‘Broken Trail’ and stereotypes of helpless Asian women
JM (a new MMW guest contributor!)
Broken Trail, a mini-series on AMC, is the story of two cowboys who become the reluctant guardians of five Chinese women who have been smuggled into the US. There is focus on the reality of Chinese Immigrants in 19th century America (i.e. that a number of women were smuggled and sexually exploited in the US), and even a budding romance between one the cowboys and the oldest of the five Chinese women.
Although its always nice to see something different, there are some cracks in the mini-series. For one, the five Chinese women seem helpless. They look up to the two cowboys as their saviors, and are almost always in need of rescuing.
I understand that this is meant to show their desperation in an alien country, however, it would have been fitting to show some type of personal strength in these women. One woman was raped repeatedly and then committed suicide by hurling herself into a stampede.
Although grim, and perhaps real, Broken Trail enforces a stereotype that an Asian woman is helpless and useful for only sexual purposes. This of course, does not ring true for every American production with Asian characters, but in Broken Trail there are moments in the series where it does more than raise a few eyebrows.
gatamala wrote:
I saw the trailer for this and almost barfed. Shit, can’t someone just do a movie about Chinese women on the frontier being human beings? Who’s writing/consulting? I bet there’s not one Chinese/Chinese-American female consultant on the payroll! Unless, it’s Amy Tan! (snicker, I’m such a bitch)
& the shame/suicide thing…has there ever been a movie about Asian/Asian-Ams that did NOT have a suicide in it? A stampede! What drama, for fuck’s sake!!! Like a Chinese woman would never cut the bastard’s throat.
Posted 11 Jul 2006 at 12:52 pm ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:
Yeah no surprise that this, why even bother unless you are a big Walter Hill fan.
Y’all ever notice how many times when Hollywood/Burbank focus on foreign women (usually from Asian countries) the focus is on how Western society (white men in particular) can help “free” them from opressive patriarchy in their sending countries? When it’s a man (like, oh, any martial arts star) coming to the states, the trade is more equal. The American teaches the “other” how to live it up, and in return, he must learn some fortune cookie philosphy (or the ever popular honor and discipline).
Posted 11 Jul 2006 at 2:27 pm ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:
I can not spell, sorry, but I do tend to have to rush these replies.
Posted 11 Jul 2006 at 2:28 pm ¶
Barbara wrote:
I watched this mini-series and I liked it. Yes, the girls seemed helpless, but when you consider that the oldest one was maybe 17 and the rest were children of about 12 or 14, then the helplessness made sense. It’s not that they’re helpless because they’re women or Asian women, it’s that they’re helpless because they’re children. I also appreciated that the romantic or stereotypical notions of the Old West were taken off, especially in consideration to women, as Nola Johns’ explanation of how she ended up as a prostitute demonstrated. No there wasn’t a lot of room to show a lot of characterization with the girls — that was one of several things I didn’t like in the mini-series, at 4 hours you’d think they’d have put in fewer shots of the horses and a few more scenes of interaction between the characters — but there were some indications of strength shown between the girls as they tried to protect one another as best as they could. All in all, I found Broken Trail to be a cinematic example of why I don’t play the “If I had a time machine and could go back in time, where would I go?” game. As an American haafu and a woman besides, my life would have been pretty damn shitty. That’s the way it was, and I don’t hang with the people who’d like to go back to the good ol’ days. I rarely see any Asian faces on TV, so I was happy to see this movie. Wasn’t perfect, but it’s something, and when considering the movie’s setting, I thought it made as much sense as it could without going over the line. Much as I’d liked to have seen a movie of how five Asian girls conquered their fate in the American outback, I’m not unhappy with Broken Trail for showing that life in the Old West sucked if you weren’t a white male. The end.
Posted 11 Jul 2006 at 5:00 pm ¶
larry wrote:
I saw the series. Loved it. Ok, these chinese women don’t represent asian or chinese women in general or even that lived at the time. It is one story about a situation and that was included in the situation. You know, the caucasian women involved were all whores or managed whores. Why don’t you object to the limited role caucasian women had in this story? Aren’t you concerned that everyone will perceive caucasian women as being associated only with this based on this one movie?
Stories are told - people are described and one movie or one tale does not tell it all - just one event or time in history - by the way, the events it did portray were based on a true story (fact) and the remaining chinese women achieved well for themselves. Imagine that!
Posted 09 Aug 2006 at 8:17 pm ¶
Janet wrote:
“Why don’t you object to the limited role caucasian women had in this story? Aren’t you concerned that everyone will perceive caucasian women as being associated only with this based on this one movie?”
Because you have to view this in the context of all the other films out there.
There are numerous films and tv shows with white women who are not prostitutes.
But the vast majority of all US films feature asian women as foreign, exotic, sex objects who needs some western man to come save them from their oppressive culture.
Posted 26 Aug 2006 at 11:43 pm ¶
Gordon wrote:
This is a great movie - period! The movie brings up the issue of the abuse of chinese women that were often brought over to our mining camps (gold, silver, etc.) as slaves and eventually prostitutes. Some though became wives.
The days of the mining camps not only demoralized chinese women, but any woman. Apparently no one that has posted a response thus far is much of an historian of the old west especially the western trade, overland trail, and mining camps eras. If you were you would understand!
Posted 08 Sep 2006 at 9:33 pm ¶