Hollywood’s great wall of racism

Damon role in Chinese movie says a lot about systemic discrimination, writes Gene Park.

They used to call me “Jackie Chan.”

This wasn’t schoolyard bullying from white kids. I wasn’t at a racially charged political rally. This was about 15 years ago, during my college years, from elementary-age Mexican-American children in a Los Angeles suburb, where I lived part time and which is home to a 94 per cent Latino community.

These kids weren’t coming from a place of prejudice. They were barely six years old. But they called me Jackie Chan because at the time he was the only pop culture reference they could point to when they saw an Asian dude like myself. Never mind that I’m Korean American and Chan is Chinese. Big difference, as someone from either ethnicity would be quick to point out.

It’s why conversations like #StarringJohnCho or #StarringConstanceWu are happening. It’s why the #OscarsSoWhite conversation erupted in outrage when Chris Rock made jokes at the expense of Asian children at the Academy Awards. It’s to highlight whitewashing, and the re-imagining of Hollywood as a diverse industry where Asians can headline a film. We’re not all Chan, but he was the Hollywood hero those kids could point to.

Enter The Great Wall, a bigbudget Matt Damon vehicle about the building the Great Wall of China to protect against dragons. The casting of Damon sparked outrage from the Asian American community, particularly in a blistering tweet from Constance Wu, the Fresh Off the Boat actress.

She gives no quarter to Damon, Hollywood or the Chinese studio in her criticism. But she also recognizes this issue is more complex than your regular whitewashing. “Not blaming Damon, the studio, the Chinese financiers,” she tweeted. It’s about awareness. That’s not Wu being magnanimous, it’s just her plainly laying out the challenge of upending the systematic racism that would cause casting decisions marginalizing minority actors.

Yes, The Great Wall is not only directed by Zhang Yimou, one of the world’s most celebrated directors, but it’s also backed by a huge mainland China company. And it may seem to make sense to want a white lead, especially one with Damon’s star power, in what’s become the most expensive Chinese production to date.

The studio’s perception that the film would perform better with Damon is likely correct, said Jeff Yang, a Wall Street Journal columnist and father of Hudson Yang, the child star of Fresh Off the Boat. “From a pragmatic perspective, Damon is the Chinese money hedging its bets,” Yang said in an email, adding that The Great Wall has a largely Chinese cast. “He won’t exactly hurt the Chinese box office, but he gives American audiences a reason to check the movie out.”

Being backed by Chinese investors doesn’t absolve the film from perpetuating the racist myth of only white men can save the world, even if it’s within a ludicrous framework like fighting dragons on the Great Wall of China. Deferring to that excuse underestimates how Hollywood shapes international perceptions of people.

“Hollywood makes stars, stars don’t make Hollywood,” Yang said. “Nothing but the inertial residual of institutional racism prevents U.S. studios from identifying diverse performers of every background and giving them both the great showcase roles and the promotional support necessary to turn them into global icons.”