[Image ID: Ten screenshots from Instagram.Â
1: The note at the top says “WeChatProject x Impact”. This slide is titled “We need to talk about the fetishization of Asian women.” in big black capital letters. In the center of the slide are three different black-and-white photos of different Asian women from different periods in film history.Â
2: Text reads “Let’s talk about the Dragon Lady and Lotus Blossom stereotypes. Both tropes have been used to justify racism against Asians, especially those affected by misogyny, in the U.S. and Western imperialism in Asia.Â
3: This slide is titled “The Dragon Lady” with two pictures of Asian women from two different films. The first is a picture of the character Ling Woo from Ally McBeal, a Chinese-American woman with shoulder-length black hair. She’s wearing a form-fitting silver dress and is holding a small black handgun. The second is a picture of the character Wai Lin from Tomorrow Never Dies. She is Chinese woman with long black hair. The text on this slide reads “An exotic and calculating temptress, the Dragon Lady is the feminine personification of “the Yellow Peril,” the racist fear that East Asian peoples were/are a threat to the “West.” She represents a sexual - and existential - threat to white supremacy. She is to be exploited, conquered, and colonized. Today, this stereotype is visible as: Ling Woo (Lucy Liu) in Ally McBeal and Wai Lin (Michelle Yeoh) in Tomorrow Never Dies.
4: The Dragon Lady stereotype reinforces the white supremacist view that the East is “backwards” and dangerous, and it must be “civilized” (aka violently colonized) by the West. It’s also an insult given to outspoken Asian women today.
5: This slide is titled “The Lotus Blossom” with two pictures from the musical Miss Saigon. Both are images of a white man and an East Asian woman embracing. The text on this slide reads, “In contrast to the Dragon Lady, the Lotus Blossom is helpless, subservient, and sexually compliant. Take Kim in Miss Saigon: a Vietnamese girl forced into sex work, she falls in love with a white American G.I. who impregnates her then leaves her.Â
6: Text reads “The Lotus Blossom trop is part of the white supremacist imagination that feminizes Asia as a place as docile, submissive, and receptive to Western Imperialism. The U.S. refuses to acknowledge the historical and ongoing exploitation and abuse of Asian women throughout Asia. Entire sex industries revolving around American military bases exist in South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam.Â
7: Text reads “Fetishization reinforces gendered violence against Asian women.” in all caps. Text continues “41-61% of Asian women report experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime - significantly higher than any other ethnic group.”Â
8: A quote by Evelyn Yoshimura, in the January 1971 issue of Gidra, a revolutionary Asian American magazine that says “We must destroy the stereotypes of Asian women and Asian people, as a whole, so we can define ourselves, and be free to realize our full and total potential.”
9: Text reads “Fetishization is not flattering.” in all caps and then continues, “Rather, it is a form of radicalized and gendered violence rooted in imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. It’s what makes white supremacists feel entitled to Asian women’s bodies - and even their lives.
10: A slide with titled “Sources:” The sources are
National Network to End Domestic Violence | nnedv.org/latest_update/stereotypes-asian-women/
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence | api-gbv.org/about-gbv/statistics-violence-against-api-women/
The Wall Street Journal | wsj.com/articles/atlanta-shootings-fbi-investigating-killing-of-eight-at-massage-parlors-11615989454
Evelyn Yoshimura, “G.I.’s and Asian Women” (in Gidra: The Monthly of the Asian American Experience)
Renee Tajima-Peña, “Lotus Blossoms Don’t Bleed” (in Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian American Women)
David Vine, “My Body Was Not Mine, But the U.S. Military’s” (in Politico)
Sunny Woan, “White Sexual Imperialism: A Theory of Asian Feminist Jurisprudence” (in Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice)
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