CRAZY RICH ASIANS: A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS ON THE

REPRESENTATION OF ASIAN AND ASIAN-AMERICAN IDENTITY

TIGON, JOSHLYN JOY R.

A Thesis Manuscript submitted to the faculty of

BA Communication Arts, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

University of the Philippines Mindanao

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the course COMA200b

26 April, 2019
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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Rationale/Background of the Study

Crazy Rich Asians, a 2018 released movie adaptation of the New York

Times best-selling book by Kevin Kwan which earned $26.5 million in the US

box office on its first week, has gained the spotlight for being the second movie

having an all Asian cast on the big screen 25 years after the first produced all

Asian cast Hollywood film, The Joy Luck Club in 1993. The said film has been

deemed the beacon of representation in Western media by movie critics for

countering the stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American identity through a

satirical approach. The film presented various Asian and Asian-American

stereotypes, one of those is the lead female character coming from a poor family

but managed to strive hard and achieve being an Economics professor in a

prestigious university which clearly conveys the model minority stereotype to

Asians. However, despite the critical acclaim, the box office success, and the

fabulous jade carpet roll out, some critics have decried “Crazy Rich Asians” for

not being all things to all Asians (Yap, 2018). A number of critics has stated

that the representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in the film was

conventional and limiting--conventional for incorporating the still existing

stereotypes on Asians and Asian-Americans and limiting for it does not reflect

an accurate representation of the said ethnicity, for not all Asians and Asian-

Americans could be described like the characters were in the film. This reflects

to how Western media portrays and represent Asian and Asian-American

identity.
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Media representation of Asians and Asian-Americans has been an

ongoing discussion in the academe ever since the first recorded Western media

exposure of an Asian woman, specifically a Chinese woman named Afong Moy

was brought to New York City in 1834 at age sixteen as an exhibit (Wang,

2012). The media exposure was able to perpetuate specific stereotypes on Asian

and Asian-American. For women, stereotypes such as ‘Dragon lady’ which

conveys an image of a powerful or threatening subject such as femme fatale,

prostitute, manipulative invaders of business in America. Another stereotype of

Asian and Asian-American women is ‘China doll’, denotes a submissive image

such as wife, mother, model citizens, invisible most of the time. There are

numbers of stereotypes perpetuated because of misrepresentation of Western

media on Asians and Asian-Americans, in the case of women, all of these

stereotypes added to the present issue of representation of women in media as a

spectacle to be looked at and being defined solely in terms of sexuality that is

catered for men’s interest, in this case, white men (Mulvey, 1975 as cited by

Chaudhuri, 2006; Tung, 2006; Wang, 2012). Asians and Asian Americans also

often appear as a comical relief, the butt of jokes, especially when it comes to

male characters e.g., Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles thus, Asians and Asian

Americans are not to be taken seriously. Our humanity and our perspective are

unimportant, indeed at times laughable (Ono, 2017).

All these negative portrayal and stereotypes of Asians or Asian-

Americans or any minority groups could be traced back to the origin of the

cinema (Chong, 2017). The film industry, especially Hollywood cinema played

a vital role in the under-representation and misrepresentation of Asians or

Asian-Americans (Tung, 2006). From these misrepresentations of Asians and

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Asian-Americans in films emerged an established identification of Asian and

Asian-American stereotypes entitled as the Six faces of Oriental by Robert Lee.

He analyzed and presented six major stereotypes of Asians and Asian-

Americans: pollutant, coolie, deviant, the yellow peril, the gook, and the model

minority, as the predominant themes in films with Asian and Asian-American

characters. These misrepresenting portrayals produced by the media has become

the ‘natural’, the normal image of the said minority group and had a major effect

on the social status of every Asian or Asian-American residing in the West for

it even reached to the point where they were excluded from most facets of

society, including the opportunity to appear on screen (Lu, 2017).

This thesis explores how the identity of Asians and Asian-Americans is

represented in the recently released film Crazy Rich Asians and how the said

representation consists the predominant themes of stereotypes of Asian and

Asian-American in the Western media. In line with that, this study will

specifically investigate how the signs employed in the film conveyed the

identified representations of Asian and Asian-American identity and how it

reflects the predominant themes of stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American in

Western media, and how this contributed to the movement of modern Asian-

American activists against the lack of diversity in media, and misrepresentation

of minority groups in the West most especially of Asians or Asian-Americans

females (Aayeshah & Finn, 2016).

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Statement of the Problem

For years now, representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in the

Western media has been an issue in the academe. Since early cinema, Asians

and Asian-Americans are represented based on the negative stereotypes that are

prominent in the society—pollutant, coolie, deviant, the yellow peril, the gook,

and the model minority (Lee, 1991). Because of how the media portrays Asian

and Asian-American identity, this led to issues such as exclusion and

misrepresentation of Asians and Asian-Americans females in the film industry.

Movements for inclusion of Asians and Asian-American in all the facets of

Western society and accurate representation in the media has been present since

mid-nineteenth century however just like its cultural predecessor which is the

mistreatment of black and native Americans (Tung, 2006), the issue has been

dumped on the side and the progress of all those movements have been minimal.

How media represents Asians and Asian-Americans since their first exposure

in the nineteenth century and continuously using negative stereotypes that has

been widely accepted by the public as the natural or the normal for the

characterization in films is an issue that is being continuously addressed in the

academe.

The solution to these misrepresentations of Asians and Asian-Americans

seems to call for some kind of forced integration of American popular culture

in order to claim visibility. These calls for Asian American representation and

inclusion in the media are certainly important, and they highlight not only the

symbolic importance of the cultural industry but also its economic dimensions;

the paucity of jobs for Asian American actors, directors, writers, and producers

points to a form of employment discrimination that would be actionable in other

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fields that cannot claim the invisible hand of “the box office” as an excuse

(Byun, n.d.).

A recently released film entitled Crazy Rich Asians with an all Asian

cast gained attention from the general public and is said to be the Asian-

American cinema’s breakthrough for perpetuating a wide discussion on the

misrepresentation and stereotypes of Asians and Asian-Americans. It has been

deemed the beacon of representation in Western media for being the second

Hollywood film having an all Asian cast 25 years after the first film entitled The

Joy Luck Club was released on 1993. However, despite the critical acclaim, the

box office success, some critics have decried “Crazy Rich Asians” for not being

all things to all Asians. There have been opinions that the film doesn’t represent

the true diversity of Southeast Asia or Asia or the Asian-American experience

(Yap, 2018). One way to investigate that claim is to identify the representations

of Asian and Asian-American identity through analyzing the semiotics or signs

employed in the film, alongside using Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory.

Upon looking into the semiotics of the film, the researcher deemed it appropriate

to use Stuart Hall’s Representation Theory in decoding the identified signs and

how these conveyed the identities of Asians and Asian-Americans.

In this regard, this study explores how Asian and Asian-American

identity is represented in the film. This study would look closely into the

following:

1. What are the different representations of Asian and Asian-American

identity in the film and how do those reflect the predominant Asian and

Asian-American stereotypes and themes in Western media?

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2. What do these identified representations conveyed by the film imply to

the Asian and Asian-American identity?

3. What are the signs employed in the film that constructed and conveyed

representations of Asian and Asian-American identity and how was it

utilized in the film?

4. What are the decoded meaning from the identified signs and how are

those decoded meanings convey Asian and Asian-American identity and

reflect Asian and Asian-American stereotypes?

Objectives of the study

This study aims to:

1. Analyze how Asian and Asian-American identity is represented

in the film through semiotics employed in the film.

2. Identify the different representations of Asian and Asian-

American identity in the film and how do those reflect the

predominant Asian and Asian-American stereotypes and themes

in Western media

3. Examine the implications of the identified representations

conveyed in the film towards the Asian and Asian-American

identity

4. Identify the signs employed in the film that constructed and

conveyed representations of Asian and Asian-American identity

and the manner on how these signs were employed.

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5. Investigate the decoded meanings from the identified signs and

how those meanings convey Asian and Asian-American identity

and reflect Asian and Asian-American stereotypes.

Significance of the Study

This research focuses on representation of Asian and Asian-American identity

in the recently released film entitled Crazy Rich Asians through signs employed

in the film and how these representations reflect predominant Asian and Asian-

American stereotypes and themes in Western media. This is to distinguish

whether the predominant themes used in early cinema is still present in today’s

cinema especially in the Western media, this would help future research related

to media representation in the modern Asian-American cinema. This study also

investigates how the decoded meanings of the identified signs constructed and

conveyed the representation of Asian and Asian-American identity in the film.

