CRAZY RICH ASIANS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS ON THE
REPRESENTATION OF ASIAN AND ASIAN-AMERICAN IDENTITY
TIGON, JOSHLYN JOY R.
A Thesis Manuscript submitted to the faculty of
BA Communication Arts, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
University of the Philippines Mindanao
In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the course COMA200b
26 April, 2019
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Rationale/Background of the Study
Crazy Rich Asians, a 2018 released movie adaptation of the New York
Times best-selling book by Kevin Kwan which earned $26.5 million in the US
box office on its first week, has gained the spotlight for being the second movie
having an all Asian cast on the big screen 25 years after the first produced all
Asian cast Hollywood film, The Joy Luck Club in 1993. The said film has been
deemed the beacon of representation in Western media by movie critics for
countering the stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American identity through a
satirical approach. The film presented various Asian and Asian-American
stereotypes, one of those is the lead female character coming from a poor family
but managed to strive hard and achieve being an Economics professor in a
prestigious university which clearly conveys the model minority stereotype to
Asians. However, despite the critical acclaim, the box office success, and the
fabulous jade carpet roll out, some critics have decried “Crazy Rich Asians” for
not being all things to all Asians (Yap, 2018). A number of critics has stated
that the representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in the film was
conventional and limiting--conventional for incorporating the still existing
stereotypes on Asians and Asian-Americans and limiting for it does not reflect
an accurate representation of the said ethnicity, for not all Asians and AsianAmericans could be described like the characters were in the film. This reflects
to how Western media portrays and represent Asian and Asian-American
identity.
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Media representation of Asians and Asian-Americans has been an
ongoing discussion in the academe ever since the first recorded Western media
exposure of an Asian woman, specifically a Chinese woman named Afong Moy
was brought to New York City in 1834 at age sixteen as an exhibit (Wang,
2012). The media exposure was able to perpetuate specific stereotypes on Asian
and Asian-American. For women, stereotypes such as ‘Dragon lady’ which
conveys an image of a powerful or threatening subject such as femme fatale,
prostitute, manipulative invaders of business in America. Another stereotype of
Asian and Asian-American women is ‘China doll’, denotes a submissive image
such as wife, mother, model citizens, invisible most of the time. There are
numbers of stereotypes perpetuated because of misrepresentation of Western
media on Asians and Asian-Americans, in the case of women, all of these
stereotypes added to the present issue of representation of women in media as a
spectacle to be looked at and being defined solely in terms of sexuality that is
catered for men’s interest, in this case, white men (Mulvey, 1975 as cited by
Chaudhuri, 2006; Tung, 2006; Wang, 2012). Asians and Asian Americans also
often appear as a comical relief, the butt of jokes, especially when it comes to
male characters e.g., Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles thus, Asians and Asian
Americans are not to be taken seriously. Our humanity and our perspective are
unimportant, indeed at times laughable (Ono, 2017).
All these negative portrayal and stereotypes of Asians or AsianAmericans or any minority groups could be traced back to the origin of the
cinema (Chong, 2017). The film industry, especially Hollywood cinema played
a vital role in the under-representation and misrepresentation of Asians or
Asian-Americans (Tung, 2006). From these misrepresentations of Asians and
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Asian-Americans in films emerged an established identification of Asian and
Asian-American stereotypes entitled as the Six faces of Oriental by Robert Lee.
He analyzed and presented six major stereotypes of Asians and AsianAmericans: pollutant, coolie, deviant, the yellow peril, the gook, and the model
minority, as the predominant themes in films with Asian and Asian-American
characters. These misrepresenting portrayals produced by the media has become
the ‘natural’, the normal image of the said minority group and had a major effect
on the social status of every Asian or Asian-American residing in the West for
it even reached to the point where they were excluded from most facets of
society, including the opportunity to appear on screen (Lu, 2017).
This thesis explores how the identity of Asians and Asian-Americans is
represented in the recently released film Crazy Rich Asians and how the said
representation consists the predominant themes of stereotypes of Asian and
Asian-American in the Western media. In line with that, this study will
specifically investigate how the signs employed in the film conveyed the
identified representations of Asian and Asian-American identity and how it
reflects the predominant themes of stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American in
Western media, and how this contributed to the movement of modern AsianAmerican activists against the lack of diversity in media, and misrepresentation
of minority groups in the West most especially of Asians or Asian-Americans
females (Aayeshah & Finn, 2016).
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Statement of the Problem
For years now, representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in the
Western media has been an issue in the academe. Since early cinema, Asians
and Asian-Americans are represented based on the negative stereotypes that are
prominent in the society—pollutant, coolie, deviant, the yellow peril, the gook,
and the model minority (Lee, 1991). Because of how the media portrays Asian
and Asian-American identity, this led to issues such as exclusion and
misrepresentation of Asians and Asian-Americans females in the film industry.
Movements for inclusion of Asians and Asian-American in all the facets of
Western society and accurate representation in the media has been present since
mid-nineteenth century however just like its cultural predecessor which is the
mistreatment of black and native Americans (Tung, 2006), the issue has been
dumped on the side and the progress of all those movements have been minimal.
How media represents Asians and Asian-Americans since their first exposure
in the nineteenth century and continuously using negative stereotypes that has
been widely accepted by the public as the natural or the normal for the
characterization in films is an issue that is being continuously addressed in the
academe.
The solution to these misrepresentations of Asians and Asian-Americans
seems to call for some kind of forced integration of American popular culture
in order to claim visibility. These calls for Asian American representation and
inclusion in the media are certainly important, and they highlight not only the
symbolic importance of the cultural industry but also its economic dimensions;
the paucity of jobs for Asian American actors, directors, writers, and producers
points to a form of employment discrimination that would be actionable in other
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fields that cannot claim the invisible hand of “the box office” as an excuse
(Byun, n.d.).
A recently released film entitled Crazy Rich Asians with an all Asian
cast gained attention from the general public and is said to be the AsianAmerican cinema’s breakthrough for perpetuating a wide discussion on the
misrepresentation and stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. It has been
deemed the beacon of representation in Western media for being the second
Hollywood film having an all Asian cast 25 years after the first film entitled The
Joy Luck Club was released on 1993. However, despite the critical acclaim, the
box office success, some critics have decried “Crazy Rich Asians” for not being
all things to all Asians. There have been opinions that the film doesn’t represent
the true diversity of Southeast Asia or Asia or the Asian-American experience
(Yap, 2018). One way to investigate that claim is to identify the representations
of Asian and Asian-American identity through analyzing the semiotics or signs
employed in the film, alongside using Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory.
Upon looking into the semiotics of the film, the researcher deemed it appropriate
to use Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory in decoding the identified signs and
how these conveyed the identities of Asians and Asian-Americans.
In this regard, this study explores how Asian and Asian-American
identity is represented in the film. This study would look closely into the
following:
1. What are the different representations of Asian and Asian-American
identity in the film and how do those reflect the predominant Asian and
Asian-American stereotypes and themes in Western media?
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2. What do these identified representations conveyed by the film imply to
the Asian and Asian-American identity?
3. What are the signs employed in the film that constructed and conveyed
representations of Asian and Asian-American identity and how was it
utilized in the film?
4. What are the decoded meaning from the identified signs and how are
those decoded meanings convey Asian and Asian-American identity and
reflect Asian and Asian-American stereotypes?
Objectives of the study
This study aims to:
1. Analyze how Asian and Asian-American identity is represented
in the film through semiotics employed in the film.
2. Identify the different representations of Asian and AsianAmerican identity in the film and how do those reflect the
predominant Asian and Asian-American stereotypes and themes
in Western media
3. Examine the implications of the identified representations
conveyed in the film towards the Asian and Asian-American
identity
4. Identify the signs employed in the film that constructed and
conveyed representations of Asian and Asian-American identity
and the manner on how these signs were employed.
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5. Investigate the decoded meanings from the identified signs and
how those meanings convey Asian and Asian-American identity
and reflect Asian and Asian-American stereotypes.
Significance of the Study
This research focuses on representation of Asian and Asian-American identity
in the recently released film entitled Crazy Rich Asians through signs employed
in the film and how these representations reflect predominant Asian and AsianAmerican stereotypes and themes in Western media. This is to distinguish
whether the predominant themes used in early cinema is still present in today’s
cinema especially in the Western media, this would help future research related
to media representation in the modern Asian-American cinema. This study also
investigates how the decoded meanings of the identified signs constructed and
conveyed the representation of Asian and Asian-American identity in the film.
This study thus contributes to the existing body of knowledge about semiotics
of films, focusing on how these semiotic elements convey representation of the
cultural identity of Asians and Asian-Americans.
