Seen on screen

My first exposure to Asian media in theaters was a total accident. In June 2018, my friends and I were in our town’s local theater waiting to watch Incredibles 2 when I was blessed with a short-film gem: Bao.

In Bao’s eight-minute run time, I watched the complicated relationship between a Chinese mother and son effortlessly unfold through digital animation. The main character reminded me of my grandmother, with whom I lived in China for the first five years of my life. Bao gave me a glimpse of on-screen representation I had never seen portrayed by Western media.

The following year, at the 91st Academy Awards, Bao would win the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film, making director Domee Shi the second-ever Asian director to attain the achievement. If someone asked me about the first Oscar victory I felt genuinely invested in, it would be Bao’s.

Four years later, Everything Everywhere All at Once (EEAAO) dominated the 2023 awards season, becoming one of the mostawarded films ever. Lead actress Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role as Evelyn Wang, and Ke Huy Quan took home the award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Waymond Wang. EEAAO also took home five additional Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

The surge of Asian American films earning prestigious awards is a relatively new phenomenon. Even though it’s only one step in the journey toward better representation, it still gives hope to Asian American communities and audiences alike.

Asian Americans are historically underrepresented in the American film industry. Of the 1,808 acting award nominees throughout the Academy Awards’ history, only 23 are Asian. Of those, only six have won.

At the turn of the 21st century, however, Asian American films began seeing some mainstream success. Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) won four of its 10 nominations at the 73rd Oscars. Years later, Lee would win Oscars for Best Director for Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life of Pi (2012).

The recent growth of Asian American award recipients follows a larger trend of increased on-screen representation. In 2018, though it did not receive Oscars nominations, Crazy Rich Asians defied the boundaries of romantic comedies, slashing the notion that predominantly Asian-casted

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AUG. 7, 2018 films had to center race. The following year, Parasite became the first non-English language film to win the Oscar for Best Picture, surprising even its director, Bong Joon-ho. Most recently, in 2023, RRR’s “Naatu Naatu” became the first song from an Indian film to be nominated and win the Best Original Song award.

Even as Asian American works gain recognition within the American awards sphere, some setbacks raise concerns about what it takes for them to fit within the American mainstream. Throughout EEAAO’s awards season success, Taiwanese American supporting actress Stephanie Hsu was largely erased in favor of white industry veteran Jamie Lee Curtis. In 2020, the Golden Globes faced controversy after Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari won the Best Foreign Language Film award but failed to qualify for Best Picture, because Lee’s film, utilizing both Korean and English dialogue, didn’t meet the Globes’ 50% English-language requirement.

Moreover, industry-standard film awards still lack voting diversity. In 2022, about 81% of the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences identified as white. Even with the current influx of Asian American on-screen representation, white judges still gatekeep whether these films and actors can receive the accolades they rightfully deserve. More voters of color are necessary to fairly appraise both Asian American films and those created by other people of color.

When I watched Bao for the first time, I remembered seeing review sites riddled with people who thought the short film was silly or weird. Years later, I saw the same pattern with EEAAO. Among fivestar praises was a fair share of reviews from established critics calling the film overrated, pointless or poorly written. At first, I felt frustrated whenever I read those reviews, but as time went on, I made peace with the fact that the Asian American experience isn’t universal and that it’s OK that someone with a different background might not resonate with a film about Asian American life as much as I do.

Through the four years between Bao and EEAAO, I’ve watched many Asian Americanacted and directed films, both award-winning and not. Some, such as Crazy Rich Asians and Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, have become personal favorites. To see a character on screen that reminds me of someone I grew up with or to see them resolve a conflict that I’ve had to conquer myself makes me feel warm and satisfied, like I’m returning home to a family reunion after years abroad.

My journey with Asian American media is still young. As I continue to spend more time in America, I only hope for that bond to grow stronger and keep me rooted in my Chinese heritage. I treasure seeing these films get their fair share of credit through mainstream awards, but the absence of an Oscar or a Golden Globe will never take away the personal value I hold for so many pieces of Asian American media.

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