The Fetshization of Asian Cultures in the West

You go on a first date. Your date seems really great! They’re a little weird, but everyone is and they seem nice, so what does it matter? The two of you talk as you eat, and nearing the end of the meal they say to you “I just love Asian women. They’re always sweet submissive dolls; they’d make perfect wives.” Suddenly, they don’t seem as nice. That weirdness from earlier isn’t as endearing, and the fact that you’re a proud Asian woman is leading your mind to some less than ideal places. What do you do in this situation? Awkwardly laugh it off, possibly ending the discomfort, but perpetuating their harmful belief that Asian women are submissive? Educate them about how what they said was wrong, but lose the chances of having a relationship with this person AND endangering yourself because there’s always the fear of getting your date mad and getting hurt when you’re a woman, regardless of race? There’s no “right” answer here.
In western media, Asian women are usually either portrayed as submissive, feminine, and sexually compliant “lotus blossoms/china dolls” or as dangerous, cunning “dragon ladies” who use their sexuality as a weapon. While on the TV it may not be a big deal, sure, it can be very uncomfortable and disheartening to have most of your representation be rooted in sex or sexy characters, but obviously people know not all Asian women are like that, right? Not exactly. What people watch on TV and read social media directly affects how they view the world. If the only time Brad sees Asian women is when they’re being submissive and quiet, Brad is going to assume all Asian women are submissive and quiet. Though less common, this is also becoming more and more seen with Asian men. The stereotypes aren’t as solidified because it’s “newer” in context of male characters, but with the rise of things like K-Pop and anime (which often have a focus on boy groups or male main characters) it’s happening to them too.
Stereotypes exist for a reason. Especially in media and entertainment, whether that reason be for comedy, plots, whatever. Like most things, some of them can be good in moderation, funny even. But like most stereotypes, more often than not they’re ridiculously harmful, especially if they’re racial stereotypes. Even if they’re not harmful, there’s almost always an extremely racist past behind them.
The “Lotus Blossom” Stereotype
I got into this a little bit before, but let’s take a deeper look into what that “lotus blossom” stereotype of Asian women actually is, where it comes from/is shown, and how it’s harmful. The “lotus blossom” stereotype (as stated before) is the notion that all Asian women are sexually submissive, quiet, feminine, and often implied to be dumb. Women under this stereotype usually act this way towards white men, because this stereotype was made by and for white men to feed into the western thought “The Asian people are weak, and we, the white people, will save them”.
It starts in a French novel from 1887 named “Madame Chrysantheme” by Pierre Loti. It tells the story of a French sailor stationed in Japan. He rents both a house and a “wife” for him while he stays in Japan. He uses her as a wife and she isn’t described as much more than an object in the book. A small example that spiraled into even worse territory. Madame Chrysantheme inspired other pieces of media as well, such as the short story “Madame Butterfly” by American author John Long in 1898, wherein the same thing happens, but this time when the officer leaves his “bride” (affectionately named “Cho-Cho”, which means butterfly in Japanese) she attempts suicide, fails, and is left in Japan with their son.

Madame Butterfly inspired an opera under the same name in 1904, created by Giacomo Puccini. In this version, similar to the short story, the Japanese bride is in so much pain about the officer leaving her that she tries and succeeds in killing herself, and leaves her son with the officer to be taken home and raised with his wife. One could go on for pages about each work inspired by the last. It’s been over 100 years since the original Madame Chrysantheme was published. Various films based off it exist, and many of the were made in the 20th century, so not only did it glorify and romanticize the use of Asian women as what were basically exotic sex toys, there weren’t even Asian people acting. It was often white women doing yellow face for the role.
An example that might connect more with current audiences is Miss Saigon. Set during the Vietnam War, it’s about a 17 year-old Vietnamese girl named Kim who is forced into prostitution as a result of the Vietnam War. She meets an American soldier named Chris at a bar/brothel, they sleep together, then the next morning they’re in love. The usual “one night stand with an underage prostitute” things. Chris obviously has to leave, as he’s an American soldier, and Kim ends up having his child. Back in America, Chris marries an American woman, but hears that Kim is alive and goes back to look for her with his wife. Kim is elated to hear this and takes Tam (their son) to go find Chris. At the end she meets Ellen – Chris’ wife- who tells Kim everything. Kim kills herself at the end, dying in Chris’ arms, and leaving Tam with him.

Miss Saigon is a beautiful musical. The songs are heart wrenching, and the way it’s blocked is amazing. And that’s the issue with it. Miss Saigon romanticized the idea of being forced into prostitution, the Red Light District, and even suicide at the end. Showing these parts of history is fine, but the way it was turned into a white-savior story and trauma porn by romanticizing the suicide of an Asian woman because she couldn’t marry a white man is what gives Miss Saigon these issues.
Romanticizing the struggle of Asian (particularly woman) people and having those struggles end, either by death or just being solved, by a white person (usually a man) is such a harmful trope, and key a part of the “Lotus Blossom” stereotype but no one points out issues with it because its so old. The trope has its roots deep in racism, yet it’s such a central part of western media’s portrayal of Asians that everyone thinks it’s normal. It’s not. And it shouldn’t be considered “normal” anymore.
The “Dragon Lady” Stereotype
A fierce, feisty, sexually liberated woman who knows how to fight and won’t bow down anyone (with a few rare exceptions we’ll talk about in a second). None of these are bad things, quite the opposite, actually. It’s rare to see a woman be so free with her sexuality in the media without being shamed for it. While these are good things, when combined and put on a female Asian character, that’s when things get problematic. The “Dragon Lady” stereotype is what I said it was, a woman who knows 3 kinds of martial arts, seduces men for her own gain, and will not back down from what most perceive as nerve-wracking. She’s a powerful woman who fears nothing. Though less common than the “Lotus Blossom” stereotype, it still runs rampant in many pieces of media like Kill Bill, the DCU, and really anything with Anna May Wong (we’ll get to her in as second) or Lucy Liu in it (No offense to either of them of course; they’re both amazing but type casting does exist)

