The way, I see it Canada and the United States have two different approaches toward The Changing Face.
I was brought up in a time when institutional racism against the Chinese was alive and well. This made my parent’s generation heritage quite protective of who we were and my father used to say regularly, “Never forget you are a Chinese.” Thanks Dad – I look in the mirror and didn’t really think I looked anything like Morgan Freeman (although I am regularly mistaken for Tom Cruise.) Dad and his generation did that because they had to – Chinese were not completely trusted in North American society and the small community had to protect and build up each other.
To compound the difficulty, many couldn’t tell Japanese from Chinese and with memories of Pearl Harbor still fresh in the North American psyche, anyone with a yellow face was suspicious. As people from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and more from Asia immigrated, there was an ongoing difficulty with cultural adaptation that still exists for many today.
Why do I bring this up? It’s because today, Vietnamese, Thai, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Philippinos are lumped together in North America as “Asians.” What makes this crazy is that these peoples historically don’t really like each other. Heck, depending where you were from in China, one village didn’t like another, claiming the others were too haughty or boorish or whatever. You know what? Caucasians don’t hold an exclusive copyright on bigotry. Not even close.
Again, the question is, why do I bring this up? Because this has enormous implications for The Changing Face, especially in the media. In a film, one cannot simply cast any Asian for a role. More than just cultural differences, every group has a distinct look and there are many who will not forgive one ethnic group being cast for another. i.e. to the informed viewer, casting a Korean as a Chinese is as blatantly wrong as casting Antonio Banderas as a Swede. Now with a serious makeover, Banderas could transform into a Scandinavian and that’s the same kind of care that would be needed in transforming one Asian ethnic group into another, a care not normally taken because of the attitude, “Aren’t all Asians the same?”
(For those of you that doubt this, often when I go into a restaurant or supermarket, the waiter or clerk knows what dialect of Chinese to talk to me in - I have the "look" of a Cantonese. Sometimes, the clerk/waiter is astute enough to speak to me in English. I have the "look" of a North American Chinese from the Toisan district of Guangdong.)
This is why the North American concept of the “Asian American” really is a work-in-progress. Many North American-born Asians do not carry the same baggage as their overseas or older counterparts do and the commonality of similar skin colour is enough for them to consider each others a “bro.” They consider me a relic of the Stone Age when I try to explain that there are real differences and that need to be recognized. Canadians are more inclined to agree with this which gives rise to two different attitudes depending on which side of the 49th parallel we reside – the Canadian “multiculturalism” and the American concept of “melting pot.”
Each has its advantages and disadvantages but the important thing is to recognize, not that one or the other is “right” but there are two different philosophies at work here which are inherently in conflict with each other. Depending on who I’m speaking to, I have to adjust my personal outlook and it’s important that you do too because for those that care, that button is white hot.
A Chinese is a Chinese is a Chinese and a Japanese is a Japanese and both have not only Asian heritages but a history of enmity that goes back centuries. And by the time you throw in the traditional animosity of other Asian ethnic groups, you wonder how the countries manage to co-exist in the same general geographic area for so long.
But now that we’re in America, our kids go to the same school, we shop at the same stores, attend the same church, does that mean we’re one big happy “Asian American” family then? Hmmm. Just be careful because for some, not recognizing the differences is a deal-breaker and they aren’t necessarily wrong. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say we are going to “celebrate our differences” from one side of our mouth and then on the other say that “we’re all the same.”
Or are we the same but different?
Happy New Year Everybody - eh?
I was brought up in a time when institutional racism against the Chinese was alive and well. This made my parent’s generation heritage quite protective of who we were and my father used to say regularly, “Never forget you are a Chinese.” Thanks Dad – I look in the mirror and didn’t really think I looked anything like Morgan Freeman (although I am regularly mistaken for Tom Cruise.) Dad and his generation did that because they had to – Chinese were not completely trusted in North American society and the small community had to protect and build up each other.
To compound the difficulty, many couldn’t tell Japanese from Chinese and with memories of Pearl Harbor still fresh in the North American psyche, anyone with a yellow face was suspicious. As people from Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines and more from Asia immigrated, there was an ongoing difficulty with cultural adaptation that still exists for many today.
Why do I bring this up? It’s because today, Vietnamese, Thai, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and Philippinos are lumped together in North America as “Asians.” What makes this crazy is that these peoples historically don’t really like each other. Heck, depending where you were from in China, one village didn’t like another, claiming the others were too haughty or boorish or whatever. You know what? Caucasians don’t hold an exclusive copyright on bigotry. Not even close.
Again, the question is, why do I bring this up? Because this has enormous implications for The Changing Face, especially in the media. In a film, one cannot simply cast any Asian for a role. More than just cultural differences, every group has a distinct look and there are many who will not forgive one ethnic group being cast for another. i.e. to the informed viewer, casting a Korean as a Chinese is as blatantly wrong as casting Antonio Banderas as a Swede. Now with a serious makeover, Banderas could transform into a Scandinavian and that’s the same kind of care that would be needed in transforming one Asian ethnic group into another, a care not normally taken because of the attitude, “Aren’t all Asians the same?”
(For those of you that doubt this, often when I go into a restaurant or supermarket, the waiter or clerk knows what dialect of Chinese to talk to me in - I have the "look" of a Cantonese. Sometimes, the clerk/waiter is astute enough to speak to me in English. I have the "look" of a North American Chinese from the Toisan district of Guangdong.)
This is why the North American concept of the “Asian American” really is a work-in-progress. Many North American-born Asians do not carry the same baggage as their overseas or older counterparts do and the commonality of similar skin colour is enough for them to consider each others a “bro.” They consider me a relic of the Stone Age when I try to explain that there are real differences and that need to be recognized. Canadians are more inclined to agree with this which gives rise to two different attitudes depending on which side of the 49th parallel we reside – the Canadian “multiculturalism” and the American concept of “melting pot.”
Each has its advantages and disadvantages but the important thing is to recognize, not that one or the other is “right” but there are two different philosophies at work here which are inherently in conflict with each other. Depending on who I’m speaking to, I have to adjust my personal outlook and it’s important that you do too because for those that care, that button is white hot.
A Chinese is a Chinese is a Chinese and a Japanese is a Japanese and both have not only Asian heritages but a history of enmity that goes back centuries. And by the time you throw in the traditional animosity of other Asian ethnic groups, you wonder how the countries manage to co-exist in the same general geographic area for so long.
But now that we’re in America, our kids go to the same school, we shop at the same stores, attend the same church, does that mean we’re one big happy “Asian American” family then? Hmmm. Just be careful because for some, not recognizing the differences is a deal-breaker and they aren’t necessarily wrong. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say we are going to “celebrate our differences” from one side of our mouth and then on the other say that “we’re all the same.”
Or are we the same but different?
Happy New Year Everybody - eh?
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