"So, Do You Know Kung-Fu?"

Abstract

Movies are truly an amazing thing. Through a combination of sound and visual, a movie can transport people across time and space to experience different worldviews and cultures. Unfortunately, the worldviews and cultures expressed in movies are not always accurate and often influence offensive stereotypes. David Hwang of the New York Times makes this argument in his article "Are Movies ready for Real Orientals". As Hwang watched movies with Asian actors, he increasingly felt that these actors were depicted as foreign and not fitting into the mold of America.[1]By representing Asian Americans this way, filmmakers in Hollywood, intentionally or not, use the power of films to create the impression that Asians are perhaps too foreign to be American. In doing so, movies marginalize the Asian community, as it disregards Asian culture and instead pushes a false image of Asians as truth. By portraying Asians as one-dimensional characters that use martial arts and cannot speak proper English, Hollywood marginalizes the Asian community to nothing more than a stereotype in American culture.