Asian male characters in film and TV have long been sidelined, emasculated, and denied the chance to have romantic or sexual relationships—that’s when they’re not openly mocked.

In an inverse of the trend of fetishizing Asian women through the “lotus blossom” trope, Asian men are consistently desexualized onscreen. This has directly led to the damaging, widespread perception in US society that Asian men are less masculine or sexually desirable, so it’s more important than ever to move past it.

TRANSCRIPT

Asian male characters in film and TV have long been sidelined, emasculated, and denied the chance to have romantic or sexual relationships—that’s when they’re not openly mocked. In an inverse of the trend of fetishizing Asian women through the “Lotus Blossom” trope, Asian men are consistently desexualized onscreen. And this has directly led to the damaging, widespread perception in U.S. society that Asian men are less masculine or sexually desirable. Here’s our take on how the Asexual Asian trope has been used to spread stereotypes of Asian men in real life, and why it’s more important than ever to move past it.

Rachel Chu: “I also want nerdy Asian men to feel they are worthy of love, the problem is when you make fun of them in a secondary role where you don’t explore their whole lives.” - Variety

Asian Men in History

Cinema is full of Asian male characters who have been stereotyped and belittled, their foreignness frequently treated as the butt of the joke. While today we’ve at last moved beyond the regressive idea that an accent is a funny joke, the “Asexual Asian man” trope is still omnipresent, coming through in a variety of forms and character types. The stereotypical Asian male character might be nerdy, weak or effeminate (especially in contrast to hypermasculine white male characters). He’s typically reduced to a marginal role—like sidekick to a white guy, mysterious martial arts master, or cartoonish villain. And an overwhelming number of these characters have no romantic relationship in sight. But it wasn’t always like this. In the early days of silent film in Hollywood, Japanese actor Sessue Hayakawa became a huge star, and one of Hollywood’s first, iconic sex symbols—so why was he also one of the the last leading Asian men in the following decades? The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese immigration into the U.S., represented an American fear of Yellow Peril.

“A letter appeared in the pages of ‘The New York Sun’ written by a young Chinese immigrant. ‘This country is the land of liberty for all men of all nations except the Chinese.’” - American Experience, PBS

This was the idea that Asian immigrants posed a threat to an American way of life. As a result of these fears, Asian men in early cinema were villainized as dangerous threats, often to white women. In the 1915 movie The Cheat, Hayakawa plays a predator who exploits a spoiled white society woman. The Fu Manchu movies also played into this trope, but Fu Manchu himself was almost always played by a white man in yellowface—painting Asians as villains while reminding the audience of who held the real power.

Meanwhile, in real life, labor and immigration laws meant that Asian men had to take jobs that white men didn’t want—such as laundering, cooking, and washing dishes—which were seen as “women’s work.” This was later reflected in on-screen portrayals that dismissively portrayed Asian men in these kinds of roles.

Jim Baker: “He does the dishes and helps with the laundry, you betcha.” - Sixteen Candles

Over the decades, increasing numbers of Asian men found success in high-powered fields like medicine and law, thus solidifying the “model minority” myth. Yet Asian men’s growing class power was plagued by a desexualization meant to reinforce the existing power dynamic, which kept white men on top. As Matthew Salesses writes for The Guardian, this emasculation of Asian men was a deliberate way for white men to show that “societal power may come at the cost of sexual power. The model minority Asian American male might become a doctor or lawyer or engineer, but he can’t get the girl.”

Meanwhile, this desexualized portrayal came in sharp contrast to the hypersexualized depiction of Asian women through the submissive, “exotic” Lotus Blossom trope. Asian men were often made out to be inferior choices or threats to Asian women, who were then available to be rescued by white men. Ultimately, it was this combination of the emasculated Asian Man and the objectified Lotus Blossom that allowed for white male supremacy over both Asian men and women.

Types of Asian Asexuality

There are a variety of different tropes and clichés used to desexualize, sideline, and emasculate Asian men in pop culture. Let’s take a look at some of the most common ones:

The F.O.B —or “fresh off the boat”—character is primarily used as comic relief. Cinema is full of offensive examples of this, like Mickey Rooney’s yellowface portrayal of Mr. Yunioshi in 1961’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s, and 1984’s Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong, an exchange student whose broken English and inability to assimilate into American culture makes him a laughingstock for his peers. The F.O.B character is especially damaging in how it depicts Asian men as bumbling and stupid—ignorantly suggesting that having an accent is a sign of low intelligence and turning the difficulty of the immigrant experience into something to snicker at. Any sexual or romantic interest these characters display are usually part of a larger joke made at their expense. The television series 2 Broke Girls came under fire for its depiction of Han Lee, a Korean immigrant whose difficulty adjusting to American culture—and getting girls—is a constant, running joke for the main cast.

The Sidekick is another popular way Asian men are portrayed in media.

Ned Leeds: “Can I be your guy in the chair?”

Peter Parker: “What?”

Ned Leeds: “You know how there’s a guy, with the headset, telling the other guy where to go? Like… like if you were stuck in a burning building, I could tell you where to go.” - Spider-Man: Homecoming

One of the earliest examples is the character Kato, played by Bruce Lee, in the 1966 series The Green Hornet. Kato serves as the Green Hornet’s valet and martial arts expert. As a sidekick, the Asexual Asian usually doesn’t have the opportunity to experience romantic relationships, as these are reserved for the usually white protagonist. Even a modern example, Ned Leeds in Spider-Man: Homecoming initially plays into this, though it corrects the problem by giving Ned a romance in the sequel.