This study thus contributes to the existing body of knowledge about semiotics

of films, focusing on how these semiotic elements convey representation of the

cultural identity of Asians and Asian-Americans.

There are ample studies that explored the media representation of Asians

and Asian-Americans especially in the Hollywood cinema from mid to end of

nineteenth century since it was in that period Asians or Asian-American had a

first media exposure in the Western media. These studies reviewed all the films

that had an Asian or Asian-American representation have arrived to a similar

conclusion, that there is indeed racist misrepresentation and stereotypification

of Asians and Asian-Americans in the Western media, especially in Hollywood

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films. These racist misrepresentation and stereotypes even affected Asians and

Asian-Americans to the extent of exclusion from various facets of society not

only in the film industry. However, with all these existing studies regarding

media representation of Asians and Asian-Americans, there are only few

researches that focused on the representation of Asian or Asian-American

identity through investigating the semiotics employed in films. In most existing

studies, it is the audience perception and consumption that was always been

focused, there are limited studies conducting semiotic analysis focusing

decoding meanings from signs conveying a representation of a specific ethnicity

in a medium.

Scope and Limitations

This study will only focus on analyzing the representation of Asian and Asian-

American identity in through signs employed in the film, how the filmmaker

frames and negotiates the identity of Asian and Asian-American women

through verbal (lines and dialogues) and nonverbal exchange (nonverbal cues,

costume, angle angle of every scenes, of female characters with another Asian

character, with a Non-Asian character, with a group of Asian characters, and

with a group of Non-Asian characters. Scenarios in the film that doesn’t fall to

the following categories are not included in the sampling design. As this study

will also analyze how the six faces of Oriental and which of the six stereotype

identification is presented in the film as the predominant theme in the Western

media.
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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Stereotypes are very culture specific. In many cultures, certain groups

are seen as possessing specific, often negative, characteristics. Individuals

within those groups are treated as if these negative stereotypes are true, which

is seldom the case (Kidd, 2016). The concept of the stereotype was developed

by Lippman (1922) to explain how people are influenced by and make sense of

mediated messages. He states that we develop stereotypes as mental maps to

help us cope with the complexity of groups and peoples (Kidd, 2016). In this

sense, a stereotype is actually a neutral system of classification. We establish a

system of classification to be able to contextualize the identity of various groups

of people that is considered neutral because it could be either positive or

negative stereotype of a group, despite in most cases it is negative.

Nowadays the number of studies on stereotypes and related topics

(mainly prejudice and discrimination) has increased substantially especially

concerning gender and ethnic issues. Stereotypes became one of the most

popular themes of debate during reunions among social scientists (Leyens and

Bourhis, 1997 as cited by Glăveanu, n.d.) due to their connection with almost

all major research subjects in social psychology (Worchel et al., 1989 as cited

by Glăveanu, n.d.). Lippmann, who introduced the term stereotype in the

academe, compared stereotypes with stable images in our head that shorten our

perceptions. They are economical in the sense that previous experience affects

and to some extent mold current perceptions. There are, however, as discussed

by Glăveanu in his study, some exceptions: we tend not to stereotype persons

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we love or admire. In stereotyping a group of individuals, it is those who have

a noticeable difference from what we perceive as normal who experience such

phenomenon, and in the process, it is their differences that is highlighted which

makes the negative stereotype that is perpetuated among the community.

Over the years there are important features of stereotypes that have

been highlighted by theorists that construct a convergent image of the nature,

role and impact stereotypes have on social functioning and group interaction.

As discussed by Glăveanu (n.d.), generally stereotypes are seen as:

 A set of shared convictions / beliefs about members of a particular

group (Leyens at al., 1994; Smith and Bond, 1994)

 Perceptions of a genuine correspondence between group membership

and certain traits (Doise et al., 1999)

 Constructs describing both personality traits and behaviour patterns

(Leyens at al., 1994; Drozda-Senkowsks, 1999)

 Standardized, stabile and preconceived images (Gavreliuc, 2006)

 A natural function of the human and cultural mind (Nachbar and

Lause, 1992)

In this regard, stereotypes are defined by their social, shared,

generalised, contextual, dual and schematic nature—stereotypes are shared

beliefs between group / category members about the in or out-group members

(both their personality and behaviour – the dual nature) usually formed during

the process of social interaction (therefore being contextual). They are

schematic (often simple, essentialist) and generalised (describing all members

and ignoring individual differences).

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The modern definition focuses on the problems inherent in portraying a

co-culture using trite, limited characteristics (Kidd, 2015) especially in the

media. Research has shown that negative images that relate to stereotypes of

minority populations, such as African Americans and Latinos in the United

States, can lead to negative interpretations of their actions (Mastro and Kopacz,

2006 as cited by Kidd, 2015). Although stereotyping is inevitable, when media

producers mistakenly or intentionally attribute characteristics of a minority of a

group to the whole race or subculture, stereotyping becomes problematic. It

imposes a lens on how we should look at the entirety of that specific group of

people which usually fail to reflect the richness of the subculture and ignore the

realities from which the images come, and how people perceive a group of

individuals also dictate their social status and role in the society. This action can

result in social injustices for individuals who make up that subculture (Cooke-

Jackson and Hanson, 2008 as cited by Kidd, 2015).

Due to these recurring stereotypes presented in the media, the

individuals that are part of a said specific group do not see themselves, their

identity, reflected in the media. They do not see others like them successfully

employed, or having healthy relationships, or fitting into the majority culture.

Lack of representation coupled with stereotyped images can lead to self-

stereotyping and trying to fit into limited roles instead of exploring the options

available. The media are central to the signs of emergent cultures especially of

individualization producing the alternative social, cultural and symbolic

relations every individual wish to live within and define the kind of self they

wish to become (Kidd, 2015).

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These representations with embedded stereotypes could be traced back

to early cinema. Since Asians first immigrated to the United States in the mid-

nineteenth century, the U.S. government and its citizens have repeatedly

demeaned, misrepresented, and excluded Asian-Americans from most facets of

society, including the opportunity to appear on screen (Lu, 2017). And when

Asians and Asian-Americans were exposed to the media specifically Western

media, it only propagated and reinforced the existing stereotypes for the said

minority group. Hollywood has a long history of discriminatory Asian

representation, dating back to Thomas Edison’s short films in the late 19th

century. However, it was before the enforcement of the Production Code (1894–

1934), Hollywood films produced in this time period became the foundation for

case studies about Asian and Asian-American representation for these films are

the ones that greatly influenced future representations, the public’s perception

of Asians and Asian Americans, and subsequent legislature aimed towards this

population (Lu, 2017).

This misrepresentation and stereotyping of Asian and Asian-American

women in the Western media gave birth to the concept of Eastern Mysticism.

The fantasy towards Eastern mysticism dated back to Afong Moy, the first

recorded Chinese woman in America, who came to New York City in 1834 at

age sixteen as an exhibit. Museums in New York and Brooklyn displayed her

on an Oriental lattice-work chair, wearing a silk gown and four-inch-long

slippers on her bound feet. Audiences watched with fascination as she ate with

chopsticks, counted in Chinese, and did computations on an abacus. A few years

later, “P. T. Barnum brought the second Chinese-woman exhibit, and the circus
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featuring her attracted 20,000 spectators in only six days” (Prasso, 2005 as cited

by Wang, 2012).

The said early media exposure produced stereotypes on Asian and

Asian-American women. Stereotypes such as ‘Dragon lady’ (a powerful or

threatening image such as femme fatale, prostitute, manipulative invaders of

business in America) and ‘China doll’ (submissive image such as wife, mother,

model citizens, invisible most of the time) which added to the present issue of

representation of women in media as a spectacle to be looked at and being

defined solely in terms of sexuality that is catered for men’s interest, in this case,

white men (Mulvey, 1975 as cited by Chaudhuri, 2006; Tung, 2006; Wang,

2012). One manifestation of this is the film Daughter of the Dragon (1931)

where Anna May Wong who has been one of the most famous Chinese-

American actress in the world, played the role of a scheming, murderous,

otherworldly beauty who killed coldly and mercilessly. Films of early cinema

which also employed stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American women are

Year of the Dragon (1985) and Tomorrow Never Dies (1996). In Year of the

Dragon, in the setting of Chinatown, Detective White becomes involved with

the character of Tracy Tzu, a TV newswoman with a short, sassy haircut and a

professional lifestyle which throughout the film, was represented as a classic,

exotic seductress of the married Mr. White. In Tomorrow Never Dies, Michelle

Yeoh plays as a Chinese secret agent, in which we get a less-sexualized

portrayal of a Chinese woman. She partly wins equality to James Bond with her

brains and martial arts talent. Although the description of her character goes a

big step forward in describing an Asian woman, she can’t escape the main

constraint of being a “dragon lady” and Eastern other.

