Turner Classic Movies is running an Asian Film Festival covering a variety of films from the silent era to The Joy Luck Club.
Most of the films, of course, contain horrible stereotypes, from Fu Manchu to the submissive geisha-like girl (no matter what the situation she must always bow down to the “superior” men/white men).
But the interesting thing I found by watching some of these films was how societal flow blockages applied to different minority groups. For example, for most of Hollywood history blacks were shown as either savages (as in King Kong) or more likely as servants. But that term “servant” really meant in all aspects – every black character on film was somehow serving to make the white class better. There was never sense of equality in any way, shape or form.
In fact, in the original version of Imitation of Life, a white woman and a black woman become extremely rich thanks to the black woman’s pancake recipe. But half way through the film the black woman signs over her rights to the white woman because “all she wanted out of life was to serve”. In other words, rather than be a millionaire she would rather be a servant to make the white woman happy.
Now contrast this with Hollywood’s depiction of Asians. In two films I saw, The Bitter Tea of General Yen and Toll of the Sea, white people have/fantasize having affairs with Chinese partners. In the Toll of the Sea, a white man actually marries a Hong Kong native and has a child. Of course, this is all ultimately “punished” as the Chinese characters commit suicide at the end (and the white people go on living), but the point is significant:
Black characters can never have sexual relationships with white characters, but Asian characters can. And even that changes as the years go on. First the Japanese were evil, then once the communists took over China the Chinese were evil (as were the Vietnamese). White characters could have relations with Asians as long as it fit in the proper political spectrum.
So here it is, societal flow blockages presented clearly on film, and even segmented by ethnicity. It seems quaint and funny today, yet we are still dealing with the same issues in both subtle ways (there is still significant prejudice in the way minority characters are portrayed) and overt (how the media presents gay people).