What did you think of Gim's role (Chen Lee) in the film? Do you think he was meant to be the stereotypical "Chinaman servant" type in the West? Or is there more there? Rooster obviously enjoyed his company. They shared meals, played cards, etc. When Rooster shot the rat indoors, Chen Lee yelled at him like a wife.
And on the subject of race, what did you make of the "Indian doctor," the benighted soul who has never heard of germs but on whom they still rely for medical attention? (There was some astoundingly racist comment made about him, but I can't remember what it was).
14 comments:
I know very little about Westerns in general; how common is it to have Chinese characters? My impression is that a lot of Westerns didn't acknowledge the presence of anyone but whites and Indians.
Viewing the film as parody, the Chen Lee character could be seen as poking fun at racism in movies.
That being said, the fact that Rooster enjoys his company might hint that the only company a foreigner can keep is with someone who doesn't want company.
I'd prefer to think of it as ridiculing racism rather than being racist, but that may just be because I like the film and want to see good in it.
The doctor character is probably part of the parody. American Indian characters are a staple of westerns, and it's a stock joke to make fun of their "ignorant ways." The fact that all the whites still trusted him in his ignorance might be the film's way of saying that the whites are no different, thus pointing out the racism inherent in the genre.
I think Chinese characters are pretty common – as launderers, merchants, servants, etc. There were a lot of Chinese brought in to the West to build railroads, just as a lot of them were brought to Hawaii to do the grueling work of sugar cane harvesting. Maxine Hong Kingston wrote an incredible book about Chinese immigrants in the West called "China Men." And Steinbeck had a major chinese character in "East of Eden." And of course there was the "Kung Fu" TV series. A western called "The Ballad of Little Jo" (DW, did we see that together?) examines race and gender roles in the old West by having a female character pretend to be a man and fall in love with a Chinese character. DW, you've seen scads of westerns. Do you have any additions, insights?
I know there were a lot of Chinese immigrants in the West, but my thought was that maybe Hollywood preferred to leave them out of a lot of the traditional Western movies. There were a lot of black cowboys, too, who didn't exactly get equal time in the old Westerns. But maybe the Chinese characters were there and I just didn't notice them when I was a kid, which is when I saw most of the Westerns I've seen.
Erin, did you remember that there was a Chinese character in "True Grit"? How long ago had you seen it?
No, I hadn't remembered Chen Lee at all. Actually, I didn't remember most of it before the manhunt began. I don't know when the last time I'd seen it was, maybe 15 years ago.
Kc, yes we saw “The Ballad of Little Jo”. I liked that one.
As best I can remember, older westerns were pretty thoroughly white bread in their towns and settlers. The Indians were always wild and didn’t live like and among “the real people”. Blacks and Chinese didn’t fit into either of these groups, so they were left out.
I’m having a hard time thinking of examples of Chinese characters with speaking roles. I can remember seeing movies that feature railroad building that have some as extras. And if there were scenes in a larger city, Denver maybe, San Francisco certainly, there might be extras in the streets loading and unloading wagons. But right off I cannot think of one who was a shopkeeper or even a household servant who might have had a few lines.
By the way, do you think the whites in the old West were really up on germ theory themselves? This movie was 1870s?
Isn't there a Chinese dude in "Deadwood"? And wasn't there one in "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman"? hehe
You're right, it's hard to think of speaking roles. But there was definitely a presence. Seems like I've seen some westerns with Chinese herbalists (another stereotype).
Yes, DW, I certainly doubted that the white folks knew more about medicine or science than the Indian guy. Seems a little early too, as you said, for rural people to be spouting the virtues of handwashing.
There is a Chinese dude in "Deadwood," and he's definitely not the stereotypical western "Chinaman."
Actually, Ben, his name is Wu. He's basical the Asian version of Al Swearengen, with his own henchmen running his brothels, games and opium trade, and the last thing you want to do is feed his pigs.
I love Wu. Heng dai, fucking Wu.
What does that mean, E?
Wu and Swearingen say "heng dai" to each other. It means brotherhood or something like that.
Swearingen is my mom's last name.
I'll have to watch "Deadwood."
Though there was a Chinese character, he didn't seem to be a subject of ridicule. I thought the General sort of stole his thunder, but I would be paying attention to the cat instead of the characters.
Did you notice that John Wayne said "Indian" while others used "Injun"? (Though not consistently.)
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