There are ample studies that explored the media representation of Asians
and Asian-Americans especially in the Hollywood cinema from mid to end of
nineteenth century since it was in that period Asians or Asian-American had a
first media exposure in the Western media. These studies reviewed all the films
that had an Asian or Asian-American representation have arrived to a similar
conclusion, that there is indeed racist misrepresentation and stereotypification
of Asians and Asian-Americans in the Western media, especially in Hollywood
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films. These racist misrepresentation and stereotypes even affected Asians and
Asian-Americans to the extent of exclusion from various facets of society not
only in the film industry. However, with all these existing studies regarding
media representation of Asians and Asian-Americans, there are only few
researches that focused on the representation of Asian or Asian-American
identity through investigating the semiotics employed in films. In most existing
studies, it is the audience perception and consumption that was always been
focused, there are limited studies conducting semiotic analysis focusing
decoding meanings from signs conveying a representation of a specific ethnicity
in a medium.
Scope and Limitations
This study will only focus on analyzing the representation of Asian and AsianAmerican identity in through signs employed in the film, how the filmmaker
frames and negotiates the identity of Asian and Asian-American women
through verbal (lines and dialogues) and nonverbal exchange (nonverbal cues,
costume, angle angle of every scenes, of female characters with another Asian
character, with a Non-Asian character, with a group of Asian characters, and
with a group of Non-Asian characters. Scenarios in the film that doesn’t fall to
the following categories are not included in the sampling design. As this study
will also analyze how the six faces of Oriental and which of the six stereotype
identification is presented in the film as the predominant theme in the Western
media.
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Stereotypes are very culture specific. In many cultures, certain groups
are seen as possessing specific, often negative, characteristics. Individuals
within those groups are treated as if these negative stereotypes are true, which
is seldom the case (Kidd, 2016). The concept of the stereotype was developed
by Lippman (1922) to explain how people are influenced by and make sense of
mediated messages. He states that we develop stereotypes as mental maps to
help us cope with the complexity of groups and peoples (Kidd, 2016). In this
sense, a stereotype is actually a neutral system of classification. We establish a
system of classification to be able to contextualize the identity of various groups
of people that is considered neutral because it could be either positive or
negative stereotype of a group, despite in most cases it is negative.
Nowadays the number of studies on stereotypes and related topics
(mainly prejudice and discrimination) has increased substantially especially
concerning gender and ethnic issues. Stereotypes became one of the most
popular themes of debate during reunions among social scientists (Leyens and
Bourhis, 1997 as cited by Glăveanu, n.d.) due to their connection with almost
all major research subjects in social psychology (Worchel et al., 1989 as cited
by Glăveanu, n.d.). Lippmann, who introduced the term stereotype in the
academe, compared stereotypes with stable images in our head that shorten our
perceptions. They are economical in the sense that previous experience affects
and to some extent mold current perceptions. There are, however, as discussed
by Glăveanu in his study, some exceptions: we tend not to stereotype persons
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we love or admire. In stereotyping a group of individuals, it is those who have
a noticeable difference from what we perceive as normal who experience such
phenomenon, and in the process, it is their differences that is highlighted which
makes the negative stereotype that is perpetuated among the community.
Over the years there are important features of stereotypes that have
been highlighted by theorists that construct a convergent image of the nature,
role and impact stereotypes have on social functioning and group interaction.
As discussed by Glăveanu (n.d.), generally stereotypes are seen as:

A set of shared convictions / beliefs about members of a particular
group (Leyens at al., 1994; Smith and Bond, 1994)

Perceptions of a genuine correspondence between group membership
and certain traits (Doise et al., 1999)

Constructs describing both personality traits and behaviour patterns
(Leyens at al., 1994; Drozda-Senkowsks, 1999)

Standardized, stabile and preconceived images (Gavreliuc, 2006)

A natural function of the human and cultural mind (Nachbar and
Lause, 1992)
In this regard, stereotypes are defined by their social, shared,
generalised, contextual, dual and schematic nature—stereotypes are shared
beliefs between group / category members about the in or out-group members
(both their personality and behaviour – the dual nature) usually formed during
the process of social interaction (therefore being contextual). They are
schematic (often simple, essentialist) and generalised (describing all members
and ignoring individual differences).
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The modern definition focuses on the problems inherent in portraying a
co-culture using trite, limited characteristics (Kidd, 2015) especially in the
media. Research has shown that negative images that relate to stereotypes of
minority populations, such as African Americans and Latinos in the United
States, can lead to negative interpretations of their actions (Mastro and Kopacz,
2006 as cited by Kidd, 2015). Although stereotyping is inevitable, when media
producers mistakenly or intentionally attribute characteristics of a minority of a
group to the whole race or subculture, stereotyping becomes problematic. It
imposes a lens on how we should look at the entirety of that specific group of
people which usually fail to reflect the richness of the subculture and ignore the
realities from which the images come, and how people perceive a group of
individuals also dictate their social status and role in the society. This action can
result in social injustices for individuals who make up that subculture (CookeJackson and Hanson, 2008 as cited by Kidd, 2015).
Due to these recurring stereotypes presented in the media, the
individuals that are part of a said specific group do not see themselves, their
identity, reflected in the media. They do not see others like them successfully
employed, or having healthy relationships, or fitting into the majority culture.
Lack of representation coupled with stereotyped images can lead to selfstereotyping and trying to fit into limited roles instead of exploring the options
available. The media are central to the signs of emergent cultures especially of
individualization producing the alternative social, cultural and symbolic
relations every individual wish to live within and define the kind of self they
wish to become (Kidd, 2015).
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These representations with embedded stereotypes could be traced back
to early cinema. Since Asians first immigrated to the United States in the midnineteenth century, the U.S. government and its citizens have repeatedly
demeaned, misrepresented, and excluded Asian-Americans from most facets of
society, including the opportunity to appear on screen (Lu, 2017). And when
Asians and Asian-Americans were exposed to the media specifically Western
media, it only propagated and reinforced the existing stereotypes for the said
minority group. Hollywood has a long history of discriminatory Asian
representation, dating back to Thomas Edison’s short films in the late 19th
century. However, it was before the enforcement of the Production Code (1894–
1934), Hollywood films produced in this time period became the foundation for
case studies about Asian and Asian-American representation for these films are
the ones that greatly influenced future representations, the public’s perception
of Asians and Asian Americans, and subsequent legislature aimed towards this
population (Lu, 2017).
This misrepresentation and stereotyping of Asian and Asian-American
women in the Western media gave birth to the concept of Eastern Mysticism.
The fantasy towards Eastern mysticism dated back to Afong Moy, the first
recorded Chinese woman in America, who came to New York City in 1834 at
age sixteen as an exhibit. Museums in New York and Brooklyn displayed her
on an Oriental lattice-work chair, wearing a silk gown and four-inch-long
slippers on her bound feet. Audiences watched with fascination as she ate with
chopsticks, counted in Chinese, and did computations on an abacus. A few years
later, “P. T. Barnum brought the second Chinese-woman exhibit, and the circus
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featuring her attracted 20,000 spectators in only six days” (Prasso, 2005 as cited
by Wang, 2012).
The said early media exposure produced stereotypes on Asian and
Asian-American women. Stereotypes such as ‘Dragon lady’ (a powerful or
threatening image such as femme fatale, prostitute, manipulative invaders of
business in America) and ‘China doll’ (submissive image such as wife, mother,
model citizens, invisible most of the time) which added to the present issue of
representation of women in media as a spectacle to be looked at and being
defined solely in terms of sexuality that is catered for men’s interest, in this case,
white men (Mulvey, 1975 as cited by Chaudhuri, 2006; Tung, 2006; Wang,
2012). One manifestation of this is the film Daughter of the Dragon (1931)
where Anna May Wong who has been one of the most famous ChineseAmerican actress in the world, played the role of a scheming, murderous,
otherworldly beauty who killed coldly and mercilessly. Films of early cinema
which also employed stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American women are
Year of the Dragon (1985) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1996). In Year of the
Dragon, in the setting of Chinatown, Detective White becomes involved with
the character of Tracy Tzu, a TV newswoman with a short, sassy haircut and a
professional lifestyle which throughout the film, was represented as a classic,
exotic seductress of the married Mr. White. In Tomorrow Never Dies, Michelle
Yeoh plays as a Chinese secret agent, in which we get a less-sexualized
portrayal of a Chinese woman. She partly wins equality to James Bond with her
brains and martial arts talent. Although the description of her character goes a
big step forward in describing an Asian woman, she can’t escape the main
constraint of being a “dragon lady” and Eastern other.
