Is Jackie Chan Hollywood's Asian version of the "magical negro?"

[Good Will Riker]

The fact of the matter is:

My sister married an Irish American, and I am proud to have him as my brother-in-law.

I have 4 Eurasian cousins.

My roommate 9 years ago was fond of and taught preschool to Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw's children in Santa Monica.

Perhaps the following deceased Hollywood legend can vouch for me in regards to how I feel about this sensitive issue:

After the publication of an interview in Playboy magazine in January 1979, Brando was accused of anti-Semitism in regard to his opinion on double-standards set by Jews in Hollywood: "You've seen every single race besmirched, but you never saw an [unfavorable] image of the kike because the Jews were ever so watchful for that—and rightly so. They never allowed it to be shown on screen. The Jews have done so much for the world that, I suppose, you get extra disappointed because they didn't pay attention to that."[20]

Brando made similar allegation on Larry King Live in April 1996, saying "Hollywood is run by Jews; it is owned by Jews, and they should have a greater sensitivity about the issue of — of people who are suffering. Because they've exploited — we have seen the — we have seen the Nigger and Greaseball, we've seen the Chink, we've seen the slit-eyed dangerous Jap, we have seen the wily Filipino, we've seen everything but we never saw the Kike. Because they knew perfectly well, that that is where you draw the wagons around." King replied, "When you say — when you say something like that you are playing right in, though, to anti-Semitic people who say the Jews are — " at which point Brando interrupted, "No, no, because I will be the first one who will appraise the Jews honestly and say 'Thank God for the Jews.'"

source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlon_Brando#Accusation_of_Jewish_stereotyping

 

[Locutus of Bored]

That was your defense against being accused of bigotry?

 

[Good Will Riker]

That was your defense against being accused of bigotry?

With someone as high up the Hollywood totem as Marlon Brando once was while he was alive, I would take his comments regarding this matter seriously.

Racist Hollywood executives.

 

[doubleohfive]

You really need to stop letting fictional characters, famous movie stars, and Sonia dictate how you think, what you say and or what offends you.

 

[Good Will Riker]

^^^

Someone once told me that real racism isn't a slur, stereotyping, or caricatures, but whether or not someone prevents you from having a job, owning a home, or preventing you from surviving in society.

 

[Cicero]

There isn't one. That's just a inflammitory analogy thrown in to make this thread last several posts.

See:
Legend of Bagger Vance

What differentiates Will Smith's portrayal of 'God' from Morgan Freeman's in this context?

(The Legend of Bagger Vance is an adaptation of the Bhagavad Gita; Bagger Vance is Bhagavan (the supreme being/the personification of absolute truth), R. Junuh is Arjuna, golf subsitutes for war, caddies for charioteers, etc.)

I've been thinking recently that there also aren't that many asian actors who have celebrity power like George Clooney. They're either B/C level actors(Lucy Liu, Ming na , John Cho, Jackie Chan and Chow Yun fat). Also I'm cantonese

Its a bit unfair to label them all B/C level since many of them have already achieved the 'A' list standards from their country/region of origin.

But with Hollywood, I've wondered about that. Always felt actors like Fat, Ken Watanabi, Michelle Yeoh, John Lone, etc. could carry films and other projects quite capably on their own.

Aside from Canadians (usually indistinguishable from Americans) and a small number of British and Australian actors (some of whom pass themselves off as Americans in most roles), foreign actors of any origin seldom achieve headline status in the United States.

It does seem odd, though, that only Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li have regularly headlined movies here.

My complaints about Asians in films? The women. Don't get me started about how stereotypical they portray Asian women in American films.

Lucy Liu's boyfriend preferences in films should be for starters.

Considering that only 1 in 20 Americans is of East Asian ancestry, and at least 17 in 20 are of partly or fully (at least 14 in 20) European ancestry, her boyfriend, if American and chosen without respect to race, should be 'white' at 70% of the time (or more, depending on demographic uncertainties), particularly since race is seldom relevant to Lucy Lui's characters (oddly enough, one of only two examples I can think of in which race mattered to a cinematic character of hers was in a Jackie Chan film, in which she played the kidnapped princess he marred (they did marry, yes?)).

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Someone once told me that real racism isn't a slur, stereotyping, or caricatures, but whether or not someone prevents you from having a job, owning a home, or preventing you from surviving in society.

There's certainly something to that. To some extent, slurs & stereotyping are unavoidable. And what about all the white people who are treated badly by their peers for no real reason? They don't even have the comfort of looking down their noses at the racism of their tormentors. I think that real racism is extremely rare in our society. More often, people just treat other people badly for no reason at all and racism is simply a comforting, superficial explanation. I say "comforting" because it allows us to ignore the real truth-- humanity as a whole has a capacity for great & arbitrary cruelty.

oddly enough, one of only two examples I can think of in which race mattered to a cinematic character of hers was in a Jackie Chan film, in which she played the kidnapped princess he marred (they did marry, yes?

I think you're thinking of Shanghai Noon and I don't think they did. Certainly if they did, I would have expected her to have put in an appearance in Shanghai Knights.