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These representations discussed above are just for women, Asian and

Asian-American men representation are yet to be discussed but solely looking

at the history of Asian and Asian-American women representation, there is

evident predominant negative stereotypes employed in the said films even in

early cinema. As years passed, representation of Asian and Asian-American

women may have evolved from those present in the early cinema. In the recently

released film Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Asian and Asian-American women

representation were depicted as the transition towards the goal of debunking

stereotypes and misrepresentation of Asian and Asian-American women in the

media. In the film, which consists of all Asian and Asian-American characters,

the female characters were represented in several portrayals. The lead Asian-

American character was depicted as a strong independent woman, described as

an Economics professor who earns money for herself and for her family. It was

reinforced in a scene where instead of conforming to the social norm that it is

the guy who pays for the date, she was the one who paid for her meal. Another

scene from the film that established the said characteristic of her character was

when it was revealed that her boyfriend, the lead Asian male character who

migrated to the United States to get away from his family, comes from rich

family in Singapore who is deemed as the royals of the said country. The

dialogue between the two characters conveyed that the lead female character

did not anticipate such revelation for he was always “you have a Jamba Juice

card. You use my Netflix password. You play basketball at that Y that kind of

smells”.

Another female character which is the mother of the lead male character,

however, is depicted with the predominant stereotype “Dragon lady”. Her

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character was depicted as the Asian woman who went to London and was at

first treated poorly however invaded a hotel business thereafter, from there

expanded her business and wealth. But it is contradicting how at the same time

she is portrayed as submissive, reinforcing her characteristic of being sacrificial

for the family all throughout the movie. It was in fact reiterated a number of

times how she gave up her own passion for the family. Nonetheless, these will

be further analyzed and discussed in the Chapter 7 of this paper but this denotes

that Asian and Asian-American stereotypes and representations may have

evolved through time, may it be minimal.

Asian and Asian-American men are not excluded in the

stereotypification and misrepresentation situation in the media. This could be

traced back in the World War II era when the United States needed to

distinguish between Asian Americans, as the Chinese were part of the Allies.

However, Hollywood wasn't always adept at this, being careless to make

distinguishments between different ethnicities to begin with (such as Charlie

Chan having been both Japanese and Chinese), so the problem arises that many

film portrayals, coupled with the war anti-Japanese sentiment, led to difficult

times with Asian Americans and the stereotypes that followed. This was also a

time of continuing yellowface, where "good" Asian roles were restricted only

to white actors. Even Asian-American actors could only play some villains, who

were also mostly portrayed via yellowface.

Too often, “mainstream film and television misrepresent the world they

claim to reflect. Their stories revise history, and rationalize inequities” (Bolante,

2006 as cited by Wang, 2012). One way films and television presents these

stereotypes and misrepresentation is how Hollywood utilizes the prop of

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dressing to portray to the audience that women in the East are different or

“Other” from the West, which contributes partially to perpetuate the audience’s

stereotypes towards the Eastern women. In most Hollywood films especially in

early cinema, female Asian characters are always made to wear traditional

dresses or any clothing that holds resemblance to their tradition and culture, and

could be easily depicted as far from the West’s fashion. They present Asian or

Asian-American characters as not part of the norm, as someone who doesn’t

originally belong to the group. But the easiest way to generalize Eastern people,

as Wang (2012) stated, was to build fictional characters of an extreme. Movies

and the mass media play a huge role in forming Western audience’s worldview

by shaping Eastern women’s identities, and define their roles as extremes – on

screen and off. These extreme stereotypes have lasted even until nowadays, long

after the formal or informal contacts between East and West increased

dramatically.

This extreme difference of the East from the West found its way into

Hollywood films and exerted a powerful and lasting effect on social reality. The

East continued to be described as Otherness and opposite to the West. Rather

than portraying three-dimensional individuals, these characters often “manifest

prejudice and reinforce bigotry” (Bolante, 2006 as cited by Wang, 2012).

Othering, despite being a theme in continental philosophy, critical theory, and

fields of inquiry influenced by those primarily, the role of othering in

interpretation, in understanding the others and ourselves plays a significant role

in media representation and framing in the Western media, Eastern Mysticism

being one of the manifestations of the Othering.

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From these representations of Asian and Asian-American identity as

extremes, Robert G. Lee presented major stereotypes of these women as Six

faces of Oriental, in his book Orientals published in 1999. Oriental, along with

Eastern Mysticism, is a concept and term coined to depict East as the Orient,

traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the Eastern world, in relation

to Europe. The West uses the word or concept Oriental to easily depict anything

related to the East, most especially in Asia, may it be food, clothing, even Asian

themselves are subjected to this term. As Darrell Hamamoto (1994), a

communication professor, wrote: “Asians or Asian-Americans, when

represented at all, they exist primarily for the convenience and benefit of the

Euro-American lead players. … Rarely are the lives of Asian-American

characters examined on their own merit, and the problems they face in daily life

are not considered to be intrinsic interest” (Tung, 2006) and that’s where the

“Oriental” and even Eastern Mysticism stemmed.

Lee then grouped various stereotypes into six as the most that used in

misrepresentation of Asian and Asian-American in Western media—pollutant,

coolie, deviant, the yellow peril, the gook, and the model minority. According

to Lee, Asian and Asian-American are represented in the Western media as

present in the society but an alien, and is threatening in various aspects, one of

those is in the economic aspect (pollutant), as measly laborers (coolie), deviant

especially in the context of sexual deviance or prostitution because the

prostitution is believed to have started in Chinatowns in the West (deviant),

others because of being oriental, villains and are threats to the family, race, and

nation, and is bound of sado-masochism (the yellow peril), gooks, and as hard-

working, law-abiding, but silent citizens (model minority) (Campbell, 2001 &
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Ng, 2000). These grouping of Asian and Asian-American stereotypes in

Western media into six has contributed a lot not only in the studies about Asian

and Asian-American media representation that followed, but also in women

studies.

As a matter of fact, from these and other studies on women stereotype,

a study of DeWall, Altermatt, and Thompson (2005) developed a structure of

women stereotypes through subgroups. They stated that “people process a

schema of the stereotype of women that is organized in terms of three major sub

groups: homemaker, professional, and sex object (Deaux, Winton, Crowley, &

Lewis, 1985; Eckes, 1994a, 1994b; Six & Eckes, 1991).” And to distinguish

these subgroups from one another, they used agency (power and competence)

and virtue (sexual and moral virtue) as dimensions to look at. They measured

the level of agency and the level or virtue in each subgroup. In our previous

study (Altermatt et al., 2003), we found that professional women were perceived

to be high in agency, homemakers neutral, and sex objects low, while

homemakers were perceived to be high in virtue, professional women neutral,

and sex objects low. This then could greatly affect in the negotiation process of

every individual that is stereotyped. If the media continues on utilizing these

problematic stereotypes in framing and portraying Asian and Asian-American

women, and if every stereotype indicates a level of agency and virtue, this would

hugely affect the identity being negotiated by the film towards the audience.

However, this study will not focus on these dimensions but will be utilizing

these in the process of a methodology.

In the efforts to resolve the issue of stereotypes and misrepresentation

of Asian and Asian-Americans in the Western media, the academe has been
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delving into cultural and media studies. Theories regarding stereotypes and

media representation have been formulated to further understanding the

complexity of the issue. One methodology widely applied in studies regarding

representation and stereotypes in the media is Semiotics or Semiotic Analysis

by Charles Sanders Peirce. This study will also opt for this methodology to

analyze the representation of Asian and Asian-American in the film Crazy Rich

Asians.
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CHAPTER III

THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Perception of one’s self may not be the only vital factor in establishing

an individual or a group’s identity and how they want to be perceived in the

society. Representations of an identity, especially in the media is essential in the

process of establishing one’s multifaceted identities. This also affect the

perception of an individual’s personal identity that is necessary in dealing with

one’s other identities such as cultural and racial identity, and also represent these

identities to the outside world as well. Thus, this study would look at how the

Asian and Asian-American identity was represented in the film through Stuart

Hall’s Representation Theory.

Representation Theory

The concept of representation has come to occupy a new and important

place in the study of culture and media. As stated by Stuart Hall (1997),

“Representation is the production of the meaning of concepts in our minds

through language (p. 15).” It is the link between concepts and language which

enables us to refer to either the ‘real’ world of objects, people, or events, or

indeed to imaginary worlds of fictional objects, people, and events (Hall, 1997).

