able to choose our identifications, this internal agency is limited
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by external social constraints exerted over the subject within society. This tension renders
some identities ‘inaccessible or impossible’ (2000: 18). Thus, the fact that representation is
integral to identity construction—desired or not—is particularly disquieting when we
consider the degrading portrayals of Asian-American men. Unable to access desired identities
within society, Asian-American men may experience damaging impacts on their psyches as
they negotiate their identities as men recognized as less than men.
Masculinity
The theory of hegemonic masculinity has become the backbone of masculinity research,
following its proposal by R.W. Connell, who defined it as the configuration of gender practice
through which patriarchy is legitimized and women are subordinated (1995: 77). Although a
plurality of masculinities exists, hegemonic masculinity is considered the ‘the ideal type that
is glorified and associated with white men at the highest levels of society’ (Phua, 2007: 910).
The definition of hegemonic masculinity is a racialized one that automatically entails the
exclusion of any man who is not white and relegates homosexuality to marginalized
masculinity and racial minorities to subordinated masculinity (Connell & Messerschmidt,
2005). Meanwhile, men of colour ‘jockey’ to ‘enter the inner circle, often as ‘honorary’ elite
White men’ although their colour will never allow them full acceptance (Collins, 2004: 186).
It is worth noting the distinction that, while literature regarding black masculinities within
the West has been generated, little discussion has heeded the experiences of Asian men in the
West. Some point out that while Asian-Americans are ascribed docile, womanly traits,
American narratives have ascribed threatening traits to other men of colour (violent black
‘studs’ with large penises, macho Latinos, and Native-American rapists) which, while still
pejorative, nonetheless accentuate their masculinities as opposed to de-legitimating them
(Kim, 2005: 137).
Given this, some academics contend that Connell’s perspective is organized around a
gendered lens—if the hierarchy is fundamentally structured around race, one could argue
that privilege is determined by race, with gay masculinity marginalized and minority
masculinity subordinated (Phua, 2007). Under this supposition, a gay man within the race of
power may benefit more from existing power dynamics than a straight Asian-American man,
while Asian-American gays may be doubly excluded.
Indeed, research indicates that the emasculating stereotypes can be particularly detrimental
for gay Asian-American men. Phua (2007) notes that the queer community has appropriated
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the Orientalism of Asian women to eroticize and fetishize Asian-American gays. Under this
framework, they are simultaneously seen as hypersexual and effeminate, yet still undesirable
due to the prizing of masculine traits within the queer community, which derides Asians as
‘natural-born gays’ and lesbians—a demonstration of the complex power dynamics in play
within a racialized masculinity framework (Phua, 2007). Another crucial gender theory is
Judith Butler’s theory of gender performativity which asserts that gender is not objectively
formed, but is a ‘sequence of acts,’ ‘a ‘strategy’ which has cultural survival at its end, since
those who do not ‘do’ their gender correctly are punished by society’ (Salih, 2002: 58).
In a 1996 study on masculinities in college organizations, researchers found that Asian-
American men are least likely to be chosen for leadership positions by classmates, with white
men and white women who emulated hegemonic masculine behaviours favoured (Cheng,
1996). The students’ preference for white women exhibiting hegemonic masculine behaviours
foregrounds the performative nature of gender and begs the question of whether it is more
constructive to visualize U.S. power structures through a raced lens in which skin colour is
more indicative of power than gender. Moreover, given the performative element of gender,
it is then crucial that we ask how Asian-American men strategically ‘do’ gender in a society in
which they are already symbolically dismissed and castrated.
The Current Landscape for Asian-American Men
Before diving into a qualitative discussion of the experiences of Asian-American men, it is
important that we examine the research to date on the prevailing stereotypes and challenges
Asian-American men face. While the image of the lecherous Chinaman has faded, Asian-
Americans continue to face a host of stereotypes, including that of the model minority.
Perpetuated by media in the 20th century, the model minority stereotype has led to the
portrayal of Asian-Americans as ‘reserved, quiet, diligent and studious’ (Mok, 1998: 195).
Though ‘deceptively positive on the surface’ (Zhang, 2010: 22), the stereotype carries
negative connotations of Asian-Americans as nerdy, passive and socially inept, while also
being used to de-legitimate protests of racial inequality. For men, the stereotype can be
particularly acute as it fails to convey ‘the charismatic, masculine American icon’ (Mok, 1998:
195).
Yet research suggests that those who contradict the stereotype of passivity nonetheless face a
backlash. A Canadian study found that participants held prescriptive stereotypes of East
Asians being ‘non-dominant’, meaning that when East Asians exhibited dominant behaviour
contradicting the stereotype, such as taking charge, they were more likely to be disliked by
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white co-workers in comparison to dominant white co-workers who were more willingly
tolerated (Berdahl and Min, 2012).
Just as pervasive is the stereotype of the perpetual foreigner which depicts Asian-Americans
inassimilable, heavily-accented foreigners who can never truly be American (Suzuki, 2002). A
look at Hollywood’s recent portrayals indicates the extent to which this myth has continued
to pervade the screen: films and shows like The Hangover (2009), 2 Broke Girls and
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015) all feature heavily accented Asian foreigners—played by
native-born Asian-Americans without accents.
While it is difficult to determine the extent to which media stereotypes are accepted as reality,
cultivation theory proposes that prolonged exposure to media stereotypes may result in the
acceptance of stereotypes as social reality (Zhang, 2010). Leveraging this theory, an empirical
study found that people’s perceptions about Asian-Americans are aligned with media
stereotypes: amongst racial-ethnic groups in the U.S., Asian-Americans are most likely to be
perceived as nerds, are most likely to be left out, and disturbingly, people are least likely to
initiate friendship with Asian-Americans (Zhang, 2010).
Though the model minority and perpetual foreigner stereotypes apply to both sexes,
disparities exist in media. Asian-American men are depicted as socially awkward and meek,
traits that are generally unappealing in American romanticism (Sung, 1967), while women
are typically depicted as servile, beautiful and delicate (Sue & Kitano, 1973). Although this
exoticization isn’t necessarily positive, it is notable for its alignment with traditionally
desirable feminine qualities, in contrast to male stereotypes that fall short of assertive
Western masculinity and attractiveness. Saliently, Hamamoto (1994) argues that minority
women do not pose as much of a threat to the status quo and thus have an easier time being
accepted by white society than their male counterparts. Perhaps for these reasons, it has been
found that Asian-American men are significantly more aware of racism than Asian-American
women (Kohatsu, 1992).
As such, huge disparities have persisted in Asian-American dating patterns, with large
numbers of Asian-American women dating white men, a trend since the 1950s (Chua &
Fujino, 1999). A Pew report found that 36% of Asian-American females married outside their
race in 2010, compared with 17% of Asian-American males (Wang, 2012). Data from the
dating site OKCupid found that Asian-American men and black women are the least desirable
groups on the site (Rudder, 2014). Researchers hypothesize that stereotypical perceptions of
Asian-American men as unattractive, asexual, effeminate and having small penises are to
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blame (Lu & Wong, 2013). In fact, Chua and Fujino (1999) found that Asian-American men
may have internalized these stereotypes, finding that out of 232 respondents, only white men
listed themselves as sexually exciting, attractive and outgoing as compared to Asian
immigrants and U.S.-born Asian-Americans.
Perhaps most salient is the stereotypes’ impact on Asian-American men’s self-images and
identities. In a study on stressful experiences of masculinity among Asian-American men
(both US men and those who immigrated as adults), Lu and Wong (2013) found that
regardless of how Asian-American men see themselves, they concurrently experience
appraisals of themselves as physically weak and internalise norms equating masculinity with
strength, contradicting potentially positive self-concepts and prompting ‘persistent fears
about physical inadequacy’ (Lu & Wong, 2013: 351). Their research concluded that
stereotypes led participants to feel they were failing physical and emotional masculine ideals,
leading them to suffer ‘psychologically, socially, and physiologically’ (359).
