Blog Post 2 – “Beyond Finishing the Game”

Posted on August 20, 2018 by by | 1 Comment
  1. In John Fong’s “Beyond Finishing the Game: A Look at Asian American Grassroots Outreach”, he makes the argument that grassroots marketing over traditional marketing is the most effective and main means by which Asian American media and its images are promoted, an approach that also reflects the group’s value of community. Fong also argues that it is important to support Asian American cinema in order to encourage more accurate representation, a role that the community plays a big part of.
  2. Despite the grueling dedication required, Fong points out why the grassroots approach is necessary in the first place for Asian American cinema: “There are many barriers around ideas of access, but most lie at the highest levels, the companies that are reluctant to invest dollars in releasing a film in a market that they don’t know much about (ie: Asian America)” (Fong 3). As Asian American cinema is dedicated to disproving mainstream ideas of the model minority, they do not receive support from the mainstream industry itself. As a result, filmmakers have to fund projects through available resources – the grassroots approach allows filmmakers to do so with the help of the community. As advertising is in itself a costly venture, Long points out that: “Hollywood films have marketing budgets that would eclipse the entire production budget of most indies – getting the word out is an expensive thing to do. And most Asian American films are not flush with cash reserves” (Fong 3). In addition to not getting support from studios, the responsibility and necessity of promoting Asian American media projects falls on the creators themselves. Listing all the Asian American films that found success through this kind of promotion in his article, Fong further proves the effectiveness of grassroots campaigning through the historical example of another prominent historically discriminated group: “…the African American community has long used these strategies to show off their box office strength, to great success” (Fong 5). Using the specific example of Better Luck Tomorrow, Fong talks about: “…the importance of voting with one’s wallet at the box office to support Asian American cinema” (Fong 7). Grassroots outreach highlights a value of the Asian American community of coming together under the banner of a shared identity, solidified through collective efforts to support films representing those experiences.
  3. In Long’s article, a grassroots campaign is described as a “labor-intensive approach”, done: “Via emails from film directors asking for support, campus visits, connections with community-based organizations, opening night parties, entire screenings bought out by employee groups, street teams, major on-line/social networking pushes and appearances by cast and crew” (Fong 4). Another way grassroots campaigning can be defined is as nontraditional means of reaching out to communities for support, whether by word-of-mouth or by being self-funded endeavors to attract audience members. Support can come from individuals as well as other organizations that support the vision and mission of the Asian American cinema. The more personal nature of grassroots campaigning emphasizes and depends on the contribution of community and teamwork.
  4. As a prominent film industry, Hollywood’s reluctance to support Asian American films reflects the larger cultural problem of how mainstream ideas and stereotypes are reluctant to change such ideas. This is exemplified by how popular films advertised with big marketing, especially TV trailers, follow linear, predictable cliché -filled plots that appeal to audiences because of their familiarity and the associated enjoyment with that familiarity. Despite claiming unique stories and bearing individual titles, many of Hollywood’s films are predictable stereotypes in of themselves (e.g. the rom-com genre, the teen horror movie) that make money off the repeated and recycled use of tropes and stereotypes, further propagating those stereotypes within the public at the expense of the depicted groups but for the industry’s gain.
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