Perception #2 - Asian Men

The reason I chose this is because, well, I'm an Asian man. Even then, I am not immune to the media's portrayal of Asian men in the media.

On average, Asian men are portrayed as one of two stereotypes: awkward, socially incapable, mathematical geniuses, or martial arts masters.



There is also a noted lack of Asian male leads across the entertainment industry, including movies and TV shows. When an Asian male does play the lead role, he is usually a kung fu fighter. Unfortunately, these stereotypes may leave you disappointed upon meeting a real-life Asian guy. In reality, most of us are not mathematical geniuses or even capable of doing a proper roundhouse kick. So why do we think this way?

For one, Asian males rarely play the lead role in movies. Now, you may say that the pool of Asian actors is smaller than the pool of Caucasian or African American actors, and I would agree. However, what happens when a movie is actually based on an Asian? Movies such as 21, which is actually about a group of Asian-American card-counting students, and Dragonball Z actively cast Caucasian males as opposed to the Asians upon which their stories are based. To put this in perspective, it's like if they made a movie about Michael Jordan with Keanu Reeves starring as Michael Jordan.



Like all other stereotypes, the nerdy Asian or the karate Asian severely limits our perceptions of Asians in general. Upon meeting an Asian, there is anticipation that he will be nerdy, which may not necessarily be the case. More importantly, our preconceptions of people can be pushed onto people even when they don't necessarily fit. This is more dangerous because the stereotypes then apply to all Asian males, even though it is not always the case.