Strategies of Resistance and Distance
Given these alienating stereotypes and palpable disadvantages within social, professional and
romantic spheres, it is important to understand the strategies that Asian-American men
employ as they grapple to survive in a world that prizes hegemonic masculinity, yet excludes
them from its definition. A study of gender strategies found that Chinese-American men
engaged in ‘hegemonic bargaining’: subjects traded behaviours such as athleticism,
assertiveness, ‘frat-boy-like behaviours’ (Nemeto, 2008: 83), and sentiments of ‘feeling
white’ inside, in exchange for an ‘elevation of their manhood’ and less marginalized
masculinities (Chen, 1999: 600). Yet these bargains are hegemonic, for in adhering to the
prevailing ideals, the men reinforce a worldview by which they ‘regard themselves as
incomplete and inadequate’ (604).
This insight exposes the paradox Asian-American men face as they negotiate their identities
as men: they must either copy the white masculine norm or ‘accept the fact we are not men’
(Chan, 1998: 94) Accordingly, some have envisioned a ‘re-masculinization’ agenda for Asian-
American men, centred on the vision of the ideal Asian-American male as hyper-masculine,
heterosexual, and U.S.-born (Hoang, 2014; Chin, 1974). Yet, the fallacy lies in the fact that
emulating the ideal of white masculinity bolsters the very ideology that devalues their
identities. In his book ‘Racial Castration,’ Eng writes that ‘the untenable predicament of
wanting to join a mainstream society that one knows…systematically excludes oneself and
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delineates the painful problem of becoming the instrument of one’s own self-exclusion’
(2001: 22).
Consequently, feminist scholars have urged Asian-American men to leverage their unique
position to redefine masculinity and embrace a more feminized alternative, arguing that they
are at a critical juncture due to their experience with subjugation and feminism’s challenge to
the patriarchy (Chua & Fujino, 1999; Hoang 2014). Yet, the yearning for inclusion within the
dominant masculinity structure ‘overrides the politics of alliance with other oppressed
groups’ (Chan, 2001: 11). Moreover, academics worldwide have widely documented the
institutionalized de-legitimation of alternative forms of masculinity by those within the
socially dominant masculinity (Connell, 1995). Therefore, to construct an alternative model
of masculinity, Asian-American men risk being further stigmatized in a power structure that
already demeans them.
Conceptual Framework
This study will be framed by concepts of identity construction and hegemonic masculinity in
order to explore the complex relationships between stereotypical media depictions of Asian-
American men and Asian-American male identity and masculinity. As evidenced by the
aforementioned work, individuals do not construct identities in a vacuum. Rather, society
represents meanings to us, which we either willingly or unwillingly step into. Given media’s
instrumental role in cultivating these meanings, it is clear that media’s restrictive portrayals
of Asian-American men present a rich site for exploration of identity. Thus, this paper will
examine the ways in which media create tension between human agency and cultural
constraints.
Accordingly, I will use identity theory to investigate whether media render certain identities
inaccessible for Asian-American men, and whether they impose other unwanted identities
through its symbolic emasculation. Taking an intersectional approach, it is apparent that due
to both their race and perceived lack of manhood, Asian-American men are painfully
marginalized at the utmost fringes of a racialized, heteronormative power structure revering
hegemonic masculinity. Juxtaposing the opposing strategies of re-masculinization and
redefinition of masculinity proposed by advocates for Asian-American men, I will examine
the strategies that subjects employ and view as most effective.
I will also reference prominent black feminist scholar bell hooks’ theory of the oppositional
gaze. Hooks asserted that ‘the ability to manipulate one’s gaze in the face of structures of
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domination that would contain it, opens up the possibility of agency’ (1992: 116). Rather than
passively interpreting media as it is represented to us, she suggests that by critically looking
(or choosing to stop looking) at filmic representations produced by white supremacy, our
gazes become self-aware ones that resist and interrogate.
In summary, merging identity, hegemonic masculinity and gender performativity theories, I
will examine how Asian-American men perceive the restrictive portrayals represented to
them through media, and more importantly, how they negotiate and strategically perform the
masculinities and identities available to them as they attempt to assert their manhood.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
As revealed by the wealth of aforementioned research, Asian-American men keenly feel the
sting of their marginalization, whether professionally, romantically, socially or mentally. Yet,
much of this research stems from a psychological approach. Furthermore, several studies
have lumped together the experiences of men born and raised in the U.S. and those who have
immigrated as adults—two vastly different experiences. Conspicuously little research has
taken a media perspective, a dire deficiency considering the colossal influence the media has
in activating and influencing stereotypes and judgments. As Morley writes, despite growing
scholarship on today’s mediated world, there has been a dearth of scholarship shedding light
on the linkages ‘between the physical and virtual forms of social and cultural exclusion’
(2001: 440).
As such, this research will aim to fill a critical gap in existing research on Asian-American
men by paying particular attention to the complex relationships between media, identity and
perceived treatments within society. I will aim to address the following questions:
Research question:
• How do Asian-American males perceive stereotypical media representations of
themselves in relation to their identity and masculinity? Conversely, how are identity
and masculinity constructed in relation to media?
Sub-questions:
• To what extent do Asian-American males attribute treatment in society to restrictive
stereotypes?
• Do Asian-American males have an oppositional gaze that distances them from
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stereotypes in American media?
Through delving into the role of media in Asian-American males’ inner worlds, I endeavour
to shed light on the potentially damaging effects of stereotypical representations and pose a
challenge to the naturalized acceptability of degrading Asian-American men within media.
METHODOLOGY
Given the complex nature of identity, a qualitative approach is best-suited for an exploration
of the topic. Much of the research to date on the experiences of Asian-American men has
taken a quantitative approach, which cannot fully capture the depth and subtleties of the
Asian-American male experience. In fact, in Shek and McEwen’s quantitative findings on
Asian-American men’s gender role conflict, they wrote that participants ‘had stories to share
and did not necessarily feel like their experiences’ could be captured through the survey
employed (2012: 706). They proposed that interviews could ‘elicit a more revealing and
insightful picture’ of the deeper issues faced by Asian-American men (706).
Accordingly, semi-structured interviews are best-suited for an exploration of the topic, given
their ability to glean intimate details on individuals’ inner worlds (Silverman, 2001). A pilot
study undertaken in April 2015 confirmed this as an ideal method. Given my desire to
understand individual thoughts, focus groups did not seem like a fitting methodology, as the
group environment does not lend itself to discussing individual identities and histories.
Therefore, through the drawing out of rich personal narratives, I hoped to gain a more three-
dimensional understanding of the ways in which Asian-American men interpret media and
construct their identities. Indeed, feminist scholars argue that semi-structured interviewing
is ideally suited for the unearthing of minority voices which ‘have been ignored,
misrepresented and suppressed in the past’ (Byrne, 2004: 182).
I chose to employ the active interviewing approach advanced by Holstein and Gubrium who
contend that the interview is a ‘dynamic, meaning-making occasion’ (1997: 117) and not a
‘passive [filter] towards some truths about people’s identities’ (Silverman, 2001: 118). Indeed,
identity and gender themselves are processes of representation and performativity, as is
interviewing. Accordingly, in order to ‘activate applicable ways of knowing,’ I utilized the
active interviewing approach of suggesting ‘possible horizons of meaning and narrative
linkages’ (Holstein & Gubrium, 1997: 125). It also enabled me share my own experiences as
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an Asian-American, fostering an environment of mutual disclosure that strengthened
rapport.
However, as a female, I had to remain cognizant of the gender differential: as Schwalbe and
Wolkomir note, men hoping to signify masculinity may resist questioning that might ‘expose
the masculine self as illusory,’ and may feel ‘threat potential’ from female researchers (2002:
206). Moreover, due to the perception of Asian-American females having more enticing
stereotypes, it is possible Asian-American men may feel wary of a female researcher who has
not shared their experiences. Keeping this top-of-mind, I endeavoured to establish trust
through a non-judgmental demeanour. Given the highly personal stories interviewees shared
with me, I can report with a high degree of confidence that I did not perceive any resistance
to broaching sensitive issues.
Research Design
Since I hoped to focus on identities that have been impacted by American media since an
early age rather than immigrant identities, I limited recruitment to those who were either
born in the U.S. or grew up in the U.S. from ages five and up. I also confined ethnicities to
East and Southeast Asian ethnicities, given the drastically different set of representations of
South Asians within American media. Additionally, I only interviewed Asian-Americans of
full Asian descent, as I did not feel I could do the complexities of the mixed race experience
justice within the scope of this paper. Lastly, I confined age demographics to ages 20-35,
however participants ended up falling between 21 and 29.
