On the Misrepresentations of Asian Americans in US Media
Community Service Learning Program 2014
Introduction
Asian Americans have been historically misrepresented within United States media. Although, blatant racism
has more or less disappeared from mainstream broadcasting, the modern day distortions of the Asian population
still have wide-ranging effects across media today. Hollywood, major news corporations, and much of social
media skew representations of Asian Americans into a set of stereotypes that fall short of reality (L. Tung,
2006). Currently, Asian American body image is not well understood due to complicated cultural diversity
among the ethnic group (Pishori, 2011).
Intern Statement: Misrepresentations of Asian Americans in US media negatively impact the self-esteem of
Asian American teens. There are multiple ways in which these impacts occur. These include instances when
teenagers internalize negative stereotypes of Asians in media in the form of insecurities. Another occurrence of
these impacts would include the spread of unrealistic and/or Western beauty standards.
Data and Analysis*
Demographics
The data we collected shows that Asian Americans are severely misrepresented.
Many Asian American teenagers could easily list several stereotypes of Asians when
interviewed, but struggled to name even one Asian American celebrity (Fig. 1).
Usually teenagers could only recall stereotypes common to the “Geek” or “Kung Fu
Fighter” roles that Asian actors have been type-casted for in most of mainstream
media (Nittle, 2014).
Another pattern was that an overwhelming number of the teenagers who had
struggled to name Asian American celebrities also preferred Western beauty
standards** (Fig. 2). Particularly notable is the effect of media on Asian American
females, due to the way society views both non-Caucasians and females (Cheng, et
al., 2014). While the “Dragon Lady” stereotype has been slowly fading from the
portrayal of Asian American women in media, negative impacts can still be seen (J.
Tung, 2000). Of the Asian American females surveyed that they were affected by
media, 80% felt that their self-esteem was negatively (Fig. 3).
Out of 235 Teenagers
surveyed:
Ethnicity
206 Asian
21 Caucasian
6 Hispanic
3 African American
Gender
146 Female
81 Male
8 Other
Figure 2. Of the Asian American youth surveyed who had difficulty
naming Asian actors in the media, 93% found Western features more
attractive.
Figure 3. Of the Asian American females surveyed who said that the
media affected their self-esteem, 80% responded that the effect was
negative.
Figure 1. Of teens surveyed, 85% could not name more
than 6 celebrities
*All data is taken from 235 surveys distributed by hand and through online forms to adolescences.
** References for the contrast between Western and more Eastern features were taken from Asian Plastic Surgery Guide. Note: the site itself homogenizes both groups, but provided a second
function of showing how features are altered by Asians in plastic surgery.
Conclusion
In this study we demonstrated that the misrepresentation of Asian Americans in U.S. media have had
negative effects on Asian American teenagers’ self-esteem. Although few teenagers said they felt the
need to fit into stereotypes seen on TV, many claim to have had negative experiences because of these
misrepresentations. In a few instances adolescents were able to name a few famous Asian Americans
that did not fit any of the mainstream stereotypes or beauty standards perpetuated in U.S. Media. These
exceptions were usually YouTube celebrities or other independent artists (Yu, 2014). Although our
research focused on Asian American misrepresentations, all races are affected by stereotypes. We
recommend keeping an open mind to the wide spectrum of personalities across all races that stereotypes
fail to capture. Ideally, a solution to combat misrepresentations that we researched would be to simply
start casting more Asian Americans into more representative and diverse roles. Blind-casting on TVshows such as “Grey’s Anatomy” makes it possible. A more achievable solution would be to increase
support and viewership of the Asian American celebrities that act independently on their own YouTube
channels or blogs. A more short-term and individual solution would be to raise awareness among
teenagers about the effects that media can have on them and spread a message of self-confidence.
Charles B. Wang
Teen Resrouce Center
Community Service
Learning Program
The Charles B. Wang Community
Health Center (CBWCHC) is a nonprofit, federally qualified health
center. Founded in 1971,
CBWCHC’s mission is to be a
leader in providing quality,
culturally relevant, and affordable
health care and education as well as
advocate on behalf of the health and
social needs of underserved Asian
Americans.
The Teen Resource Center (TRC) is
a program of the Pediatric Unit in
the Charles B. Wang Community
Health Center. Founded in 2003,
TRC’s mission is to provide
information and support to the
Asian American youth population
through health education, programs,
activities, and referrals.
The Community Service Learning
Program (CSLP) is a six month
long internship program for high
school students to learn real world
skills in a professional setting and
to offer them a chance to give
back to the Asian American
community
Mindi Cao: A rising senior who enjoys drawing.
Emily Lam: A rising junior in who can bake macarons.
Belinda Liang: A rising senior in who likes to eat.
Heebong Kim: A rising senior in who plans to be
Ivanka M. Trump.
Umma Pingki: A rising junior in with a bubbly personality.
Wilson Wong: Rising senior in who doesn’t like watermelon.
Kah Soon Yap: Rising junior in who likes archery.
Elizabeth Yim: Rising senior in who aspires to be a
pediatrician and stay involved with Apex for youth in the future.
Works Cited
"Comparison of 30 East Asian and European Facial Attributes”, Asian Plastic Surgery Guide, n.d. Web. 8 June 2014.
Cheng, Joy, Charles Hsieh, Scott Lu, and Sarah Talgo. Media Misrepresentations of Asians. University of Michigan. Web. 20 July 2014.
Nittle, Nadra K. "Five Common Asian-American Stereotypes in TV and Film." About.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2014.
Pishori, Alefiyah. "Differences in Body Image: Comparing Asian American Ethnic Groups and White Americans." Diss. U of Connecticut, 2011. Web.
20 July 2014.
Tung, Jennifer. "Asian 'It' Girls Say So Long to the Dragon Lady." The New York Times. The New York Times, 20 May 2000. Web. 27 July 2014.
Tung, Ling-hsuan L. "Images of Asians and Asian-Americans: The Under-representation and Misrepresentation of Asians and Asian-Americans on
American Television." Diss. Kean U, 2006. 2006. Web. 27 July 2014.
Yu, Robert. "Yellow Media." Yellow Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 July 2014.