In an article down at the New Jersey On-Line called Cinema can't keep up with Hayakawa's strides which takes a look at Sessue Hayakawa and Asian Americans in film I came across this quote which struck an obvious chord:
Author Ian Baruma, who curated the yakuza series, admits Asians don't figure prominently in American movies. "But why would they," he rhetorically asks. "Most Hollywood films are pitched to achieve the maximum appeal. The Asian-American audience isn't particularly significant, demographically."I wonder when people are going to wake up and realize that an Asian American can have the same crossover appeal as any other type of actor or actress, and having an Asian American face on the big screen doesn't mean that they have to appeal strictly to our community - that the Asian American community alone doesn't need to bankroll their success and that if we gave more Asian Americans not just a chance - but some time - that the cross over appeal will be there, and that in many ways it already is here. It just needs to be cultivated and supported on a wider scale.
