Asian Americans in Prime Time

Lights, Camera, and Little Action
By Tom LaVenture

http://www.aapress.com/archive/2005/websep9/n-primetime.htm

Karen Narasaki, executive director, National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium (NAPALC) was in the Twin Cities the week of August 15 for the Asian American Journalist Association (AAJA) National Convention in Minneapolis. While here, Narasaki briefed the conference on the organizations recently completed report on “Asian Americans in Prime Time,” a study on the presence and quality of APIA roles on prime time television.

NAPALC commissioned as the Chair of the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC), which for five years has evaluated ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, the four major television networks, on their progress in seven key areas: total number of Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) actors, writers, directors, development contracts, and executives, as well as procurement from APIA-owned companies and the level and scope of their outreach efforts.

The study looks beyond that raw data to assess and make recommendations on the performance of the major networks in their often-stated pledges to improve the type, quality, and complexity of characters portrayed by APIA actors, as well as APIA actors of mixed ethnicities.

White males remain the principal subjects of prime time television, where only 13 out of 113 feature at least one APIA actor, and fewer of these feature them prominently.

“This quantifies what we sort of already knew, anecdotally, when we watched television,” said Narasaki. “Even when there is an Asian on the show, they get the least screen time. Oftentimes there only is one API on there and it is a token.”

The work was lead by Nancy Wang Yuen, M.A., C. Phil., and doctoral candidates from the Department of Sociology at UCLA. Wang is researcher who published a 2004 study on Asian American actors; and continues her dissertation research as a comparative study of the experiences of Asian American, Multiracial Asian American, and white actors in Hollywood.

Some of the work was based on past research by the NAACP, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, and the American Indians in Film and Television. Funding for the study was provided by the IW Group.

The researchers concluded that despite the growing diversity of network programming, the APIA communities continue to have small and superficial roles written specifically for race and ethnicity. The study recommended that in the interest of mirroring society, the “impact of television programming must be underscored in terms of national and global perceptions of the APIA community.”

The central characters in a television series have the most time on screen; have the most well-developed and complex character; and are thus the most desirable roles for television actors, says the study. Audiences identify with them and this impacts the perception and treatment of APIAs in real life.

The report also finds a disturbing tendency to continue with simplistic portrayals of APIAs as isolated and asexual in contrast to non-APIA central roles and called for more developed and prominent roles, plots, romantic and familial plots surrounding APIA regulars with additional dialogue and screen time.

There are still barriers that APIA actors face in their struggle to portray non-stereotyped roles. Only three percent of these characters and one percent of repeating cast are specifically Asian, mixed Asian, and ambiguously Asian. There is an obvious absence of APIAs in shows that are set in cities with higher APIA density, such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle for example.

There are currently three standout programs amongst the major broadcasting networks that have reoccurring Asian American cast with developed roles that are integral to the plot.

LOST (ABC) begins its second season. The action-packed mystery and adventure involves a group of survivors of an airliner that crashed near a seemingly deserted island. The island soon exhibits mysterious sights, sounds, people and wildlife.

The show features Naveen Andrews, a London born Indian, as Sayid a former Iraqi Red Guard officer; along with Daniel Dae Kim (Jin) and Yunjin Kim (Sun) who appear as a Korean husband and wife.

The Korean couple’s deeply intimate relationship is contextually accurate. After first seeing them through the stereotypical eyes of the other cast members, the viewer is let in on a beautiful love story that is not emphasized in the physical but the very emotional.

The writer in LOST for the Korean couple is a Latino, says Narasaki. This works, while just a few years ago the failure of comedian Margaret Cho’s sitcom based on a Korean immigrant family was based on non-Asian writers that didn't understand culture, or was unwilling to step outside of the box.

“To me, you don't have to be Asian to write about Asian characters, but you have to know them,” she said.

Narasaki learned that when Sandra Oh read for a role in Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), her role had been written for “a petite blond.” She molded the role into an “undefined Asian American” part.

E.R. (NBC) enters its eleventh season as TVs highest rated drama. There are various Asian cast members but regulars include Ming-Na as Dr. Jing-Mei (Deb) Chen, and Parminder Nagra as Neela Rasgotra.

Keiko Agena continues her co-starring character role of Lane Kim, the brainy and eccentric drummer friend of the central character on Gilmore Girls (Warner Brothers), seen locally on KMWB-TV (Channel 23).

NBC’s “Hawaii” and UPN’s Star Trek Enterprise both had central APIA cast but were cancelled last season.

Narasaki says there is still an invisible barrier, that of executives maintaining a belief that white viewers won’t watch a show about an Asian American. She said the movies are proving that wrong. With each network developing 20 to 30 pilots each year, the networks are not seeing the social and economic incentives to develop at least a few APIA based show pilots.

“We would like to see shows with an APIA family,” she added.

For Asian writers and actors, it is tough to get a job without representation, and can’t get good representation without a good job.

Narasaki said NBC is making a good effort in trying to develop junior level writing with writer’s program and director fellowships, which is a paid opportunity to new young talent break past what had been a barrier.

“It’s a circular trade,” said Narasaki. “We have been working hard with the networks and with the Writers Guild…to get them in and change the dynamic.”

FROM THE REPORT

The population of regular APIA actors on prime time television amount to less than half of the actual APIA population percentage in the United States while white males remain the principal subjects of prime time television.

• Majority of the programs that claim an APIA actor among its regular cast feature only one APIA actor.

• Regular characters portrayed by APIA actors are absent from heavily APIA-populated cities such as San Francisco and Los Angeles, and severely underrepresented in places like Hawaii and New York City.

• Given that situational comedies generally feature family and domestic settings, the invisibility of APIA actors in this genre may contribute to an image that APIAs do not represent the “American family.”

• On average, non-APIAs have four times as many romantic or familial relationships as APIAs, characterizing APIAs as asexual and isolated.

• In general, APIA actors feature less prominently than non-APIA actors, with significantly lower screen times (sometimes the lowest) compared to non-APIA regulars.

• Multiracial APIA actors fare better than monoracial APIA actors in nearly every measurement of character prominence and quality.

• Male APIA actors fare better than female APIA actors in nearly every measurement of character prominence and quality.

Asian Pacific Americans in Prime Time: Lights, Camera and Little Action

This portion compares the numerical representation of APIAs in the U.S. population to the numerical representation of regular characters (portrayed by APIA actors) by race and gender, television network, individual program, and program setting. APIA Regulars by Race

• White regular characters remain the principal subjects of prime time television.

• While regular characters portrayed by whites and African Americans are overrepresented compared to their population percentages, Latino (at 4.7%) and APIA (at 2.7%) actors are represented below their population percentages of 13.3% and 4.4%, respectively.

APIA Regulars by Race and Gender

• The dominance of white male characters persists in prime time television.

• Male regular characters are overrepresented compared to females across every racial group despite the higher population of females (51%) compared to males (49%) in the United States.

APIA Regulars by Network

• Except for NBC, all other networks’ representation of regular APIA actors amount to less than half of the U.S. percentage of the APIA population.

National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium

APIA Regulars by Program

• Among 113 prime time programs, only 13 feature at least one APIA actor.

• Only three programs (ER, Hawaii, and Lost) include more than one APIA actor among their regular cast, while ten programs feature only one APIA actor as a regular.

• NBC cancelled Hawaii in October 2004 after only eight episodes.