Caroline Jeon said she was pleasantly shocked when on Tuesday Michelle Yeoh, who took home the Golden Globe award for best actress, ordered the exit music to stop playing after it interrupted her speech.
“Shut up, please. I can beat you up, OK? And I’m serious,” Yeoh laughed, before continuing.
Jeon, a 26-year-old Korean American based in New York City, said she’s used to seeing “older white male actors” defiantly run out the clock onstage. Yeoh’s moment was refreshing for Jeon, a self-proclaimed assertive Asian American woman.
“For her to be confident but also playful about it … it’s reassuring and encouraging and mostly affirming for me to see,” Jeon said.
Host Jerrod Carmichael clarified during the ceremony that the exit music came from a pre-recorded track, rather than from live pianist Chloe Flowers, who performed TV and movie theme songs as the show transitioned to commercial breaks.
The moment immediately went viral. And for Asian women, who contend with historical pressures from within the community and beyond to make themselves small, Yeoh’s quip had a deeper meaning.
“We saw Michelle Yeoh take up space and insist on using her voice,” said Catherine Ceniza Choy, author of “Asian American Histories of the United States.” “We have to live with these stereotypes and expectations of being demure and diminutive on the daily. So to witness that on such a big stage of something like the Golden Globes was profound.”
Yeoh — who during her speech opened up about the racism she witnessed in her early days in Hollywood, as well as the dwindling opportunities for aging actresses — represents Asian women across a spectrum of personalities, said Nadia Kim, professor of sociology and Asian and Asian American studies at Loyola Marymount University. With her use of humor, Yeoh appealed to those who are more reserved by reflecting an elegance, Kim said. She simultaneously represented other…
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