Representation is an essential part of the process by which meaning is produced

and exchanged between members of a culture. It does involve the use of

language, of signs and images which stand for or represent things however the

process it involves is more complex than it seem.

The theory provides two systems of representation: mental

representations or conceptual maps and language. It is through these systems of

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representation we construct meanings regarding what is represented, and

meanings also depend on the relationship between things in the world—people,

objects and events, real or fictional and the conceptual system which can operate

as mental representations of them. The first system of representation is the

‘system’ by which all sorts of objects, people and events are correlated with a

set of concepts or mental representations, as stated, which we carry around in

our heads. Without these concepts or representations we have accumulated

which could be from a lived experience, we could not interpret the world

meaningfully at all. In the first place, then, meaning depends on the system of

concepts and images formed in our thoughts which can stand for or ‘represent’

the world, enabling us to refer to things both inside and outside our heads.

However, having a mental representation or a conceptual map is not

enough. We must also be able to represent or exchange meanings and concepts,

and we can only do that when we also have access to a shared language thus the

second system of representation—language—involved in the overall process of

constructing meaning. Our shared mental representations should be translated

into a common language, so that we can correlate our concepts and ideas with

certain written words, spoken sounds or visual images. The general term we use

for words, sounds or images which carry meaning is signs. These signs stand

for or represent the concepts and the conceptual relations between them which

we carry around in our heads and together they make up the meaning systems

of our culture (Hall, 1997).

Signs are also more complex especially when scrutinized on how it is

employed whether in an actual interaction or in a medium. Signs have two

components: signifier and signified. Signifier is the sound-image while the

 T I G O N | 23

signified is the concept embedded in the sign. Not only the meaning is

constructed by both systems of representation in general, it is also constructed

by these specific signifiers who then represent a specific signified concept. Thus

for us to identify what are the signifiers and what is the signified theme or

concept, we have to decode each sign for it is all fixed by the code which sets

up the correlation between our conceptual system and our language system

(Hall, 1997).

Since Representation theory focuses on the representation through signs,

most related studies about media representation and cultural studies employs

Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics or semiotic analysis which is the study of

signs.

Figure 1. The Semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce (n.d.)

 T I G O N | 24

Figure 2. Semiotics of the Edges (Winchkler, 2011)

A related study entitled The Fairy Tale Theme in Popular Culture: A

Semiotic Analysis of Pretty Woman by Leda M. Cooks, Mark P. Orbe, & Carol

S. Bruess employed the Representation Theory alongside Eco’s (1976)

Narrative Structure on analyzing the semiotics in the film Pretty Woman.

Another study by Abdullah, Osman, and Setia (2009) conducted a semiotic

analysis on the media text The Lord of the Rings. They studied the various signs

in the film, specifically identified the signifiers and signified and even

conducted a syntagmatic analysis since semiotics is nowhere far from syntax,

and decoded each of those to identify the constructed meanings conveyed by

the film.

Similar with the mentioned related studies, this study will employ the

Representation theory in the semiotic analysis of the representation of Asian

and Asian-American identity in the film Crazy Rich Asians (2018).

Conceptual Framework
 T I G O N | 25

As this study uses the Representation Theory, the analysis on the

semiotics of the film will be grounded on how these signs represented the Asian

and Asian-American identity and how the specific components of the identified

signs constructed meanings that represented the identity. This study

hypothesizes that the predominant stereotypes and themes of Asian and Asian-

American representation from early cinema is still embedded in today’s modern

cinema and is evident through the semiotics employed in the film.

This study will focus on decoding the signs identifiable that represents

correlation and relevance to Asian and Asian-American identity, deconstructing

the signs into its components, signifier and signified, and analyze how those

constructed the meanings conveyed in the film.

 T I G O N | 26

CHAPTER IV

METHODOLOGY

This chapter covers the methods involved in data gathering and analysis

for the study. Methods enumerated below are designed to approach research

objectives and test hypotheses. In summary, this chapter discusses research

design, sampling procedure, analysis procedure, data analysis, and the required

data for the study.

Research Design

Braun and Clarke (2006) as cited by De Castro (2015) in his dissertation,

divided qualitative methods in two ‘camps’, one is bound by an epistemological

position, such as Conversation Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological

Analysis, and the other falls under different approaches, could still be

epistemological. In that sense, conducting a Semiotic Analysis, another tool of

qualitative research and one that falls into the the group with Conversation

Analysis and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (De Castro 2015), does

not necessarily imply taking a particular epistemological position, however the

method allows a more in-depth approach in studying the medium.

Thus, this study conducted a semiotic analysis in the representation of

Asian and Asian-American identity in the characters of the film Crazy Rich

Asians using a constructionist approach, concentrating on how identified signs

constructed meanings that represented Asian and Asian-American identity.

Signs identified could include iconic and indexical signs. Alongside identifying

the signs employed in the film, the signifiers and signified will also be specified

on the analysis of the constructed meanings. These signifiers could include the
 T I G O N | 27

material culture (objects and abstracts), activities and performance (body

language, gestures, facial expression), cinematography, music and sound

effects.

Sampling Procedure

This study conducted an analysis on the representation of Asian and

Asian-American identity in the film, how the signs employed in the film

constructed and conveyed meaning that represented Asian and Asian-American

identity through idexical signs such as verbal exchanges (lines and dialogues)

among the characters and iconic signs such as nonverbal exchange (nonverbal

cues, costume, angle of every scenes, of female characters with another Asian

character, with a Non-Asian character, with a group of Asian characters, and

with a group of Non-Asian characters). Thus, as this study is a semiotic analysis

focusing in signs and meanings, the samples are called corpus instead. The

corpus data of this study will be selected with regard to the following criteria:

A. If the sign is in relation to Asian or Asian-American character

B. If the sign depicts Asian and Asian-American identity (i.g.,

stereotypes, traits)

C. If the indexical sign is in relation to:

1. Both Asian or Asian-American characters

2. Asian and Non-Asian character

3. Asian character and a group of Asian characters

4. Asian characters and a group of Non-Asian characters

 T I G O N | 28

Analysis Procedure

This study conducted the analysis in a step by step process. The first step

on the analysis procedure would be for the researcher to unpack the artifact

itself. Identify the signs employed in the film that fits the criteria. Followed by

categorizing the signs whether it is iconic or indexical and separately investigate

the signifier and signifed of each signs.

The initial analysis focused on the identification of the signfiers and

signified of the signs. The identification of these components will help the

researcher in proceeding to the next step which is the analysis on the constructed

meaning of each sign. Analyzing what is the meaning constructed by the signs

and then how these meaning reflect the representation of Asian and Asian-

American identity.

Analysis on the
Preliminary constructed
Analysis: meaning that
Identification of
Identifying represents Asian
signs
signifier and and Asian-
signifed American
Identity

Figure 2. Analysis Procedure

Data Analysis Process

There is an “inseparable relationship between data collection and data

analysis, and this is one of the major features that distinguish qualitative

research from traditional research” (de Vos et al., 2005:335). Furthermore, “data

analysis does not in itself provide answers to research questions as these are

found by way of interpretation of the analyzed data” (Kruger, de Vos, Fouché

& Venter, 2005:218). Interpretation involves explaining and making sense of

 T I G O N | 29

the data (de Vos, 2005; Denzin, 1989). This again involves an ongoing

engagement with the process, in that interpretation and analysis are closely

intertwined as the researcher automatically interprets as he or she analyzes

(Kruger et al., 2005). Hence, it was from this combined process of data

collection and analysis that a “plausible and coherent” interpretation developed

(de Vos, 2005:335).

For this study, two phases of analysis were conducted: (1) the

preliminary analysis on the corpus data which is the identification of the

signifier and signified using Stuart Hall’s Representation as the theoretical

framework, and (2) analysis on the constructed meaning of the corpus data

through generating themes and categorization using Robert Lee’s (1999) Six

Faces of Oriental and Simone De Beauvoir’s Othering (1949).