Recruitment was conducted through a mixture of snowball sampling, outreach to relevant
organizations and posts on online forums. Ultimately, I interviewed a total of 23 men under
an agreement of confidentiality. (All names within have been changed.) The resulting data
corpus yielded a rich cross-section of the Asian-American male population representing
various sexualities, regions, ages, stages of life and ethnicities (see Appendix A). Of note, I
paid particular attention to recruiting participants from differing communities—ones from
Asian-American enclaves, ones from diverse communities, and ones who grew up in areas
where they may have been a rare minority and faced more racial hostilities. This was crucial
since these shape identity in distinct ways. Since the topic of media emasculation is equally as
applicable to Asian-American gay men, I also recruited two gay men, hoping this would help
parse out which challenges are universally related to gender and which are wholly unrelated
to sexuality. Regrettably, the class and education levels were quite homogenous: except for
two who came from low-income backgrounds, all the interviewees came from middle-class
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families and all had attained a college education. This may be an effect of recruiting through
the Internet, which may lend to a bias toward those of higher education and socioeconomic
backgrounds.
Following approval of an ethics review, data collection took place through video chat.
However, two interviews were conducted solely through voice chat at the request of
interviewees who preferred complete anonymity. As recordings merely captured audio
information, these should not impact the research. Due to the confidential nature of the
interviews, I secured informed verbal consent. Verbal consent has been deemed acceptable in
methodological literature, which notes that the contradiction between promising
confidentiality and asking for a signed form can frustrate interviewees (Warren, 2002).
Interviews ranged from 41 to 135 minutes and averaged 90 minutes—the length of the
majority of the interviews. They were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic
analysis. Immersing myself in the data, I coded common emerging themes, compared them
to existing theory and evaluated their relationships with my conceptual framework. Though
many codes emerged, I explored how they related to each other as contexts, processes,
consequences and strategies (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), teasing out broader coherent themes.
The compelling themes that emerged will be explored below.
Lastly, as a member of the Asian-American community myself, I engaged in reflexivity
throughout the research, ‘a process that challenges the researcher to explicitly examine how
his or her research agenda and assumptions, subject location(s), personal beliefs, and
emotions enter into their research’ (Hsiung, 2008: 212). Accordingly, I challenged myself to
remain reflexive throughout the analysis, endeavouring to include the range of perspectives
gleaned—rather than only ones that simply support my personal assumptions.
RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION Triple Consciousness At this juncture, I propose a key theory emerging from my analysis: the term ‘double
consciousness’ coined by W.E.B. Du Bois to describe the split subjectivity of African-
Americans, writing, ‘It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always
looking at one’s self through the eyes of others’ (1897).
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I adapt this concept to propose that rather than having a double consciousness, Asian-
Americans (and other minority subjects) possess a triple consciousness, a ‘particular
intuition for being watched’ (Palumbo-Liu, 1999: 301). Firstly, an individual consciousness
representing how they see the world.
Secondly, the double consciousness: the sense of forever looking at oneself through the eyes
of others. As Ty (2004) writes, Asian-Americans’ yellow skin bear indelible ‘hieroglyphics’ by
which spectators decode the Asian-American body and glean a set of associated meanings.
These glaring signs, much like a conspicuous birthmark, are encoded with cultural meanings
rendering the individual’s more nuanced identities invisible and placing the spectators in a
position of control. Thus, this second consciousness represents a hyper-awareness of what
one’s hieroglyphics symbolize to others—this I will deem the external consciousness. For
minority subjects, this entails a painful awareness of the racist judgments and media-
perpetuated stereotypes attached to their bodies.
Thirdly, there is a group consciousness representing the capacity of minority subjects to view
representations of their demographic group as society views them. These representations
encapsulate both media representations (for example, other depictions of Asian-American
men in media) and other Asian-American men in real life, who are also representatives and
thus, representations of the group. As minorities develop awareness of their difference, they
become irrevocably aware that society evaluates them as an inseparable whole. Subsequently,
they have a third sense of viewing their peers as the dominant group does, and decoding
these representations as society does.
Ultimately, this fragmented consciousness serves as the bell-weather by which Asian-
American men perform their identities and gender, interact with others within society, and
see themselves—with the understanding that there is always an audience. Some subjects are
able to maintain the external consciousness and group consciousness as a sort of intuitive
awareness of how spectators view themselves and the group—and through reflexivity—
segregate these from their individual consciousness. Others may internalize these ways of
viewing and decoding, swallowing them into their internal consciousness, leading to a sense
of paranoia as they imagine all the ways their hieroglyphics and performativity are being
decoded.
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One subject who endured much overt racism came to internalize it:
Vincent: For most of my life, I was very ashamed of being Asian. It just became so innate in my head that being Asian was inferior, so I just automatically thought of myself as inferior to white and black people. I thought Asians were inherently uglier. I was insecure...you know, the Asian male stereotype of being less endowed? Interviewer: Yes. Vincent: I was very insecure about people wondering that about me. I felt less attractive. I looked down upon other Asians just for being Asian. And I couldn't stand anyone who was Asian with an accent.
For Vincent (see Appendix A for brief subject profiles), it is apparent that his alienating racial
experiences led to a seeping of his external and group consciousness into his own—as
demonstrated by him viewing both himself and other Asian-Americans as inherently inferior.
This awareness of being watched can be particularly seen in his testament to his insecurity
regarding people wondering about his penis size. His shame and desire to distance himself
from foreign-born Asians with accents also reveals an internalization of his group
consciousness. As Palumbo-Liu writes, for some Asian-Americans this ‘schizophrenic’ sense
of always being watched, can lead to an internalization of ‘the dominant’s point of view’
(1999: 300).
In a more literal sense, this intuition of being watched can also exert itself as Asian-American
men consume media portrayals of themselves. Upon asking one subject how he felt when
viewing negative portrayals of Asian-American men, he responded:
Robert: For the longest time, there would be a sense of, ‘‘Everyone's looking at me.’’ As a kid, watching that in a classroom of people, I would actually feel terrible, especially in middle school, as social standing began becoming more apparent to me. [sighs] Now, depending on who I'm around, I will clue into my own feeling of projection of how other people are seeing the person on screen. That could be me feeling defensive for my own race, feeling like a second-class citizen, feeling like ‘‘Well, this is the way it is, and we just gotta do better kind of thing,’’ it could be care-taking for others, meaning wanting to help others not feel bad about watching this.
Robert’s experience illustrates the theory of triple consciousness—and the ability for all three
to intertwine and converge. As a child he was unable to separate his personal perception of
the characters (individual consciousness) from how surrounding classmates were viewing it
(group consciousness) from how the portrayals reflected on him (external consciousness),
leading to shame. As an adult, his emotional experiences indicate a universal sense of
unshakeable group identity. Robert’s experience is emblematic of the fragile split
consciousness Asian-American males possess and the emotional toll this can take.
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Thus, using this theoretical tool of the triple consciousness, I will delve into how Asian-
American men navigate media, masculinity and identity.
Always the Sidekick
Subjects were profoundly aware of the stereotypes embedded in mainstream media’s
depictions of them. None of the 23 saw media favourably in terms of Asian-American male
depictions. Upon asking each subject how they would describe Asian-American men on-
screen, the most common traits that surfaced were: meek, short, smart yet socially awkward,
nerdy, insane, strong accents, effeminate, out-of-shape, unsexy, and never paired with
women—all qualities failing the Western conception of ideal masculinity.
Furthermore, despite explicitly asking subjects to describe ‘Asian-American’ characters,
several volunteered Asian actors such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li—perhaps an internalization
of the conflation of ‘Asian-American’ with ‘Asian’ and ‘foreign’ on screen and within society.
Saliently, when discussing racial taunts, 12 subjects later reported being asked if they knew
kung fu and being called ‘Jackie Chan’ or ‘Jet Li’ while growing up, an indication of how the
dearth of Asian-American media portrayals can translate to widespread racial ignorance from
peers and a resulting feeling of not being seen as American.
Some compelling descriptions of Asian-American male characters included:
David: The setup for the punchline. Not to be taken seriously as three-dimensional human beings.
