Representative Films of this Decade
In this action/ comedy film, Jackie Chan portrays the kung fu agent role.3
In this comedy film, Aafading baseball player is traded to a Japanese team and has trouble fitting into the society.4
Whether or not you have seen the films mentioned in this decade, what stereotypes/trends do you see regarding roles for Asian American male Actors?
In Rush Hour, Jackie Chan plays agent role with kung fu ability (mysterious realm). He plays a similar role as Vincent Chin, and Larry Chin. However, Jackie Chan is more of the lead role.
Mr. Baseball somewhat mocks the American elitist attitude and supports a more disciplined/ traditional lifestyle of the Japanese. The clash in cultures provides not only some tension among Tom Selleck’s character and his coach, but also some comedic relief.
A survey regarding the discipline of Asian Americans against all Americans was conducted.5 The following graph shows the results:
In addition, Asian Americans have a higher population with a bachelor’s degree or among ages 25 and older than the U.S population, whites, blacks, and Hispanics, as of 2010 Asian Americans have higher median house incomes than the U.S population, whites, blacks, and Hispanics. Only 4.2 percent of Asian Americans in the U.S. are divorced – lower than the national total of 9.7 percent. And just as with the higher rate of marriage, there's a lower divorce rate within the Asian population: just 2.4 percent of Asian Indians and 2.1 percent of Pakistanis in the U.S. are divorced.
Although surveys may show that people feel that Asian Americans are more disciplined due to relative (to other ethnicities in America) success in working hard, education, income, and sustaining marriages, there is not a way to truly prove which ethnicity is the most disciplined. However, for these reasons, Asian Americans are stereotyped to be more disciplined than other ethnicities.