Still desperate for Asian Americans on TV

Harry Mok
October 3, 2007

In the show, Susan was told by her gynecologist that she might be hitting menopause, when she replied, "Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines."

OK, I admit it, I watch the show. When I heard the line in question, I did take notice. It made me wonder if medical schools in the Philippines had a bad rep. If they do, I wasn't aware of it. As the petition points out, there are a lot of immigrant Filipino Americans working in the medical profession so they must be doing something right.

I'm not defending them, but the writers seemed to have chosen a country almost at random to pick on. Probably any country they used would have offended someone. More than 24,000 signed the petition as of this posting.

Given that, I wonder if there had been some or more Filipino Americans or Asian Americans in the cast or writing staff of Desperate Housewives, would that line have made it?

And it also made me do a mental count of Asian Americans on TV. Masi Oka of Heroes is everywhere these days (cover of Entertainment Weekly, promos for Sunday Night Football), and there's Sandra Oh of Grey's Anatomy and Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim on Lost. Continuing a tradition of Asian spotting on the Hyphen blog, here's two from new shows this fall. If you know of more, please post in the comments.


Moon Bloodgood -- Journeyman: Her last show, Day Break, also had a time travel theme, and it didn't stick. Time travel always creates plot and logic problems, often confusing the viewer. Plus, how implausible is it for a newspaper reporter to live in what looks like a huge multi-million dollar house in San Francisco. This show may travel forward to cancellation quickly.

Will Yun Lee -- Bionic Woman: Lee plays one of the bionic team members who rebuilds Jamie Summers in this remake of the 1970s show. I missed the premiere but I'm looking forward to seeing this show.

I just instinctively take notice when I see someone who looks Asian on mainstream TV. I'm sure many Asian Americans do, probably because there are still very few images of themselves on the tube. As Oka says, things are slowly changing, but do we pay too much attention to this? I ask because I was part of a conversation recently about how some people spend too much time "navel gazing" about identity and not tackling real issues like poverty or education or other harder issues. I've certainly done my fair share of navel gazing, and Asian spotting on TV is part of this, yet I still do it. Do you?

Contributor: 

Harry Mok

Editor in chief

Editor in Chief Harry Mok wrote about growing up on a Chinese vegetable farm for the second issue of Hyphen and has been a volunteer editor since 2004. As a board member of the San Francisco and New York chapters of the Asian American Journalists Association, Harry has recruited and organized events for student members. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, where he was also a graduate student instructor in the Asian American Studies Department.

