Asian American stereotypes
Asian American stereotypes have evolved over time and are deeply rooted in historical contexts of immigration, prejudice, and cultural representation. Initially, Asian immigrants, particularly Chinese laborers in the 19th century, were depicted as a threat to the American workforce, often blamed for economic hardships faced by white workers. This sentiment was fueled by derogatory terms and discriminatory laws aimed at limiting their presence in the U.S. Over the years, stereotypes persisted, with subsequent waves of immigrants from Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia facing similar challenges in being regarded as assimilable Americans.
By the late 20th century, a new stereotype emerged portraying Asian Americans as "smart achievers," linked to higher educational levels and household incomes compared to the general population. This stereotype has led to both admiration and resentment, contributing to tensions in urban communities. Popular culture has also played a significant role in perpetuating stereotypes, such as the "dragon lady" and the misconception that all Asians are skilled in martial arts. These portrayals often overlook the diversity and individuality within the Asian American community, highlighting the need for a nuanced understanding of their experiences. Overall, Asian American stereotypes illustrate a complex interplay of societal perceptions and the historical context of immigration.
Asian American stereotypes
SIGNIFICANCE: In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Asian immigrants and their offspring were often called a threat to the American standard of living and were viewed by White Americans as a group that could not be assimilated. In the latter part of the twentieth century, there were millions of Americans of Asian ancestry in the United States; however, some of the old attitudes persisted: Many fourth-generation Asian Americans were identified as Asian (Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean, and so on) rather than as “American.”
Prejudices against the First Chinese Immigrants
The Chinese, who first immigrated to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century, were willing to work for low wages, which got them jobs but also made them the objects of white workers’ jealousy and anger. On the West Coast, especially California where many of the immigrants had settled, many white workers blamed Chinese immigrants for their economic woes. They called the Chinese laborers “coolies,” a derogatory term, and claimed that they were of inferior character and could not be assimilated into American culture. This general climate of blame coupled with the desire of white nativists to limit immigration, and many discriminatory laws (such as the 1862 California law, an Act to Protect Free White Labor Against Competition from Chinese Coolie Labor) were passed against the Chinese immigrants. Many of these laws were later employed against immigrants from other Asian countries. As the Chinese immigrants moved beyond California, White workers in area after area spoke out against them, claiming that their willingness to work for meager wages would ruin all Americans’ standard of living. In 1885, in Rock Springs, Wyoming, a White mob drove Chinese workers out of town and burned their homes, killing twenty-eight Chinese immigrants in the process.
Transfer of Prejudice
Although the Chinese were excluded from immigration by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, other Asians—Japanese, Koreans, and Indians—did arrive in the United States. From 1900 to 1910, about 100,000 Japanese came to the West Coast. These immigrants tended to be better educated than the earlier Chinese immigrants had been. Nevertheless, White Americans on the West Coast, particularly in California, expressed alarm at their arrival, again claiming that the Japanese could never be assimilated into American society. The press and politicians claimed that a Japanese invasion was taking place and began to speak of the “Yellow Peril,” which they said posed a threat to the American way of life and might result in the United States being taken over by the Japanese.
In 1924, Congress passed an Immigration Act that barred nearly all immigration from Asia. Only Filipinos were allowed to immigrate because as citizens of the Philippines, they could become US citizens. However, during the late 1920s and during the Depression of the 1930s, trade unions wanted Filipino immigration banned, claiming the Filipino laborers’ willingness to work cheaply was undercutting the American standard of living. Filipinos were called a “mongrel stream” that could not be assimilated. Union members urged the government to ship Filipinos back to the Philippines.
Japanese Americans During World War II
By the time Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, two generations of Japanese Americans were living in the United States and Canada: the Issei, the original immigrants, and their children, the Nisei. Some Japanese American families had lived in North America for more than fifty years. Nevertheless, both the Canadian and the United States governments assumed that these Japanese Americans would not be loyal to them and placed 120,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps until the end of World War II.
Views of Asians after World War II
Immigrants who came to the United States under the quota system, established by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, also known as the McCarran-Walter Act, were often professionals, tending to be more affluent than earlier immigrants and far less likely to live in ethnic enclaves such as Chinatowns or Koreatowns. This new group of professional immigrants and their offspring gave the United States a new Asian American stereotype—the smart achiever.
In 1965, the quota system was abolished, allowing much more immigration from Asia. In the mid-1970s, large numbers of people from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam entered as refugees from the conflict in Southeast Asia. Many of these people, particularly the Hmong from Laos, were uneducated. Political leaders began to object to the entrance of refugees, claiming that their education and skill levels made it difficult for them to assimilate because they could not learn to read and write in English. It was also claimed that they took jobs away from Americans. Such stereotyping contributed to the English-only movement and passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.
Stereotypes and Resentment
In the last decade of the twentieth century, household incomes for Asian American families and educational levels for Asian American adults were generally higher than those of the general American population. New resentments and stereotypes emerged. In the cities, this resentment was often directed toward shop owners and landlords of Asian ancestry. These shop owners were often stereotyped as mercenary and racist, particularly by some blacks, such as the Nation of Islam’s Louis Farrakhan, who likened the affluent Asian Americans to the Jewish landlords and shop owners of the mid-twentieth century. This resentment was also portrayed in Spike Lee’s movie Do the Right Thing (1989), which foreshadowed some of the violence directed toward shop owners of Korean ancestry during the Los Angeles riots of 1992.
According to the 2010 US Census, the Asian population grew at a faster rate than any other group in the country between 2000 and 2010. In those ten years, the number of Asian Americans increased by 43 percent. The majority of Asian Americans continued to live in the Western part of the country, with the Chinese population the largest Asian group in the country. According to the Institute of Education Sciences, the number of Asians in US colleges and universities rose from 2 percent to 6 percent from 1976 to 2011, with students of Asian heritage making up 35 percent to 40 percent of the student bodies at some universities in the University of California system. This situation has sometimes created resentment against Asian Americans and placed pressure on young Asian Americans to conform to the stereotype of Asian Americans as superior students.
The US Census Bureau estimated that there were 24 million Asian Americans living in the United States in 2021. Between 2000 and 2019, the population of single-race, non-Hispanic Asian Americans had increased by 81 percent, making them the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the nation.
Asian Americans in Popular Culture
Asian American stereotypes are also common in the media and popular culture. The dragon lady stereotype, for instance, is inspired by a female character in Terry and the Pirates, a US comic strip that was first published in 1934. Dragon Lady is a deceitful and mysterious villain who uses her sexuality as a power to seduce men and to get what she wants. Since then, many Asian women have portrayed characters, in film and television, with those characteristics.
Another Asian American stereotype portrayed in the media and popular culture is that all Asians know kung fu. Although Asian cinema is a fan of martial arts, this does not mean all Asians know kung fu—like it is often portrayed in Hollywood films, including The Tuxedo (2002) and The Karate Kid (2010).
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