Asian Americans are one of the largest racial groups in the United States. Census Bureau report, during 2000 to 2010, the Asian-American community grew by 9.7 percent. However, although Asians have immigrated to the United States for almost 200 years, Asian actors are still rare in American films. In the light of the survey done by University of Southern California, only 4.1 percent of Asian actors have been shown on the silver screen within the 600 popular films between 2007 and 2013. Comparing to Asians, White actors have 74.1 percent. Hence, Asian actors have fewer opportunities to counteract stereotypes of their racial groups. Besides, some stereotypes of Asians in the American films are racially discriminated. Therefore, Dragon Ladies and Kung Fu fighters, the most stereotypical way Asians, would be introduced in this essay. .
"Dragon Lady," one of the stereotypes of Asian women, defines Asian females as strong and mysterious. Sometimes, it also includes licentiousness in the definition. Since the early years of Hollywood, Asian American females have been playing the dragon lady roles. The first dragon lady was Anna May Wong. She was a Chinese American actress who had played this role since 1920. Another contemporary actress, Lucy Liu, has played various roles of dragon ladies in many well-known movies, such as Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels. In the films, the characteristics of Asian women are always tough, brutal, and licentious. In Kill Bill, Lucy Liu acts as O-ren Ishii, a half Japanese and half Chinese American woman. She is psychologically scarred by the fact that her parents are killed when she was a child. Still, she strikes hard, and becomes a professional assassin later. In a scene, she decapitates her subordinate who talks about her race. She states, "the price you pay for bringing up either Chinese or American heritage as a negative is, I will collect your head.