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These representations discussed above are just for women, Asian and
Asian-American men representation are yet to be discussed but solely looking
at the history of Asian and Asian-American women representation, there is
evident predominant negative stereotypes employed in the said films even in
early cinema. As years passed, representation of Asian and Asian-American
women may have evolved from those present in the early cinema. In the recently
released film Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Asian and Asian-American women
representation were depicted as the transition towards the goal of debunking
stereotypes and misrepresentation of Asian and Asian-American women in the
media. In the film, which consists of all Asian and Asian-American characters,
the female characters were represented in several portrayals. The lead AsianAmerican character was depicted as a strong independent woman, described as
an Economics professor who earns money for herself and for her family. It was
reinforced in a scene where instead of conforming to the social norm that it is
the guy who pays for the date, she was the one who paid for her meal. Another
scene from the film that established the said characteristic of her character was
when it was revealed that her boyfriend, the lead Asian male character who
migrated to the United States to get away from his family, comes from rich
family in Singapore who is deemed as the royals of the said country. The
dialogue between the two characters conveyed that the lead female character
did not anticipate such revelation for he was always “you have a Jamba Juice
card. You use my Netflix password. You play basketball at that Y that kind of
smells”.
Another female character which is the mother of the lead male character,
however, is depicted with the predominant stereotype “Dragon lady”. Her
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character was depicted as the Asian woman who went to London and was at
first treated poorly however invaded a hotel business thereafter, from there
expanded her business and wealth. But it is contradicting how at the same time
she is portrayed as submissive, reinforcing her characteristic of being sacrificial
for the family all throughout the movie. It was in fact reiterated a number of
times how she gave up her own passion for the family. Nonetheless, these will
be further analyzed and discussed in the Chapter 7 of this paper but this denotes
that Asian and Asian-American stereotypes and representations may have
evolved through time, may it be minimal.
Asian
and
Asian-American
men
are
not
excluded
in
the
stereotypification and misrepresentation situation in the media. This could be
traced back in the World War II era when the United States needed to
distinguish between Asian Americans, as the Chinese were part of the Allies.
However, Hollywood wasn't always adept at this, being careless to make
distinguishments between different ethnicities to begin with (such as Charlie
Chan having been both Japanese and Chinese), so the problem arises that many
film portrayals, coupled with the war anti-Japanese sentiment, led to difficult
times with Asian Americans and the stereotypes that followed. This was also a
time of continuing yellowface, where "good" Asian roles were restricted only
to white actors. Even Asian-American actors could only play some villains, who
were also mostly portrayed via yellowface.
Too often, “mainstream film and television misrepresent the world they
claim to reflect. Their stories revise history, and rationalize inequities” (Bolante,
2006 as cited by Wang, 2012). One way films and television presents these
stereotypes and misrepresentation is how Hollywood utilizes the prop of
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dressing to portray to the audience that women in the East are different or
“Other” from the West, which contributes partially to perpetuate the audience’s
stereotypes towards the Eastern women. In most Hollywood films especially in
early cinema, female Asian characters are always made to wear traditional
dresses or any clothing that holds resemblance to their tradition and culture, and
could be easily depicted as far from the West’s fashion. They present Asian or
Asian-American characters as not part of the norm, as someone who doesn’t
originally belong to the group. But the easiest way to generalize Eastern people,
as Wang (2012) stated, was to build fictional characters of an extreme. Movies
and the mass media play a huge role in forming Western audience’s worldview
by shaping Eastern women’s identities, and define their roles as extremes – on
screen and off. These extreme stereotypes have lasted even until nowadays, long
after the formal or informal contacts between East and West increased
dramatically.
This extreme difference of the East from the West found its way into
Hollywood films and exerted a powerful and lasting effect on social reality. The
East continued to be described as Otherness and opposite to the West. Rather
than portraying three-dimensional individuals, these characters often “manifest
prejudice and reinforce bigotry” (Bolante, 2006 as cited by Wang, 2012).
Othering, despite being a theme in continental philosophy, critical theory, and
fields of inquiry influenced by those primarily, the role of othering in
interpretation, in understanding the others and ourselves plays a significant role
in media representation and framing in the Western media, Eastern Mysticism
being one of the manifestations of the Othering.
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From these representations of Asian and Asian-American identity as
extremes, Robert G. Lee presented major stereotypes of these women as Six
faces of Oriental, in his book Orientals published in 1999. Oriental, along with
Eastern Mysticism, is a concept and term coined to depict East as the Orient,
traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the Eastern world, in relation
to Europe. The West uses the word or concept Oriental to easily depict anything
related to the East, most especially in Asia, may it be food, clothing, even Asian
themselves are subjected to this term. As Darrell Hamamoto (1994), a
communication professor, wrote: “Asians or Asian-Americans, when
represented at all, they exist primarily for the convenience and benefit of the
Euro-American lead players. … Rarely are the lives of Asian-American
characters examined on their own merit, and the problems they face in daily life
are not considered to be intrinsic interest” (Tung, 2006) and that’s where the
“Oriental” and even Eastern Mysticism stemmed.
Lee then grouped various stereotypes into six as the most that used in
misrepresentation of Asian and Asian-American in Western media—pollutant,
coolie, deviant, the yellow peril, the gook, and the model minority. According
to Lee, Asian and Asian-American are represented in the Western media as
present in the society but an alien, and is threatening in various aspects, one of
those is in the economic aspect (pollutant), as measly laborers (coolie), deviant
especially in the context of sexual deviance or prostitution because the
prostitution is believed to have started in Chinatowns in the West (deviant),
others because of being oriental, villains and are threats to the family, race, and
nation, and is bound of sado-masochism (the yellow peril), gooks, and as hardworking, law-abiding, but silent citizens (model minority) (Campbell, 2001 &
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Ng, 2000). These grouping of Asian and Asian-American stereotypes in
Western media into six has contributed a lot not only in the studies about Asian
and Asian-American media representation that followed, but also in women
studies.
As a matter of fact, from these and other studies on women stereotype,
a study of DeWall, Altermatt, and Thompson (2005) developed a structure of
women stereotypes through subgroups. They stated that “people process a
schema of the stereotype of women that is organized in terms of three major sub
groups: homemaker, professional, and sex object (Deaux, Winton, Crowley, &
Lewis, 1985; Eckes, 1994a, 1994b; Six & Eckes, 1991).” And to distinguish
these subgroups from one another, they used agency (power and competence)
and virtue (sexual and moral virtue) as dimensions to look at. They measured
the level of agency and the level or virtue in each subgroup. In our previous
study (Altermatt et al., 2003), we found that professional women were perceived
to be high in agency, homemakers neutral, and sex objects low, while
homemakers were perceived to be high in virtue, professional women neutral,
and sex objects low. This then could greatly affect in the negotiation process of
every individual that is stereotyped. If the media continues on utilizing these
problematic stereotypes in framing and portraying Asian and Asian-American
women, and if every stereotype indicates a level of agency and virtue, this would
hugely affect the identity being negotiated by the film towards the audience.
However, this study will not focus on these dimensions but will be utilizing
these in the process of a methodology.
In the efforts to resolve the issue of stereotypes and misrepresentation
of Asian and Asian-Americans in the Western media, the academe has been
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delving into cultural and media studies. Theories regarding stereotypes and
media representation have been formulated to further understanding the
complexity of the issue. One methodology widely applied in studies regarding
representation and stereotypes in the media is Semiotics or Semiotic Analysis
by Charles Sanders Peirce. This study will also opt for this methodology to
analyze the representation of Asian and Asian-American in the film Crazy Rich
Asians.
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CHAPTER III
THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Perception of one’s self may not be the only vital factor in establishing
an individual or a group’s identity and how they want to be perceived in the
society. Representations of an identity, especially in the media is essential in the
process of establishing one’s multifaceted identities. This also affect the
perception of an individual’s personal identity that is necessary in dealing with
one’s other identities such as cultural and racial identity, and also represent these
identities to the outside world as well. Thus, this study would look at how the
Asian and Asian-American identity was represented in the film through Stuart
Hall’s Representation Theory.
Representation Theory
The concept of representation has come to occupy a new and important
place in the study of culture and media. As stated by Stuart Hall (1997),
“Representation is the production of the meaning of concepts in our minds
through language (p. 15).” It is the link between concepts and language which
enables us to refer to either the ‘real’ world of objects, people, or events, or
indeed to imaginary worlds of fictional objects, people, and events (Hall, 1997).
Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced
and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of
language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things however the
process it involves is more complex than it seem.
