The Duchess of Sussex has been praised for her “eloquent” discussion of the negative depiction of women of Asian descent in Hollywood films. Meghan explored the Dragon Lady stereotype with journalist Lisa Ling and comedian Margaret Cho in episode four of her Archetypes series.
She also called out films such as Austin Powers and Kill Bill for presenting caricatures of women of Asian descent as over-sexualised or aggressive. Asian American theatre organisation East West Players said such depiction “poses very real and harmful consequences” and “often exoticised or othered” the Asian community.
In a statement shared with the PA news agency, Snehal Desai, producing artistic director at East West Players, said: “The stereotyping of Asians, particularly women of Asian descent, is not new. These portrayals have had an outsized impact on our community because, for a long time, there weren’t opportunities for our community to be genuinely portrayed.
Through these stereotypes, the Asian community was and is often exoticised or othered. Organisations like East West Players have fought these negative portrayals by elevating Asian representation onstage with the hope that audiences will learn to see our community’s talent and ability before defining us by just our heritage or the colour of our skin.
“We aspire to combat the ‘othering’ that Margaret Cho and Lisa Ling so eloquently discussed with the Duchess, as it poses very real and harmful consequences, especially to our community.”
East West Players was the first professional Asian American theatre organisation set up in the US to help provide opportunities and education about Asian culture. Veteran actor James Hong, 93, was one of its founding members.
In the Archetypes episode, Meghan said: “The Dragon Lady, the East Asian temptress whose mysterious foreign allure is scripted as both tantalising and deadly, this has seeped into a lot of our entertainment. But this toxic stereotyping of women of Asian descent, it doesn’t just end once the credits roll.”
Meghan’s Spotify series resumed on Tuesday, after a four-week break following the death of the Queen.
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