Book Review: Robert G. Lee’s Orientals

Alexis Nast
Race in Popular Culture and Media
September 15, 2008

Robert G. Lee’s Orientals uses popular culture, politics, and economic trends throughout American history to discuss and pinpoint the stereotypes and images associated with Asians and Asian Americans in the United States. He suggests that over the course of American history, six images of “Orientals” have emerged, and that these six images are all part of the current conceptualization of Asian Americans. He argues that these six images are of the pollutant, the coolie, the deviant, the Yellow Peril, the model minority, and the gook. Lee makes a convincing case that these stereotypes have all been popularized over the course of American history, and that several of them are part of the modern view(s) of Asians and Asian Americans by explaining how and when these images arose, and using pieces of popular culture to illustrate and support his arguments. However, he does not satisfactorily explain how the image of Asians and Asian Americans as pollutants, or the yellow peril fit into the image(s) of Asians and Asian Americans in America today.

During the 1850’s gold rush, California was declared to be “Free Land.” This meant that slavery was not allowed in the new territory. Further, debates raged as to whether free blacks should be allowed into California. Asian immigrants proved problematic to white settlers, as non-white, free persons in the “Free Land” of California. Many white immigrants held a “nostalgic image of pastoral California,” which the Chinese “disrupted,” (22). Because Chinese were settling in California in very visible numbers, they disrupted the white refuge that California was supposed to be. Lee makes use of folk and minstrel style songs in demonstrating popular opinions of the Chinese during this time period. He sites “California As It was and Is” as “a score of popular songs… [which] portrayed the Chinese immigrant as an agent of economic decline and social disorder,” and sites specific songs as having certain messages, the most blatant of which must be, “Get Out Yellowskins” (17 and 48). Thus the image of the Chinese, and thus Asians in general, as pollutants is established in this early time period.

Lee’s argument falls apart in his analysis of these images in current popular culture. He looks at racial relations in LA, specifically with regard to the films “Rising Sun,” “Falling Down,” “Menace II Society,” and “Mississippi Masala.” He describes how “Rising Sun” depicts Japan as an economic threat (the coolie), a political threat (the Yellow Peril), and a cultural threat (the deviant). “Menace II Society” depicts Asians as expendable (the gook) and as shopkeepers (the coolie). “Falling Down” utilizes the stereotype of the gook when one character “assumes his Japanese-American partner can communicate with the Korean store owner,” (220.) Placing the store owner as Korean is also a demonstration of the coolie stereotype. The film’s main emphasis seems to be on violence, however, which does not support any of the heretofore mentioned images of Asians. Finally, “Mississippi Masala,” attempts to show and reject many of these images. Lee describes it as depicting low-wage jobs for Asians (the coolie) and as the hard-working son who forgoes personal gain for his family (the model minority). Clearly missing from each of these pieces, however, is the image of the pollutant. Has this image disappeared from public view? Almost certainly not. However, Lee’s argument does not show the contexts in which these images are incorporated into the media and thus public consciousness.

Work Cited:
Lee, Robert G. Orientals. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1999.