The theory provides two systems of representation: mental
representations or conceptual maps and language. It is through these systems of
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representation we construct meanings regarding what is represented, and
meanings also depend on the relationship between things in the world—people,
objects and events, real or fictional and the conceptual system which can operate
as mental representations of them. The first system of representation is the
‘system’ by which all sorts of objects, people and events are correlated with a
set of concepts or mental representations, as stated, which we carry around in
our heads. Without these concepts or representations we have accumulated
which could be from a lived experience, we could not interpret the world
meaningfully at all. In the first place, then, meaning depends on the system of
concepts and images formed in our thoughts which can stand for or ‘represent’
the world, enabling us to refer to things both inside and outside our heads.
However, having a mental representation or a conceptual map is not
enough. We must also be able to represent or exchange meanings and concepts,
and we can only do that when we also have access to a shared language thus the
second system of representation—language—involved in the overall process of
constructing meaning. Our shared mental representations should be translated
into a common language, so that we can correlate our concepts and ideas with
certain written words, spoken sounds or visual images. The general term we use
for words, sounds or images which carry meaning is signs. These signs stand
for or represent the concepts and the conceptual relations between them which
we carry around in our heads and together they make up the meaning systems
of our culture (Hall, 1997).
Signs are also more complex especially when scrutinized on how it is
employed whether in an actual interaction or in a medium. Signs have two
components: signifier and signified. Signifier is the sound-image while the
T I G O N | 23
signified is the concept embedded in the sign. Not only the meaning is
constructed by both systems of representation in general, it is also constructed
by these specific signifiers who then represent a specific signified concept. Thus
for us to identify what are the signifiers and what is the signified theme or
concept, we have to decode each sign for it is all fixed by the code which sets
up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system
(Hall, 1997).
Since Representation theory focuses on the representation through signs,
most related studies about media representation and cultural studies employs
Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics or semiotic analysis which is the study of
signs.
Figure 1. The Semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce (n.d.)
T I G O N | 24
Figure 2. Semiotics of the Edges (Winchkler, 2011)
A related study entitled The Fairy Tale Theme in Popular Culture: A
Semiotic Analysis of Pretty Woman by Leda M. Cooks, Mark P. Orbe, & Carol
S. Bruess employed the Representation Theory alongside Eco’s (1976)
Narrative Structure on analyzing the semiotics in the film Pretty Woman.
Another study by Abdullah, Osman, and Setia (2009) conducted a semiotic
analysis on the media text The Lord of the Rings. They studied the various signs
in the film, specifically identified the signifiers and signified and even
conducted a syntagmatic analysis since semiotics is nowhere far from syntax,
and decoded each of those to identify the constructed meanings conveyed by
the film.
Similar with the mentioned related studies, this study will employ the
Representation theory in the semiotic analysis of the representation of Asian
and Asian-American identity in the film Crazy Rich Asians (2018).
Conceptual Framework
T I G O N | 25
As this study uses the Representation Theory, the analysis on the
semiotics of the film will be grounded on how these signs represented the Asian
and Asian-American identity and how the specific components of the identified
signs constructed meanings that represented the identity. This study
hypothesizes that the predominant stereotypes and themes of Asian and AsianAmerican representation from early cinema is still embedded in today’s modern
cinema and is evident through the semiotics employed in the film.
This study will focus on decoding the signs identifiable that represents
correlation and relevance to Asian and Asian-American identity, deconstructing
the signs into its components, signifier and signified, and analyze how those
constructed the meanings conveyed in the film.
T I G O N | 26
CHAPTER IV
METHODOLOGY
This chapter covers the methods involved in data gathering and analysis
for the study. Methods enumerated below are designed to approach research
objectives and test hypotheses. In summary, this chapter discusses research
design, sampling procedure, analysis procedure, data analysis, and the required
data for the study.
Research Design
Braun and Clarke (2006) as cited by De Castro (2015) in his dissertation,
divided qualitative methods in two ‘camps’, one is bound by an epistemological
position, such as Conversation Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological
Analysis, and the other falls under different approaches, could still be
epistemological. In that sense, conducting a Semiotic Analysis, another tool of
qualitative research and one that falls into the the group with Conversation
Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (De Castro 2015), does
not necessarily imply taking a particular epistemological position, however the
method allows a more in-depth approach in studying the medium.
Thus, this study conducted a semiotic analysis in the representation of
Asian and Asian-American identity in the characters of the film Crazy Rich
Asians using a constructionist approach, concentrating on how identified signs
constructed meanings that represented Asian and Asian-American identity.
Signs identified could include iconic and indexical signs. Alongside identifying
the signs employed in the film, the signifiers and signified will also be specified
on the analysis of the constructed meanings. These signifiers could include the
T I G O N | 27
material culture (objects and abstracts), activities and performance (body
language, gestures, facial expression), cinematography, music and sound
effects.
Sampling Procedure
This study conducted an analysis on the representation of Asian and
Asian-American identity in the film, how the signs employed in the film
constructed and conveyed meaning that represented Asian and Asian-American
identity through idexical signs such as verbal exchanges (lines and dialogues)
among the characters and iconic signs such as nonverbal exchange (nonverbal
cues, costume, angle of every scenes, of female characters with another Asian
character, with a Non-Asian character, with a group of Asian characters, and
with a group of Non-Asian characters). Thus, as this study is a semiotic analysis
focusing in signs and meanings, the samples are called corpus instead. The
corpus data of this study will be selected with regard to the following criteria:
A. If the sign is in relation to Asian or Asian-American character
B. If the sign depicts Asian and Asian-American identity (i.g.,
stereotypes, traits)
C. If the indexical sign is in relation to:
1. Both Asian or Asian-American characters
2. Asian and Non-Asian character
3. Asian character and a group of Asian characters
4. Asian characters and a group of Non-Asian characters
T I G O N | 28
Analysis Procedure
This study conducted the analysis in a step by step process. The first step
on the analysis procedure would be for the researcher to unpack the artifact
itself. Identify the signs employed in the film that fits the criteria. Followed by
categorizing the signs whether it is iconic or indexical and separately investigate
the signifier and signifed of each signs.
The initial analysis focused on the identification of the signfiers and
signified of the signs. The identification of these components will help the
researcher in proceeding to the next step which is the analysis on the constructed
meaning of each sign. Analyzing what is the meaning constructed by the signs
and then how these meaning reflect the representation of Asian and AsianAmerican identity.
Identification of
signs
Preliminary
Analysis:
Identifying
signifier and
signifed
Analysis on the
constructed
meaning that
represents Asian
and AsianAmerican
Identity
Figure 2. Analysis Procedure
Data Analysis Process
There is an “inseparable relationship between data collection and data
analysis, and this is one of the major features that distinguish qualitative
research from traditional research” (de Vos et al., 2005:335). Furthermore, “data
analysis does not in itself provide answers to research questions as these are
found by way of interpretation of the analyzed data” (Kruger, de Vos, Fouché
& Venter, 2005:218). Interpretation involves explaining and making sense of
T I G O N | 29
the data (de Vos, 2005; Denzin, 1989). This again involves an ongoing
engagement with the process, in that interpretation and analysis are closely
intertwined as the researcher automatically interprets as he or she analyzes
(Kruger et al., 2005). Hence, it was from this combined process of data
collection and analysis that a “plausible and coherent” interpretation developed
(de Vos, 2005:335).
For this study, two phases of analysis were conducted: (1) the
preliminary analysis on the corpus data which is the identification of the
signifier and signified using Stuart Hall’s Representation as the theoretical
framework, and (2) analysis on the constructed meaning of the corpus data
through generating themes and categorization using Robert Lee’s (1999) Six
Faces of Oriental and Simone De Beauvoir’s Othering (1949).
Data Requirements
The research procedure will gather the following:
A. Characteristics of the Corpus Data
1. Signs that are in relation to Asian or Asian-American character
2.
Signs that depicted Asian and Asian-American identity (i.g.,
stereotypes, traits)
3. Indexical signs that are in relation to:
a. Both Asian or Asian-American characters
b. Asian and Non-Asian character
c. Asian character and a group of Asian characters
d. Asian characters and a group of Non-Asian characters
B. Corpus Data
T I G O N | 30
a. Sign
b. Signifier
c. Signified
C. Generated themes
T I G O N | 31
CHAPTER V
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
This chapter provides the various analyses of the data gathered. Results and
discussions are divided into three parts: 1) Characteristics of Corpus Data, 2)
Preliminary Analysis, and 3) Hypothesis Testing
I.