Robert: Plagued with anxiety. Emotionally insecure. Physically diminutive. Inconsiderate. Not socially or verbally competent. Challenged. Unfairly treated. Dismissed.
Vincent: They’re like the side...you have to pay attention to them to find them, you know? Basically they're not important, they're just secondary persons.
Ben: In one word, a joke. Walter: Book-smart, but not socially savvy and...not very empathetic. And so they're perceived as not quite relatable characters…they don't have that human aspect.
We can see a strong interpretation of the characters as marginalized within the film—not
seen as equal humans, but rather thinly veiled ‘punchlines’ or caricatures on ‘the side,’ to be
laughed at and then dismissed. Just as Mulvey (1975) contends that women are coded with
to-be-looked-at-ness in film, it can be argued that Asian-American men are coded with to-be-
laughed-at-ness, which subjects were cognizant of. Subjects often perceived Asian-American
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male characters as being defined by their ‘Asianness’ rather than more three-dimensional
and humanizing traits, ultimately rendering their ‘Asianness’ itself the joke.
Disconnect
For many, the lack of humanizing portrayals led to a feeling of disconnect from American
media, with several reporting they felt a lack of strong Asian-American role models available
to them on screen. As a result, they were unable to relate and empathize:
Victor: In middle school, I was watching TV and it struck me that none of them look like me…you know, it always felt very difficult for me to empathize with the characters...I just felt like: that has nothing to do with me...So when I joined [Asian-American organization] in college, they watched a lot of Taiwanese dramas, Korean dramas...and I'm watching it and for the first time, I'm beginning to notice: ‘Oh my God, that's me. In some sense, I get that’…So that's when I unplugged myself from Western media...it just felt like it’s not meant for me.
For some, this disconnect has continued even with current portrayals. Upon discussing Fresh
off the Boat, a sitcom launched in 2014 and widely hyped for its pioneering focus on a
Taiwan-American family, Walter revealed a nagging sense that the show didn’t reflect reality:
Walter: I think about the dad in the show and he is a feminized character…you know, doesn't seem like a very assertive fellow, he's just very positive, but there's no edge…That's not what my dad is like, that's not what any Asian-American dad I know is like.
Here, Walter’s comments reflect an oppositional gaze as he recognizes the jarring gap
between portrayals of Asian-American male characters on screen and real life. In keeping his
individual consciousness and group consciousness distinct, he resists the Asian-American
male representation as it is offered to him. However, some subjects exercised an oppositional
gaze in other ways, choosing to identify with characters in a colour-blind manner:
Lang: My dad performs super duper masculine, like his whole deal is he's super strong, works out 3-4 hours a day, he’s really into Arnold Schwarzenegger. Interviewer: So growing up, when you saw effeminate Asian-American characters, did you ever feel that didn't match your knowledge of your father? Lang: I thought he was represented when I saw Arnold Schwarzenegger or action stars. So long as they were hyper-masculine; that was my dad. I knew my dad was masculine no matter what the media portrayals were, so I trusted that. This is what dudes were to me and it didn't matter if they were different races.
Lang’s ability to cut across race in order to identify strong, hegemonic male characters as
emblematic of his closest role model, his father, indicates how vastly media perceptions can
vary from person-to-person. He also demonstrates the agency Asian-American men can exert
against marginalizing media portrayals by choosing to gaze in resistant ways.
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‘I’m Just Bracing Myself’
When discussing emotions felt upon viewing portrayals of Asian-American men, the most
common feelings were: anger, shame and disappointment. Seemingly across the board, many
expressed feelings of bracing themselves to find out whether media would play into their
expectations of stereotypical depictions.
Matt: As an Asian dude, you're always just watching and bracing yourself, like: ‘Are they going to crap on Asian dudes again? Is it going to be what I think it is?’
This sense of dread translated to subjects’ treatments within real life, with a few participants
remarking that growing up they had been mocked with the names of embarrassing Asian-
American characters in media. As a result, quite a few responded that they had resented
Asian-American male portrayals and wished there were less. Rather than viewing media
figures as inspirational as so many adolescents do, they viewed them as entry points for peers
to make fun of them. Lang remarked, ‘If there was an Asian character anywhere and it was
slightly ridiculous, I knew it was going to get quoted at me no matter what.’
Here, we can see a direct correlation between subjects’ perceptions of media and treatments
within society. Perhaps because representations are so few and far between, Asian-Americans
are lumped in with stereotypical depictions on screen—with several reporting that this led to
resentment for their Asian-American identities. This trend is so pervasive that often reactions
to negative media portrayals are amplified—several subjects described reacting with
anticipations of backlash upon learning of news involving Asian-Americans in a negative
light.
One particular incident was proactively mentioned by seven subjects: the 2007 Virginia Tech
massacre in which a Korean-American college student killed 32 of his classmates and
himself. Conspicuously, many media outlets emphasized his immigrant status in headlines
and dubbed him a ‘South Korean shooter’ despite him immigrating to the U.S. at age eight.
Subsequently, Asian-American media watchdog associations denounced the overemphasis on
his race, arguing this implied a correlation of foreignness with his crime (Chuang, 2012). The
seven subjects reported feeling foreboding and a sense of dread upon hearing the news:
Vincent: When it happened, I thought: ‘Aw shit, the next day I go to school, I'm definitely going to hear someone make a comment like, ‘Did you bring a gun to school?’’ And so I went to school and it was there. I could feel it.
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Ben: I remember as the media was covering that, I was a little concerned and probably had the same emotions that my black or Middle Eastern friends might feel...a little bit of: ‘Will people be afraid of me?’ To think that I'm mentally unstable or that I'll go off the deep end?
The anxiety that the subjects express regarding sharing the shooter’s race can be seen as an
extension of the group consciousness—and rightly so, as evidenced by the subsequent
backlash that some subjects recalled: one subject remembered his teacher remarking in front
of the entire class that he resembled the shooter. It is worth noting that none of the seven
subjects who brought up the shooting were Korean-American, yet still expressed concern,
indicating an awareness of the tendency of American media and society to lump together and
conflate different ethnicities. Moreover, this suggests a silent understanding that white
Americans do not carry the same burden of group representation that minorities do. In turn,
Asian-American men implicitly understand that, as rarities, they are inextricably chained to
the portrayals media present to society, regardless of how tenuous or undesired the
connection is.
The Responsibility of Representation
Film-wise, perhaps more than any other recent movie, one was overwhelmingly loathed.
When asked to name specific characters on screen, 12 subjects mentioned the film The
Hangover (2009), in which Korean-American actor Ken Jeong portrays Leslie Chow, a
flamboyant, psychotic gangster with a comical Chinese accent and effeminate mannerisms,
with his puny body often seen naked along with his small penis (a running gag throughout
the film). Jeong’s character serves as a foil to his white co-stars and seemingly embodies
every Asian male stereotype. Many expressed extreme contempt for the character:
Ben: I can still find it funny...but it doesn't paint a great picture for people who don't understand Asian-American men. It worries me that he’s such a prominent character and they’re so few and far between. Matt: I watched it with white people, so you can't just be so open with saying ‘That movie is super racist’ because you know, amongst your white friends, no one wants to talk about race...So I was just like ‘The jokes aren't funny…’ [hesitant] But amongst your Asian friends, you can be like, [angry] ‘Yo, that movie fucking sucked, Ken Jeong is a fucking traitor, selling out our race for some cheap jokes. Why is he doing this to us? Fuck him, man.’
Peter: Ken Jeong comes to mind. Just a bunch of guys who coon it up for white people, they kind of shuck and jive for an audience. And what a white audience wants to see from Asian men is still this effeminate Long Duk Dong goofy guy. I just feel extreme embarrassment ... There's nobody else that it's acceptable to do that kind of demeaning of, but it’s acceptable to do that to Asian dudes.
Here a number of insights surface: although subjects seemed to universally find the portrayal
disgraceful and exercise an oppositional gaze, some were able to separate this from their
opinion of the movie itself, remarking that they still were able to find humour in it. We can
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interpret this as a detachment of the subjects’ individual consciousness (through which they
are able to still find the movie likeable) from their group consciousness (through which they
imagine Jeong’s portrayal through the eyes of other spectators). This separation can be seen
as a manifestation of a quote from hook’s work on the oppositional gaze in which one black
woman states that in order to obtain pleasure from screen images of black womanhood, she
‘must not look too deep’ (1992: 121).