Data Requirements

The research procedure will gather the following:

A. Characteristics of the Corpus Data

1. Signs that are in relation to Asian or Asian-American character

2. Signs that depicted Asian and Asian-American identity (i.g.,

stereotypes, traits)

3. Indexical signs that are in relation to:

a. Both Asian or Asian-American characters

b. Asian and Non-Asian character

c. Asian character and a group of Asian characters

d. Asian characters and a group of Non-Asian characters

B. Corpus Data
 T I G O N | 30

a. Sign

b. Signifier

c. Signified

C. Generated themes
 T I G O N | 31

CHAPTER V

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

This chapter provides the various analyses of the data gathered. Results and

discussions are divided into three parts: 1) Characteristics of Corpus Data, 2)

Preliminary Analysis, and 3) Hypothesis Testing

I. Characteristics of Corpus Data

This study involved a total of 25 corpus (15 indexical signs corpus

and 10 iconic signs corpus) out of 66 indexical signs and 50 iconic

signs listed by the researcher during the data gathering process

which were chosen based on the following criteria:

Characters Involved

One of the main criteria that influenced the sampling procedure

of the study is the characters involved in the scene or frame. Since

the study focuses on how Asians and Asian-Americans were

represented in the film, the ethnicity of the characters was a major

factor in choosing the corpus data, whether a corpus data involves

an Asian or Asian-American character or both. Below are the more

detailed criteria regarding characters in the sampling procedure:

A. If the sign is in relation to Asian or Asian-American character

B. If the sign depicts Asian and Asian-American identity (i.g.,

stereotypes, traits)

C. If the indexical sign is in relation to:

1. Both Asian or Asian-American characters

 T I G O N | 32

2. Asian and Non-Asian character

3. Asian character and a group of Asian characters

4. Asian characters and a group of Non-Asian characters

In the total corpus data, for Indexical signs, there are nine (9) signs that

involves Asian and Asian-American characters, three (3) signs that only

involves Asian-American characters, two (2) signs that only involves Asian

characters, and one (1) sign that involves Asian and Non-Asian characters.

Figure 3. Characters involved in every Indexical sign in the corpus data

INDEXICAL SIGNS
Asian and Asian-American characters Asian-American characters
Asian characters Asian and Non-Asian characters

7%

13%

20% 60%

For Iconic signs, there six (6) signs that only involves Asians, and four

(4) signs that involves both Asian and Asian-American characters.

 T I G O N | 33

Figure 4. Characters involved in every Iconic Sign in the corpus data

ICONIC SIGNS
Asian characters Asian and Asian-American characters
Asian-American characters Asian and Non-Asian characters

9%
0%

36% 55%

Category of the Corpus Data

The researcher also conducted a initial analysis on the data by

identifying the category of representation based on the denotative meaning

of every category in the Six faces of Oriental by Robert Lee which are 1)

the pollutant, 2) the coolie, 3) the deviant, 4) the yellow peril, 5) the model

minority, and 6) the gook, and Othering by Simone de Beauvoir. This was

then added as a criteria in the sampling procedure of the study—the sign

having to reflect one or more category of representation.

 T I G O N | 34

Figure 5. Identified two criterion of each indexical corpus data

Scene # Ethnicity of the Characters Category based on Six faces of the

Involved Oriental and Othering
Scene #1 Non-Asians and Asians Pollutant, Othering

Scene #2 Asian-Americans Model minority

Scene #3 Asian Americans Model minority, coolie, yellow peril

Scene #4 Asian and Asian American Othering, model minority

Scene #5 Asians and Asian-American Model Minority, Gook

Scene #6 Asians and Asian-American Gook

Scene #7 Asians and Asian-american Othering, model minority

Scene #8 Asians and Asian American Deviant, Model Minority

Scene #9 Asians Model minority (women representation:

mother figure)
Scene #10 Asian and Asian-American Model minority, coolie, deviant

Scene #11 Asian and Asian-American Coolie

Scene #12 Asians Othering, model minority, yellow peril

Scene #13 Asians and Asian American Othering, Model Minority

Scene #14 Asian and Asian-American Pollutant Othering, Deviant, Gook

Scene #15 Asian and Asian-American Othering, Deviant, Yellow peril,

Pollutant

II. Preliminary Analysis

In analyzing the data, part of the process implied an understanding on

the data itself. This entailed a form of engagement with the data, which meant

risking my attitude and knowledge in order to objectively acknowledge the

findings of the analysis. Analysis transforms data into findings by bringing

order, structure and meaning to the mass of collected data (Patton, 2002 in de

Vos et al., 2005). The analytical process “does not proceed tidily or in a linear
 T I G O N | 35

fashion but is more of a spiral process; it entails reducing the volume of the

information, sorting out significant from irrelevant facts, identifying patterns

and trends, and constructing a framework for communicating the essence of

what was revealed by the data” (de Vos et al., 2005:333).

As part of the data analysis process, there are preliminary analysis

required for studies to achieve its objectives and answer its research questions.

In this case, the first phase of the analysis for this study is the semiotic analysis

on the corpus data, identifying the signifier and signified of both indexical and

iconic signs.

Semiotic Analysis on the Corpus Data

Semiotics in its general definition is Semiotics is concerned with

meaning; how representation, in the broad sense (language, images, objects)

generates meanings or the processes by which we comprehend or attribute

meaning. For visual images, or visual and material culture more generally,

semiotics is an inquiry that is wider than the study of symbolism and the use of

semiotic analysis challenges concepts such as naturalism and realism (the notion

that images or objects can objectively depict something) and intentionality (the

notion that the meaning of images or objects is produced by the person who

created it). (Curtin, n.d.).

Furthermore, as stated by Curtin (n.d.), semiotics can offer a useful

perspective on formalist analysis (the notion that meaning is of secondary

importance to the relationships of the individual elements of an image or object).

Semiotic analysis acknowledges the relationship we may have to representation

and therefore images or objects are understood as dynamic; that is, the
 T I G O N | 36

significance of images or objects is not understood as a one-way process from

image or object to the individual but the result of complex inter-relationships

between the individual, the image or object and other factors such as culture and

society.

One of the main objective of this study in conducting a semiotic analysis

is to identify the significance of the corpus data and how it shapes the

representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in modern Western media

through analyzing the signifier and signified of every semiotic artifact which

are the 15 indexical signs and 10 iconic signs.

 T I G O N | 37

Figure 6. Indexical signs in the corpus data

Scenes Time stamp Description Verbatim Characters Ethnicity Category based
dialogue/line Involved on Six faces of
the Oriental
Scene 00:02:00,871 Eleanor and her family just May I suggest you Hotelier and Non-Asians and Pollutant,
#1 --> arrived in London directly explore Chinatown? Eleanor Young Asians Othering
00:02:04,406 from China and is about to
check in their reservation in
the Calthorpe hotel however
the receptionist and the
manager says they don’t have
any reservation.
Scene 00:10:25,509 Rachel Chu and her mother Maybe his parents Rachel Chu and Asian-Americans Model minority
#2 --> are shopping for her wardrobe are poor, and he has her mother
00:10:27,709; in going to Singapore, while to send them money.
00:10:27,711 talking about her relationship That's what all good
--> with Nick Young and his Chinese children do.
00:10:30,045 family.

Scene 00:11:05,449 Rachel Chu and her mother I'm so Chinese, Rachel Chu and Asian Americans Model minority,
#3 --> are discussing how she is I'm an economics her mother coolie, yellow
00:11:09,852 similar and different from professor with peril
Nick Young’s Chinese family lactose intolerance.
at the same time.
Scene 00:18:09,706 Rachel Chu and Nick Young God, I can't believe Rachel Chu and Asian and Asian Othering, model
#4 --> just arrived in Singapore. this airport has a Nick Young American minority
00:18:18,613 Rachel Chu compared the butterfly garden and
a movie theater. JFK
 T I G O N | 38

Singapore airport and JFK is just salmonella

airport. and despair.
Scene 00:28:21,785 Rachel Chu is having a lunch (IN THICK Wye Goh, Rachel Asians and Model Minority,
#5 --> with Peik Lin’s family and ACCENT) Rachel Chu, Peik Lin Asian-American Gook
00:28:35,430 Wye Goh, Peik Lin’s father, Chu, we are so
is striking a conversation with grateful for all the
her. help you have given
my Peik Lin back in
her uni days. I mean,
without you, she
would be a hot mess.
Scene 00:28:44,042 While having a conversation Nice to meet you, Wye Goh, Rachel Asians and Gook
#6 --> with Rachel Chu, Wye Goh too, Chu. Ku-ku. Chu Asian-American
00:28:56,451 pulled a joke with Rachel Chu Ku-Chu. You. Poo-
of having a thick accent and poo. No, I'm just
uttering words foreign to the kidding. I don't have
English vocabulary. an accent.
Scene 00:29:25,382 Wye Goh was lecturing he You haven't finished Wye Goh, Asians and Othering, model
#7 --> daughters about eating food your nuggets yet, children. Rachel Asian-american minority
00:29:35,590 served to them citing starving sweetie. Okay, Chu
American children as an there's a lot of
example of what not to children starving in
follow. America, right? I
mean, take a look at
her.
She's American,
huh? Really skinny.
You wanna look like
that?
 T I G O N | 39