Characteristics of Corpus Data
This study involved a total of 25 corpus (15 indexical signs corpus
and 10 iconic signs corpus) out of 66 indexical signs and 50 iconic
signs listed by the researcher during the data gathering process
which were chosen based on the following criteria:
Characters Involved
One of the main criteria that influenced the sampling procedure
of the study is the characters involved in the scene or frame. Since
the study focuses on how Asians and Asian-Americans were
represented in the film, the ethnicity of the characters was a major
factor in choosing the corpus data, whether a corpus data involves
an Asian or Asian-American character or both. Below are the more
detailed criteria regarding characters in the sampling procedure:
A. If the sign is in relation to Asian or Asian-American character
B. If the sign depicts Asian and Asian-American identity (i.g.,
stereotypes, traits)
C. If the indexical sign is in relation to:
1. Both Asian or Asian-American characters
T I G O N | 32
2. Asian and Non-Asian character
3. Asian character and a group of Asian characters
4. Asian characters and a group of Non-Asian characters
In the total corpus data, for Indexical signs, there are nine (9) signs that
involves Asian and Asian-American characters, three (3) signs that only
involves Asian-American characters, two (2) signs that only involves Asian
characters, and one (1) sign that involves Asian and Non-Asian characters.
Figure 3. Characters involved in every Indexical sign in the corpus data
INDEXICAL SIGNS
Asian and Asian-American characters
Asian-American characters
Asian characters
Asian and Non-Asian characters
7%
13%
20%
60%
For Iconic signs, there six (6) signs that only involves Asians, and four
(4) signs that involves both Asian and Asian-American characters.
T I G O N | 33
Figure 4. Characters involved in every Iconic Sign in the corpus data
ICONIC SIGNS
Asian characters
Asian and Asian-American characters
Asian-American characters
Asian and Non-Asian characters
0%
9%
36%
55%
Category of the Corpus Data
The researcher also conducted a initial analysis on the data by
identifying the category of representation based on the denotative meaning
of every category in the Six faces of Oriental by Robert Lee which are 1)
the pollutant, 2) the coolie, 3) the deviant, 4) the yellow peril, 5) the model
minority, and 6) the gook, and Othering by Simone de Beauvoir. This was
then added as a criteria in the sampling procedure of the study—the sign
having to reflect one or more category of representation.
T I G O N | 34
Figure 5. Identified two criterion of each indexical corpus data
Scene #
Scene #1
Ethnicity of the Characters
Involved
Non-Asians and Asians
Category based on Six faces of the
Oriental and Othering
Pollutant, Othering
Scene #2
Asian-Americans
Model minority
Scene #3
Asian Americans
Model minority, coolie, yellow peril
Scene #4
Asian and Asian American
Othering, model minority
Scene #5
Asians and Asian-American
Model Minority, Gook
Scene #6
Asians and Asian-American
Gook
Scene #7
Asians and Asian-american
Othering, model minority
Scene #8
Asians and Asian American
Deviant, Model Minority
Scene #9
Asians
Scene #10
Asian and Asian-American
Model minority (women representation:
mother figure)
Model minority, coolie, deviant
Scene #11
Asian and Asian-American
Coolie
Scene #12
Asians
Othering, model minority, yellow peril
Scene #13
Asians and Asian American
Othering, Model Minority
Scene #14
Asian and Asian-American
Pollutant Othering, Deviant, Gook
Scene #15
Asian and Asian-American
Othering, Deviant, Yellow peril,
Pollutant
II.
Preliminary Analysis
In analyzing the data, part of the process implied an understanding on
the data itself. This entailed a form of engagement with the data, which meant
risking my attitude and knowledge in order to objectively acknowledge the
findings of the analysis. Analysis transforms data into findings by bringing
order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data (Patton, 2002 in de
Vos et al., 2005). The analytical process “does not proceed tidily or in a linear
T I G O N | 35
fashion but is more of a spiral process; it entails reducing the volume of the
information, sorting out significant from irrelevant facts, identifying patterns
and trends, and constructing a framework for communicating the essence of
what was revealed by the data” (de Vos et al., 2005:333).
As part of the data analysis process, there are preliminary analysis
required for studies to achieve its objectives and answer its research questions.
In this case, the first phase of the analysis for this study is the semiotic analysis
on the corpus data, identifying the signifier and signified of both indexical and
iconic signs.
Semiotic Analysis on the Corpus Data
Semiotics in its general definition is Semiotics is concerned with
meaning; how representation, in the broad sense (language, images, objects)
generates meanings or the processes by which we comprehend or attribute
meaning. For visual images, or visual and material culture more generally,
semiotics is an inquiry that is wider than the study of symbolism and the use of
semiotic analysis challenges concepts such as naturalism and realism (the notion
that images or objects can objectively depict something) and intentionality (the
notion that the meaning of images or objects is produced by the person who
created it). (Curtin, n.d.).
Furthermore, as stated by Curtin (n.d.), semiotics can offer a useful
perspective on formalist analysis (the notion that meaning is of secondary
importance to the relationships of the individual elements of an image or object).
Semiotic analysis acknowledges the relationship we may have to representation
and therefore images or objects are understood as dynamic; that is, the
T I G O N | 36
significance of images or objects is not understood as a one-way process from
image or object to the individual but the result of complex inter-relationships
between the individual, the image or object and other factors such as culture and
society.
One of the main objective of this study in conducting a semiotic analysis
is to identify the significance of the corpus data and how it shapes the
representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in modern Western media
through analyzing the signifier and signified of every semiotic artifact which
are the 15 indexical signs and 10 iconic signs.
T I G O N | 37
Figure 6. Indexical signs in the corpus data
Scenes Time stamp
Description
Verbatim
dialogue/line
Characters
Involved
Ethnicity
Scene
#1
00:02:00,871
-->
00:02:04,406
May I suggest you
explore Chinatown?
Hotelier and
Eleanor Young
Non-Asians and
Asians
Scene
#2
00:10:25,509
-->
00:10:27,709;
00:10:27,711
-->
00:10:30,045
Eleanor and her family just
arrived in London directly
from China and is about to
check in their reservation in
the Calthorpe hotel however
the receptionist and the
manager says they don’t have
any reservation.
Rachel Chu and her mother
are shopping for her wardrobe
in going to Singapore, while
talking about her relationship
with Nick Young and his
family.
Category based
on Six faces of
the Oriental
Pollutant,
Othering
Maybe his parents
are poor, and he has
to send them money.
That's what all good
Chinese children do.
Rachel Chu and
her mother
Asian-Americans
Model minority
Scene
#3
00:11:05,449
-->
00:11:09,852
I'm so Chinese,
I'm an economics
professor with
lactose intolerance.
Rachel Chu and
her mother
Asian Americans
Model minority,
coolie, yellow
peril
Scene
#4
00:18:09,706
-->
00:18:18,613
Rachel Chu and her mother
are discussing how she is
similar and different from
Nick Young’s Chinese family
at the same time.
Rachel Chu and Nick Young
just arrived in Singapore.
Rachel Chu compared the
God, I can't believe
this airport has a
butterfly garden and
a movie theater. JFK
Rachel Chu and
Nick Young
Asian and Asian
American
Othering, model
minority
T I G O N | 38
Scene
#5
00:28:21,785
-->
00:28:35,430
Scene
#6
00:28:44,042
-->
00:28:56,451
Scene
#7
00:29:25,382
-->
00:29:35,590
Singapore airport and JFK
airport.
Rachel Chu is having a lunch
with Peik Lin’s family and
Wye Goh, Peik Lin’s father,
is striking a conversation with
her.
While having a conversation
with Rachel Chu, Wye Goh
pulled a joke with Rachel Chu
of having a thick accent and
uttering words foreign to the
English vocabulary.
Wye Goh was lecturing he
daughters about eating food
served to them citing starving
American children as an
example of what not to
follow.
is just salmonella
and despair.
(IN THICK
ACCENT) Rachel
Chu, we are so
grateful for all the
help you have given
my Peik Lin back in
her uni days. I mean,
without you, she
would be a hot mess.
Nice to meet you,
too, Chu. Ku-ku.
Ku-Chu. You. Poopoo. No, I'm just
kidding. I don't have
an accent.
You haven't finished
your nuggets yet,
sweetie. Okay,
there's a lot of
children starving in
America, right? I
mean, take a look at
her.
She's American,
huh? Really skinny.
You wanna look like
that?
Wye Goh, Rachel
Chu, Peik Lin
Asians and
Asian-American
Model Minority,
Gook
Wye Goh, Rachel
Chu
Asians and
Asian-American
Gook
Wye Goh,
children. Rachel
Chu
Asians and
Asian-american
Othering, model
minority
T I G O N | 39
Scene
#8
00:29:55,779
-->
00:30:03,654
Wye Goh was discussing
Rachel Chu’s and Peik Lin’s
professional success.
Scene
#9
00:38:56,353
-->
00:39:03,824
Nick Young approached her
mother, Eleanor, and was
about to introduce Rachel Chu
to her when Eleanor made a
remark regarding Nick’s
appearance.
