Saw this post by Phillip at offendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com. I found it through TMM who found it through AAM, and now it’s here on BW (oh wow, I didn’t realize that my site has the same initials as my name. Wow.) In the post, Phillip mentions the protests against Ken Jeong–I’ll admit that I haven’t been following this one–and he mentions how he feels that these protest “victories” are not really victories at all, and that real change will come when Asian Americans start supporting Asian American arts with their dollars. The blog post is interesting, as are the comments that follow.
Overall, I agree with Phillip and many of the commenters. I agree that things won’t change until we start paying, and I agree with his statement that a lot that comes from independent Asian American media “sucks.” BLT was an okay movie, but it wasn’t great. The Debut was horrible. Yellow was beyond horrible. I couldn’t even finish One Hundred Percent, despite the fact that Tamlyn was in it. I’ve financially supported all of these (although I had to see most through DVD, since Portland doesn’t always get these movies in theaters.)
I’ve said this from day one, and I still agree with myself 
–the problem is the writing. If we improve the writing, if we work to improve our depth of vision by studying and developing writing, everything else will fall into place. While I think that things could change by having Asian Americans throw more money at independent film, I don’t think I would ever ask people to spend money on film that sucks. That’s not what capitalism is about (oh, that sounded bad…). If we improve the stories, I think we could produce films that don’t suck. And if our films didn’t suck, maybe people would attend because of the great stories rather than just solidarity.
So how do we get proactive? I think we can get more stories by sharing more stories. We’ve got real life people with interesting stories. We just need to start sharing them.
Related posts:
But here is an...
Interesting articles you linked to.
Whenever AA’s specualte about what can be done to take control of their image in media Tyler Perry’s name inevitably comes up. I’ll put my dislike for him aside in this case since I think there might actually be an instructive lesson in his success for AA’s to study.
Tyler Perry started off in his native Atlanta. When he was able to build a loyal fanbase he also found out how to refine (if such a term can be applied to anyhting Perry-related) his show, and keep the people coming back.
Only after he had conquered Atlanta and proved to himself that he could consistenly get enthusiatic first-time business and regular repeat business did he decide to take his show on the road.
Could he have tried to go from Atlanta straigth to Hollywood? Sure, but he would have had FAR less name recogintion, which meant less control of any movie that got made, and less of a chance anyone would risk millions on him anyway.
So instead Perry took his show nationwide, he went to the black cities, and palces with sizeable black enclaves.
After a few years he had a nationwide following. Not a huge one, but one big enough to give him clout in L.A. and big enough for him to build on. His movie Diary of a Mad Black woman debuted at number 2, second only to Will Smith’s “Hitch.” Hey, coming in a CLOSE #2 against the biggest star on the planet ain’t shabby.
Now, is Tyler Perry a buffoon? Of course. Do his films suck ass? Certainly!
But the same could be said of Judd Apatow or Kevin Smith. But like Perry, these two men also know who they’re selling to long before they even make a movie. Their fanbase (and let’s be clear, an “audience” is not the same as a fanbase) has been well cultivated and regardless of whether a primary audience thinks Perry, Apatow, Smith’s work is any good they’ve created a large enough following of people who are satisfied with their work that they don’t have to chase after a general audience.
Today Seattle, tomorrow the world!
That’s actually a pretty good business strategy, you know.
Because when reading these articles/blogs about why it seems AA’s can’t get the “community” to turn out and “support” this or that new film, the one thing I noticed nobody’s talked about is starting local. They barely pay lip service to it, as if it would take too long. Well, that’s the way black filmmakers did it. From Perry to Spike Lee.
Without building local going nationwide is an exercise in self-delusion. By that I mean, if you can’t get the AA community in say Portland (or Seattle, LA, SanFran, or wherver there’s a large AA community) then what chance do you have of making a ‘breakout” film to the whole country? Zero!
I would advocate copying Perry’s marketing scheme. Master a large local market and get AA’s there to watch AA-centered movies. Word WILL spread, especially if the movies are “noisy” –that is to say edgy and ambitious. Get people to show up, and make the movies good enough where they want to come back.
Only then does it make sense to start talking about nationwide releases.
As an example. When Melvin Van Peebles, (the father of Mario van Peebles) made his first movie back in the 70′s, the blaxploitation “Sweet Sweetback’s Badaaaaasss Song,” he called on his contacts in the Black Panthers (Melvin van Peebles had been one of the Black Panthers, and made the movie about them during the 90′s) in Detroit and got them to support the film. They did, and did repeat business. They also talked to blacks in other cities, like Philly, New York, etc. The movie was made on less than a shoestring budget, but it made a huge profit considering it’s miniscule production costs.
And like Perry would do 30 years later van Peeble’s “audience” of black moviegoers wanted to see a black protagonist shoot cops talk back to white people and (and this is where the film pays off all their expectations) get away with it in the end.
Blacks were tired of every defiant black protagonist since John Henry ALWAYS dying in the end. No surprise these stories were all written, and pushed by whties.