On the other end of the spectrum, for some, this led to a repudiation of both the movie and
the actor and intense disgust. Compellingly, we can also perceive a demonstration of group
consciousness across the board, as all indicate an awareness of the portrayal’s detrimental
impact on society’s perception of Asian-American men as a whole—on ‘us.’ It is interesting to
note Peter’s comparison of Mr. Chow to the aforementioned Long Duk Dong (see p. 4), from
more than 30 years ago—an illustration of how little depictions of Asian-American males
have evolved.
However, participants were split on their feelings regarding Jeong’s decision to take up that
role. Some acknowledged that as an actor in a film industry with limited positive Asian-
American roles, they understood his need to further his career and instead blamed the media
industry. Others had strong feelings that he had a responsibility to more judiciously select
roles:
Ben: I do think he has a responsibility...we all have responsibilities. For any minority group, your actions affect people's perceptions. You know, growing up, I was a rowdy kid, but around certain audiences, I would be on my best behaviour. I felt I had a responsibility to not affect someone’s prejudgment of the next Asian-American they encounter or the next generation. So there's that weight that Asian-American men have, and that answer also applies to [Jeong].
For many Asian-American men, portrayals are not simply portrayals. Like Ben, many
exhibited a hyper-awareness that disgraceful portrayals reflect on societal perceptions of
them. Accordingly, many articulated an awareness that they themselves are representations
of the group—a responsibility of representation. They felt an obligation to carry themselves
in ways that would reflect Asian-American men positively, even if only creating change on a
miniscule level. We can see the performativity concept is represented in Ben’s usage of the
term ‘audiences.’
Conversely, despite perceiving American media as bleak for Asian-American males, subjects
were able to find pride in the few positive portrayals. Overwhelmingly, many subjects spoke
of Jeremy Lin with a strong sense of admiration, remarking that he resonated with them due
to his breaking of stereotypes. Notably, several subjects who had recalled being
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underestimated within sports while younger due to stereotypes of Asian-American men
lacking athleticism, empathized with his struggle to be taken seriously in sports:
Allen: Growing up...things like playing basketball...you’re always seen differently based on race. Because people are making quick judgments like how well people play based on race. [hesitant] At times, probably I was judged more harshly than others, based on assumptions based on race. I would use the example of a try-out where maybe I'd be judged more harshly and have to perform better than someone else of another race...in order to be regarded in the same way…
Gaoxue: I went to a white school and I would always get laughed at or taken as a joke when I tried out for sports. They would say ‘Are you serious?’ because they never saw an Asian boy play sports because that's not what they're exposed to in the media. I would get ridiculed just because that's not what their standard view of an Asian male is…and so, I really gravitated towards Jeremy Lin’s rise in the media. I feel it was a definite changing point in how Americans view Asian-American males.
Even subjects who were not sports fans saw Lin as a strong source of pride and reported
closely following his winning streak. It seems that the inescapable ties to being judged as a
group have an amplifying effect on subjects’ receptions of Asian-American media figures:
resulting in either heightened likes or dislikes for group representations. However, due to
group consciousness (awareness of being judged as a group), even positive representations
can be a source of apprehension:
Walter: When Jeremy Lin had his big explosion, I was very nervous. Every time I would watch a news highlight of something amazing he did again, I was like [mimics wiping forehead]: ‘Phew. Phew. Phew.’ [relieved] And essentially I felt that as an Asian-American, his confidence was going to be tested a lot, and how he handled that was going to be a huge statement for Asian-Americans in sports. Had it been any player who just exploded, I would've just been cheering them on, but because I was just thinking about what the backlash on me would be if he begins to mentally break down, that part made me very nervous.
Keenly aware of their unshakeable links to other members of the group, Asian-American men
are aware that each new representation has the power to transform society’s perceptions of
Asian-American males for better or worse.
Romantic Desirability
Throughout their interviews, the majority of subjects agreed on a recurring theme: the fact
that Asian-American males are disadvantaged within the dating realm, particularly when it
comes to pursuing white women. However, a significant number also mentioned hearing
Asian-American females express disdain for Asian-American men ‘all the time.’ Many
attributed this to unflattering Asian-American male depictions as unattractive within media,
expressing sentiments of being at the bottom of the ‘totem pole’ under white, black and
Hispanic males in terms of desirability.
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Allen: There is almost no representation, and when we are represented, it's in a way that doesn't suggest...sexiness? And pretty much across the board, there's never an Asian male playing a romantic lead in any TV show. Never. So it almost certainly plays a pretty big role in people’s preferences…your experiences shape what you find unattractive…and I'm sure media is a big part of that.
Others drew comparisons with depictions of Asian-American women within media, although
all seemed cognizant of their harmful sexualization. Still, many asserted that as a result,
Asian-American females are seen as more attractive and viable romantic options.
Ben: Asian-American women are portrayed to be very desirable...and this is just my judgment, but I think that the men who are cast tend to be unattractive. And I think there are very attractive Asian-American men out there. But if you were to judge purely based off of mainstream movies, you wouldn't think that. Gaoxue: You never even see Asian guys depicted in a desirable way. I see how it affects my Asian-American peers. It just saddens me…it really hurts their self-confidence when they see the prevalence of Asian-American women dating white guys. They start to blame themselves…it affects how they look at themselves, and that transpires into them shaming Asian-American women in those relationships. I think that shaming is an effect of the media portrayals of themselves because they start to hate themselves so much that they want to put that negative energy into blaming someone else. We are already at the bottom of the attraction pool in regards to race so if they see that their own counterparts, Asian-American women, don't find them attractive, then what shot do they have of gaining a partner?
Like many subjects, Gaoxue and Ben share a belief that the ‘unattractive’ images of Asian-
American men can distort both society’s perception of Asian-American male desirability and
how Asian-American men see their own desirability. Along these lines, quite a few subjects
linked the stereotype of being less endowed to the lack of romantic success. This stereotype
arguably produced the most deep-rooted sense of shame and exasperation: ten men—
unprompted—recounted being mocked with small penis jokes since childhood and even well
into adult life. Although many attempted to laugh off these stereotypes, there were several
admissions of the traumatizing impact of these taunts and resulting insecurity.
Matt: It made me feel really shitty. I don't really think too much about that to be honest because it's kind of traumatic. Hearing something like that when you grow up...it made me feel pretty insecure and powerless…
Some took particular issue with the pervasiveness of the small penis jokes on screen:
Gary: That's a very common stereotype to hear and see and that can be very emasculating to the Asian-American male psyche. Before the Asian-American male can get started running a race, it's like he is already handicapped. If someone already has preconceived notions about who you are and your body, that sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy for the Asian-American male, leading him into eventually believing those things about himself and handicapping himself. So he would have less of a chance at being successful in the dating world than his white
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counterpart. And so, those stereotypes can be damaging and definitely should not be on mainstream TV where millions of people are watching and feeding into.
Here Gary seems to allude to a phenomenon that several subjects expressed: the possibility of
emasculating stereotypes of Asian-American men creating a self-perpetuating cycle, with
these media stereotypes being regurgitated by those within society, in turn detrimentally
impacting Asian-American male self-confidence, in turn actually harming Asian-American
masculinity. Indeed, this layman theory seems to align with the looping effect proposed by
Hacking (1999) which details the power and agency that both external social forces and group
members have in respectively propagating and internalizing essentialized group
characteristics. Moreover, these testimonies from Asian-American men attest to the immense
role (and harm) stereotypical media portrayals exert in debilitating potentially positive self-
concepts:
Walter: There’s not a whole lot of confidence-building out there. No media portrayals make you feel like ‘Oh, that's me,’ nothing out there that makes you feel that there are role models or examples of the type of person that you are. So in society, Asian-American men aren't given a lot of confidence naturally. We don't derive confidence from what we see and we don't derive confidence just from how other people perceive us. So you have to fight very, very deliberately to develop your own confidence…I don't know if that's something that white men or men of other races have to put as much thought into.
Identity and Masculinity Strategies
Having shed light on the ways in which subjects interpret media and its perceived impact
within their worlds, it is clear that Asian-American men by and large exert a strong
oppositional gaze against emasculating images offered to them. Moreover, they conceptualize
media as having strong ramifications on their self-confidence, identity, and perceived
treatments within society. Given that, we must ask: how do Asian-American men strategically
construct and perform their identities and masculinities?