Scene
#10
00:39:53,177
-->
00:40:03,986
Rachel Chu was discussing
the story of her mother after
immigrating in the United
States with Eleanor
Scene
#11
00:42:05,242
-->
00:42:14,683
Eddie, after being introduced
to Rachel Chu, was
You both went
to the same school,
yet someone came
back with a degree
that's useful. And
the other one came
back as Asian Ellen.
You need a haircut.
So unkempt. And
you look tired from
your trip. I'm gonna
ask the cook to
make you some
herbal soup.
She actually hardly
spoke any English
when she
immigrated to the
United States. But
she worked really
hard,
and she studied, and
she earned her real
estate license while
she was waiting
tables to support us.
So you're not from a
Taiwan Chu family?
-Nope.
Wye Goh, Peik
Lin, Rachel Chu
Asians and Asian
American
Deviant, Model
Minority
Eleanor Young
and Nick Young
Asians
Model minority
(women
representation:
mother figure)
Rachel Chu and
Eleanor Young
Asian and AsianAmerican
Model minority,
coolie, deviant
Edison Cheng,
Rachel Chu
Asian and AsianAmerican
Coolie
T I G O N | 40
interrogating her regarding
her family and business.
Scene
#12
00:47:26,463
-->
00:47:36,174
Discussing Nick and Rachel’s
relationship,
Scene
#13
01:08:31,963
-->
01:08:45,908
Their Auntie Alix was
discussing why at young age,
they taught their children
various skills while doing
dumplings with the whole
family and Rachel Chu.
Hong Kong telecom
Chus?
-No.
Malaysian packing
peanut Chus?
-Is that really a
thing?
I thought you might
be excited that the
first girl that I bring
home is a Chinese
professor.
-Chinese American.
We taught you so
you'd know the
blood, sweat, and
tears it took to raise
and feed you
monkeys. Not like
the ang-mohs
microwaving
macaroni and cheese
for their own
children. No wonder
they put their
parents in the old
folks' home when
they all grow up.
Nick and Eleanor
Young
Asians
Othering, model
minority, yellow
peril
Alix and the
whole family
Asians and Asian
American
Othering, Model
Minority
T I G O N | 41
Scene
#14
01:15:54,204
-->
01:16:05,914
After having a talk with
Eleanor regarding her and
Nick’s relationship, Rachel
and Peik Lin were discussing
Eleanor’s treatment towards
her.
Scene
#15
01:43:33,898
-->
01:43:57,585
While playing mahjong,
Eleanor and Rachel were
discussing their differences
and issues.
Right now, she just
thinks you're some
undeserving,
clueless, golddigging trashy,
unrefined banana.
Yellow on the
outside, white on the
inside.
There is a Hokkien
phrase. It means,
"Our own kind of
people." And you're
not our own kind.
You're a foreigner.
American. And all
Americans think
about is their own
happiness.
Peik Lin and
Rachel Chu
Asian and AsianAmerican
Pollutant
Othering, Deviant,
Gook
Eleanor Young
and Rachel Chu
Asian and AsianAmerican
Othering, Deviant,
Yellow peril,
Pollutant
T I G O N | 42
Figure 7. Iconic signs in the corpus data
Scene #
Timestamp
Description
Characters Involved
Ethnicity
Scene #1
07:34
Bible study; private investigator
Eleanor Young and
friends
Asians
Category based on Six
faces of the Oriental
Model Minority
Scene #2
13:49
Asians
Gook, Deviant
Scene #3
14:34
Asians
Model Minority
Scene #4
15:16
Astrid Leong
Asian
Model minority
Scene #5
23:44
Model Minority
25:18
28:45
37:36
Asians
Asians and
Asian-American
Asian and
Asian-American
Deviant, Coolie
Gook
Scene #8
Astrid Leong and
child
Astrid Leong, Michael
Wye goh and family,
Rachel Chu,
Nick Young, Rachel
Chu
Asians
Scene #6
Scene #7
Women as an object of visual
pleasure; stereotype for Asian
actors
Stiff and square familes;
perfectionist; women having to
obey men
Perfect role model: does charities,
a fashion icon, Harvard top
graduate
Bilingual Asians, teaching
children multiple languages
Women being the provider issue
Asian being comical or funny
Scene #9
39:00-39:12
Nick Young, Eleanor
Young, Rachel Chu
Asians and
Asian-American
Gook, Model Minority
Scene #10
54:54
Chinese custom of washing hands
on the entrance of the house
(Cultural difference)
Difference of concepts of
intimacy or private space
Americans being the subject of
visual pleasure
Gook, Pollutant
Othering
T I G O N | 43
Following the data analysis procedure, the initial analysis of the data
involved identifying the signs to be subject to semiotic analysis, the characters
involved with the sign and their ethnicity, and its initial categorization whether
it reflects the six faces of Orientals, and othering in the surface area. The
researcher then conducted a semiotic analysis in both thee indexical and iconic
signs. The signifier and signified of each sign were identified and to assure in
depth analysis on the data, the researcher adapted Juan Magarinos de Martin’s
(translated by Winchkler, 2011) conceptual framework of semiotic analysis in
every type of sign.
In analyzing indexical signs, Martin as translated by Winchkler (2011)
stated that the indexical sign itself could be initially identified as (1) an object,
(2) behavior, and a (3) mnemic registry. The complexity of indexical signs
could be fleshed out through specifically identifying its signifier and whether it
is a written or spoken object in the chosen medium, a behavior portrayed
through verbal communication, or a mnemic registry, a written or vernal sign
that could be considered retained in the memory of at least most of the audience.
He also provided specification on how the indexical sign was used in the
medium or what and how was the sign signified, whether it was indicative or
designative. If indicative, the researcher could look into three factors: whether
it is a 1) signal, 2) indication, or 3) symptom. While if the sign is considered
designative, the researcher would conduct an analysis on whether it was a 1)
unique object, 2) prototype, or 3) replica.
T I G O N | 44
Figure 7. Indexical Semiotics, Semiotics of the Edges (Winchkler, 2011).
The researcher focused on using Martin’s three concept on analyzing
indexical signs to be able to intensively discuss how these signs constructed
meaning and represented Asian and Asian-American identity in the film through
its signifier and signified. As seen in the figure 8, the researcher identified the
signifier of each sign and its type. Out of 15 indexical signs in the corpus data,
13 were indicative and 2 were designative. The criteria for the categorization of
these signs between the two types were from Martin’s (as translated by
Winchkler, 2011) concept wherein he stated that a signifier becomes indicative
when it focuses on the denotation of the concepts as it is, it simply indicates a
simple statement of a fact or an already existing concept. While a signifier
becomes designative when it designates a meaning that is not presented in the
surface of the sign. Thus in this study, 13 of the indexical signs are considered
indicative for mostly indicates a strongly known concept, or in this case
stereotype of Asians and Asian-American. For instance, scene #1 has the
signifier “May I suggest you explore Chinatown?” and it indicates an existing
and known concept that when Non-Asian people encounter Asians in the West,
T I G O N | 45
they are associated and should be directed in a place for them, which usually are
Chinatowns. This also explains why there are numbers of Chinatowns existing
in the West for they want to emphasize the boundary and difference of Asians
from them, and Asians are foreign and alien to them, which would be thoroughly
discussed as the researcher inspects every sign in the corpus data in this chapter.
Figure 9. Identified types of signifiers in each indexical sign in the corpus
data.
IDENTIFIED TYPES OF
SIGNIFIERS IN EVERY INDEXICAL
SIGN IN THE CORPUS DATA
Indicative
Designative
13%
87%
As stated above the researcher also adopted the concept of specification
of indicative and designative signifiers and conducted an analysis on what
specific characteristic of identified indicative or designative signifier does it
reflect. On the identification and analysis of the signified, the researcher
identified the denotative and connotative meaning attached in the signifier.
Indexical Signs Analysis
Scenes #1, #14, and #15
As seen in the table below, the signifier of scene 1 was identified as
indicative, specifically as signal and indication. It could be considered that the
phrase “May I suggest you explore Chinatown?” is indicative for it indicates an already
existing concept or stereotype that Asians and/or Asian-Americans are/was treated as
T I G O N | 46
aliens since the early nineteenth century thus the creation of Chinatowns in the West.
The West wanted to maintain racial purity thus they wanted to create the boundary and
limit Asians and Asian-Americans’ belongingness in the West and was considered as
‘Others’. They labeled a location that is saturated with Asians as Chinatowns. There
was not even a recognition of difference of Asians, in the early nineteenth century
you’re a Chinese if you’re an Asian, until the World War II when the Americans were
forced to differentiate Chinese from Japanese to recognize their enemies (Lee, 1999).
