Of the 1,300 top-grossing films released from 2007 to 2019, only 44 starred an Asian or Pacific Islander – and a third of the roles went to a single actor, Dwayne Johnson, a study found.
In 2019 in particular, by the end of the film, more than a quarter of Asian or Pacific islanders had died, and more than 41 percent had “experienced a degradation.” Two-thirds of Asian or Pacific islanders mirrored stereotypes, and nearly 20 percent spoke either a non-English language or English with a non-American accent, according to a study by the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, funded by Amazon Studios and the UTA Foundation.
Analysis of the 1,300 films released Tuesday also found that only 3.4 percent of the films featured Asian or Pacific islanders in leading or coleading roles. (In relation to the US population, 7.1 percent identify themselves in this category.)
Other sobering statistics: Of 51,159 people speaking, only 5.9 percent were Asian, Asian-American, or Hawaiian or Pacific islanders. 39 percent of the films did not include a single Asian or Pacific islander.
The study also broke the statistics by gender: four Asian or Pacific islanders were cast in six lead roles, compared to 336 unique white male actors over the same period – a ratio of 84 white male actors per Asian or Pacific islander actress.
Only 13 percent of the roles of Asian or Pacific islanders in 2019 films were classified as “fully human.” The study’s authors defined that they have a full spectrum of relationships and don’t take on any role as a foreigner, buddy, or villain. (Johnson’s Dr. Bravestone character in “Jumanji: The Next Level” or Constance Wu’s character Destiny in “Hustlers” were considered good examples.)
The study, led by Nancy Wang Yuen, professor at Biola University, and Stacy L. Smith of the University of Southern California at Annenberg, also found that of the 600 highest-grossing films released from 2014 to 2019, only 15 were Asian and Pacific Islander characters abstained from identifying themselves as LGBTQ and only 26 Asian and Pacific islanders were shown with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability in the 500 films released from 2015 to 2019 with a physical, cognitive or communicative disability.
The researchers also looked at representation among filmmakers, finding that of the 1,447 credited directors in the sample, only 3.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders – and only three were women. (Jennifer Yuh Nelson won two awards for the Kung Fu Panda franchise and Loveleen Tandan for Slumdog Millionaire.) No Asian or Pacific Islander was the sole director of any of the 1,300 films in the study. (The research period ended before the publication of “Nomadland”, whose director Chloé Zhao won the Oscar for best director this year as the first woman of color, first Chinese woman and second woman.) Among the producers, 2.5 percent were Asian or Pacific islanders , as do 3.3 percent of casting directors.
The results of the study are due to the increasing hostility and violence against Asians in the United States. The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate announced in March that nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported over the course of a year during the pandemic, mostly against women.
“Whether through the lack of API characters or through stereotypical representations, entertainment can be a means of perpetuating inaccurate and dehumanizing portrayals of the API community,” the report concludes.
