Asians as "Perpetual Foreigners"

South Asian people with big roles on TV:
Mindy Kaling--I was excited to see she has her own show but it's too goofy for me to watch, like 95% of sitcoms.
Ceci on New Girl--solid part of the ensemble cast, a model who dated the Jewish guy and is now engaged to a British Indian guy via a semi-arranged marriage
That woman on Royal Pains--also part of an ensemble cast, a physicians assistant, who also had an arranged marriage. I recall she was against it at first but maybe she went ahead with it and was friends with the husband?
Kunal Naayir on Big Bang Theory--they do lots of dumb ethnic jokes about everyone on this show so meh, but another strong part of an ensemble cast. His parents tried to get him an arranged marriage, but now he's dating a white girl played by that actress who plays the ukelele who is in every sitcom and commercial. They both have major social anxiety disorders so it is not a timeless romantic love with a smoldering leading man, but it is sweet and realistic. KN also has some new show that's just like Punk'd so that's cool I guess.

Also Life of Pi! Does that count as a leading man? Leading man-child, perhaps?

All the Indian-American people I know were not required to have an arranged marriage, so I feel like this trope may be unrealistic? Or at least not as universal as primetime television would have us believe.

For East Asian leading men, a goofy comedy came out this year called 21 & Over with a Korean-American leading man. He doesn't have any love interests. He turns 21 and goes out and makes poor life choices. It's your basic dumb gross-out comedy in the spirit of The Hangover, though, so it's nice to see a bit of diversity in a popular genre.

kuwisdelu said:

More like how readers tend to be biased to assume white male heroes.

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Guilty. I was reading something perpetrated by James Patterson once and was quite a few pages into it before I discovered that the MC was black. Unfortunately he started guzzling Krispy Kremes and taking serious time out from the plot to test drive a Mercedes and rave on about how fabulous it was and how well it handled and blah blah blah fucking blah.

The only black MC I've come across was in a hideously bad novel by an author I will never, ever, trust again.

Kitty Pryde said:

South Asian people with big roles on TV:
Mindy Kaling--I was excited to see she has her own show but it's too goofy for me to watch, like 95% of sitcoms.
Ceci on New Girl--solid part of the ensemble cast, a model who dated the Jewish guy and is now engaged to a British Indian guy via a semi-arranged marriage
That woman on Royal Pains--also part of an ensemble cast, a physicians assistant, who also had an arranged marriage. I recall she was against it at first but maybe she went ahead with it and was friends with the husband?
Kunal Naayir on Big Bang Theory--they do lots of dumb ethnic jokes about everyone on this show so meh, but another strong part of an ensemble cast. His parents tried to get him an arranged marriage, but now he's dating a white girl played by that actress who plays the ukelele who is in every sitcom and commercial. They both have major social anxiety disorders so it is not a timeless romantic love with a smoldering leading man, but it is sweet and realistic. KN also has some new show that's just like Punk'd so that's cool I guess.

Also Life of Pi! Does that count as a leading man? Leading man-child, perhaps?

All the Indian-American people I know were not required to have an arranged marriage, so I feel like this trope may be unrealistic? Or at least not as universal as primetime television would have us believe.

For East Asian leading men, a goofy comedy came out this year called 21 & Over with a Korean-American leading man. He doesn't have any love interests. He turns 21 and goes out and makes poor life choices. It's your basic dumb gross-out comedy in the spirit of The Hangover, though, so it's nice to see a bit of diversity in a popular genre.

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Life of Pi counts, but the story wasn't about him finding his wife.

Royal Pains, she ended up dumping the guy, who got a girlfriend, but it wasn't on camera. (They just wrote it in). Instead, she's dating a Latino dude, who is a model, these days. (Going with the Learning to Love trope) Her ex-betrothed never had her in the first place, though, since she never really loved him.

Never seen New Girl... race bending would still gripe that the trope is even more painful for Asian-American Men. Not sure if this is statistically true.

Mindy (on the show), so far, has dated only white men... A Jew is in there, too. But She hasn't dated any South Asian men, per se. I like the show, since it makes fun of romantic comedies and deals with a lot of women's issues as well (Also takes some tasteful stabs at racism). Her end game is an Italian man. (Obviously...) Her brother, written into the show, also hasn't been on screen dating anyone... I'd kinda like that, though. They'll most likely get there.