The signified were analyzed into two, from its denotative meaning and its
connotative meaning. The denotative meaning simply conveys that the Hotelier was
merely suggesting that Eleanor and her family could explore and check in a hotel in
Chinatown since they’re Asians. However investigating its connotative meaning, the
constructed meaning of the sign reflects the general perception of Western people and
media towards Asians and Asian-Americans—pollutant and gook. As Robert Lee
(1999) stated in his book Orientals, this treatment of Westerners towards the Asians
and Asian-Americans could be traced back in the early nineteenth century. The media
portrayed Asians differently not solely because they were immigrants and their
physical appearance were foreign, but also due to the culture and principles of Asian
that they carried upon immigrating in the United States. The Western people and media
deemed their practices as different in a negative way which perpetuated stereotypes
and misrepresentation in the Western media thus the treatment Asians and AsianAmerican received from the Western public was also negative.
T I G O N | 47
Figure 8. Indexical signs and the identified signifiers and signified
Sign
Signifier
Type
Scene #1
“May I suggest you
explore Chinatown?”
Signified
Denotation
Indicative:
Signal,
Indication
The hotelier suggests that the Asian
characters in scene #1 might want to
consider finding a hotel in
Chinatown
Scene #2:
“Maybe his parents are
poor, and he has to
send them money.
That's what all good
Chinese children do.”
Indicative:
Indication,
Signal
The character connotes that Chinese
children are mostly poor and has to
send money to their families
Scene #3:
“I'm so Chinese,
I'm an economics
professor with lactose
intolerance.”
Indicative
The character is Chinese for she’s an
economics professor with lactose
intolerance
Connotation
The hotelier suggests they should
explore Chinatown instead since it’s a
place for Asians like Eleanor and her
family, and the Calthorpe is a class A
private hotel.
The character suggests that Chinese
children, especially disadvantaged
people, are obliged to provide for their
families once they have the capacity to
earn money and it is part of both their
culture and identity.
One of the characteristics that makes an
individual a Chinese is being an
economics professor, or generally good
in sciences, and has a lactose intolerance
due to the Asian culture that is not into
dairy products compared to the Western
diet
T I G O N | 48
Scene #4:
“God, I can't believe
this airport has a
butterfly garden and a
movie theater. JFK is
just salmonella and
despair.”
Indicative
The Singapore airport is better than
John F. Kennedy airport in terms of
services e.g., Singapore airport has a
butterfly garden and a movie theater,
while JFK airport does not.
The model minority attributes of Asians
thus most products and facilities
produced by Asians are of high quality,
efficient and hospitable compared to the
American facilities that tends to focus on
the functionality of the facilities.
Scene #5:
“(IN THICK
ACCENT) Rachel Chu,
we are so grateful for
all the help you have
given my Peik Lin back
in her uni days. I mean,
without you, she would
be a hot mess.”
Designative:
Replica
Without Rachel Chu, Peik Lin would
not have done well in college.
Without Rachel Chu’s help, as the
character who projects model minority,
Peik Lin would not be able to succeed in
college, being a deviant character that
pursued a degree in arts instead of
sciences.
Scene #6:
“Nice to meet you, too,
Chu. Ku-ku. Ku-Chu.
You. Poo-poo. No, I'm
just kidding. I don't
have an accent.”
Designative:
Replica
The character pretended to have a
thick accent and exaggerated by
using words
The character pretended to have a thick
accent which is usual in most Asians that
is not exposed with the English
language, this also portrays Asians as
comical relief and gook for not being
able to express in English the same way
Westerns do
T I G O N | 49
Scene #7:
“You haven't finished
your nuggets yet,
sweetie. Okay, there's
a lot of children
starving in America,
right? I mean, take a
look at her.
She's American, huh?
Really skinny.
You wanna look like
that?”
Indicative;
Signal,
Indication
There are a lot of starving children in
America that’s why Rachel Chu is
skinny because she’s from America.
For the children not to look like her,
they should finish their nuggets first.
The model minority attributes of the
Asians portray them as a responsible
individual in this society
Scene #8:
“You both went
to the same school, yet
someone came back
with a degree that's
useful. And the other
one came back as Asian
Ellen.”
Indicative
The two characters went and finished
in the same school however one had
a science degree which is deemed
useful while the other had an arts
degree and is deemed as Asian Ellen.
Rachel Chu is a model Asian for
finishing a science degree which is more
of use for Asian perception unlike Peik
Lin who finished an art degree instead.
Scene #9
You need a haircut.
So unkempt. And you
look tired from your
trip. I'm gonna ask the
cook to make you some
herbal soup.
Indicative
The character on the receiving end of
the line does not look to the standard
prim and proper thus needs a haircut.
He also looks tired from the trip thus
the cook will be making a herbal
soup for him to feel better.
Part of the model minority characteristic
of Asians is making sure they look prim
and proper, and it is often in Asian
families for the parents to perpetuate
such practice.
T I G O N | 50
Scene #10
She actually hardly
Indicative
spoke any English
when she immigrated to
the United States. But
she worked really hard,
and she studied, and
she earned her real
estate license while she
was waiting tables to
support us.
The character had a difficult time
adjusting after immigrating in the
United States
Asians are treated as Aliens when they
immigrate to the United States and this
made them the model minority for
having to work their way around on
getting recognized in the American
society.
Scene #11
So you're not from a
Taiwan Chu family?
-Nope.
Hong Kong telecom
Chus?
-No.
Malaysian packing
peanut Chus?
-Is that really a thing?
I thought you might be
excited that the first girl
that I bring home is a
Chinese professor.
-Chinese American.
Indicative
The character is interrogating the
recipient of the message on whether
from which family and business is
she from
If you come from a powerful family
whether in the politics or business sector,
you’re considered worthy of recognition
in the elite society thus it’s important for
them to interrogate people on which
family are they from, even from which
decent.
Indicative
The character expects the other
character in the dialogue to be
pleased that the first girl he
introduced to the family is a Chinese
professor but is stand corrected when
the other pointed out that the girl is a
Chinese American.
The character points out the racial
difference between the two characters
and how these are big deal for Asian
families
Scene #12
T I G O N | 51
Scene #13
We taught you so you'd
know the blood, sweat,
and tears it took to raise
and feed you monkeys.
Not like the ang-mohs
microwaving macaroni
and cheese for their
own children. No
wonder they put their
parents in the old folks'
home when they all
grow up.
Indicative
Chinese parents teach their children
skills and basic chores to teach them
how much work is done for their
sustenance unlike how western
parents just teach their children the
easy way on things which could be
the reason why most western
families send their parents to home
for the aged.
The American culture of parenting is
different from the Asian parenting.
Unlike Americans who give their
children liberty, Asian parents focus on
shaping their children’s future.
Scene #14
Right now, she just
thinks you're some
undeserving, clueless,
gold-digging trashy,
unrefined banana.
Yellow on the outside,
white on the inside.
Indicative
The character in the receiving end of
the line is deemed as undeserving,
clueless, gold-digging trashy,
unrefined banana which is yellow on
the outside but white on the inside
The character is perceived like a banana,
yellow on the outside (because she’s of
Asian descent and Asians are
characterized as yellow skinned) and
white on the inside (because despite
being an Asian, she was born and raised
in the America thus having more of their
culture than of her own race).
T I G O N | 52
Scene #15
There is a Hokkien
phrase. It means,
"Our own kind of
people." And you're not
our own kind. You're a
foreigner. American.
And all Americans
think about is their own
happiness.
Indicative
The character emphasizes that the
other character in the dialogue is not
one of them because she is an
American which makes her a
foreigner despite being of Chinese
decent.
Asians treat foreigners differently. They
have the tendency to emphasize the
boundary or the difference between
foreigners and their own race. That is
why culture appropriation is also a big
deal for Asians.
T I G O N | 53
Scene #2, #3, #4, #9, #10, #11, and #12
For these seven scenes, the signifiers was also identified as indicative
for it indicates the Robert Lee’s concept of model minority which was reflected
on both denotative and connotative meaning conveyed by the sign. One of the
six faces of Oriental according to Robert Lee is the model minority. The
perpetuation of this Asian and Asian-American stereotype in the Western media
from being deemed as pollutant to the position of model minority “… had less
to do with the actual success of Asian Americans than to the perceived failureor worse, refusal-of African Americans to assimilate. Asian Americans were
“not black” in two significant ways: They were both politically silent and
ethnically assimilable. (Lee, 1999).” As years passed, the conception of model
minority was no longer just limited to being politically silent and ethnically
assimilable but also Asians being a role model citizen of the society thus the
lines “Maybe his parents are poor, and he has to send them money. That's what all
good Chinese children do.”, “I'm so Chinese, I'm an economics professor with lactose
intolerance.”, and “God, I can't believe this airport has a butterfly garden and a movie
theater. JFK is just salmonella and despair.” Western media represented Asians and
Asian-Americans as the filial children, socially and morally responsible citizens, and
intellectuals yet submissive.