And we knew why these stories always ended with the black man dead. To make the narrative point that you could defy white people but you would always pay for it in the end.
Well Sweetback didn’t!
Sweetback’s “success” put the lie to the Holloywood canard that blacks couldn’t make movies and that movies about blacks coudln’t make money because people “wanted” to see black as slaves or not at all.
It’s success also prompted a feeding frenzy in Tinseltown, and jumpstarted the “blaxploitation” flicks. But that’s another issue altogether.
Asking AA’s to support a film out of some sense of ethinc solidarity/pride is like asking your friends to plunk down their hard earned cash at your lemonade stand even if the juice tastes like piss.
There’s no substitute for a worthwhile product.
Also, AA’s have been conditioned to think (and want) to be the “model minority.” In America that means “honorary whites.” So to many (most?) of them, just as they avoid making contact with other Asians at white social gatherings perhaps this behavior will also carry over to movies. Only an Asian person can answer this (not being Asian I sure as hell can’t and probably am speaking out of turn to even speculate) but does it make AA’s feel self-conscious to deliberately go see an AA film?
We already know that for whites seeing all those Asian faces staring back at them is HIGHLY unconfortable, but have Asians by and large taken on this mentality too, even if it’s only passive?
Assimilation by association.
Of course I could totally wrong about all of this and probably am, though I don’t think so. I saw a slogan in a business magazine once. It went something like “Act local, Think global.”
You ask me, that would be a winning strategy for changing this whole Asians in movies equation.
BTW, I’m well aware than the comparison of Asian American viewing habits to African American doesn’t mesh on all fronts. AfrAmericans tend to watch FAR more TV and partake in vastly more media diversions than any other demo (this is NOTHING to be proud of, BTW) but that is part of the reason why Afr Americans although only the 3rd largest ethnic demo in the country still have the studios ears.
Asian American viewing habits will also have to change if they expect to make the suits change their ways. Right now studio execs can say that Asians aren’t avid movie goers so it makes no sense to make a film geared toward them because even if it’s a great film AA’s simply won’t turn out to support it. And that those who complain about this are only a fringe. Even if it’s only rhetoric it SOUNDS plausible to a casual listener.
There’s a few hurtles AA’s have to overcome in the movie game. Studying the example of African Americans is a good movie. But make sure that you study what truly made black filmmakers efforts work. Only then will you have a solid roadmap forward.
Also, AA’s have been conditioned to think (and want) to be the “model minority.” In America that means “honorary whites.” So to many (most?) of them, just as they avoid making contact with other Asians at white social gatherings perhaps this behavior will also carry over to movies. Only an Asian person can answer this (not being Asian I sure as hell can’t and probably am speaking out of turn to even speculate) but does it make AA’s feel self-conscious to deliberately go see an AA film?
We already know that for whites seeing all those Asian faces staring back at them is HIGHLY unconfortable, but have Asians by and large taken on this mentality too, even if it’s only passive?
Assimilation by association.”
There is certainly this category of Asian American, although I don’t call them Asian. I call them Orientals.
Though they will it deny till Doomsday, this group is ashamed to be Asian. At best, they have an ambivalent attitude to most Asian American culture because it is too “ethnic” (i.e. embarassing) and reminds them of what they are trying to erase.
For instance, they often say they prefer to watch movies with a more “Universal Theme” instead of narrow ethnic work. But this is another disingenous argument, as “universal” is largely political code for “White Mainstream perspective.”
Whiteness=Universal, in their outlook. One can actually see this perspective in some of the comments on that website that Jaehwan cited above.
http://youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com/hollywood-and-asians-why-protests-alone-won%E2%80%99t-change-anything/
Then, there is another category of Asian American. I call them the
“I-am-Asian-When-It-Benefits-Me” Asian American.
This group is not so openly embarrassed about being Asian. Instead, they are opportunists. They are more than happy to “trumpet their Asianness”–when they can benefit from it in some way.
Not a few Asian American artists fit into this category. They will embrace their Asian identity if they feel it can advance their career; promote their book/film/band/song/TV show; or extract support from the Asian American community in general.
But when the shit hits the fan, and they have to take a “controversial” stand to support the community, this category of Asian American suddenly ain’t so Asian anymore….
Neutral,
That is brilliant. I think you’re right. The road to success could very well be the actual road–going around your own local town, shaking hands with local people, and getting people to buy in. I’m guessing that the excuse for not starting local would be that there is more money with a national distribution, but I think you’re right–it’s better to make sure things are right at home first. For Asian Americans who live in LA/Hollywood, you could shake hands with all the Asian Americans in your hood. I’m sure they’ll support your film if they know you’re real.
As you mention, N.O., it’s also a two way street. By getting to know your audience and allowing your audience to know you, you can refine your art. You can know what’s real because people will let you know. This might be the “quality” problem that we’re talking about. Many many many times I’ll watch an AA film and wonder where the filmmaker imagined the world he is portraying. I remember watching the Debut where one character says something like “Yo man, you still brown.” I remember thinking to myself, “NO ONE talks like that.” By actually relating to people, they could see where their art is right and wrong.
