Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: Why an Asian superhero matters
The Marvel film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings smashed the record for Labor Day weekend openings with $75.5 million in ticket sales. The Friday-to-Sunday gross for Shang-Chi, Marvel’s first film led by an Asian superhero, ranks as one of the best debuts of the pandemic, trailing only the previous Marvel film, “Black Widow” ($80.3 million in July). Overseas, it pulled in $56.2 million for a global success of $127.6 million. The groundbreaking flick features Marvel’s first Chinese superhero and an all-Asian-led cast. When, in 2018, Black Panther hit cinemas, it grossed $1 billion worldwide and brought Marvel Studios its first ever Oscars. But its impact was about more than money and awards – with a predominantly black cast and crew, led by star Chadwick Boseman and director Ryan Coogler, it sent a message to Hollywood that there was a huge thirst for black stories that was still not being properly catered for. Now Marvel will be hoping to leave behind a similar cultural footprint with its first Asian superhero film. Directed by Asian-American filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton, the story inspired by Chinese folklore, and martial arts action sequences, Shang-Chi is the latest sign that Hollywood is listening to calls for more Asian representation on screen. Last year, Disney also released its live-action remake of its animation Mulan. Fans believe that the fact that Shang-Chi is an Asian superhero film is significant and empowering to young Asian Americans. Shang-Chi helps correct the history of unpleasant portrayals of Asian characters in Western media. One of the earliest depictions of an East Asian character in Hollywood was silent film star Mary Pickford in the 1915 film Madame Butterfly, in which she appeared in yellowface as a Japanese geisha. Madame Butterfly has long been criticized for its racial stereotypes and caricatured
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October 2021 | Entertainment
depictions of Asians. In this context, Shang-Chi’s predominantly Asian cast feels important – and especially so at a time when the FBI has reported a 70% rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in the US in 2020. In another study, it was found that New York saw a 223% spike in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in the first quarter of 2021 compared to the same period the previous year. While the violence seems to have been in part fuelled by the spread of anti-Asian misinformation related to the pandemic, some believe that, as far as longer-term causes go, the negative depiction of Asian characters on the big screen has played a role. Not being portrayed positively leads to a certain level of racism. Earlier this year, when a shooter killed eight people, including six Asian women in Atlanta, he reportedly told police he had a sex addiction and was trying to eliminate “temptation” that he thought they posed. Meanwhile, on screen East Asian women have historically been over sexualized. Research shows that despite the odd high-profile success like Crazy Rich Asians, Asian representation in Hollywood remains pretty dire. A USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report suggests that out of 1300 of the top-grossing films between 2007 and 2019, only 44 depicted an Asian or Pacific Islander lead or co-lead, and in the majority of cases that was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson Meanwhile a quarter of the Asian or Pacific Islander characters featured in these films died by the end of them. Screenwriter and creative strategist William Yu says Shang-Chi represents a turning point “where we can see these types of Asian characters who are not only heroic but also have flaws and a range of experiences that make them complex and interesting.” Furthermore, many younger children are also seeing for the first time a superhero who looks like them on screen.
