Like Water by Daryl Joji Maeda

Like Water by Daryl Joji Maeda

Author:Daryl Joji Maeda [Maeda, Daryl Joji]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SOC043000 SOCIAL SCIENCE / Ethnic Studies / American / Asian American & Pacific Islander Studies
Publisher: NYU Press


“Just What He Looks Like—an Oriental”

Despite Bruce’s desire to create a fully realized, faithfully rendered Chinese American character in Hollywood, starring in The Green Hornet would not provide that opportunity. His appearance on the popular ABC television program The Milton Berle Show demonstrated the prevalence of Orientalism on mainstream television in 1966 and the impossibility of escaping it. The comedy skit that was clearly meant to introduce the new ABC network show was rife with outlandish stereotypes, supposedly Asian characters speaking broken English, and the conflation of Japan and China.48

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The writers and producers of The Green Hornet paid no more attention to ethnic authenticity than did the writers of The Milton Berle Show. Instead, they relegated Kato to a vague existence as a generic “Oriental.” Kato had begun in the radio series as a Japanese houseboy played by the Japanese American actor Tokataro Hayashi, who was credited as “Raymond Toyo,” the name a radio director gave him. As tensions in the Pacific built over Japan’s invasion of China in 1935, the radio writers transformed Kato into a more sympathetic Filipino character. In 1942, with Japan and the United States at war, a white actor took over the role after Toyo was imprisoned in an internment camp along with over 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast, two-thirds of whom were US citizens.49 Just as the Charlie Chan movies of this period starred white actors in yellowface, during and after World War II, the Green Hornet radio series featured white actors performing stereotypical accents, which might be termed “yellow voice.”

The 1960s television show treated Kato’s ethnicity with an indifference equal to the radio show of the 1940s. Writing to the character’s creator, George Trendle, Dozier commented, “I have a superb Oriental in the bullpen for Kato and will be able to show you a piece of test film on him when you come out. He is actually an American-born Chinese, but can play any sort of Oriental or Filipino. I don’t think we should ever say what sort of nationality Kato is: just let him be what he looks like—an Oriental.”50

Descriptions for casting Kato imagine him as between five feet and five feet four inches tall, weighing about a hundred pounds, and holding himself in a way described as “Erect, easy. Lean but tough.” His face appears “quiet, pleasant, definitely oriental [sic, emphasis mine]. Eyes sometimes passive, sometimes keen. Firm and intelligent looking. Clean shaven.”51 At five foot seven and 130 pounds, Lee towered over the diminutive Kato the writers had imagined, but he certainly looked the part, as doing so primarily meant looking “Oriental.”

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If playing an undifferentiated “Oriental” challenged Bruce’s attempt to portray a fully rounded character, embodying the character of Kato as sidekick to a white hero proved even more daunting. The dynamic between the Green Hornet and Kato recalls nothing more than the one-dimensional relationship between the Lone Ranger and Tonto, with the resemblance being far more intentional than accidental. In fact, George Trendle had created The Green Hornet radio series in 1936 as a successor to his earlier hit, The Lone Ranger.



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