Violating the invisible: Asian women in the US and somewhere

IT began in cinema, where else but in spaces of artifice and allure. In films, Asian women are killed first. They vanish easily in tales and movie enthusiasts—even hardcore critics –could not care less. The film has still a long way to go—the White Woman is still alive. It is her story and it is her sufferance that should affect us.

Long ago, in 1938, in a film adaptation of Pearl S. Buck’s The Good Earth, Luise Rainer, a German-american actress played O-lan. As if that was not enough artistic license, the husband, Wang Lun was portrayed by Paul Muni. Rainer would be honored by an Oscar for the portrayal. Later in war drama, Dragon Seed, Katharine Hepburn would play another Chinese, Jade. There would be more examples, with the practice reaching its peak or pit with Linda Hunt essaying the role of a Chinese-australian midget in The Year of Living Dangerously.

Or maybe, this predilection goes back further to the grandest illustration of human character and spirit— the opera. Madame Butterfly. Cio-cio san in the libretto; choucho in Japanese for butterfly. For the world, a woman that could only be saved by the White Man. She of unusual beauty would fall in love and be acclaimed for her gentle way but the man would leave her. The man would come back but he is with his wife, a White Woman. The Asian woman legendary for fecundity has to give up the child of their union produced under the moon and blooms of a forbidden night. She would give up her child because there is no hope in her own country. But that is not enough, for her guilt would be just too much she has to kill herself.

And the balance is restored. Days ago, the universe of the White Man became precarious during one season. There was too much Asian allure in the United States of America. One has to keep the balance. Use the women and annihilate them.

In another time, the murder of Asian women would have been dismissed easily. The moralists at the wings are ready to lunge at those who defend them: they were whores servicing men. But the time has come for these voices to be heard. Not the Black and not the Latino, but this “race” that is difficult to classify—as far as the White perspective is concerned.

Are we colored? Are we different from each other? Many are quoted saying Asian women look the same.

Now, the protests about Filipinas portraying the Vietnamese in Miss Saigon make sense. We, the Filipinos, have become enablers. We supplied the singers and dancers for the theatre of violence; after all, the White Producers believed we are the island of talents for the West End, for Broadway. We had fun—and wealth—disappearing under the skin of the Vietnamese. We rationalized the use of arts. But there can only be so much about the downfall of Vietnam or the rise in the wounding of the American psyche in those boys who were trained to kill, only to come home maimed from the memories of the disaster their country exported to Asia.

Now murder is close to home and yet whitewashing remains part of the industry of illusions.

Asian intellectuals have spoken back and, it seems, discourses about race and erasures of identities can be dealt with by minds that are lucid even as they are enraged.

(Dr.) Deirdre de la Cruz was one of those intellectuals who responded immediately to how the United States of A, its media online and in hard copy forms treated the mass murder. Listen to her:

“I canceled my undergrad class today, redirecting students to several events holding space for processing and learning about anti-asian violence. I canceled because I’m not up for having to convince anyone that the murder of six Asian women in Atlanta is absolutely about race, when almost every mainstream establishment from the media up to the president is saying that it’s too early to know because we’re taking this white supremacist/ misogynist/fetishist at his word—ya know, because he’s a white dude who just ‘had a bad day.’”

Deirdre’s friends consider her a Filipina. But there are more in her blood— Hawaiian, and many more. She has the appearance of what we Filipinos call Tisay. She is a candidate for erasure, for the question, where are you from? You speak very good English! You are very intelligent! But this woman who heads the Doctoral Program of Anthropology in the University of Michigan took a singular stand—she felt threatened. Why would she be not threatened? More than being an Asian, a Filipina, she is human.

Hear her speak: “Sometimes vulnerability can be a good place to teach from but for me right now it’s not and I don’t feel like being anyone’s model for the pedagogy of the teachable moment.”

The protests have started; Filipinas comfortable in their corporate positions (this is a fact) and settled in homes that are not demarcated by racial zones (this is also a fact) are coming out.

This new anti-misogyny movement, which is not new after all, has also brought out keen, wise analysis of the situation. But, I turn to de la Cruz again who talks about an article that mentions nowhere in the analysis the name, the Philippines. It is, however, in the Philippines where, according to Deirdre de la Cruz, “US imperialism cut its teeth long before its mid-twentieth century wars in the Pacific, where members of its military have raped, brutalized and murdered Filipino women from the turn of the twentieth century to the present… where much of the racist misogynistic vocabulary used to describe Asian women was coined, all of the above fueling visions of obedient smiley wives and/or hypersexualized submissives whose worth would be measured by how well they fulfilled white men’s expectations and whose lives could be cut short if they didn’t.”

For these Filipina intellectuals, crafting manifestos and protest papers will be easy. But will the State find it easy to protect them as well?