By Randall Park
Believe it or not, there was a time when I had difficulty in the dating world. Yes, even I, Randall Park, actor of stage and screen, had bad luck with the ladies. I call this period of my life “The Dark Ages,” and it spanned from when I hit puberty (around 19 years old) to just before I got married (in 2009.) During this time, I was no stranger to phrases like: “Sorry, you’re not my type” (Sally Lawrence, 1992); “I don’t go for guys like you” (Michelle Chan, 1999); “I see you more as a friend” (Isabel Sanchez, 2002); or “Seriously, dude, I’m a lesbian” (Sally Lawrence, again, 2005).
Yes, I was no stranger to heartache. And I had only one person to blame: Gedde Watanabe.
Watanabe was the actor who played Long Duk Dong in the seminal teen film of my generation, Sixteen Candles. He was a bumbling foreign exchange student, butcher of the English language, an emasculated, horny, Oriental Sambo whose every scene was accompanied by the sound of a gong. Seriously.
Sixteen Candles was every girl’s favorite movie, and Long Duk Dong was seared into the nation’s consciousness as one of the few representatives of Asian men in popular American culture. He was the ultimate cock block. The image from the movie of him hanging upside down in that bunk bed (“What’s a-happenin’, hot stuff?”) rested center on my dartboard. I hated Gedde Watanabe.
And then I became an actor.
Yes, it’s tough out there. Very few roles are written for minorities that do not flirt with some sort of stereotype.
I’ve played doctors, computer technicians and liquor store proprietors. But the worst came in 2004. I was a broke, struggling actor just starting my career. As luck would have it, I got cast as a series regular in a major television network sitcom pilot. My character was a flamboyantly gay neighbor who also happened to be the comedic nemesis to the white leads.
The role was an emasculated cliché, arguably offensive to Asian men. Many in the gay community may have found it stereotypical, too. I was torn. But after convincing myself that it wasn’t as bad as it seemed (he didn’t have an accent!), I took the job. Luckily for me, it never got picked up to series. I could have very well become my generation’s Gedde Watanabe.
With that being said, I sort of have a newfound respect for the guy. Being an actor ain’t easy. Being an ethnic actor is even tougher. But being an Asian American actor in 1984 must’ve been like bobbing in a barrel of rotten, racist apples. Maybe Gedde was broke and desperately needed the money for his mother’s kidney operation. Or maybe he saw it as a stepping stone to more dignified roles, like an Asian Super Fly or something.
Or maybe, worst-case scenario, he simply sold out. Does that mean he should catch more heat than writer-director John Hughes? Or Universal Pictures? Or those white kids that called you “Donger” throughout high school?
If only I had this understanding earlier. Maybe I wouldn’t have blamed Gedde for my misfortunes with the ladies. Maybe I would’ve blamed more relevant things like my bad hygiene or my bad personality or my insistence that Sally Lawrence could be “turned around.”
We still have a lot of ground to break, but things have shifted slightly since 1984. Today, we have actors like John Cho, Daniel Dae Kim and Randall Park. (Yes, I consider myself one of the sexy ones.) And now, with modern technology at our disposal, we have even more power to control our images than ever. Do like those Wong Fu kids, and let’s make our own movies. Put them up on the net for the world to see. Stop hating on Gedde Watanabe, Ken Jeong, Randall Park (yes, I consider myself one of the funny ones) and anybody else whose struggle you probably don’t fully understand. Because only together will we ever get out of “The Dark Ages.”
Randall Park lives in Mar Vista, California. He is currently listening to anything by Jay Electronica.
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FU! Long Duk Dong (Gedde Watanabe)
FU! Long Duk Dong 2.0 (Ken Jeong)
I feel like washing white people’s underwear now…
It’s May 30, 2011 and the Hangover 2 has just debuted with Ken Jeong AKA Gedde Watanabe of our day. No excuses, no excuses from AA male actors especially.
Nostalgic white people like Gedde’s old character, reminds them of their 80′s youth and I know white people love Ken Jeong’s stupid character as well as the Thai ladyboy w/ the small penis and the plain old white guy character marrying the younger hot Asian woman. Three stereotypes in one movie: Gay Asian gangster, ladyboy, plain old white guy marrying young hot Asian women.