There is Glee, but ultimately, he lost the girl. And that's only East Asian. And they haven't shown him that much since. (Harry--and seriously, the show has slid a bit for me. The line of making fun of the prejudice versus playing to it is kinda blurry for me).

Sandra Oh did a series of movies I really liked. Still not really about guy gets girl. (Canadian, though, so it doesn't count--Vancouver).

BTW, I do know of an Indian guy who was betrothed to this Pakistani girl, (IIRC). He was going to marry her once he got out of college and really loved her a lot. They didn't know they were promised to each other, but they loved each other anyway, then found out. She died, though, on the way to the airport back to their college. <--I knew them both personally... so this isn't a I heard thing.

So it does happen... More common in Northern India, from what I understand?? (though it is taking a sharp nose dive from what I've read/seen)

J.S.F. said:

Rachel, If Brandon Lee hadn't died, he might have been able to bridge the gap, so to speak. He had talent, undeniably so, and maybe, just maybe, he could have done it.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa is good as a villain or weak scumbag; he has that kind of sneer down pat, and I really couldn't think of him as a heroic type.

As for other actors, I remember the Pam Anderson series from years back, and while it was basically D-U-M-B, wasn't there a romance between a white girl and (I think) a Vietnamese guy? Or is my memory failing?

ETA. I wonder if "getting a girl"--does it matter if she's white, or does any race apply--is that necessary. Brandon Lee was portrayed in The Crow as living with his white girlfriend, and to the best of my knowledge no one kicked up a fuss over it. Tagawa, no, not that I can remember. Drawing a blank on this as well.

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I don't think it's "necessary" but it seems to be so often that it DOESN'T happen that I wonder at the rare time it does. Makes sense?

Brandon Lee had a really good shot at it. Especially since his father, Bruce Lee had busted that stereotype, which is why I think the flinching wasn't such an issue with The Crow. But then everything kinda backslid after Brandon's death. It's kinda turning around, but there isn't anyone, ya know, headlining the thing, like Bruce Lee did. Which means the progress is more gradual.

I did think of one, but it was an indie film. Can't remember the name though. It's about a Chinese-American guy who is a struggling actor that suddenly has inherited this shop in China, so he has to go there. He sells the shop and falls for this woman, whom he ends up not staying with. The movie is a bit of a mess as he ends up with hookers in order to compensate for the fact that he has a crush on a girl that's underage at the start of the movie and he's been trying to deny it. (She keeps saying he should become her boyfriend/is her boyfriend, though he's older than her, so can't--also her father opposes the match).

I admit the only reason I watched it was to watch the Asian guy get the girl. The plot was messy, though it did address many undercurrent race issues as well.



But, still, East Asian. South Asian guys who get the girl in Hollywood? I got nothing.

Rachel Udin said:

South Asian guys who get the girl in Hollywood? I got nothing.

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Not Hollywood, but not Bollywood either: There was a fairly successful Canadian TV show called Little Mosque on the Prairie with lots of South Asian characters, and the imam (one of the main characters) got the girl...

I can think of a bunch of American TV shows with South Asian characters in addition to Kitty's list (Parks & Rec, Community), but I am a couple seasons behind in them, so I couldn't tell you what happens...

Rachel Udin said:

^^;; Korean isn't south Asian. East Asian, definitely, Bruce Lee (and perhaps Brandon Lee) counts. You can half count LOST, but I have mixed feelings about that.

I was thinking Pakistani, Indian, Afghani, etc in Hollywood. I can only think of Bollywood, but that doesn't count.

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Whoops, sorry, getting my context mixed up. I'm so used to thinking of 'Asian' in the American context on this board ('Asian' in the UK refers exclusively to South Asian)

Since we've got quite a large Asian community in the UK you do tend to see Asian people depicted in relationships in soaps....including a recent Eastenders storyline in which an Asian man was in a gay relationship with a white man. The film 'East is East' showed a Pakistani man married to a white British woman (the film is set in the 70's) Dev Patel (of 'Slumdog Millionaire' fame) played Anwar in 'Skins', in which he had a relationship (also with a white girl)

So yeah. It's a slightly better situation here, but not exactly bursting with examples.

Can't believe I forgot about Slumdog Millionaire.