20 thoughts on “Exotic, Perilous, and Inscrutable: A History Of East Asian Portrayals in Comic Covers”

1. The iconic issue #1 of “Justice League” is funny and sad. Dr. Light basically never appeared in the series (maybe a cameo or two). She was written out almost before it began, making her one of the tokenest of tokens.

2. Wow, I didn’t know that about Dr. Light.

3. That’s a nice point about the female/male Asian ration in recent comics, Richard. I think it has to do in part with the way assimilation works. For groups that successfully assimilate, for some time thereafter men tend to be culturally viewed as emasculated — or at least as not very heroic. (This happened with Jews too…and still is a stereotype to some extent.) Women on the other hand are fetishized (which actually happens with women in any minority group. It happened with Jews too, I think, though the fetishized Jewish woman seems to have had less staying power than the nerdy Jewish guy. Maybe that’s Woody Allen’s fault or something….)

4. Even though you didn’t post it, the cover that still makes me flinch today is that one where the Human Torch burns a hole through some Japanese soldier’s arm and you can see his bone.

   The Ryan Choi Atom cover made me laugh. A more sensitive person could say it’s playing off (and perhaps perpetuating) the stereotype of Asians having small…er statures.

5. llj- honestly, I could do a whole post on outrageously racist covers from WWII. That one sounds surprisingly graphic though.

   Noah, I think you’re right about the emasculation of Asian men. I’m trying to think of a counter-example (an Asian American hero who is not a ninja/samurai/kung fu master) and the only one I can come up with is Jimmy Woo from “Agents of ATLAS.” And that book got canceled.

   I don’t watch enough TV to say if things are any better in that media.

6. Asian men have a tough time of it across media, I think. I don’t watch a ton of tv either, but of the limited bit I do watch, the only Asian performer I’m thinking of is South Asian — Rajesh on the Big Bang Theory. He’s of course paired with Howard for the stereotypical smart emasculated Jew/Asian twofer….

7. Compared to comics, American television probably deserves a gold star when it comes to the portrayal of Asians. Lots of reasonably “normal” Asians around. So many that I won’t even bother naming them. And if they’re “exploited” (as with Grace Park in Hawaii Five-0 for example), they are probably only exploited as much as their white female counterparts. Of course, you might have reason to complain if you are an Asian American Very few Asians as the main stars for obvious reasons. Money talks and you can’t expect to headline if your demographic is small.

   Quite a few normal Asians in non-superhero comics though. It’s just that superhero comics are somewhat retarded in their aesthetics. They may offer a glimpse into a particular subsection of American society.

8. One group of foreigners who haven’t been emasculated (yet) in mainstream media are Arabs/Middle Easterners. It’s like the Japanese during WWII: they may be depicted as sub-human, monstrous, and evil, but they can’t be portrayed as weak (or at least not too weak). Otherwise, the victory of the white man seems less impressive.

9. “Very few Asians as the main stars for obvious reasons”

   It’s not that obvious, though. Plenty of Jews get to be the main stars, though we’re a demographic minority. Same with Irish-Americans.

   It’s not simple demographics, is what I’m saying. It’s whether you’re perceived as a minority or as part of the “non-ethnic” agglomeration which is how Americans generally see assimilated white people. Asians aren’t yet…though they may be at some point.

10. Suat- I don’t know what’s on TV these days so I’ll just assume that you’re right. I do remember Grace Park from Battlestar Galactica, but now that I think of it, there weren’t any Asian guys on the show. At least none of the leads.

    So is the Hawaii Five-O remake any good?

11. Noah: I’m a firm believer in the power of mammon in this “fallen world”. You don’t think it matters that American Jews and Irish-Americans (aren’t there a large amount of Americans with Irish ancestry?) all look “white” and are barely differentiated from the white American population? I’m sure a careful observer could tell them apart just as a careful observer could tell you which part of China a Chinese person comes from based on his physical appearance, but these “little” things matter as far as audience identification is concerned. An American Chinese (for example) will probably have more similarities, socially speaking, with a white American than a mainland Chinese but he will always look Asian.

    Asians won’t be “assimilated” into American media unless they start forming a significant block as far as their purchasing or absolute power is concerned. This usually means being a sizable part of the population as with Latinos and African Americans. Not to mention that fact that the Asian American population while reasonably large isn’t a monolithic group. There’s no reason why a Vietnamese should identify with a Korean or a Chinese or an Indian (though they’re all interchangeable as far as Americans TV producers are concerned I suppose). And let’s not forget the ethnic differences within these racial groups. The only reason why there are often Japanese and Korean stars in various big budget Chinese movies is because of the source of funding and the fact that there is money to be made in all these countries.

    Richard: The new Hawaii Five-0 is pretty horrendous but it’s attracted a big audience so it looks like the first season will be extended if it hasn’t already. So what else is new? There’s a half-Vietnamese actress (Maggie Q) acting as the main star in the new iteration of Nikita on TV at present. I suppose it’s daring and the show is better than Hawaii Five-0 but it’s probably still part of the Dragon Lady/Ninja Girl “complex” mentioned in your post.

12. Jews used to be very differentiated; so did Irish americans. Who is seen as different is a cultural phenomena, not biologically determined — it “feels” natural, but it isn’t necessarily (as you can see by the fact that it changes over time and by place — who is black for example, varies substantially from country to country.)

    So, yes, Mammon matters…but there are as many Asian Americans in the US at this point as Jews, I’d wager, and many of them are affluent. Culture matters too. (As you kind of point out in noting that asian americans aren’t actually a single group. They certainly aren’t…but they end up being treated as one, and seeing themselves as one to some extent, in the U.S.)

    Asians are already actually more assimilated in many ways than Latinos or African Americans; a source of some resentment by the latter group.

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15. “Dr. Light basically never appeared in the series (maybe a cameo or two).”

    Actually, she did appear in the first three issues of the series; she just never appeared in costume. (Apparently, it was supposed to be just another of Giffen/DeMatteis’s running gags.)

    “She was written out almost before it began, making her one of the tokenest of tokens.”

    This, however, is a fair assessment.

16. When I watched the X-Men cartoon in the 90’s, in Malaysia, it never clued to me that Jubilee was Asian. Frankly, I didn’t discover this until much much later (possibly because I just wasn’t into comics). White-centric media is so powerful, even Asians beyond America think Asian-Americans don’t think too much about how messed up this is, but this is because we have our own heroes and media. It messes up diaspora relations, at least for me.

17. Part of the problem with Jubilee is that artists always give her blue eyes, which is none too common among Asians. I think there’s a tendency among superhero artists to “white-wash” Asian women, and to give them European features that appeal to their predominately white male readership.

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