Australian Curriculum. Asian Stereotypes. A slide show, which with examples shows the structure of a report when comparing a variety of mediums with regard to the Asian stereotypes and representations portrayed.

1. Report Write Up
Year 9 Term 3. Task 2. Stereotype
Analysis

4. Introduction Example
At the recent GOMA Pan Pacific Exhibition critics voiced
concerns regarding the inaccuracy of a number of Asian
stereotypes portrayed in film. These concerns have
generated fear that misconstrued messages in the media
about Asian culture will encourage prejudice and
discriminatory behavior towards Asians within western
society. Accordingly, this report serves to provide a further
analysis of the issue by focusing on a selection of three
different mediums which specifically showcase the
stereotype, ‘the perpetual foreigner’. This stereotype will
be analysed within an advertisement, television program
and comic strip in order to decipher any potential harmful
effects, which may impact the Asian community.

6. Example. Raj ‘Big Bang Theory’
- Speak
- Think
- Effect on others
- Actions
- Looks

7. Example. Raj ‘Big Bang Theory’
The television series, ‘Big Bang Theory’, is a recent sitcom
centered on a friendship group of physicists and engineers
who’s geeky and introverted lifestyles quite openly
emphasize a number of stereotypes and clichés for
comedic effect. In the group, the character Raj
Konthrappali, of Indian decent, is portrayed as an overly
feminine and peculiar 26 year old lacking many social
skills, especially around women. To emphasize his
peculiarity, his Indian culture is exaggerated in a way that
encourages derision. Whether it’s a slurring conversation
about his Hindu faith or expectations regarding marriage,
Raj is seen as different to his fellow white Caucasian
characters. These disparities reinforce Raj as the foreigner
amongst the group.

8. Example. Advertisement
- Speak
- Think
- Effect on others
- Actions
- Looks

9. Example. Advertisement
The virgin advertisement, “Dump Your Pen Friend”,
caused uproar in 2007 when Virgin Australia had used an
American girl’s photograph to advertise their new
campaign. The photograph features a girl of Asian descent
wearing an adidas cap and sweat jacket. She smiles with an
open-mouth at the camera whilst doing the peace symbol.
The advertisement invites viewers to believe that she is in
fact a ‘foreigner’, hence the ‘Dump Your Pen Friend’,
slogan. However, the girl was in fact from Texas in the
USA and at a family barbecue. She is characterised as
completely unaware of her predicament in being a
‘foreigner’. Once again, a Western audience has
constructed a representation that stereotypes Asians.

11. Similarities

12. Example. Similarities
Each medium uses fairly similar visual features to
characterise Asian people. All three characters are
dressed casually in western clothing, which include
jackets, trousers and hats. The characters are also
dressed in fairly neutral and warm colours. These
include greens, reds, blues, greys and purples. The use
of lighting, camera angles and shot length also imply a
neutral setting in all three mediums. For example, the
characters are portrayed in a neutral light, with the
comic using a long-shot to reinforce this. Asian
characters in all three mediums are given neither a
sense of power or powerlessness in their roles by any
technique, but rather a neutral characterisation.

13. Differences

14. Example. Differences
On the contrary, all three mediums use differing perspectives to
construct Asian representations. Firstly, the comic portrays an Asian
perspective of what it means to be seen as ‘different’; however, both
the advertisement and television program portray rather a Western
perspective of Asian’s ‘foreignness’. In response to an old lady cringing
in deep thought, the Asian represented character in the comic thinks,
“I should be used to this by now… Nope, still awkward”, conveying the
frustration Asians feel when scrutinized as to their ‘belonging’.
However, in both the advertisement and television program, both
Asian representations are portrayed through quite a western
perspective. Raj, in the program, has an inability to speak in certain
situations, which reinforces a ‘foreign’ perception of his character.
Likewise, the advertisement relies entirely on the girl’s Asian features
to highlight her ‘foreignness’. Through differing applications of the
textual feature ‘perspective’, Asians are seen as foreigners.

16. Example. Conclusion.
Each medium constructs an image that Asians are in
many ways ‘foreign’, regardless of their appearance.
All three mediums use neutral camera lighting and
angle techniques to portray each of the Asians
characters under discussion as normal, everyday
people. However, the perspective used by each of the
medium creators, whether it’s Asian or Western,
constructs and reinforces an image of them being
‘foreign’. As a result of this analysis, it is clear that the
media portrays that regardless of context, including
what Asians wear, who they sit with or who they talk
to, as long as they have the physical features of an
Asian they will be seen as foreign.

18. Example. Recommendations
Asians are not only negatively impacted by the poorly
constructed images of their culture, belief system and
values in media, but also by the way in which these
representations are then stereotyped within Western
communities. These mediums, publicized to a western
audience, reinforce the stereotype that all Asians are
foreigners. However, statistics show that in Australia
alone, 12% of Australian residents are either Asians or
from Asian descent. Therefore, this stereotype constructed
and reinforced in media is an entirely inaccurate
representation of all Asian people. In light of the analysis,
it is recommended that future media creators ensure that
Asian representations are constructed to reflect more
accurately the characters they represent.

19. Word Count
• 111
• 110
• 149
• 108
• 114
• 113
• 103
• 100
Total = 900 (Max.)