Awkwafina Made History. Her Oscar Snub Means A Lot.

As Hollywood and movie fanatics woke up to the announcement of the 92nd Academy Award nominations on January 13th, there was one notable actress who’s name was not heard during the Best Actress category. Awkwafina, born Nora Lum, a New York native, broke her comedian persona and took the lead of one of the most powerful and heart-wrenching films of 2019. The Farewell, written and directed by Chinese-American filmmaker Lulu Wang, was revelatory and groundbreaking in many ways. Not just for the all Asian cast and its lead actress’s breakthrough performance, but also for what it represented to many Asian-Americans. The film signified the importance of being in touch with your roots and understanding the necessity of familial ties even while living miles away. It addressed and unravelled the truth that many of us needed to hear. While this isn’t Awkwafina’s first film role (she also starred in the record-breaking Crazy Rich Asians in 2018), this performance pushed her acting ability to lengths no one had known of. In the beginning of January, she was awarded with a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. The film was also nominated in the Best Foreign Film category. Herself, and the film, have been nominated for a slew of other awards this season. Which is why, early morning on the 13th, many began to question as to why the film received no nominations for the penultimate award, the Oscars, and why Awkwafina, who just weeks ago won a Golden Globe, was not nominated. Her snub and the Academy’s failure to recognize the film means a lot more than you think...and truly means a lot to all of us Asian-Americans who began to believe that Hollywood was on the cusp of a transformation.

With the success of Crazy Rich Asians, Asians ultimately had a big-budget, studio-backed Hollywood film which properly portrayed cultural nuisances that those belonging to the ethnic community could relate to. The film’s fantastic run at the box office finally suppressed the discussion of visibility of Asians and Asian-Americans in popular culture. Furthermore, the success of shows such as The Mindy Project, Master of None and Fresh Off The Boat, increased the much-needed visibility of Asians in media. However, as Luc Pham mentions in his article, “Asian Representation: The Visibility Issue in Hollywood” (2018) that “following the massive success of Jon M. Chu’s rom-com juggernaut ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, we have to make sure not to fall victim to complacency - one movie can’t magically solve this hundred-year-old problem…’Crazy Rich Asians’ was not the solution for representation; it was the start of visibility.” With actors such as Awkwafina, Constance Wu, Henry Golding and Priyanka Chopra Jonas gaining prominence in Hollywood and receiving substantial roles, the question becomes: is it enough? And if it is enough and these actors are getting acclaim for their talent, where is the recognition from the Hollywood elite and authority?

What films like The Farewell and Crazy Rich Asians have done is something that Hollywood for years has had difficulty in executing. These films have showcased Asian characters as normal, everyday people as opposed the over-exaggerated, stereotype-laden characters from before. Historically, Asians have been typecasted as the comical supporting character, a “dragon lady”, a cab driver, a convenience store owner, or the most problematic of them all, as the model minority. A concept penned in 1966 by New York Times Magazine columnist William Peterson, the model minority was used to describe Asian-Americans who have achieved success in the United States, albeit, still facing intense marginalization. It was primarily used by the media in order to showcase the proper qualities that all minority groups in the country should have: successful, smart and subservience. While being depicted as a fairly well-educated group might not, on the surface level, seem like an issue, the idea of Asian-Americans adhering to the model minority stereotype has seeped into films and television as well, where an Asian character will be shown as the quiet and reclusive nerd and taken into consideration only for comedic purposes. Isabel Paner, in her essay, “The Marginalization and Stereotyping of Asians in American Film” (2018), notes that “by portraying Asians in a certain way, the audience comes to see Asians as this stereotype if they are not exposed to any other more realistic role”. Both The Farewell and Crazy Rich Asians have managed to brilliantly move past that and present Asian characters as regular people you would see in any other film. This normalization is important in order to further increase the visibility and representation of Asians in a positive light.

The past few years, and if the trajectory is expected to sustain, Asian representation in popular culture is finally here in full force. That being said, it is also time for Hollywood to award and recognize the Asian talent that are slowly becoming household names. Awkwafina’s win at this year’s Golden Globe awards made history; she was the first woman of Asian descent to win the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Just the previous year, Constance Wu was the first woman of Asian descent to be nominated in the same category. Despite the win and the nomination, neither actress was nominated for the most coveted award, the Oscars. With the cast of Parasite being the first foreign film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, Asian representation is at the highest it’s ever been. Although, these moments are still too sperse and too far apart. The reason behind this could be that not many Asian-Americans are being pushed towards pursuing a career in the arts, further adhering to the model minority stereotype. In her essay, “Media Representation of Asian Americans and Asian Native New Yorkers’ Hybrid Persona” (2016), Min Huh comments on the lack of Asian-Americans being encouraged to pursue a career in the arts and that there is a preference for “social mobility and high-income professions” among Asian immigrant parents. As a solution Huh states that “as third and fourth generation Asisan Americans pursue a place in the creative and entertainment worlds, they also have to secure an independent stage in which they can represent themselves freely without society trying to pigeonhole them into stereotypical representations” (2016).

Additionally, the amount of Asian actors does not mirror the population in the United States and the amount of Asian actors who have speaking roles in films, does not represent the number of Asian actors currently working in the industry. In 2015, USC Annenberg’s Media, Diversity, Social Change & Inclusion report provided stats of the presence of Asians within Hollywood. The report notes that between 2007 to 2014, only 5.3% of the top 100 films had any Asian actors, with over 40% of the top 100 films having no Asians with speaking roles. In 2014, the top 100 films had less than 2% of Asian actors in leading roles. With the Asian population slowly growing to become the largest minority in the United States and the biggest population per geographical space in the world, the ratio of Asian actors in films is still inadequate.

With Asian actors steadily growing prominence in Hollywood, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Nevertheless, Hollywood still has a long way to go. The more Asian characters are present in films, the easier it will be to normalize diversity. With Awkwafina making history with her win at the Golden Globes, her Oscar nomination could have pushed more Asian-Americans to go after a career in acting. The Academy of Arts and Sciences not acknowledging her powerful performance (or even the film itself) suggests that the highest ranking body in Hollywood does not find Asian stories or characters important to discuss. In fact, since the first Oscars back in 1929, less than 1% of nominations have included Asian-Americans. Let’s hope that they learn their lesson soon enough.

Sources:

Force, T. L. (2018, November 6). Why Do Asian-Americans Remain Largely Unseen in Film and Television? Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/t-magazine/asian-american-actors-representation.html

Huh, Min, "Media Representation of Asian Americans and Asian Native New Yorkers’ Hybrid Persona" (2016). CUNY Academic Works.

Paner, Isabel, "The Marginalization and Stereotyping of Asians in American Film" (2018). Honors Theses and Capstone Projects. 36.

Pham, L. (2018, December 7). Asian Representation: The Visibility Issue in Hollywood. Retrieved from http://drakemagazine.com/features/asian-representation-the-visibility-issue-in-hollywood/

Wo, Emily, "Beyond the Color Line: Asian American Representations in the Media" (2012). Scripps Senior Theses. Paper 114.

Yang, H. (2017). Retrieved from https://sites.duke.edu/bakerscholars/files/2017/02/Yang_AsianAmericanMediaRepresentation.pdf