Scene 00:29:55,779 Wye Goh was discussing You both went Wye Goh, Peik Asians and Asian Deviant, Model
#8 --> Rachel Chu’s and Peik Lin’s to the same school, Lin, Rachel Chu American Minority
00:30:03,654 professional success. yet someone came
back with a degree
that's useful. And
the other one came
back as Asian Ellen.
Scene 00:38:56,353 Nick Young approached her You need a haircut. Eleanor Young Asians Model minority
#9 --> mother, Eleanor, and was So unkempt. And and Nick Young (women
00:39:03,824 about to introduce Rachel Chu you look tired from representation:
to her when Eleanor made a your trip. I'm gonna mother figure)
remark regarding Nick’s ask the cook to
appearance. make you some
herbal soup.
Scene 00:39:53,177 Rachel Chu was discussing She actually hardly Rachel Chu and Asian and Asian- Model minority,
#10 --> the story of her mother after spoke any English Eleanor Young American coolie, deviant
00:40:03,986 immigrating in the United when she
States with Eleanor immigrated to the
United States. But
she worked really
hard,
and she studied, and
she earned her real
estate license while
she was waiting
tables to support us.
Scene 00:42:05,242 Eddie, after being introduced So you're not from a Edison Cheng, Asian and Asian- Coolie
#11 --> to Rachel Chu, was Taiwan Chu family? Rachel Chu American
00:42:14,683 -Nope.
 T I G O N | 40

interrogating her regarding Hong Kong telecom

her family and business. Chus?
-No.
Malaysian packing
peanut Chus?
-Is that really a
thing?
Scene 00:47:26,463 Discussing Nick and Rachel’s I thought you might Nick and Eleanor Asians Othering, model
#12 --> relationship, be excited that the Young minority, yellow
00:47:36,174 first girl that I bring peril
home is a Chinese
professor.
-Chinese American.
Scene 01:08:31,963 Their Auntie Alix was We taught you so Alix and the Asians and Asian Othering, Model
#13 --> discussing why at young age, you'd know the whole family American Minority
01:08:45,908 they taught their children blood, sweat, and
various skills while doing tears it took to raise
dumplings with the whole and feed you
family and Rachel Chu. monkeys. Not like
the ang-mohs
microwaving
macaroni and cheese
for their own
children. No wonder
they put their
parents in the old
folks' home when
they all grow up.
 T I G O N | 41

Scene 01:15:54,204 After having a talk with Right now, she just Peik Lin and Asian and Asian- Pollutant
#14 --> Eleanor regarding her and thinks you're some Rachel Chu American Othering, Deviant,
01:16:05,914 Nick’s relationship, Rachel undeserving, Gook
and Peik Lin were discussing clueless, gold-
Eleanor’s treatment towards digging trashy,
her. unrefined banana.
Yellow on the
outside, white on the
inside.
Scene 01:43:33,898 While playing mahjong, There is a Hokkien Eleanor Young Asian and Asian- Othering, Deviant,
#15 --> Eleanor and Rachel were phrase. It means, and Rachel Chu American Yellow peril,
01:43:57,585 discussing their differences "Our own kind of Pollutant
and issues. people." And you're
not our own kind.
You're a foreigner.
American. And all
Americans think
about is their own
happiness.
 T I G O N | 42

Figure 7. Iconic signs in the corpus data

Scene # Timestamp Description Characters Involved Ethnicity Category based on Six
faces of the Oriental
Scene #1 07:34 Bible study; private investigator Eleanor Young and Asians Model Minority
friends
Scene #2 13:49 Women as an object of visual Asians Gook, Deviant
pleasure; stereotype for Asian
actors
Scene #3 14:34 Stiff and square familes; Asians Model Minority
perfectionist; women having to
obey men
Scene #4 15:16 Perfect role model: does charities, Astrid Leong Asian Model minority
a fashion icon, Harvard top
graduate
Scene #5 23:44 Bilingual Asians, teaching Astrid Leong and Asians Model Minority
children multiple languages child
Scene #6 25:18 Women being the provider issue Astrid Leong, Michael Asians Deviant, Coolie
Scene #7 28:45 Asian being comical or funny Wye goh and family, Asians and Gook
Rachel Chu, Asian-American
Scene #8 37:36 Chinese custom of washing hands Nick Young, Rachel Asian and Gook, Pollutant
on the entrance of the house Chu Asian-American
(Cultural difference)
Scene #9 39:00-39:12 Difference of concepts of Nick Young, Eleanor Asians and Gook, Model Minority
intimacy or private space Young, Rachel Chu Asian-American
Scene #10 54:54 Americans being the subject of Othering
visual pleasure
 T I G O N | 43

Following the data analysis procedure, the initial analysis of the data

involved identifying the signs to be subject to semiotic analysis, the characters

involved with the sign and their ethnicity, and its initial categorization whether

it reflects the six faces of Orientals, and othering in the surface area. The

researcher then conducted a semiotic analysis in both thee indexical and iconic

signs. The signifier and signified of each sign were identified and to assure in

depth analysis on the data, the researcher adapted Juan Magarinos de Martin’s

(translated by Winchkler, 2011) conceptual framework of semiotic analysis in

every type of sign.

In analyzing indexical signs, Martin as translated by Winchkler (2011)

stated that the indexical sign itself could be initially identified as (1) an object,

(2) behavior, and a (3) mnemic registry. The complexity of indexical signs

could be fleshed out through specifically identifying its signifier and whether it

is a written or spoken object in the chosen medium, a behavior portrayed

through verbal communication, or a mnemic registry, a written or vernal sign

that could be considered retained in the memory of at least most of the audience.

He also provided specification on how the indexical sign was used in the

medium or what and how was the sign signified, whether it was indicative or

designative. If indicative, the researcher could look into three factors: whether

it is a 1) signal, 2) indication, or 3) symptom. While if the sign is considered

designative, the researcher would conduct an analysis on whether it was a 1)

unique object, 2) prototype, or 3) replica.

 T I G O N | 44

Figure 7. Indexical Semiotics, Semiotics of the Edges (Winchkler, 2011).

The researcher focused on using Martin’s three concept on analyzing

indexical signs to be able to intensively discuss how these signs constructed

meaning and represented Asian and Asian-American identity in the film through

its signifier and signified. As seen in the figure 8, the researcher identified the

signifier of each sign and its type. Out of 15 indexical signs in the corpus data,

13 were indicative and 2 were designative. The criteria for the categorization of

these signs between the two types were from Martin’s (as translated by

Winchkler, 2011) concept wherein he stated that a signifier becomes indicative

when it focuses on the denotation of the concepts as it is, it simply indicates a

simple statement of a fact or an already existing concept. While a signifier

becomes designative when it designates a meaning that is not presented in the

surface of the sign. Thus in this study, 13 of the indexical signs are considered

indicative for mostly indicates a strongly known concept, or in this case

stereotype of Asians and Asian-American. For instance, scene #1 has the

signifier “May I suggest you explore Chinatown?” and it indicates an existing

and known concept that when Non-Asian people encounter Asians in the West,
 T I G O N | 45

they are associated and should be directed in a place for them, which usually are

Chinatowns. This also explains why there are numbers of Chinatowns existing

in the West for they want to emphasize the boundary and difference of Asians

from them, and Asians are foreign and alien to them, which would be thoroughly

discussed as the researcher inspects every sign in the corpus data in this chapter.

Figure 9. Identified types of signifiers in each indexical sign in the corpus

data.

IDENTIFIED TYPES OF
SIGNIFIERS IN EVERY INDEXICAL
SIGN IN THE CORPUS DATA
Indicative Designative

13%

87%

As stated above the researcher also adopted the concept of specification

of indicative and designative signifiers and conducted an analysis on what

specific characteristic of identified indicative or designative signifier does it

reflect. On the identification and analysis of the signified, the researcher

identified the denotative and connotative meaning attached in the signifier.

Indexical Signs Analysis

Scenes #1, #14, and #15

As seen in the table below, the signifier of scene 1 was identified as

indicative, specifically as signal and indication. It could be considered that the

phrase “May I suggest you explore Chinatown?” is indicative for it indicates an already

existing concept or stereotype that Asians and/or Asian-Americans are/was treated as

 T I G O N | 46

aliens since the early nineteenth century thus the creation of Chinatowns in the West.

The West wanted to maintain racial purity thus they wanted to create the boundary and

limit Asians and Asian-Americans’ belongingness in the West and was considered as

‘Others’. They labeled a location that is saturated with Asians as Chinatowns. There

was not even a recognition of difference of Asians, in the early nineteenth century

you’re a Chinese if you’re an Asian, until the World War II when the Americans were

forced to differentiate Chinese from Japanese to recognize their enemies (Lee, 1999).

