1. Sarah Moon Cassinelli in her article, ” “If we are Asian, then are we funny?”: Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl as the First (and Last?) Asian American Sitcom,” discusses Margaret Cho’s experience in her show “All American Girl”, while also arguing how the first sitcom featuring an all Asian family failed because it was unable to correctly portray the “true” or “real” life of an Asian family.
2. Cassinelli first explains the importance of the show and how this show could have been a milestone for many minorities as it was an advancement for them in television, however instead of focusing on comedy it “focused on the ideas they had regarding ethnic authenticity,” which unfortunately led to show being canceled (131). She goes on to explain how the show focused too much on Asian qualities can gives several examples. The first example she gives is how the show was meant to be and what end up being the result. The sitcom was going for a family that shows two different generations and cultures, an “original” Asian culture, and the new Asian American culture. The hard part came was how to show the “real” Asian American culture. The producers ended up focusing too much on “a rendition of an Asian American family that meets stereotypical expectation” and ended up having “a one-dimensional portrayal of characters” (132). Even Margaret Cho argues how this ended up not showing the true diversity that Asian Americans are. Another example is in the title itself. A show about an all Asian family and leading Asian female role led critics and the audience assume that it is mocking it’s Asian viewers by the “implication of the title is not worthy enough to be included” (135).
3. A key term discussed by Cassinelli is the model minority. She defines model minority as “characterized by obedience, self-control, individualism, and “loyalty to the needs of the nuclear family”” (140). In “All-American Girl” the one who portrayed the model minority was the brother of Margaret Kim, Stuart. While Margaret was the “rebellious, American Persona,” Stuart was the “inverse” of her (139). This contrast can be seen in the first episode Cassinelli describes, where Margaret is arguing how everyone in the family is American, and emphasizing how “EVEN Stuart is American” (139).
4. Most of what Cassinelli is talking about has been seen through many other other forms of media. Many stereotypes have been portrayed through the course of time. Examples can be the very famous Charlie Chan and Fu Manchu’s in cinema. One film that reminds of this sitcom is “Flower Drum Song”. Wang Ta can be portrayed as the Margaret of the film, and as well as other characters in the show. Either way, it was not an uncommon thing, the unfortunate part of this show as how recent it was, and how much of step it could have taken if show was successful.
One response to “Blog Post 3: Cassinelli”