Asian Representation and Black Beauty
By Emma Federer
The new Netflix original series, Hollywood, is well-crafted fictional work that features the true story of Anna May Wong. Through the series, Wong is finally being appreciated, represented, and seen for her work in Hollywood in the 1950’s. This new trend of giving recognition and credit to underrepresented minorities through history could be ingraining diversity into the beauty community, and the world’s media, as the norm.
There have been amazing productions such as Crazy Rich Asians, The Farewell, and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before that are normalizing Asians and Asian Americans on screen. However, the true story of this talented-Chinese American actress 1 is told in the new Ryan Murphy show. Anna May Wong starred in the first technicolor movie, The Toll of the Sea (based on the opera Madame Butterfly). She played many supporting roles such as Princess Tiger Lily in the silent adaptation of Peter Pan. However, she was also forced into small roles that fetishized her culture. The prohibition of interraical couples on screen prevented her from playing major roles. Deciding America wasn’t giving her enough credit, she found fame in Germany in stage shows and films. She returned to LA when she was offered a contract with Paramount Studios, but history repeated itself. She was refused the leading role of O-Lan in The Good Earth which was given to white actress Luise Rainer, who received an Oscar for the role. Instead, she was offered Lotus, another stereotype side character. In reality, Anna May Wong never got the recognition she deserved because she died at the ripe age of 56 in 1961.
In the world of Hollywood, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan wrote the show to investigate the lack of inclusion of women and people of color, especially those who fit into both categories, in front of the camera and behind-the-scenes. The writers decided it would be more interesting and satisfying to tell a story of what could have been in the Gold Age of Hollywood. Michelle Krusiec (who plays Wong) gets the opportunity to openly (and bitterly) voice her frustrations with the industry. This revisionist retelling of Wong’s life gives the audience moments of victory to celebrate her along with her.
But are shows like Hollywood doing enough for Asian representation in the media? It casts Asian actors to play Asian characters, even representing mixed Asian Americans with the presence of Darren Criss, a half Filipino actor that plays Raymond Ainsely. While the show aims to show the perspective of minorities, there are criticisms 2 that the main character is a straight, white gentleman that leads us through his ‘struggles’ in becoming an actor in Hollywood. The show argues that the film industry could easily normalize diversity if they just gave a little more thought to who they show on screen. Hollywood walks the line of attempting to uplift the voices of the silenced in revisioned past and floating a bit too close to the idealistic Dreamland.
How are TV and media connected to beauty? In a fantastic article by Allure 3 Sara Tan interviews eleven Asian and Pacific Island-Americans that work within the beauty industry to ask what sparked their careers. Mai Quynh, the Giorgio Armani Beauty Makeup Artist Collaborator, credits women of color such as Naomi Campbell, Yasmeen Ghauri, Jenny Shimizu, and Veronica Webb for sparking the ideas of many different shapes and shades of beauty being represented on the runway and in magazines. Nam Vo, the trendsetting makeup artist that coined the term #dewydumpling, notes that Asian American women spend more money on beauty than the rest of the U.S. population as a result of a taught obsession with Western beauty standards. Marc Reagan, a makeup artist and Hourglass Cosmetics Global Director, thanks The Joy Luck Club and All-American Girl for giving him a door to enter the fashion/entertainment industry. Since there is very little education on makeup tips for different ethnic face structures/features, he created his own form of highlighting Asian features in order to embrace unique beauty instead of concealing it.
With this theme of Expressions of the Unseen, I want to make it clear the importance of having frequent and authentic Asian representation. It is not enough anymore to shove a stereotype into the shadows and call it square. Our society is being raised increasingly on media, which means the children of color in our country are learning their worth and value in society based on representation. Rudine Sims Bishop once used a great metaphor for the importance of racial representation for children: She sees children’s books as either mirrors or windows. A book can reflect back characteristics that a child sees in herself, or can be a window into introducing a new and different world to a child (or even a fully grown adult). We should approach all media in this way. We want to be able to look into a Netflix original and see a face that we can see ourselves in. We also want to be able to empathize with worlds that we aren’t necessarily a part of but still coexist with. Anna May Wong will never get to live out the accomplishments and acknowledgement she deserved for her hardwork and talent, but her story could inspire some little girl out there to take to the stage. The retelling of her story exposes the nature of power within representations and how powerful images and reflections can be.
1 Gaffney, Adrienne Hollywood: Who Was Anna May Wong, The Film Star Played By Michelle Krusiec? By Elle Magazine.
2 Snow, Phillippa, “Hollywood Keeps Trying to Rewrite Its History” by Culture Mass
3 Tan Sara, “Why 11 Asian and Pacific Island-American Beauty Pros Started Their Careers” by Allure Magazine