Last spring, as I prepared to interview the director duo the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) upon the release of their second feature film Everything Everywhere All at Once, I came across something I hadn’t seen before.
No, I’m not referring to the hot-dog fingers and butt-plug-shaped candles sold by A24 but rather a comprehensive pronunciation guide for the names of the cast and characters, as shared by the film’s PR team for the press: Michelle Yeoh’s surname should be pronounced “yo”, Stephanie Hsu’s is “shoe”, Ke Huy Quan’s name is pronounced “Key Hway Kwan” and the surname of the family at the center of the movie (Wang) rhymes with “song”. It was a small but meaningful gesture infused with respect: yes, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, veering often into the manic and puerile – but say our names properly.
Sure, those names naturally roll off the tongue much easier than Saoirse Ronan or Benedict Cumberbatch, but not so long ago such a guide wouldn’t have even been considered – because those names would never have been said aloud with frequency let alone graced an Oscar ballot. After all, Asian performers have long been overlooked. As the New York Times illustrated in a dismayingly sparse interactive report, just 23 of 1,808 acting nominees in the entire history of the Oscars could be identified as Asian, and only four have won.
The tropes of Asians in film have proven particularly persistent – nameless, faceless, or emotionless; seen through the lens of martial arts, war, or sex; perpetual foreigners with funny accents and exotic names. And that’s after Asians were allowed to portray Asian characters: As 94-year-old screen veteran James Hong pointed out at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last month, white actors often played Asian character roles in Hollywood’s early days. “Guys with eyes taped up like this and they talk like this because the producer said the Asians were not good enough and they…
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