Scenes #5 and #6
Both scenes are identified as designative and both are specified as
replica. The signifiers “(In a thick accent) Rachel Chu, we are so grateful for all
the help you have given my Peik Lin back in her uni days. I mean, without you,
she would be a hot mess” and “Nice to meet you, too, Chu. Ku-ku. Ku-Chu.
You. Poo-poo. No, I'm just kidding. I don't have an accent” conveyed the
T I G O N | 54
connotative meaning towards the audience that the character pretending to have
a thick accent is usual in most Asians who are not exposed with the English
language, and that it also portrayed Asians as comical relief and gook for not
being able to express in English the same way Westerns do.
Scenes #7, #8, and #13
In scenes 7 and 13, both scenes have indicative signifiers and an almost
similar signified or constructed meaning. These signs conveyed the connotative
meaning that the American culture of parenting is different from the Asian
parenting. Unlike Americans who give their children liberty, Asian parents
focus on shaping their children’s future. The use of comparison between Asians
and Americans was framed leaning towards the notion that Asians are better
than Americans. It could be considered that it uses the argument that since
Asians and Asian-Americans are deemed model minority, this frames the
Americans as people who needs improvement. The phrase “You wanna be like
her? No? Then eat” established a stark contrast of Asians being represented as
model minority while Americans as bad examples.
However, in scene 8 there was an attempt to contradict the constructed
meaning in both scenes wherein the professional achievement of an Asian and
Asian-American was compared which denoted praise towards the AsianAmerican. This may not be the usual Asian vs. Non-Asian discussion in this
analysis however it is important that scene 8, despite involving Asian vs. AsianAmerican characters, still reflects the model minority stereotypification and
most of all, Othering. As seen in the history Asians experienced extreme
situations of Othering in the West thus in modern days, when encountered with
T I G O N | 55
a Western person or Asian-American, Asians also tend to practice Othering.
They treat Asian-Americans as others despite having an Asian descent to the
reason that Asian-Americans are born and raised in the West thus acquiring the
Western culture instead of their own native culture.
Thus in this scene, their treatment towards the Asian-Americans as
Others were evident yet framed the Asian-Americans as better.
Iconic Signs Analysis
Similar with the Indexical signs analysis, the researcher also adapted
Martin’s identification and analysis of iconic signs. As translated by Winchkler
(2011), a sign would be considered iconic if it is a proposal of visual perception,
and this visual image could be specifically identified as 1) plastic, 2) figurative,
3) conceptual, 4) combination of the previous. To be able to conduct an in-depth
analysis on iconic signs, it is also possible for these signs to be evaluated
whether it demonstrates 1) experience, 2) identity, and 3), convention.
Figure 6. Iconic semiotics – Visual Semiotics, Semiotics of the Edges
(Winchkler, 2011).
T I G O N | 56
In this study, the researcher conducted the analysis with ten iconic signs.
Out of ten (10) signs, three signs and its signifiers were identified as figurative,
two signs and signifiers as conceptual, and five signs as combination of the three
classification. The criteria for the classification of signifiers is based on the
denotative meaning of the words itself: a signifier can be classified as plastic if
it presents a material image; a signifier can be classified as figurative if it
conveys derivation of concepts, or metaphorical; a signifier can be identified as
conceptual if it the visual image is based on actual mental concepts and
representations.
Figure 10. Identified signifiers of every iconic signs in the corpus data
IDENTIFIED SIGNIFIERS IN EVERY ICONIC
SIGN IN THE CORPUS DATA
Plastic
Figurative
Conceptual
Combination
0%
30%
50%
20%
The table below shows the classification of the signifiers of the ten
iconic signs in the corpus data, and the signified, specifying its denotative and
connotative constructed meaning.
T I G O N | 57
Figure 11. Identified signifier and signified of Iconic signs
Sign
Signifier
Description
Signified
Denotation
Connotation
Of identity
Eleanor and her friends are
having a bible study
Asians are considered models for
practicing religion religiously
Plastic,
figurative
Of identity;
of identity
Asian women are treated as an
object of sexual pleasure because
they have been stereotyped as one
by the media in the early 19th
century thus people deem
Stiff and square families;
perfectionist; women
having to obey men
Figurative
Of identity
Most Asian women, or women in
general are treated as visual
pleasure, as an object of sexual
pleasure. And Asian actors and
actresses are deemed as
untalented compared to Western
actors
Asian families are strict and
square, and even perfectionist,
thus it is part in their culture for
women to be submissive
Perfect role model: does
charities, a fashion icon,
Harvard top graduate
Plastic,
figurative
Of identity
Type
Demonstration
Eleanor and her friends
(all Asians) are having a
bible study
Conceptual
Women as an object of
visual pleasure; stereotype
for Asian actors
Scene
#3
Scene
#4
Scene
#1
Scene
#2
Asians or Asian women are
perfect role models, they do
charities, most are fashion icons
and even top graduates in Ivy
league schools like Harvard
Asians are expected to be models
because of how they are portrayed
in the media In the early days thus
Asian families practice being strict,
square, and perfectionist towards
their children, and to be a
submissive follower
As stated, Asians are expected to be
models thus they are expected to be
successful, to be the top of their
class, to graduate from Ivy league
schools and to pay back to their
T I G O N | 58
families and do their social
responsibilities
Scene
#5
Bilingual Asians, teaching
children multiple
languages
Figurative
Of
convention
Asian parents are teaching their
children various skills including
multiple languages which makes
them a model minority
Scene
#6
Women being the provider
issue
Conceptual
Of
convention
Women being the provider of the
family is unconventional
Scene
#7
Asian being comical or
funny
Plastic,
figurative
Of identity
Asians are comical and funny
Scene
#8
Chinese custom of
washing hands on the
entrance of the house
(Cultural difference)
figurative
Of
convention
Asians have customs such as
washing hands when they arrive
at their house
As part of their model minority
traits, Asian parents teach their
children various skills and even
multiple languages for them to
achieve their goal of being top of
their class.
Part of being the model minority is
Asians having the tendency to be
traditionalist, to opt for that is
deemed as conventional thus it is an
issue for them when women acts of
gets the role of being the provider
of the family
Asians are deemed different when
they immigrated to the West thus
people found them comical, and
whatever they do are deemed funny
just because they are Asian
Asians value their customs and
traditions greatly thus they expect
visitors and people to respect and
adapt their customs when t
T I G O N | 59
Scene
#9
Difference of concepts of
intimacy or private space
Figurative,
conceptual
Of identity
Asians and Western have
different concepts of intimacy and
private space
Scene
#10
Americans being the
subject of visual pleasure
Plastic,
figurative
Of identity,
of convention
Americans are deemed as subject
of visual and sexual pleasure
Asians have a collectivist culture
thus their concept of intimacy and
private space are leaning to
emotional closeness thus for Asians
the boundaries of private space is
almost nonexistent. However for
Western who have an
individualistic culture, tend to value
private space greatly
Since Western culture are more
liberated compared to Asian
culture, there are tendencies that
American women become a subject
of visual pleasure
T I G O N | 60
CHAPTER VI
SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary
This study sprung from the recent release of the movie Crazy Rich
Asians, the second Hollywood film with an Asian and of descent cast after 25
years which has contributed an amount of discourse in the academe of ethnicity
and gender studies, and most of all in the film and communication academe As
contextualized into a smaller scale research, the experiment conducted aimed
to: 1) analyze how Asian and Asian-American identity is represented in the film
through semiotics employed in the film, 2) identify the different representations
of Asian and Asian-American identity in the film and how do those reflect the
predominant Asian and Asian-American stereotypes and themes in Western
media, 3) examine the implications of the identified representations conveyed in
the film towards the Asian and Asian-American identity, 4) identify the signs
employed in the film that constructed and conveyed representations of Asian
and Asian-American identity and the manner on how these signs were
employed, and 5) investigate the decoded meanings from the identified signs
and how those meanings convey Asian and Asian-American identity and reflect
Asian and Asian-American stereotypes.
Implications
After conducting an in-depth analysis in a total of 25 semiotic artifact or
signs, the results show that Robert Lee’s Six faces of Orientals and Simone de
T I G O N | 61
Beauvoir’s Othering are still reflected and utilized as predominant Asian and
Asian-American representations in Western media.
Recommendations:
The primary improvement that may be done would be in the current
study’s methodology. A larger set of corpus data would be ideal for a more
substantive result on the constructed meanings and how it reflects the
representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in the Western media. One
element that could also be improved in the study is the analysis and discussions.
T I G O N | 62
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