I got a joke email forward a while ago with the title “Everything I Know I Learned From Watching Porn.” Most of the items were pretty obvious, like “All women wear high heels to bed” and “10 seconds of cunnilingus is more than enough”. But the one that really got me thinking was the truism “All Asians are female”. So true — and It’s not just Silicone Valley that ignores the idea of Asian men as sex symbols or romantic leads. Hollywood’s got the same bias. Why the reluctance? Is there any role taken by James McAvoy that Takeshi Kaneshiro couldn’t handle?
Isn’t Tony Leung just as dashing a strong, silent type as Clive Owen?
It’s like the studios give one Asian man a shot at romantic lead-dom every 20 to 30 years, and when it doesn’t pan out they’re relegated to the usual stereotypes of kung fu masters or bucktoothed buffoons. Here’s a tour of the past century of Asian actors missing (or half-missing) their shot at leading man stardom.......