Old Hollywood can still affect how Asian Americans are perceived

Blake Edwards, famous for writing, directing and producing slapstick comedy films like “The Pink Panther,” received an honorary Academy Award in 2004 for extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement. Presenting the award was actor Jim Carrey, who began his speech speaking in an exaggerated fake Indian accent: “Birdie nom nom, birdie nom nom, howdy part-n-er, howdy part-n-er.” He was mimicking Hrundi V. Bakshi, a bumbling Indian immigrant (played by Peter Sellers in brownface) from Edwards’ 1968 film, “The Party.” Audience members at the Academy Awards chuckled in response. Carrey then squinted his eyes and stuck out his upper jaw when describing, in a stereotyped Chinese accent, how he went through a “Cato phase.” He was referencing Cato Fong, the Chinese manservant (played by Burt Kwouk) of Inspector Clouseau (played by Peter Sellers) in Edwards’ “A Shot in the Dark” (1964). By singling out Edwards’ Asian characters for laughs at the Oscar ceremony, Carrey showcased the endurance of racist Asian caricatures.

The mockery of Asians for comedy can be traced to yellowface and brownface which, like their predecessor of blackface, emerged in the 19th century as a form of popular entertainment that parodied people of color.

Performers of yellowface and brownface inscribed racial stereotypes onto their bodies, according to Krysten R. Moon, through exaggerated makeup (sallow makeup and slanting eyes or darkening makeup), dialect (pidgin English and gibberish), posture (bowing or prayer hands) and costuming (robes/kimonos or tunics/turbans). Yellowface and brownface continued in Hollywood cinema, with one of the most vulgar characters being Mickey Rooney’s Mr. Yunioshi in Edwards’ iconic film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961). Yunioshi was Holly Golightly’s (played by Audrey Hepburn) bumbling Japanese landlord who constantly yelled at her in an egregious accent. Rooney checked every yellowface box with his taped eyes, black-rimmed glasses, giant crooked buck teeth, black wig and kimono. Even the reviewer for The Hollywood Reporter found the character problematic in 1961 when he wrote: “Mickey Rooney gives his customary all to the part of a Japanese photographer, but the role is a caricature and will be offensive to many.” Decades later, Blake Edwards expressed regret on casting Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yunioshi: “Looking back, I wish I had never done it . . . I would give anything to be able to recast it.”

While Mr. Yunioshi was the worst Asian caricature to appear in Edwards’ films, it was “Hrundi V. Bakshi” from “The Party” (1968) that remained one of the most enduring. Bakshi was a disaster-prone Indian actor who, instead of getting fired for accidentally blowing up a set, got mistakenly invited to a big Hollywood party. Played by Peter Sellers with dark-brown makeup, Bakshi spoke with a heavily stereotyped Indian accent and greeted people with his hands in prayer pose. While Sellers was known for playing slapstick characters, Bakshi’s humor was predicated on the fact he was a racial outsider. Unlike Sellers’ most famous character, Inspector Clouseau (from Edwards’ “Pink Panther” films), a white French policeman living in Paris among other white French people, Bakshi was the only Indian among white Americans.

So when Bakshi wrongly laughed at someone’s misfortune during a conversation, a white party guest asked disdainfully, “Who’s the foreigner?” As Shilpa S. Davé wrote, “comedy tends to objectify difference.” The film, despite its problematic brownface lead, was listed as one of Peter Sellers’ “10 essential films” by the British Film Institute. Furthermore, the film had an outsized influence on white actors like Hank Azaria who cited Sellers as inspiration for his voicing of “Apu,” the Indian immigrant proprietor of the Kwik-E-Mart on “The Simpsons” for 31 years (1989-2020). Comedian Hari Kondabolu, in his documentary “The Problem with Apu” (2017), called Azaria’s Apu “a white guy doing an impression of a white guy making fun of my father.” In the documentary, Kondabolu discussed how Apu, as one of the only representations of Indians on U.S. television, became an everyday racial slur for making fun of Indian and other South Asians in the United States. In response, Azaria finally quit voicing Apu in 2020 and wanted to apologize to “every single Indian person in this country.”

The most recurrent Asian character in Edwards’ films was Cato Fong, who appeared in seven of Edwards’ “Pink Panther” films beginning with “A Shot in the Dark” (1964) and ending with “Son of the Pink Panther” (1993). Played by Burt Kwouk (an actual Asian actor), Cato was Inspector Clouseau’s manservant trained to ambush Clouseau to keep him alert and agile. In contrast to Mr. Yunioshi and Hrundi V. Bakshi, Cato did not speak with a thick exaggerated accent (though he did yell out “Saaaaaaaaaah” before every attack). Cato also appeared to be Clouseau’s equal in sparring skills and buffoonery. There were even moments when Cato seemed to have the upper hand on Clouseau like when he sabotaged Clouseau’s romantic moments in “A Shot in the Dark“ or when he turned Clouseau’s apartment into a thriving brothel in “Revenge of the Pink Panther” (1978). However, Clouseau defeated Cato at the end of nearly every fight and called him racial epithets like “you raving Oriental idiot” or “my little yellow friend” in “Return of the Pink Panther” (1975). Ultimately, Edwards perpetuated anti-Asian stereotypes and slurs through some of his most popular and celebrated films.

The mocking of Asian accents, physical features and cultural gestures through yellowface and brownface, along with racial slurs, are the hallmarks of Asian buffoons in Edwards’ films and beyond. To this day, the buffoonization of Asian characters remains. One study found that nearly half of Asian and Pacific Islander characters in top grossing films from 2010-2019 were the punchline. Unfortunately, the racist legacy of Asian buffoons goes beyond comedic mimicry. Such depictions feed into the xenophobia and anti-Asian hate that has risen since the COVID-19 pandemic. One of over 11,400 hate incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate (between 2020 to 2022) came from an Asian American/Pacific Islander woman who described a stranger gesturing to her at a bar in a “racist” way, “squinting his eyes and mocking a deep laugh” like “how you would see in old media.”

Old Hollywood can still affect how Asian Americans are perceived in this country.

To combat the racist effects of problematic Asian representations in Hollywood comedies, audiences can seek out slapstick comedies created by Asian and Asian American filmmakers. One of my favorites is “Kung Fu Hustle” (2004), which coincidentally came out the same year that Blake Edwards received his honorary Academy Award. Directed, produced, co-written by and starring Stephen Chow, “Kung Fu Hustle” references wuxia martial arts, gangster films and anime to produce a brilliant slapstick comedy-action film. Recent Asian American and Asian British films created by and starring Asians in the diaspora like “Joyride” (2023), “Polite Society” (2023), and the 2022 Best Picture Oscar winner “Everything, Everywhere All at Once” all feature funny Asian characters without the racism. Try these films to laugh with, and not at, Asians.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer.

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