Identity-wise, subjects were aware to varying degrees that their Asian exteriors take the
forefront in shaping people’s perceptions of them, regardless of how nuanced and non-
stereotypical their identities might be. Some saw stereotypes as ‘baggage’ preventing people
from looking beyond their race.
Walter: It’s almost like you're not being treated as a human being, you're being treated as an idea. That's the worst kind of racism. Interviewer: What do you mean by being treated as an idea? Walter: Um, some of my friends in college...I didn't view myself as Asian-American when I was hanging out with them, but I realized they definitely viewed me as Asian-American. People aren't thinking of you as another person, they're thinking of you as all those things that
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they have in their head that come along with being Asian. There's just this baggage that you have, that is really heavy, and when you're hanging out, you can feel that—it’s in the air.
Much like having a ‘birthmark’ (Ty, 2004) on one’s face that one can sense being stared at,
Asian-American men are unable to wipe off the cultural meanings their bodies are encoded
with. Consequently, many stressed needing to develop non-stereotypical traits in order to
overpower the one-dimensional meanings their ‘Asianness’ connoted.
Accordingly, to strategically position themselves as varied individuals, many widely employed
the strategy of emphasizing the opposite of stereotypes: many shared that while younger,
they had felt compelled to take up more unexpected hobbies such as basketball and
skateboarding to rebel against stereotypes and represent themselves as ‘cool Asians.’ Some
reported adopting more aggressive and outspoken behaviour in the workplace and classroom
to contest model minority stereotypes. Another discussed being a ‘little girl-crazy,’
commenting, ‘I think sometimes I need to show I'm interested to prove that I'm a man.’ On a
more verbally performative level, the majority of subjects admitted to emphasizing certain
non-stereotypical facts about themselves within conversations as a ‘buffer’ to flag to people:
‘Look, I'm not all of what you think I am.’
Subjects generally felt that in order to avoid being seen as one-dimensional ‘ideas’ (not unlike
how they described their on-screen counterparts) they needed to perform and represent
themselves in unexpected ways to assert themselves as full human beings:
Peng: I have to make an extra effort in order to push something other than my Asian identity to the front...so if I'm at a gym, I can't just be ‘that Asian guy,’ I have to be ‘that guy who does ten miles a day.’ Or if I'm at a dance class, I have to specifically be very good or have some outlandish personality that will separate me from just being generic. If I am generic, then I will be known as ‘the Asian guy’ and that's where the social and romantic disadvantage comes from. If you don't fill someone's mind about who you are, they'll just fill their brains about what you are stereotypically…and stereotypically, Asian males aren't seen well.
Yet, despite the desire to carve out nuanced identities and distance themselves from
emasculating stereotypes, it was abundantly clear that Asian-American men felt certain
identities were off-limits to them due to societal constraints and reduced social capital. Three
compelling themes played a chief role in rendering certain identities inaccessible and
impossible for Asian-American men: safety, authenticity and legitimacy.
Safety A quite harrowing theme that emerged was the theme of emotional safety. Although the vast
majority of subjects I spoke with had developed healthy self-concepts as adults, several
reported internalized racism while younger. Upon digging deeper into some subjects’
narratives, it seemed that for some, this was intertwined with alienating taunts of being
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foreign, combined with societal and media degradation of Asian-Americans, particularly
against immigrant Asians.
For one particular subject, Robert, this shame manifested itself especially deeply, as it
became clear to him as an adult how race influences romantic, professional and social
success. Robert reported feeling ‘broken and less than’ during college as he became painfully
aware of how his status as an Asian-American male entailed automatic disadvantage within a
racialized world. In his pursuit of ‘social proof,’ he engaged in obsessive weight loss tracks,
having noticed that lower fat distribution in his face made him look less Asian. Even still, he
was tormented with identity crises and trouble relating to men in the workplace. As an adult,
he had a striking epiphany:
Robert: It tore upon a deep emotional wound which is…I have deep shame around the fact that my father is an Asian man. It makes me fearful...I don’t feel safe living in America with an Asian father. I couldn’t look to the man closest to me for a role model. [emotional, frustrated] It’s not safe to be him so I didn’t want to become him. I didn’t trust my father enough to acknowledge the fact that this was a man who had wounded me through childhood, simply by being an immigrant. I didn’t want to admit that my childhood was imperfect because of his racial experience. I didn’t want to acknowledge his experiences, his pain.
Evidently, marginalization extends far deeper than Asian-American men’s nuclear
identities—it shapes how some relate to and view their closest role models: their fathers.
From conversations with subjects, I postulate that internalized racial shame combined with
an awareness of how Asian-American men are treated and seen within white society can lead
to a sense of vulnerability, particularly as children seeking protection. Subjects realized their
supposed protectors are no less immune to the same emasculating external forces they
endure. Unable to glean symbolic safety from their closest male figures, others like Robert
yearned to distance themselves from Asian-American identity to seek security.
Although most had come to embrace their Asian-American identities as adults, many
disclosed grappling with vestigial senses of shame when encountering recent Asian
immigrants and tourists, dubbed ‘fresh off the boat’ (‘FOBs’)—a term that is often used
derisively even within the Asian-American community.
David: I interact with a lot of Asian tourists and they are always hyper-visible as tourists who are not from there. So a lot of times, classmates complain about Asian tourists and I have this issue I've been wrestling with in my head…I definitely have felt shame when people who are FOBs or first-generation do things that, for example, my father would do...and I’m attempting to work through that internalized shame about those stereotypes...it feels like I'm being lumped in with them and I shouldn't be.
As David conveys, sentiments of undesired group identity can morph into internalized group
consciousness as Asian-American men become aware of the racialized power structures they
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inhabit, ultimately leading to a desire to detach themselves from the most stereotypical and
ridiculed representatives of the group: accented and less culturally assimilated Asians
(including their fathers)—in a bid for safer identities. It is productive to ask how much this is
due to caricaturing Asian characters with comical foreign accents on-screen.
Authenticity
In addition to legitimacy and safety, authenticity is a key measure by which subjects judged
which identities are feasible for them. A few subjects mentioned a nagging irritation with
certain Asian-American media figures who emulated hip-hop culture. Although initially they
weren’t able to articulate the root cause of this frustration, some probing revealed sentiments
that Asian-Americans had falsely co-opted black hip-hop culture, remarking that it didn’t
seem authentic. In another example, one subject who had grown up in rural Oregon
remarked that he and his father had completely integrated into the ‘redneck’ community,
taking on local hobbies such as hunting and fishing which he shared with his white friends.
Will: The only difference between myself and them was the way that they dressed. They wore cowboy boots and stuff like that, very typical wranglers. And if I were to do that, I would just feel kind of fake, like a Halloween costume or something, because you know... [trails off] My dad wore that stuff which was weird...
This theme of authenticity is also compellingly illustrated in another quote:
Peng: In middle school, because there was a lack of Asian roles in American media, I almost looked to Asian media for what a positive role model should be in terms of how to get girls or how to keep cool. I would see white media and I just remember seeing lumberjack-esque guys, lots of body hair…and I remember thinking: I probably can't do that, so how do I be cool? I guess act like this K-pop star, I guess that’s what cool looks like for an Asian guy. Interviewer: So you felt like you couldn’t pull off the kind of coolness that white or American media portrayed? Peng: Yeah. Um…there’s this one scene in one of the American Pie movies with this Asian guy who talked really ‘black’ and you know, a lot of people say Asians escaped into black culture to be seen as cool and to have a refuge. At the end of the scene, they all make fun of the kid and say, ‘Stop talking like that, you’re Asian, your dad runs a restaurant, you're not from the ghetto.’ And um, that’s just one example, but I feel like the reason I couldn't fit the white guy coolness was because [hesitant]...an Asian guy trying to emulate white cool was ridiculed as being a poser or faking it or not actually cool. Imagine a white guy in a Ferrari wearing a polo…an Asian guy trying to do that would come off as…just like comedic relief because he's out of place.