I think this is similar to what Wong Fu is doing. They supplement their online activities with their college tours. It’s good business to constantly stay in front of your audience, and you learn from your audience.
I supported Better Luck Tomorrow, and while the lemonade didn’t quite taste like piss, it wasn’t the greatest. Was it worth supporting? To me, yes. But I can see how that movie would not appeal to most viewers. My date that night didn’t think it was too good, and it wasn’t just because of the dark genre. The story just lacked introspection. It never slowed down. It was as if the car was in overdrive the whole way down the hill, if that makes sense.
Maybe this is where the internet could come into play. If we use it to bring people together offline, maybe it could help us create better art, as well as better support for art.
Larry and N.O.,
Maybe we can transform those Orientals into Asians by bringing them together. If they spent enough time with fellow yellows, maybe they wouldn’t be so squirmy in their seats when they see us!
Regarding building a fanbase in an Asian American community I would imagine that there are additional hurdles such as community identity. When you market/sell something to someone you’re most successful when you give them something they “want” or “need”. (how they get conditioned to “want” something is a byproduct of advertising, society, etc.) . If you look at the Asian American community is there a solid enough identity to draw from that you could create a movie that would strongly appeal to that 15 million of AAs as the article mentions? What kind of elements would it take to have even 10% spend money on a ticket? What would appeal to 2nd generation Vietnamese Americans versus 3rd generation Japanese Americans versus versus 3rd generation Chinese Americans? What stories and visual elements can you weave together to make appealing to such different ethnic groups?
Certainly, you don’t have to have a story that necessarily speaks to the cultural elements of each different ethnic group in the AA community, but you have to have elements that speak to something. Some elements are easier than other. For example, AA community’s most prominent “want” is representation in media. Thus, having Asian American leads is key to any film that wants to even BEGIN to appeal to the AA community. Along with that, quality of the roles is just as important.
But then you go into story elements of the film. In terms of themes, what themes would appeal? The theme of being marginalized in a society? What about pursuing and achieving the ‘American Dream’ despite all obstacles? If you had a film that focused only on the former, I think you would alienate a good chunk of the AA community that doesn’t necessarily share that “marginalized” experience (you can blame assimilation, youthful apathy, money, education, etc. –it’s still a fact) and it would be easily pigeonholed as an “indie” movie. You could however do a movie on the latter, because as my former math teacher advised for my graduation speech, “people love to hear a success story”. And doing a movie on pursuing and achieving the ‘American Dream’ does not necessarily have to be at odds with themes of being marginalized, etc. How you craft all these elements together is certainly going to come down to writing as Jaehwan pointed out. It is no wonder that with such difficulties and obstacles it would be easier to make a “universal” story like Slumdog Millionaire and have a well known directors and writers bring it together. But has Slumdog Millionaire made Hollywood hungry to greenlight films with Indian cast members or just hungry to greenlight the next Danny Boyle film?
Like Neutral also pointed out, you’ve got to build it up based on something. Tyler Perry used his comedy routines, shows, etc. to build a fanbase. This fanbase is similar in at least two regards: most of them were black and they ALL wanted anything Tyler Perry-related.
Flip back to the Asian American community. Is there anyone or anything even remotely similar to the Tyler Perry-scenario? Bruce is long gone, Russell Wong kinda tried. Hopefully there is something out there that people just haven’t really heard of.
To me, I think it still all goes back to the perception of a weak community identity/cohesion/unity. Because in all honesty, what do Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Burmese, Thai, etc. Americans have in common? That we’re not white and we’re perceived to be weak in this society?
Ed, your points are truly thought-provoking. Perhaps there is no Tyler Perry in the AA community, but maybe that’s a good thing. You can find someone who isn’t a buffoon.
I would like someone to tell me though, has anyone actually ASKED the different Asian American groups if they REFUSE to see a movie starring another Asian sub-group?
I mean lack of enthusiasm is one thing, but if you’re saying for example that Korean Americans are outright hostile against movies that don’t star them (and not say just against Asians of Japanese descent), then geez that’s a real problem then.
“…Larry and N.O., Maybe we can transform those Orientals into Asians by bringing them together. If they spent enough time with fellow yellows, maybe they wouldn’t be so squirmy in their seats when they see us!…”
Why not just transform them into AZNS?
Coz inside every brainwashed “Oriental” is an apathetic “Asian” and inside every “Asian” is a repressed “AZN which is struggling to rise up and create their destiny…..
Jaysmack–
“I would like someone to tell me though, has anyone actually ASKED the different Asian American groups if they REFUSE to see a movie starring another Asian sub-group?”
While it is not unlikely that hostilities between Asian ethnic groups exist and can at times be a problem, I think the larger problem is not defining the situations that can keep certain ethnic groups in AA community apart as trying to understand what can bring the AA community together. Also, I would imagine that tensions between ethnic groups would decrease among their younger, American borne generations. I would at least certainly hope so.
Almost all the Asian American created movies out there tend to be just as stereotypical as something Hollywood would have churned out.