A few weeks ago, I was watching an anime with a friend, and I remarked on how the deuteragonist's (black) hair was portrayed with a blue undertone, and how I felt seen as a person with a similar East Asian hair type. My friend responded, "It's like appreciating American media for representing white people." Which is, to an extent, true; but growing up in America, even in a fairly diverse area, the media I interacted with most as a child felt very Eurocentric. As an Asian-American artist and creator, I am viscerally conscious of the lack of faces resembling my own in the media I consume. In addition, as a nonbinary queer person who uses they/them pronouns, I have yet to consume a piece of mainstream media or film where a character uses they/them pronouns. Which is stunning, given the nearly two decades I have been alive, and the (generously) decade and a half that I have been a consumer of media.
In the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Reports for 2020 and 2021, the UCLA Film Department observed an upwards trend in minority representation, both behind the camera and in front of it. From 2018 to 2019, female-directed top-grossing films increased from 7.1% to 15.1% of the films studied; minority-directed top-grossing films decreased from 19.3% to 14.4%. In 2020, "[...] women and people of color are still underrepresented in critical behind-the-camera jobs. Women made up just 26% of film writers and just 20.5% of directors. Combined, minority groups were slightly better represented as directors at 25.4%. Just 25.9% of film writers in 2020 were people of color." (Wolf, 2021) Although all four general trends studied (representation in lead actors, total cast, writers, and directors) have improved from 2011, when the UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report started, systematic biases are still present within the media industry. As media creators, we have a responsibility to accurately represent our target audience- not only to make our media enjoyable, relatable, and targeted, but also because representation within media is a shorthand for whose stories are worth telling. Therefore, in the writing, production, and casting of my portfolio project, I aim to tell a story with a backdrop of casual representation.
Recently, films such as Parasite (2020) and Everything, Everywhere, All At Once (2022) and TV series such as Squid Game (2021) have brought more American attention to Asian and Asian-American directors, actors, and productions. In addition, Crazy Rich Asians (2018) was the first all-Asian Hollywood film in 25 years- and also happened to be the highest-grossing rom-com in 10 years (Lamberson, 2021). These numbers are heartening as to how well my production would/will be critically received if I were to prioritize highlighting Asian and/or Asian-American lead actors.
Reader, I think it's time I outline some of the actual content, plot, and characters of my production. That's for a different post, though.
Yours always,
Clover Fields
Sources:
Wolf, J. (2020, February 6). 2020 Hollywood Diversity Report: A different story behind the scenes. UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2020-hollywood-diversity-report
Wolf, J. (2021, April 22). 2021 Hollywood Diversity Report: Audiences showed up for diverse films in theaters, online. UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2021-hollywood-diversity-report
Report outlines integrated strategy toward diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. (n.d.). UCLA. https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/strategy-for-diversity-and-inclusion-hollywood
Lamberson, N. (2021, May 28). Celebrating Asian American Representation in Film | Copyright: Creativity at Work. Blogs.loc.gov. https://blogs.loc.gov/copyright/2021/05/celebrating-asian-american-representation-in-film/
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