I contend that Asian-American men (particularly those going through adolescence and
navigating what it means to be men) are caught in a precarious predicament when it comes to
finding role models: unable to look to their marginalized father figures; unable to find
inspiration within the emasculated Asian-American images available to them; and unable to
feel they can rightfully inhabit ‘white cool’ and white masculinity without facing ridicule for
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being out-of-place. Seeking role models they can identify with, several subjects consequently
looked to alternative sources such as YouTube or Asian media in search of authentic avenues
toward manhood. Peng’s example of an Asian-American character who provides comedic
relief to make his point illustrates how deeply the caricaturing of Asian-American male
characters can mark the psyches of Asian-American men long after fading from the
hegemonic audiences’ imagination.
Legitimacy
The data reveals that Asian-American men have felt the impact of emasculating media
stereotypes seep into all aspects of their lives from self-confidence to romantic success to
body image to how they seek certain identities. Given this, I would like to return to the
question of how Asian-American men then approach gender performativity as they attempt
to negotiate a rigid hegemonic, heteronormative power structure in which their masculinities
are devalued: Do they prefer a re-masculinization approach in which they can claim their
rightful manhood through adhering to hegemonic masculine ideals? Or do they prefer to
leverage their marginalized positions to redefine masculinity in less heteronormative ways?
The answer lies in the theme of legitimacy. Bombarded with media and societal
emasculation, Asian-American men wish to be taken seriously as men. This desire for
acceptance manifests itself as a hyper-awareness of how they perform masculinity. One
subject confessed that having grown up as a rare minority in Indiana, for him, performing
masculinity is a key to acceptance:
Lang: I always knew that I stood out in a sea of white people, so I would always feel like people's eyes were on me, that I was being observed. And I had to find a way...I knew I was different, but I had to find a way that I was comfortable with myself to be different, you know? So for me, masculinity was it. I used to excessively read self-help books about body language and masculinity. And in social situations, I would check myself like ‘Am I standing right? Am I sitting with my legs crossed in way that's masculine or not? Is anyone looking at me when I do this?’ And I think because of the way our society is, a lot of dudes no matter what race you are, do it, but I also want to say that for me, it was maybe more intense. For me, it's like I have to steel myself in order to perform masculinity.
Although Lang acknowledges that all men to some extent ‘perform’ masculinity (a phrasing
he volunteered), his external consciousness of ‘being observed’ causes him to have a
heightened awareness of the performative nature of gender as he attempts to navigate his
difference. He also alludes to an observation that perhaps for white men who don’t have to
confront pressures of being watched, their gender performativity is not conducted as
deliberately. This highlights a compelling point: painfully aware of being watched and
judged, and of the emasculating stereotypes attached to their bodies, Asian-American men
are arguably much more aware than other males within society that their every movement
MSc Dissertation of Steffi Lau
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will be assessed as a statement of their masculinity, allowing them to either earn or lose
legitimacy. Given this, they tend to approach the ways in which they perform masculinity
deliberately, intentionally and strategically.
However in their performativity choices, many are aware that they don’t possess the
legitimacy necessary to safely bend the rules of game.
Victor: In a sense, it's not that we have less room to perform gender, it's that we have zero room... emasculation is something that is both physical and societal, because it's something that is reinforced by social norms and we don't have any performative roles that entail us having any balls. Fred: I actually feel like there's a lot of latitude with masculinity. You can be masculine in a lot of ways. But on the other hand, it's easier for white men to be very fluid in their masculine identity. There can be a variety of roles and it doesn't affect them negatively, whereas Asian- American men are struggling against effeminate stereotypes and so it’s often like they're pigeonholed into a certain kind of masculinity. A lot of Asian-American guys feel like they have to be the athletic muscular type to combat it, whereas I could just as easily say they could be a masculine hipster, but they don't consider that a possibility.
Timothy: Sometimes I had the feeling that I have to demonstrate that I am somehow a man...it seemed like it wasn't as safe for me to adopt more gender-ambiguous stances. I remember at a certain point, pink polo shirts became trendy for men, but in my head, I was like: ‘I don't know if I can pull that off’. Because, as opposed to the weird juxtaposition of a black dude in a dress… it actually reinforces his masculinity, because it's so out-of-place. But if it was an Asian guy in a pink shirt, then it might actually be like: ‘Well, this is what we expected from the stereotypes’.
Yearning to be taken seriously as men, Asian-American men are aware that to engage with
more alternative forms of their masculinity entails a certain risk of further de-legitimation of
their masculinity. Like Fred, quite a few voiced that they felt white and black men had more
latitude to deviate from hegemonic masculine norms without risking backlash. With the
knowledge that masculinity is inextricably linked to status within society, Asian-American
men must exert a concerted effort to counter stereotypes and assert their legitimacy as men.
However, this struggle to claim legitimacy within hegemonic power structures can lead to a
sense of more unorthodox identities being risky or even impossible.
Consequently, several shared desires to achieve normalized masculine ideals such as being
assertive and building muscles. A recurrent sentiment seemed to be that since society has
been socialized to respect masculinity, straying further from masculine norms would
disempower Asian-American men even further. Accordingly, some desired to not just meet
the masculine ideal, but to be perceived as hyper-masculine to overcorrect for their
feminization. One subject shared his commitment to working out in order to look like a
‘Greek god’ and expressed the need to ‘shock’ people into believing Asian-American men are
masculine:
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Matt: The more swaggery Asians we have just pushes that [emasculation] away. If it goes so far and so bombastic that people are like ‘Yo, all these Asians are so cool, I want to be like them’ it creates a safer space for the nerdy Asian…Let's push it to bombastic levels…If you don't want to be it, don't. But I think it would be more effective if every Asian dude looked like Thor and were sexual monsters and was awesome at everything. That would be SO much more effective in terms of removing the emasculation…And then you can have your nerdy Asian, your artsy Asian.
It is interesting to note Matt’s desire to foster a ‘safer space of the nerdy Asian,’ which draws
on the aforementioned themes of both safety and group consciousness and alludes to an
awareness of the risk and ridicule stereotypical Asian-American men face. Matt embodies the
responsibility of representation that so many other Asian-American men carry on their
shoulders as they become racially conscious—much like ambassadors, they are imbued with a
hyper-awareness that each act is a performance and each Asian-American body is a
representation of the group. While arguably controversial, his thoughts convey a
transcendence beyond individual performativity to group solidarity—a desire to advance the
position of Asian-American men as a whole to the point where it is safe for Asian-American
men to be fluid in masculinity without losing legitimacy.
On the other end of the spectrum, some argued that having already been disempowered and
locked out from the definition of masculinity, there was no further risk to them. They felt
their location outside of mainstream masculinity could serve as a space empowering them to
be themselves and carve out their own versions of masculinity.
Peter: People like to put men in a masculine box, like ‘this is what being a man entails, this is what a man's privilege is’. I think it's interesting that a lot of those things…don't really apply to Asian-American men…Nobody is afraid of me, nobody feels threatened by me, so the way I look at it...Dude, I'm my own man. Because we're already not seen as men…I just do a bunch of shit that most men wouldn't do because they're afraid they'll look like a sissy. But they already put me in a sissy box anyway…it's not like I have any further to plunge.
Timothy: One of the things about the idea that we're perpetual foreigners is that it actually helps us create our own identity when you can exclude us from your community, you know? If you don’t see us as full Americans in the first place, then why would we want to embody the American masculinity? So that can be kind of empowering because then you don't have to fit in because they wouldn't let you in anyways.
While those like Peter and Timothy view their alternative positions as liberating, their
statements also carry a sentiment of futility as they note the fruitlessness of striving for
acceptance into hegemonic masculinity—an echelon they are locked out of, and for which
only white men hold the keys. Arguably, the stance of redefining masculinity also demands a
thick skin, a need to not care or want legitimacy from the mainstream power structure.
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Even so, the binary nature of these opposing poles may leave gay Asian-American men out of
the picture. One gay subject discussed how, as he has entered adulthood, he’s begun to
question which behaviours and mannerisms are true to him and which have been instilled
due to a desire to ‘pass’ in a heteronormative society. He’s begun to experiment with
contextual deviations in his mannerisms toward both masculine and more feminine poles:
David: Identifying as gay gives me more freedom to explore these things and not be viewed as totally illegitimate. I feel like I identify with some of those traits associated with Asian- American men in the media that other Asian-American guys hate…so it's really weird because sometimes I feel like I’m betraying the cause. Like failing at that ideal of a masculine, anti- stereotypical Asian-American man and also confirming stereotypes about Asian guys, even though I know both those things are BS.