Comments

Comments

Vox wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 11:00am
I'm not defending them, but the writers seemed to have chosen a country almost at random to pick on. Probably any country they used would have offended someone.They should have realized that and said something vague, that didn't mention a country, then.
mendoza wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 11:58am
there's also tia carerre on curb your enthusiasm, who plays a character named "cha cha."
kimmy wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 2:06pm
Just signed it, I encourage everyone else to as well. Speak ur mind ppl!
Darren wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 3:21pm
I'm not defending them, but the writers seemed to have chosen a country almost at random to pick on.I don't think it was random. Probably a riff on the nursing school scandal from last year. I'm sure Teri Hatcher's character is ditzy enough to confuse doctors with nurses.
Rojosa wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 5:04pm
There's Brenda Song on Disney's Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Manila Freelancer wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 7:26pm
I think the script writer made a Desperate move... and will probably jobless soon...
Gene Gelvoleo wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 9:35pm
To T.Hatcher: I am so sure, that you know or not just aware that your relatives or friends have Filipino medical practitioner that they would not trade with other nationals. That's how Filipinos are. Other details of this claim are already on your desk top like the figures of Filipinos who made a name in USA & other parts of the world. You are a human being who live in the past if you are still discriminating other culture. The world is so small & race is not at par with anything.Bye!!!
Anonymous wrote on Wed, 10/03/2007 - 11:51pm
I think Asian worry to much about trying to be mainstream instead of creating media in America for themselves. Thats a big problem, create Asian venues for Asian people, BET, create and AET and support it.
erin wrote on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 2:30am
i think there's a distinction to be made between this incident and, say, Whoopie's or Rosie O's comments of earlier discussion. in the talk-show format, people speak their minds as themselves, and so it's fair to judge them fully for those comments. in a fictional TV show, though, we're dealing with fictional characters. so it's not really Teri H talking about Filipinos; it's her character. and even if her character is racist, that may or may not mean that the show's producers and writers are racist--they may, rather, be portraying a character whose racism you're not necessarily expected to align with. things to keep in mind, as you decide to loose or pull your punches.
Harry wrote on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 10:15am
Now that I think about it, is the line in the show more aimed at the Philippines as a country rather than any racial overtones?Insert any other country on the lower end of the economic scale into what Terri Hatcher said and the line still would have worked.I think Erin may be right in that people could be crying racism a little too easily in this case.That said, Asian Americans do get a raw deal in Hollywood and maybe people get worked up over even the slightest slights because of this.
rebecca wrote on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 11:55am
well, the migration of filipino nurses is a direct result of a severe nursing shortage in the u.s.--basically an invitation via immigration rules. it's caused a huge problem in developing countries, where the medical professionals trained in the country (using u.s. standards) are leaving en masse for the higher pay, and thereby creating a lack of services in the native country. so really, the comment seems to be about immigration and the professional sphere, with the philippines as the most obvious example.i don't watch desperate housewives, so perhaps erin above has a good point. (was the gynecologist white? i don't even know)however, it does seem to me an unncessary comment, with lots of 'our world' vs. 'third world' overtones. it reminds me of the jokes people tell about tech support lines being answered by people in india. i guess if eastern european professionals immigrated in large numbers into a particular sector, we'd really see if it was ethnicity related.
bong wrote on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 3:19pm
it was a joke. get over it people. focus on what's really important.
lisa wrote on Thu, 10/04/2007 - 3:22pm
it was a joke. a lousy one. but let's get over it. there's better things to focus on. sheesh!
betz wrote on Fri, 10/05/2007 - 7:55pm
i'm over it.as for "navel gazing," i do it too. it's how i identify with others in my community.and it doesn't have to be media v. poverty. there's no reason why we can't care about both.both issues are just as important, but shouldn't be compared. it's apples and oranges.
lizelle wrote on Sun, 10/07/2007 - 11:40am
When folks say, "Get over it", it means to forget the history of forced migration that has brought Filipina/os to the US and allow mainstream America to relegate our contributions to this country to the margins and make us the butt of jokes that should be accepted on national TV. While I don't watch the show, many people do. Media has a powerful effect on the perceptions of the public and continue to shape racial and ethnic relations in this country. For folks who comment to get over it and focus on more important issues, that is an subjective comment. What other important issues are the folks who make this comment focusing on and taking action upon? The amazing thing about our communities is that there is room for each person to take action on what they believe is important and to pass judgement on what others are doing to make a change leaves no room for dialogue that can make the change necessary so that comments such as those built into a show like Desperate Housewives is recognized as unacceptable.
Harry wrote on Sun, 10/07/2007 - 7:01pm
Even the government of the Philippines was demanding an apology, and ABC issued one for the line in the show.
Raj wrote on Wed, 10/10/2007 - 9:04am
"well, the migration of filipino nurses is a direct result of a severe nursing shortage in the u.s.--basically an invitation via immigration rules. it's caused a huge problem in developing countries, where the medical professionals trained in the country (using u.s. standards) are leaving en masse for the higher pay, and thereby creating a lack of services in the native country. so really, the comment seems to be about immigration and the professional sphere, with the philippines as the most obvious example."Please dont make comments until you know the whole story.
M wrote on Thu, 10/11/2007 - 12:14am
i don't appreciate comments from people who tell others to stop "navel-gazing" or to "get over it." the accumulation of stereotypes and degradation, no matter how slight, impacts the mental health of the group of people these comments are directed at. in the long run, it would be detrimental for us to "get over it" at this point. as someone who has recently completed a study on filipina mail-order brides, the comment on the show trivializes the hardships that the women of my country have endured and the hard work that they do to survive. just because it makes you uncomfortable to hear that racism and ignorance is still very much a part of this country's culture, does not mean it doesn't exist and it does us no good in the end to try and ignore and move on from it. before it gets any worse, i encourage others to stand up for themselves and their rights. we demanded that people take notice of this derogatory comment and i think that's totally appropriate. please think about why you feel you have to ignore these comments and to tell us to focus on something important. racism, classism, sexism are all interrelated in some way. if it categorizes me and my people in a detrimental manner, it is most definitely important to me.
rebecca wrote on Thu, 10/11/2007 - 1:35pm
Raj, you're right.After watching it, I still think it was unnecessary, but now I'm not sure why some think it was meant as a joke. And I do think it is more about 'first world' vs. 'third world.'
Raj wrote on Fri, 10/12/2007 - 1:29pm
Rebecca:Immigration is an issue but not as you have portrayed. The Philippines government encourages migration to accumulate foreign exchange and for remittances sent to relatives who then can afford private doctors. If the immigrant stays in the Philippines he or she would likely work in a public hospital and the relatives would still be poor with no resources.Now why is immigration an issue? H1-B visas. Now you may wonder what computer programmers have to do with Hollywood. Well it does not. About 6,000 of the 65,000 visas are given to actors from other countries, and most, if not all of them are white. Poppy Montgomerry of Australia, Charlize Theron from South Africa, A.J. Cook of Canada, Melaney Linskey of New Zealand and Kate Winslett of the UK are all white just to mention a few. Now no one protests against these H1-Bs unemploying aspiring American actors, particularly Asian Americans, definitely not the racist anti-immigration groups such as the Federation of American Immigration Reform and Center for Immigration Studies. Now these folks are more interested in breaking up marriages between non-white Americans and non-white foreigners and white Americans and non-white foreingers (particularly Asian women). At present the Center for Immgiration Studies is campaigning to deport the Hispanic wife of a US citizen soldier because her paper is not in order. Of course, never heard these racists wanting to deport an white Irish woman, have you? These groups also consistently protest against Asians taking programmer jobs away, but have little or nothing to say about white foreigners displacing Americans in Hollywood, white and non-white alike. Racists one and all!!
Moo wrote on Mon, 10/15/2007 - 3:26pm
Will Yun Lee's character in Bionic Woman has sex with the blonde, evil Bionic Woman (There's two Bionic Women). Apparently, they had some kind of romantic relationship before she went evil. This'd probably be one of the few AM/WF sexings on American TV (I can't think of any others).Sure, Will Yun Lee plays your typical Asian martial arts guy, but not being a total eunuch about it is a good start.Doesn't stop the whole show from being mediocre, though.