Similar to (and sometimes overlapping with) the sidekick, The Nerd is another common portrayal of an Asian man where he’s typically in the background, playing a supporting role, and notably desexualized. The nerd plays heavily into the model minority stereotype, assuming that Asian men are naturally smart—especially in STEM fields—but this intelligence comes at the cost of being socially awkward and unable to have relationships. They’re painted as awkward and never seen as a real romantic threat.

Another variation on the Asexual Asian is The Guru. The guru is wise, sometimes mystical, and most importantly, old.

Pai Mei: “It’s the wood that should fear your hand, not the other way around.” - Kill Bill Vol. II

His age and wisdom seemingly puts him above the triviality of romantic relationships, and he almost always lives alone. The guru also often takes on the role of mentoring the white protagonist, usually in martial arts.

Similarly mystical, cartoonish, and asexual-feeling is the Asian Male Villain. He serves as an obstacle for a usually white, male protagonist to overcome, often representing an ambiguous Eastern threat to Western supremacy. Playing into the idea of Yellow Peril, villainous Asians can also pose as threats to helpless female victims, providing an opportunity for the protagonist to display his superiority physically and sexually when he succeeds in getting the girl.

Finally, the Asexual Asian has also been repeatedly portrayed as a Martial Arts Star:

Trish: “Is it true what they say about Hong Kong?”

Kai: “What’s that?”

Trish: “You know, all you guys do Kung Fu.”

Kai: “Of course. State law.” - Romeo Must Die

This particular portrayal—and the popularity of the Kung Fu movie—began in large part with Chinese martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. Lee’s departure from the portrayal of the weak and submissive Asian man helped audiences see Asian men as strong and masculine, and gave a lot of Asian men confidence and pride in their heritage. Still, Lee’s popularity also helped perpetuate stereotypes about Asian men—for example, their innate knowledge of martial arts or other “Asian” forms of fighting—and he was rarely given love interests or romantic partners in his films. In Lee’s most famous film, Enter the Dragon, his co-competitors Roper and Williams both spend the night with prostitutes, while his character stays focused on the mission.

The film Romeo Must Die is also infamous for its desexualization of its Asian male lead. Despite the film being a literal retelling of Romeo and Juliet, the film’s version of Romeo (Han Sing, played by Jet Li) isn’t even allowed an onscreen kiss with his co-star Aaliyah. When the studio showed a test cut of the film that did include a kiss scene, the audience reacted so poorly that the scene was changed to a platonic hug in the final cut.

Despite all the superficial differences between these categories of stock Asian male characters on-screen, we can see how, as a group, they’ve led Asian men to be consistently perceived as nerdy, effeminate, and not interested in—or a poor option for—romance. All these portrayals shape our opinions of Asian men in real life—and have real-world consequences. Asian men and Black women are viewed as the least desirable racial dating groups, according to a 2014 OkCupid study. And the lack of romantically desirable Asian male characters on-screen can also lead to Asian men internalizing this narrative themselves.

Where Are They Now?

In 2016, a social media campaign called #StarringJohnCho went viral, Photoshopping images of actor John Cho as the leading role in popular film posters. While Cho went on to play the lead in movies like Columbus and Searching, the campaign highlighted how rare it was to see leading Asian men on-screen, especially in films with romantic elements.

In recent years, we have at last seen evidence of this trend changing. There are now more positive, well-rounded Asian male characters who experience on-screen romantic relationships. Crazy Rich Asians launched Henry Golding’s profile as one of contemporary Hollywood’s rising sex symbols.

Nick Young: “Wherever you are in the world, that’s where I belong.” - Crazy Rich Asians

Always Be My Maybe and Mulan highlight the romance between an Asian woman and a non-stereotypical Asian man. More and more examples also pair Asian male leads with non-Asian women , moving away from the stereotype that only Asian women are interested in dating Asian men. Kumail Nanjiani co-wrote and starred in romantic comedy-drama The Big Sick, which looks honestly at how an interracial relationship between a white woman and a man of Pakistani heritage has to reckon with complex cultural baggage. Insecure’s interracial relationship between Molly and Andrew shows Molly’s initial bias in dismissing Andrew as a romantic partner,

Issa Dee: “Why aren’t you excited about him? Is it ‘cause he’s Asian? ‘Cause no judgment! But judgment.” - Insecure

before she eventually comes to see him as a highly romantic and sexual man, as well as a true catch. The relationship between Steven Yeun’s Glenn and Lauren Cohen’s Maggie is one of the longest-lasting romances on The Walking Dead—and one that features Glenn as just an ordinary guy, without any qualifiers that elevated him above “normal” Asian men.

Additionally, the rise in popularity of K-Pop bands like BTS among young female audiences shows us that society is open to redefining what kind of masculinity is attractive, opening the door for Asian men who are not traditionally masculine to have opportunities at romantic relationships in media.

Conclusion

In the end, Hollywood’s countless desexualized and dismissive portrayals of Asian men have served to subconsciously reinforce Asian male inferiority and white male superiority. The Asexual Asian trope as an inescapable, ubiquitous cliché limits the representation of Asians onscreen and in our culture’s collective mind. Perhaps most importantly, it sends a damaging message to an Asian male viewer about himself, which is based solely on false myths and a purposeful attempt to marginalize an entire culture. Romantic relationships are not a necessity in order to tell a story about a fully-formed, three-dimensional character of any background. But it’s important to portray Asian men as viable options for romance, to present their desirability as one realistic aspect of their full humanity, and to remind everyone just how much they have to offer.