What Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Oscars win means for Asian American representation
Last spring, as I prepared to interview the director duo the Daniels (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) upon the release of their second feature film Everything Everywhere All at Once, I came across something I hadn’t seen before.
No, I’m not referring to the hot-dog fingers and butt-plug-shaped candles sold by A24 but rather a comprehensive pronunciation guide for the names of the cast and characters, as shared by the film’s PR team for the press: Michelle Yeoh’s surname should be pronounced “yo”, Stephanie Hsu’s is “shoe”, Ke Huy Quan’s name is pronounced “Key Hway Kwan” and the surname of the family at the center of the movie (Wang) rhymes with “song”. It was a small but meaningful gesture infused with respect: yes, the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, veering often into the manic and puerile – but say our names properly.
Sure, those names naturally roll off the tongue much easier than Saoirse Ronan or Benedict Cumberbatch, but not so long ago such a guide wouldn’t have even been considered – because those names would never have been said aloud with frequency let alone graced an Oscar ballot. After all, Asian performers have long been overlooked.
As the New York Times illustrated in a dismayingly sparse interactive report, just 23 of 1,808 acting nominees in the entire history of the Oscars could be identified as Asian, and only four have won.
The tropes of Asians in film have proven particularly persistent – nameless, faceless, or emotionless; seen through the lens of martial arts, war or sex; perpetual foreigners with funny accents and exotic names. And that’s after Asians were allowed to portray Asian characters: As 94-year-old screen veteran James Hong pointed out at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last month, white actors often played Asian character roles in Hollywood’s early days. “Guys with eyes taped up like this and they talk like this because the producer said the Asians were not good enough and they are not box office,” he said, pulling his eyes up towards his temples in a move stingingly familiar to Asians the world over. “But look at us now.”
The world is certainly watching. This unabashedly Asian American film has been crowned the past year’s best movie on Hollywood’s biggest night. That would be significant in any year, but it’s especially momentous in a year with a record number of Asian nominees overall, across songwriting, producing and writing in films spanning genres from animation to documentary. This year four actors of Asian descent were nominated for Oscars, the most in a single year – and Yeoh and Quan’s awards broke the record for the most Asian actors winning on Oscar night. (The record had been one.) Yeoh