First Black Panther, now Crazy Rich Asians: how Hollywood minority voices are going mainstream

Reading Time:2 minutes

Actors Steven Yeun, Jae Suh Park, Randall Park, Daniel Dae Kim and leading man Henry Golding attend the premiere of Crazy Rich Asians, in Hollywood on August 7. Photo: AFP

Published: 5:03pm, 3 Sep 2018Updated: 7:18pm, 3 Sep 2018

The Hollywood movie Crazy Rich Asians has become a whirlwind, sweeping across America and spreading to the rest of the world, with Hong Kong also caught up in it. The movie, which just led the North American box office for a third straight weekend, has received not only some great word of mouth praise from movie-goers but also criticism about over-generalising the Singaporean identity as being Chinese while neglecting its multicultural dimension.

Over the past few years, we have grown used to seeing more unfamiliar faces of colour play leading roles on screen. Media reports suggest that Crazy Rich Asians is not just a movie but also part of a movement, and I agree. In spite of the criticism of underrepresentation, I believe that we are witnessing a change in global cinema, in which overlooked minorities are making their voices heard.

After a long wait of 25 years, since The Joy Luck Club in 1993, we finally have another Hollywood movie with a full Asian cast, portraying an Asian-American girl who has a hard time dealing with her boyfriend’s extremely wealthy family. Central to the movie is a set of Chinese values, including filial piety and a family-first policy, a lot of which have to do with Confucianism.

Anna May Wong, considered Hollywood’s first Chinese-American star, failed to win the leading role in the film version of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth (1937). Photo: Handout

Critics who say that the movie fails to represent a truly multicultural Singapore and reproduces the “Chinese supremacy” ideology may be right; underrepresentation is always difficult to avoid. If we blend too many different cultural elements into one movie, it will lose focus and its audience.

What the movie does do is tell us that it is possible for everyone to be represented in mainstream media, regardless of their race.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x