i agree: there is a bias in media in how asian maless are portrayed: if they’re not chop-chop-fooie mavens, who are otherwise helpless in the whiteman’s world, then they’re old school, old world, nasty, backward, crochety, misogynistic bastards. whichever portrayal the scriptwriters use, it’s a no-brainer that the asian male will NEVER speak english as “pretty” as his female asian counter part. has anyone ever heard lucy liu, or kelly hu’s, or ming na’s characters speak broken “engrish”? on nbc’s e.r., the only asian male is some bespectacled emasculated male nurse from the series’ earlier days. in recent seasons, the only asian male i’ve seen is ming na’s character’s father: portrayed as a old world, domineering, bigotted, male who can’t speak english anymore than he can see his daughter’s search and growth toward love and womanhood. in joy luck club, every asian male is an all out bastard/asshole or a wimpy man; but the sole white male played by andrew mccarthy is portrayed as flawed, but self aware and sensitive enought to be in “communion” w/ his asian wife — bittersweet, but desirable, nevertheless. see the pattern? asian woman, admirable, accomplished, enlightened, maybe struggling but has some redeeming character, or is at least the whiteman’s sex kitten/dominatrix. the asian man? well: bad, backwards, UNenlightened, unmanly, abuses women, emasculated, doesn’t assimilate into western society, and who’s chop-chop-fooie quotient is inversely proportional to his ability to speak english free of “flied-lice”, aka: accent.

so here’s my jacky chan reponse:

jackie chan, as a fellow asian male, i wanna like you but i can’t.

why?

while i recognize you’ve put in a incredible amount of work to gain your well deserved fame in asia, i haven’t seen you do the homework to figure out how your viewing audience here in the u.s. is different. please stop playing the hopeless helpless foreigner in the u.s., who’s only value to the plot is martial arts. i refuse to see another rush hour or shanghai noon where your character DOESN”T get the girl in the end. please GET THE GIRL in the end. did john wayne ever let his sidekck get the girl in the end? NO! and neither should your owen wilson’s character! what a kick in the teeth! show some self-respect please!

and your comment about marrying off shangainese women to foreigners, aka occidentals: naive. look around you, most western-loving asian women prefer caucasian males to the point that they REFUSE to date their own kind; equating such activities to be the same as dating their own brother “ewww!” — incest. [but when was the last time black or white women, wholesale, refuse to date their own?] the asian woman explains that caucasian males are more progressive than asian males, and are more willing to respect their autonomy, independence and development as individuals. your comment, only perpetuates asian women’s and western media’s proselytizing that asian males are undesireable as sex partners, life partners and alpha males at best, and misogynistic and tyranically patriarchal to the point of objectifying women at worst– which is what you’ve done w/ your comment/suggestion/public announcement.

one final suggestion: the next time you do a flick for the u.s. market, please get a modern haircut (i’ll give you my guy’s number), a director of photography who’ll shoot you the same way they shoot tom cruise, and make sure you insist on getting the girl in the end. that asian shyness thing, while cute in HK, is seen as wimpiness in the west, effectively emasculating you. don’t forget you represent the asian male to your western audiences.

thank you. [am i frustrated? yes. the only girls i date these days are white. but i wish i were a white male, so asian girls would fall all over themselves to date me]