Blog Post 2: Monster and Marvel

The Monster and Marvels exhibit was very interesting to me because as a Chinese, I could know about how Asians are perceived by Americans throughout the history and indicated in American comics. What more surprising was that the stereotypes have hardly changed until today. Americans still consider Chinese people as math genius, a.k.a. “The Brain”, or martial arts masters, a.k.a. “The Brute” . Such stereotypes indicates the lack of communication among different ethnical groups, and even today, the communication is far from enough.

Among all the stereotypes that presented in the comic exhibit, the most impressive one was “The Brain”. For millions of times, I was asked “Are you good at math? You are Chinese!” Unfortunately, I am so poor at math and that is why my major is journalism. But people still keep asking me questions like that. Most westerners perceive Asians, especially Chinese people talented and smart, particularly in math and science. In the exhibit, there was a comic drawing “The Brian”, and noted that “The hyperintelligent mind without a body; sexless, heartless, friendless, a self-hating prodigy more comfortable interacting machines than people.” It fully illustrates the characteristics of this stereotype: smart, silent, and not sexy at all. But are all Asians like this? Absolutely no. People tend to consider Asian people’s high grades come from their god-given talent, but ignored their efforts in study in a foreign country. As an alien, if you want to survive, you have to pay much more efforts and attention than your peers. Maybe that’s why “The Brains” always look serious and tired. However, in today’s America, there are more and more Asian students getting involved in school affairs and student activities, and there are also more and more American students getting to know their Asian peers better than ever. The myth of “The Brain” is being broken, instead, people starts to appreciate Asians’ hardworking and devotions.

There were many other interesting stereotypes, such as “The Lotus Blossom”, who is perceived as “long-suffering wife and left-behind lover”, and “The Temptress”, who is considered as “exotic seductress”. “The Lotus Blossom”, wearing cheongsam, is being killing by a military guy. On the other hand, “The Temptress”, also wears cheongsam, but a more sexy version. These two female image are completely contradict to each other. One is submissive, while another is predominant. It’s interesting because they give us an insight of how westerners think about Asian women. As we can see, in America, Asians marry Americans is not a rare thing, which can be seen as result of enhanced communication and understanding between different ethnical groups and genders. Today as we look back on these stereotypes, we see it funny and irony, that’s because everything’s changing and no one is completely the same as another.