Chinese actors in New York City? (1 Viewer)

[disctrip]

Just watched an episode of "Naked City" last night(The Contract) and had to wonder why all the actors portraying the Chinese people were not Chinese.


James Shigeta (Japanese)


Abraham Sofaer (Jewish)


Pilar Seurat (Filipino)



Were there no chinese actors in New York in 1962?


It just made it a little distracting to pay attention to the story. Of coarse "Inn Of The Sixth Happiness", "Breakfast At Tiffanys" and many more also come to mind. Never understood it.

 

[Vic Pardo]

Just watched an episode of "Naked City" last night(The Contract) and had to wonder why all the actors portraying the Chinese people were not Chinese.


James Shigeta (Japanese)


Abraham Sofaer (Jewish)


Pilar Seurat (Filipino)



Were there no chinese actors in New York in 1962?


It just made it a little distracting to pay attention to the story. Of coarse "Inn Of The Sixth Happiness", "Breakfast At Tiffanys" and many more also come to mind. Never understood it.

There were tons of Asian actors in Hollywood at the time--I can list a couple dozen off the top of my head--and there had been Asian-themed shows on Broadway just prior to that ("Flower Drum Song," "The World of Suzie Wong") so there were Asian performers available in New York. James Shigeta was evidently imported from Hollywood to do this episode, and I'm guessing Sofaer and Seurat were also. So they could have imported Chinese or Chinese-American actors from Hollywood.


But to most white producers and casting agents, Asians were interchangeable and little thought was given to casting ethnically correct Asians in these parts. Yet at the same time, I've seen plenty of TV episodes from that period with Japanese actors playing Japanese parts (e.g. an episode of "Laramie" with Nobu McCarthy and three other Japanese actors, all playing Japanese characters traveling in the west) and Chinese actors playing Chinese parts (Bonanza: "Day of the Dragon" with Lisa Lu and Richard Loo), enough to indicate that somewhere along the line, someone did make the effort to get it right. But there weren't activists picketing Hollywood studios over such matters at the time and Asian actors were grateful to get whatever work they could. Nancy Kwan talked about this on the commentary for FLOWER DRUM SONG and how grateful she and the other cast members were to finally be in something that cast Asian actors in lead roles, so they didn't quibble with producers about ethnic exactness.


A few decades later, when Jonathan Pryce played a Vietnamese in the Broadway show, "Miss Saigon," there was a big outcry and pickets at the theater. And there was some commotion ten years ago when Chinese actresses played Japanese geisha girls in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA. I believe it would have been better to cast Japanese actresses, since they would have brought a different and more authentic group dynamic to the scenes of the women interacting among themselves. Chinese women and Japanese women have different group dynamics.


It's an ongoing battle. I tend to prefer seeing ethnically and racially correct performers in these roles anyway, because I think they bring some authenticity to the roles. But the extent of even unwitting, casual racism toward Asians never fails to astound me. And the failure to distinguish between Chinese and Japanese. And it used to not be that casual. I mean, it was only ten or so years before I was born that Japanese-Americans, including a young George Takei, were forced into internment camps.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

And now there's the controversy over Emma Stone(!!!) cast as a half-Asian character in that new flick Aloha (which apparently turned out to be so terrible that people didn't even protest much ).


IIRC, the reason they cast Chinese actresses in Memoirs of a Geisha is because they were at least somewhat known in the US (Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Michelle Yeoh). I don't think there were any Japanese (or Japanese-American) actresses at the time with even minor star power. (Not that they couldn't have tried to find someone who might've been made a star by the role.)

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I believe it would have been better to cast Japanese actresses, since they would have brought a different and more authentic group dynamic to the scenes of the women interacting among themselves. Chinese women and Japanese women have different group dynamics.

True, but that's why actors act. More jarring would be the Chinese accents!

 

[Citizen87645]

Check out this documentary if you have a chance: http://deepfocusproductions.com/HollywoodChinese/index.html

 

[Citizen87645]

I'm pretty sure I objected to the casting of Chinese actresses in Memoirs of a Geisha back in the day. I don't know if I would object in the same way today, as I understand my initial reaction to these kinds of things is fueled by longstanding resentments (e.g. the frequent attitude that Asian cultures / people are interchangeable). I believe in most cases it's not malice that drives these decisions, but usually economics or plain ignorance. I don't know if race-oriented protests are the most effective way of educating people like Cameron Crowe, who will merely become defensive and learn nothing other than a certain segment of the public are "sensitive."


Stone's character was actually supposed to be a quarter Chinese. I don't mind that she was cast for the part, as it was supposed to be someone who could "pass as white" and represent that experience. I do think the premise had a lot of potential, as I have family members who are a quarter Chinese and would like to have their experiences get some attention. But it sounds like the compelling parts of the character got pushed aside or lost in the storytelling.


The anglo woman with a Chinese name of course makes me think of that episode of Seinfeld...

 

[disctrip]

I think Mickey Rooney in 'Breakfast at Tiffanys" was an insult to everyone, not just asians.

 

[Cees Alons]

Although it was - and would be much more generally felt that way nowadays - he didn't realize it then and was shocked by the reactions he got about it later.



Cees

 

[Citizen87645]

 

[kathy13xia]

People in the show, the accent is too strange, not the realy chinese accent.