Excerpt:
Long Duk Dong was the foreign-exchange student, fresh from some unidentified Asian country, in the popular 1984 high-school comedy Sixteen Candles—comic relief in a movie with more than its share of slapstick.
When we launched In Character, we set out to explore fictional characters who had left a mark on American culture. The mark Long Duk Dong left was more of a stain: To some viewers, he represents one of the most offensive Asian stereotypes Hollywood ever gave America.
Read (or listen) to the full segment here: Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes?
Also worth checking out: NPR: "Are Positive Stereotypes Racist, Too?"
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2 comments:
that's so funny that you posted that because this weekend I watched sixteen candles with some friends and we couldn't stop commenting on all the stereotypes he portrayed- he reminded us of Chin-Kee!It was really racist and so unexpected from a "classic" American movie.
Jacqui Crane
Glad you were able to recognize the stereotypes! And interestingly enough, it's surprising how many "classic" films (and t.v. shows, books, etc.) contain similarly insensitive--if not blatantly racist--material. For example, as Gucky in period one pointed out, the old James Bond movies often had villains who looked and spoke German, which was no surprise given the context of World War II.
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