It’s not limited to honorifics either, in fact it happens more often with clothes. Every culture has traditional clothes, and they’re usually beautiful. The Japanese kimono, Vietnamese áo dài and the Chinese qipao are just some of the better known examples. Trends in fashion are always changing, and that constant evolution of fashion often comes with branches into or out of other countries and cultures. That expansion into other places can go really right or really wrong. Kacey Musgraves, a famous country singer is a perfect example of it going really wrong. She wore an áo dài on stage, which wouldn’t have been a horrible issue (she’s not Vietnamese, but if she did it respectfully it really wouldn’t have been too bad) but she took the pants out from underneath it. The áo dài is a traditional Vietnamese dress that is to be worn with the loose fitting pants. If she wore a dress with higher leg slits, it wouldn’t be a problem, but mixed with the vaguely “exotic” jewelry (also in bad taste, as the jewelry she’s wearing doesn’t seem to have any cultural significance) and the fairly obvious inspiration of an áo dài, it’s not the best choice of clothing.

This also tends to happen with the Japanese kimono, a lot of anime will show highly sexualized characters in kimonos and/or put characters in kimonos in compromising positions. A lot of people have taken this as permission to take the kimono, and turn it into lingerie or something in relation to it. Kim Kardashian, for example, was going to release a line of lingerie under the name “Kimono”, a cute pun, but disrespectful to the history and culture behind actual kimonos. The mayor of Kyoto, Japan’s capital, even sent her a letter asking for her to rethink the name (which she did, it’s under a different name now). It’s also common to see Halloween “geisha” costumes that have the kimono ending a mid-upper thigh, and have it cut way too low. Cultural appropriation aside from becoming a geisha incorrectly, it’s more often than not white or non-Japanese people doing this. Geishas play a central part in traditional art forms in Japan, so turning that rich history into a sexy costume is disrespectful and wrong. Disrespecting traditional clothes like this isn’t just disrespectful to the people and culture, it’s also disregarding the history and stores behind the tradition.
Walking down a street and getting catcalled isn’t a pleasant experience, as you probably know. Misogyny and racism run deep within the “compliments” given on the street. Walking down the street and getting called a “china doll” by an older white man, or being called “exotic” when you walk past that group of college on the corner isn’t the most comfortable. It’s uncomfortable in real life, and even more uncomfortable on social media, where people don’t have to deal with the consequences of what they do and say to people walking down the street. On social media, it’s also not limited to women, Asian men get a lot of the heat online too, sometimes just as bad or even worse. Social media has allowed for videos like this: to exist.

Even if people are in the comments shaming this person, the internet is a megaphone for opinions; people who also think that way will see this and go “Oh! I’m not the only one! It’s a perfectly fine and normal thing to do!” , visit the comments, defend themselves, and end up reinforcing their opinion. Social media “areas” like K-pop stan and anime twitter, J-pop fan accounts on Instagram, and even groups on Facebook just keep the cycle going, intentionally or not because everyone idol ad character is Asian, and some people are going to take it as a push or as permission to look as people and go “They’re only attractive because they’re Asian”.
Television and social media didn’t start the trend of fetishizing Asian cultures, but they’re the ones that normalized it, intentionally or not. The way Asian traditions are taken and turned into lingerie or eye-candy and no one says anything is the fault of people in media normalizing it.
Why It Even Matters
Of course, this doesn’t mean you can’t find Asian people attractive. You can still do that. No one is saying “If you find an Asian person attractive, you’re a racist and a fetishizer!” It’s racist and fetishistic when you take traditional clothes with a rich history and turn it into lingerie. It’s racist and fetishistic when you find a Japanese or Chinese person attractive because they’re Japanese or Chinese. The problem arises when you only view them as their race and disregard their history and culture.
To those that aren’t Asian, it might not seem like a big deal. They might even think that we should be flattered by it. The amount of times you’ll hear “Oh, you should just take it as a compliment! Be happy someone is attracted to you/your race!” is way too high and has some racist and just plain mean undertones implying that either you are too ugly for someone to be interested in, or your entire race/ethnicity is.. It’s not flattering to watch your culture (that often has it’s roots in modesty and respect) be turned into a sex symbol. It’s insulting. Being fetishized isn’t something to be happy about. It just takes away the individuality and history of someone and narrows them and their culture down to just their race; but instead of being the subject of a hate crime, they’re the subject of some not-so-kid-friendly websites and videos.