Here it becomes apparent that despite an awareness of the socially constructed nature of
masculinity, David cannot help but feel guilty for ‘confirming’ stereotypes. This can again be
attributed to the idea of group consciousness—cognizant of the re-masculinization agenda
that those like Matt advocate, David is unable to shake off a lingering sense of obligation to
‘the cause’ of reclaiming masculinity. His thoughts foreground the flawed nature of a
heteronormative lens—perhaps it is not men possessing traditionally ‘feminine’ qualities
themselves that should be condemned, rather, the social constructs that authorize some to
possess these and others to not.
While David, Peter and Matt each encapsulate disparate positions in the re-masculinzation
vs. redefinition debate, they ubiquitously demonstrate the forceful ways in which symbolic
emasculation and exclusion shape the subjectivities of the Asian-American male—as they
navigate the gendered power structure, they must either strive for legitimacy, accept the
futility of acceptance or straddle these fragile social constructs.
CONCLUSION
Analyzing 23 semi-structured interviews, it is evident that Asian-American males adversely
view and interpret stereotypical media portrayals of themselves, viewing their media
counterparts as marginalized, emasculated and ridiculed. From the data elicited in this
research, I contend that many Asian-American males find agency in resisting these
representations, understanding that these are not desirable identities, nor ones they are
content to settle for. Through exerting an oppositional gaze, they critique and interrogate the
deceptively comical portrayals of themselves.
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Yet despite their critical interpretations and bid for distance from this symbolic
emasculation, Asian-American men understand they are not immune to the disempowering
and alienating portrayals of themselves. Subject to the triple consciousness I have proposed,
they are hyper-aware of their irrevocable ties to these images in others’ eyes, and how these
emasculating stereotypes in turn shape how others view them. While Asian-American men
attempt to assert their own identities, I contend that the necessity of always imagining the
ways one is representing oneself, representing the group, is being represented by others, is
being seen by others is emotionally exhausting. They must fight to preserve their own self-
concepts and self-confidence or risk internalizing anger, shame and disgust and hegemonic
views of themselves.
Further, it is apparent that to a great extent, subjects conceptualize media as undeniably and
largely feeding into their marginalizing treatments within society—whether it is being
mocked at a sporting try-out, taunted that they are less endowed, being relegated to the
bottom of the dating pool or more implicitly, being treated as one-dimensional caricatures.
Asian-American men by and large understand media as undesirably yet inescapably encoding
their bodies with meanings that render their more nuanced identifications invisible.
As such, they endeavour to assert their masculinity and unique identifications against
restraining stereotypes activated by media and reinforced by society. It is apparent that some
choose to perform and represent their masculinity in certain ways, with the understanding
that they themselves are group representations with the power to influence preconceptions at
a micro-level. Others choose to redefine their masculinities and no longer seek legitimacy
from the hegemony. However, it is crucial that we not romanticize this alienation and
understand that this carving out of an alternative space is predicated on a very real cultural
and systemic exclusion within American society, through American media. Aware that their
precarious subject positions are victim to the disempowering gaze of society, Asian-American
men nonetheless feel societal constraints and media rendering certain identities impossible
for them. This tug-of-war between agency and hegemonic power can ultimately be painful
and exhausting for some.
As such, I contend that across the board, Asian-American men yearn to be free: whether from
others’ racial biases, from stereotypes, from social constructs, from prescriptions of what a
man is, from communities that exclude while still demanding assimilation. This ubiquitous
craving for liberation attests to the toxic nature of media stereotypes which simultaneously
alienate and restrain. It is my hope that this research has contributed an understanding of the
more subdued and deep-rooted ways in which symbolic exclusion manifests itself.
MSc Dissertation of Steffi Lau
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With the hope of sparking change within the media industry itself and encouraging more
positive, varied, three-dimensional and humanizing portrayals of Asian-American men, I
propose that future research examine the institutional pressures and factors within American
media institutions to deconstruct why Asian-American male representation has changed so
little in the past century and identify the most productive avenues in which to effect change.
Perhaps then, as Asian-American men brace themselves as they gaze at the screen, one day in
the near future they can breathe a sigh of relief.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend a heartfelt word of thanks to the 23 kind, funny and perceptive Asian-
American men who took the time to openly share their stories and observations with me—
and in most cases, with a complete stranger. Your rich insights were invaluable in molding
the content of this research. I’m well aware many of these experiences were not easy to share,
and for your trust, I am sincerely grateful. Our time spent connecting, laughing, musing and
dissecting continues to echo in my mind—and were it not for the word limit, I could have
easily written an entire book overflowing with your unique voices, thought-provoking
insights and the infinite nuances of the findings. It is my hope that you’ll find this research a
worthy investment of your time—and that together, we can spark awareness and change.
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Huang, Eddie. 2014. Fresh Off The Boat. ABC. Carlock, Robert and Tina Fey. 2015. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Netflix. Lee, Rowland V. 1929. The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu. Paramount Pictures. Hughes, John. 1984. Sixteen Candles. Universal Pictures. Wang, Wayne. 1993. The Joy Luck Club. Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. APPENDICES Appendix A: Interview Profiles & Data Corpus Demographics
KEY • Pseudonym: State they grew up in, Age*, Ethnicity, Occupation, Sexuality
*Age: Early 20’s=20-23, Mid 20’s=24-26, Late 20’s=27-29
Interviewees
• Lang: Indiana, Mid 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• Lance: Minnesota, Late 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• Allen: California, Mid 20’s, Taiwanese, White-Collar, Straight
• Chris: California, Mid 20’s, Chinese, Postgraduate Student, Straight
• Henry: California, Mid 20’s, Vietnamese, Postgraduate Student, Straight
• Peter: Missouri, Mid 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• David: Michigan, Early 20’s, Chinese, Undergraduate Student, Gay
• Peng: New York, Early 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• Shawn: Ohio, Early 20’s, half-Korean and half-Chinese, Undergraduate Student, Straight
• Gary: Louisiana, Mid 20’s, Vietnamese, White-Collar, Gay
• Will: Oregon, Mid 20’s, Mixed Vietnamese and Cambodian, White-Collar, Straight
• Vincent: New York, South Carolina, Early 20’s, Chinese, Undergraduate Student, Straight
• Fred: Georgia, Early 20’s, Chinese, Undergraduate Student, Straight
• Austin: Colorado, Mid 20’s, Filipino, White-Collar, Straight
• Victor: Michigan, Late 20’s, Korean, White-Collar, Straight
• Hugh: California, Mid 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• Gaoxue: Wisconsin, Early 20’s, Hmong, Undergraduate Student, Straight
• Timothy: Nevada, Early 20’s, Chinese, Undergraduate Student, Straight
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• Robert: Arizona, California; Mid 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• Matt: Tennessee, Mid 20’s, Vietnamese, White-Collar, Straight
• Ben: North Carolina, Late 20’s, Taiwanese, White-Collar, Straight
• Walter: Texas, New Jersey; Early 20’s, Chinese, White-Collar, Straight
• Lewis: Texas, Late 20’s, Taiwanese, Postgraduate Student, Straight
Data Corpus Demographics
• 9 grew up in the Western region, 7 in the Midwest, 5 in the South and 2 in the Northeast.
Cumulatively, they have lived in 22 states throughout their lives.
• 8 were in their early 20s (21-23), 11 were in their mid-20s (24-26) and 4 were in their late 20s
(27-29). The mean age was 23.8.
• 2 were gay, which is fairly in line with the ratios of the overall population.
• With the exception of 3 interviewees who immigrated to the U.S. at age 3, all were born and
raised in America.
• 12 identified as Chinese, 3 as Taiwanese, 3 as Vietnamese, 1 as Filipino, 1 as Hmong, 1 as
Korean, 1 as half-Chinese and half-Korean, and 1 as mixed Vietnamese and Cambodian.
• Most of the interviewees were second-generation Asian-Americans, with their parents being
immigrants, except for 2 interviewees who each had one immigrant parent and one parent
who had grown up in the U.S.
• The sample contained 14 white-collar workers, 6 undergraduate students, and 3 postgraduate
students.
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