I’m pretty sure Gedde Watanabe is gay so honestly I think that effeminate stuff came naturally to him. Ken Jeong’s gay gangster character w/ the small penis is so much a part of his identity now that I think he likes to play up that flamboyant Hangover character to an annoying degree, at least from his two appearances I saw on the Tonight Show. Oh and the Hangover 2 is on track to have the most successful 4 day Memorial Day gross in history. Glad to hear that everyone in America will see that sh*t. On the plus side I think older more responsible white people will be disgusted by the stereotypes but on the down side younger internet raised people who have no morals or taste will eat that sh*t up like crappy Transformer movies and Asian porn.
Asian Brothers, I said this over 10 years ago, please don’t support any Asian American anything or any AA movies from any AA movie festival that is overtly or covertly hostile to Asian guys. Please keep your money and spend it on a worthy cause. It’s not as if we’re boycotting great art.
i heart randall park.
@jon, I hear ya bro. But it’s a 2-way street. These Asian males aren’t under duress to star in negative, type-casts of Asian males. So when these Asian males stop selling out by turning down these roles, then that’ll be the start of things.
It’s funny and ironic, i was at a Korean restaurant a few days ago, watching the TV while waiting for my food to come out. It was a Korean TV channel on, and the credit card commercial had this “George Clooney” looking whiteboy (oops my bad, middle-aged white man) who’s having a good time in a Vegas casino while his trophy g/f is some hot Asian chick who’s “enamored” by him while dangling from his arm as he stoically looks on. It’s Asian girls’ faults too in a way. They buy into the hype of white guys being the male symbol of aesthetics. I can delve and digress into this deeper of how Koreans and some other Asian groups aspire to gain white physical features via plastic surgery…but I won’t.
I notice a lot of Asian guys are uptight in general; throughout my high school/college years I noticed this. The American-born and some FOB Asian girls are turned off by this, hence them becoming whitewashed and only dating white guys. I unfortunately had this problem, but am a lot better about it than before. My white male friends told me that I didn’t smile enough and was too uptight. They told me I acted like a stuck up girl. I did some soul searching and it took me several years to change this. And sadly when i look back, during my early to mid 20s, I realize my white male friends were right and to exacerbate it, when we went out, the Asian girls would ignore me and go for them. It took a lot of heartache, self-discovery, and so forth for me to change my character in regard to this.
The popular media can only perpetuate the negative stereotypes of Asian males to a degree. But it all starts with how Asian guys carry themselves in real life.
I’m $#!^&* sick and tired of Hollywood always making Asian-American guys to be the pawn and whipping boys of movies and T.V. IT’S 2010, PEOPLE!!!! Come on, Hollywood!!!! Just ONCE I’d like to see an Asian-American guy on either the big or small screen to A) Fall for the woman. B) Woman fall for him. C) Kiss the Woman. D) Make love to the Woman. E) Marry or have a happy ending with the woman. Really, is all of that to much to ask? When African-American and Caucasian-American guys get that all the time? Oh, and the Asian-American guy CANNOT have an accent. Talks just like a regular American. And, deal with Asian-American issues – not play on their stereotypes like Hollywood does. Just ONCE I’d like to see the average Asian-American guy get with say . . . . . Eliza Dushku. Angelina Jolie. Katherine Heigle. Charlize Theron. Millia Jovavich. Cameron Diaz. Drew Barrymore. Julia Roberts. Michelle Rodriguez. Jessica Biel. Katie Holmes. Jessica Simpson. Halle Berry. Or some other A-lister A-class female celebrity. I just want to see that happen before I start growing gray hair! Come on, Hollywood, grow up already!!! Give us Asian-American guys what we are looking for and leave the Long Duk Dong-stereotype in the past!
Thanks for writing this, I enjoyed reading it.
I am Asian-American, and for me as well, Long Duk Dong is a character who will long live in infamy for many an Asian-American male, especially those who were coming of age at the time of Sixteen Candles (and for many years after, as you attest to).
Even now, Asian-American men are hurt by a prevailing view of them as unsexy. They still play very stereotypical roles — often the gay sidekick to the white character, or the evil Asian gangster, or the emasculated nerd, or the stoic, Buddhist martial arts guy who doesn’t have sex, not even with himself!
The more us Asian-American men get the word out about what Hollywood and other entertainment media do to the image of us as a social group, the better.
Despite each and every one of us being Buddhist martial arts experts trained in the deadly arts, we do have feelings.
R. This is a great piece. I am happy that you’ve decided to branch out and share your thoughts with us ( your audience). Ever since I saw a short film you did, “Dragon of Love” , I have been a fan of your work. Although I am not Asian American I appreciate the the diverse perspective/presence you bring to various media projects. Your a great actor and I wish you continued success! And yes …You ARE one of the sexy ones. Those girls lost out.