The signified were analyzed into two, from its denotative meaning and its

connotative meaning. The denotative meaning simply conveys that the Hotelier was

merely suggesting that Eleanor and her family could explore and check in a hotel in

Chinatown since they’re Asians. However investigating its connotative meaning, the

constructed meaning of the sign reflects the general perception of Western people and

media towards Asians and Asian-Americans—pollutant and gook. As Robert Lee

(1999) stated in his book Orientals, this treatment of Westerners towards the Asians

and Asian-Americans could be traced back in the early nineteenth century. The media

portrayed Asians differently not solely because they were immigrants and their

physical appearance were foreign, but also due to the culture and principles of Asian

that they carried upon immigrating in the United States. The Western people and media

deemed their practices as different in a negative way which perpetuated stereotypes

and misrepresentation in the Western media thus the treatment Asians and Asian-

American received from the Western public was also negative.

 T I G O N | 47

Figure 8. Indexical signs and the identified signifiers and signified

Sign Signifier Signified
Type Denotation Connotation

Indicative: The hotelier suggests that the Asian The hotelier suggests they should
Signal, characters in scene #1 might want to explore Chinatown instead since it’s a
“May I suggest you Indication consider finding a hotel in place for Asians like Eleanor and her
Scene #1 explore Chinatown?” Chinatown family, and the Calthorpe is a class A
private hotel.
Scene #2: “Maybe his parents are Indicative: The character connotes that Chinese The character suggests that Chinese
poor, and he has to Indication, children are mostly poor and has to children, especially disadvantaged
send them money. Signal send money to their families people, are obliged to provide for their
That's what all good families once they have the capacity to
Chinese children do.” earn money and it is part of both their
culture and identity.
Scene #3: “I'm so Chinese, Indicative The character is Chinese for she’s an One of the characteristics that makes an
I'm an economics economics professor with lactose individual a Chinese is being an
professor with lactose intolerance economics professor, or generally good
intolerance.” in sciences, and has a lactose intolerance
due to the Asian culture that is not into
dairy products compared to the Western
diet
 T I G O N | 48

Scene #4: “God, I can't believe Indicative The Singapore airport is better than The model minority attributes of Asians
this airport has a John F. Kennedy airport in terms of thus most products and facilities
butterfly garden and a services e.g., Singapore airport has a produced by Asians are of high quality,
movie theater. JFK is butterfly garden and a movie theater, efficient and hospitable compared to the
just salmonella and while JFK airport does not. American facilities that tends to focus on
despair.” the functionality of the facilities.

Scene #5: “(IN THICK Designative: Without Rachel Chu, Peik Lin would Without Rachel Chu’s help, as the
ACCENT) Rachel Chu, Replica not have done well in college. character who projects model minority,
we are so grateful for Peik Lin would not be able to succeed in
all the help you have college, being a deviant character that
given my Peik Lin back pursued a degree in arts instead of
in her uni days. I mean, sciences.
without you, she would
be a hot mess.”

Scene #6: “Nice to meet you, too, Designative: The character pretended to have a The character pretended to have a thick
Chu. Ku-ku. Ku-Chu. Replica thick accent and exaggerated by accent which is usual in most Asians that
You. Poo-poo. No, I'm using words is not exposed with the English
just kidding. I don't language, this also portrays Asians as
have an accent.” comical relief and gook for not being
able to express in English the same way
Westerns do
 T I G O N | 49

Scene #7: “You haven't finished Indicative; There are a lot of starving children in The model minority attributes of the
your nuggets yet, Signal, America that’s why Rachel Chu is Asians portray them as a responsible
sweetie. Okay, there's Indication skinny because she’s from America. individual in this society
a lot of children For the children not to look like her,
starving in America, they should finish their nuggets first.
right? I mean, take a
look at her.
She's American, huh?
Really skinny.
You wanna look like
that?”
Scene #8: “You both went Indicative The two characters went and finished Rachel Chu is a model Asian for
to the same school, yet in the same school however one had finishing a science degree which is more
someone came back a science degree which is deemed of use for Asian perception unlike Peik
with a degree that's useful while the other had an arts Lin who finished an art degree instead.
useful. And the other degree and is deemed as Asian Ellen.
one came back as Asian
Ellen.”
Scene #9 You need a haircut. Indicative The character on the receiving end of Part of the model minority characteristic
So unkempt. And you the line does not look to the standard of Asians is making sure they look prim
look tired from your prim and proper thus needs a haircut. and proper, and it is often in Asian
trip. I'm gonna ask the He also looks tired from the trip thus families for the parents to perpetuate
cook to make you some the cook will be making a herbal such practice.
herbal soup. soup for him to feel better.

Scene #10 She actually hardly Indicative
spoke any English
when she immigrated to
the United States. But
she worked really hard,
and she studied, and
she earned her real
estate license while she
was waiting tables to
support us.
Scene #11 So you're not from a
Taiwan Chu family?
-Nope.
Hong Kong telecom
Chus?
-No.
Malaysian packing
peanut Chus?
-Is that really a thing?
Scene #12 I thought you might be
excited that the first girl
that I bring home is a
Chinese professor.
-Chinese American.
The character had a difficult time
adjusting after immigrating in the
United States
Indicative The character is interrogating the
recipient of the message on whether
from which family and business is
she from
Indicative The character expects the other
character in the dialogue to be
pleased that the first girl he
introduced to the family is a Chinese
professor but is stand corrected when
the other pointed out that the girl is a
Chinese American.
T I G O N | 50
Asians are treated as Aliens when they
immigrate to the United States and this
made them the model minority for
having to work their way around on
getting recognized in the American
society.
If you come from a powerful family
whether in the politics or business sector,
you’re considered worthy of recognition
in the elite society thus it’s important for
them to interrogate people on which
family are they from, even from which
decent.
The character points out the racial
difference between the two characters
and how these are big deal for Asian
families
 T I G O N | 51

Scene #13 We taught you so you'd Indicative Chinese parents teach their children The American culture of parenting is
know the blood, sweat, skills and basic chores to teach them different from the Asian parenting.
and tears it took to raise how much work is done for their Unlike Americans who give their
and feed you monkeys. sustenance unlike how western children liberty, Asian parents focus on
Not like the ang-mohs parents just teach their children the shaping their children’s future.
microwaving macaroni easy way on things which could be
and cheese for their the reason why most western
own children. No families send their parents to home
wonder they put their for the aged.
parents in the old folks'
home when they all
grow up.
Scene #14 Right now, she just Indicative The character in the receiving end of The character is perceived like a banana,
thinks you're some the line is deemed as undeserving, yellow on the outside (because she’s of
undeserving, clueless, clueless, gold-digging trashy, Asian descent and Asians are
gold-digging trashy, unrefined banana which is yellow on characterized as yellow skinned) and
unrefined banana. the outside but white on the inside white on the inside (because despite
Yellow on the outside, being an Asian, she was born and raised
white on the inside. in the America thus having more of their
culture than of her own race).
 T I G O N | 52

Scene #15 There is a Hokkien Indicative The character emphasizes that the Asians treat foreigners differently. They
phrase. It means, other character in the dialogue is not have the tendency to emphasize the
"Our own kind of one of them because she is an boundary or the difference between
people." And you're not American which makes her a foreigners and their own race. That is
our own kind. You're a foreigner despite being of Chinese why culture appropriation is also a big
foreigner. American. decent. deal for Asians.
And all Americans
think about is their own
happiness.
 T I G O N | 53

Scene #2, #3, #4, #9, #10, #11, and #12

For these seven scenes, the signifiers was also identified as indicative

for it indicates the Robert Lee’s concept of model minority which was reflected

on both denotative and connotative meaning conveyed by the sign. One of the

six faces of Oriental according to Robert Lee is the model minority. The

perpetuation of this Asian and Asian-American stereotype in the Western media

from being deemed as pollutant to the position of model minority “… had less

to do with the actual success of Asian Americans than to the perceived failure-

or worse, refusal-of African Americans to assimilate. Asian Americans were

“not black” in two significant ways: They were both politically silent and

ethnically assimilable. (Lee, 1999).” As years passed, the conception of model

minority was no longer just limited to being politically silent and ethnically

assimilable but also Asians being a role model citizen of the society thus the

lines “Maybe his parents are poor, and he has to send them money. That's what all

good Chinese children do.”, “I'm so Chinese, I'm an economics professor with lactose

intolerance.”, and “God, I can't believe this airport has a butterfly garden and a movie

theater. JFK is just salmonella and despair.” Western media represented Asians and

Asian-Americans as the filial children, socially and morally responsible citizens, and

intellectuals yet submissive.

