Spartan Daily - Serving San Jose State University since 1934

Issue date: 4/27/04 Section: Opinion>>Columnists

JANET PAK [Click to enlarge]

From the moment he uttered those gracious words after his awful "American Idol" audition, William Hung has been an overnight sensation.

After Simon Cowell asked Hung what he wanted the sharp-tongued judge to say, Hung simply replied, "I already gave my best, and I have no regrets at all."

The 20-something electrical engineering major at UC Berkeley has garned himself fame on national television, a recording contract and music video, and much more. That's just the beginning. Girls are worshipping him, and companies are flocking to him.

Frankly, I find Hung to be embarrassing and perpetuating Asian American stereotypes.

Hung reinforces the generalizations of Asian American males as geeky, awkward and atypical.

It's hard for people to miss making fun of him - he's the classic Asian American stereotype. During his "American Idol" audition, he wore a blue print shirt with a pocket protector and mismatched pants. He was the perfect guinea pig to pick on. Hung was the classic Asian American nerd, and everyone was going to capitalize on it.

The Asian Americans I see are completely unlike the image Hung portrays them as.

We're not the cookie-cutter model minority who studies engineering, math or science. Rather, we're just like everyone else - we make mistakes, can be violent and fail horribly at difficult subjects.

We can also sing, dance and act quite well.

Take a look at Michelle Branch, Kristin Kreuk and Ang Lee. Their successes prove Asians aren't simply the nerds or the engineers. We can excel in areas such as the arts.

Why can't society concentrate on the positive images of Asian Americans? Why must everyone get such a kick out of the negative, dumb or silly images of us in the media?

Society should recognize and give due credit to the real, talented Asian Americans, not Hung. Aside from Asians in music or television, what about the authors and the community activists who relentlessly push for equality and rights?

It's bad enough that there's a stereotype that Asian males embody a Bruce Lee-like image or the Chinaman.

In the 1850s, many shows included at least one yellowface act, and the Chinaman character gave reasons for why Chinese people shouldn't have rights or be granted citizenship.

Asian Americans were portrayed as poor and mocked for their awful eating habits. These stereotypes are absurd and only perpetuate unwarranted beliefs.

Emil Guillermo, an SFGate.com columnist, said, "The glorification of bad is a nice twist ... And now I'm wondering why America is extending the joke. Is there more than just the glorification of bad, something driven by racism?"

Hung makes himself look more ridiculous than Jaleel White did when he played the nerd Steve Urkel on television.

"I'm trying to portray myself as different from those stereotypes ... I try to learn from criticism as well, without letting the criticism get me down," Hung said in a San Jose Mercury News article. "I'm not so distant that I don't learn from other people's ideas or criticism."

Darrell Hamamoto, a UC Davis Asian American Studies professor, said in a Mercury News column, "He's a joke ... he feeds into it."

Hamamoto said Hung is a Chinese cartoon character created by the media.

Where are the strong Asian American male role models in media? They are nearly nonexistent.

Take a look at the actors in the 2002 film "Better Luck Tomorrow," a movie based loosely around four Asian Americans living in the suburbs of Orange County who engage in stealing and other nontypical activities. The movie went against the notion that Asians can't excel beyond the classroom.

One of the characters in the movie, Ben, is the perfect Asian American - he's smart, a perfectionist who wants nothing more than to succeed at an Ivy League school. He and his friends, however, start to experiment in crime, sex and drugs, which leads to a disturbing and unnerving ending nontypical of Asian Americans.

While they aren't role models, at least these characters are much more realistic than what we normally see portrayed.

Hung meanwhile is only further allowing companies and media to exploit the Asian American stereotypes he reinforces. The compact disc by Hung makes my ears ache from all the horrible melodies heard on the disc.

Watching Hung continue to make a fool out of himself dancing with hot girls makes me cringe. When will his 15 minutes of fame end? I'm hoping it's soon.

Janet Pak is the Spartan Daily lifestyles editor.

"Anything but Ordinary" appears every other Tuesday.

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