Scenes #5 and #6
Both scenes are identified as designative and both are specified as

replica. The signifiers “(In a thick accent) Rachel Chu, we are so grateful for all

the help you have given my Peik Lin back in her uni days. I mean, without you,

she would be a hot mess” and “Nice to meet you, too, Chu. Ku-ku. Ku-Chu.

You. Poo-poo. No, I'm just kidding. I don't have an accent” conveyed the
 T I G O N | 54

connotative meaning towards the audience that the character pretending to have

a thick accent is usual in most Asians who are not exposed with the English

language, and that it also portrayed Asians as comical relief and gook for not

being able to express in English the same way Westerns do.

Scenes #7, #8, and #13

In scenes 7 and 13, both scenes have indicative signifiers and an almost

similar signified or constructed meaning. These signs conveyed the connotative

meaning that the American culture of parenting is different from the Asian

parenting. Unlike Americans who give their children liberty, Asian parents

focus on shaping their children’s future. The use of comparison between Asians

and Americans was framed leaning towards the notion that Asians are better

than Americans. It could be considered that it uses the argument that since

Asians and Asian-Americans are deemed model minority, this frames the

Americans as people who needs improvement. The phrase “You wanna be like

her? No? Then eat” established a stark contrast of Asians being represented as

model minority while Americans as bad examples.

However, in scene 8 there was an attempt to contradict the constructed

meaning in both scenes wherein the professional achievement of an Asian and

Asian-American was compared which denoted praise towards the Asian-

American. This may not be the usual Asian vs. Non-Asian discussion in this

analysis however it is important that scene 8, despite involving Asian vs. Asian-

American characters, still reflects the model minority stereotypification and

most of all, Othering. As seen in the history Asians experienced extreme

situations of Othering in the West thus in modern days, when encountered with
 T I G O N | 55

a Western person or Asian-American, Asians also tend to practice Othering.

They treat Asian-Americans as others despite having an Asian descent to the

reason that Asian-Americans are born and raised in the West thus acquiring the

Western culture instead of their own native culture.

Thus in this scene, their treatment towards the Asian-Americans as

Others were evident yet framed the Asian-Americans as better.

Iconic Signs Analysis

Similar with the Indexical signs analysis, the researcher also adapted

Martin’s identification and analysis of iconic signs. As translated by Winchkler

(2011), a sign would be considered iconic if it is a proposal of visual perception,

and this visual image could be specifically identified as 1) plastic, 2) figurative,

3) conceptual, 4) combination of the previous. To be able to conduct an in-depth

analysis on iconic signs, it is also possible for these signs to be evaluated

whether it demonstrates 1) experience, 2) identity, and 3), convention.

Figure 6. Iconic semiotics – Visual Semiotics, Semiotics of the Edges

(Winchkler, 2011).
 T I G O N | 56

In this study, the researcher conducted the analysis with ten iconic signs.

Out of ten (10) signs, three signs and its signifiers were identified as figurative,

two signs and signifiers as conceptual, and five signs as combination of the three

classification. The criteria for the classification of signifiers is based on the

denotative meaning of the words itself: a signifier can be classified as plastic if

it presents a material image; a signifier can be classified as figurative if it

conveys derivation of concepts, or metaphorical; a signifier can be identified as

conceptual if it the visual image is based on actual mental concepts and

representations.

Figure 10. Identified signifiers of every iconic signs in the corpus data

IDENTIFIED SIGNIFIERS IN EVERY ICONIC

SIGN IN THE CORPUS DATA
Plastic Figurative Conceptual Combination

0%

30%

50%

20%

The table below shows the classification of the signifiers of the ten

iconic signs in the corpus data, and the signified, specifying its denotative and

connotative constructed meaning.

 T I G O N | 57

Figure 11. Identified signifier and signified of Iconic signs

Sign Signifier Signified

Description
Eleanor and her friends
(all Asians) are having a
Scene bible study
#1
Scene Women as an object of
#2 visual pleasure; stereotype
for Asian actors
Scene Stiff and square families;
#3 perfectionist; women
having to obey men
Scene Perfect role model: does
#4 charities, a fashion icon,
Harvard top graduate
Type Demonstration Denotation
Conceptual Of identity Eleanor and her friends are
having a bible study
Plastic, Of identity; Most Asian women, or women in
figurative of identity general are treated as visual
pleasure, as an object of sexual
pleasure. And Asian actors and
actresses are deemed as
untalented compared to Western
actors
Figurative Of identity Asian families are strict and
square, and even perfectionist,
thus it is part in their culture for
women to be submissive
Plastic, Of identity Asians or Asian women are
figurative perfect role models, they do
charities, most are fashion icons
and even top graduates in Ivy
league schools like Harvard
Connotation
Asians are considered models for
practicing religion religiously
Asian women are treated as an
object of sexual pleasure because
they have been stereotyped as one
by the media in the early 19th
century thus people deem
Asians are expected to be models
because of how they are portrayed
in the media In the early days thus
Asian families practice being strict,
square, and perfectionist towards
their children, and to be a
submissive follower
As stated, Asians are expected to be
models thus they are expected to be
successful, to be the top of their
class, to graduate from Ivy league
schools and to pay back to their
 T I G O N | 58

families and do their social

responsibilities

Scene Bilingual Asians, teaching Figurative Of Asian parents are teaching their As part of their model minority
#5 children multiple convention children various skills including traits, Asian parents teach their
languages multiple languages which makes children various skills and even
them a model minority multiple languages for them to
achieve their goal of being top of
their class.
Scene Women being the provider Conceptual Of Women being the provider of the Part of being the model minority is
#6 issue convention family is unconventional Asians having the tendency to be
traditionalist, to opt for that is
deemed as conventional thus it is an
issue for them when women acts of
gets the role of being the provider
of the family
Scene Asian being comical or Plastic, Of identity Asians are comical and funny Asians are deemed different when
#7 funny figurative they immigrated to the West thus
people found them comical, and
whatever they do are deemed funny
just because they are Asian
Scene Chinese custom of figurative Of Asians have customs such as Asians value their customs and
#8 washing hands on the convention washing hands when they arrive traditions greatly thus they expect
entrance of the house at their house visitors and people to respect and
(Cultural difference) adapt their customs when t
 T I G O N | 59

Scene Difference of concepts of Figurative, Of identity Asians and Western have Asians have a collectivist culture
#9 intimacy or private space conceptual different concepts of intimacy and thus their concept of intimacy and
private space private space are leaning to
emotional closeness thus for Asians
the boundaries of private space is
almost nonexistent. However for
Western who have an
individualistic culture, tend to value
private space greatly
Scene Americans being the Plastic, Of identity, Americans are deemed as subject Since Western culture are more
#10 subject of visual pleasure figurative of convention of visual and sexual pleasure liberated compared to Asian
culture, there are tendencies that
American women become a subject
of visual pleasure
 T I G O N | 60

CHAPTER VI

SUMMARY, IMPLICATIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary

This study sprung from the recent release of the movie Crazy Rich

Asians, the second Hollywood film with an Asian and of descent cast after 25

years which has contributed an amount of discourse in the academe of ethnicity

and gender studies, and most of all in the film and communication academe As

contextualized into a smaller scale research, the experiment conducted aimed

to: 1) analyze how Asian and Asian-American identity is represented in the film

through semiotics employed in the film, 2) identify the different representations

of Asian and Asian-American identity in the film and how do those reflect the

predominant Asian and Asian-American stereotypes and themes in Western

media, 3) examine the implications of the identified representations conveyed in

the film towards the Asian and Asian-American identity, 4) identify the signs

employed in the film that constructed and conveyed representations of Asian

and Asian-American identity and the manner on how these signs were

employed, and 5) investigate the decoded meanings from the identified signs

and how those meanings convey Asian and Asian-American identity and reflect

Asian and Asian-American stereotypes.

Implications

After conducting an in-depth analysis in a total of 25 semiotic artifact or

signs, the results show that Robert Lee’s Six faces of Orientals and Simone de
 T I G O N | 61

Beauvoir’s Othering are still reflected and utilized as predominant Asian and

Asian-American representations in Western media.

Recommendations:

The primary improvement that may be done would be in the current

study’s methodology. A larger set of corpus data would be ideal for a more

substantive result on the constructed meanings and how it reflects the

representation of Asians and Asian-Americans in the Western media. One

element that could also be improved in the study is the analysis and discussions.
 T I G O N | 62

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