Chinese Stereotypes

Whenever we approach the representation of other cultures, we cannot avoid a representational practice – stereotyping. In social psychology, stereotype is defined as “a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people”. For example, the representations of Chinese women in western films are usually related to Asian stereotypical characters such as “Dragon Lady” who is usually seductive, domineering and untrustworthy. This stereotype is so influential especially in the United States that Chinese females with strong characters as Wendi Deng Murdoch, or “Tiger Mother” Amy Chua, are affected by the scary and evil stereotypical image. There are not only negative stereotypes, but also positive ones. Chinese students are

The complexity does not only shock an infant when it opens its eye, but also strike an adult sometimes when something totally new and strange is presented. That is why when we hear people speaking foreign languages we don’t understand, they seem to be just babbling and gibbering to us. For ordering inchoate information from the complex world, stereotypes are necessary. One society makes sense of itself through categorizing, generalizing and patterning. In this society, individuals always pick out meanings their culture has already defined for them. The meanings they tend to perceive are usually already picked out and stereotyped by their culture. According to Richard Dyer, this ordering process of stereotypes is quite narrow because of it is “a refusal to recognize its limitations and partiality, its relativity and changeability”, as an order cannot be absolute and

However, there are some stereotypes that have large amounts of complex information and lots of connotations. That is to say, some stereotypes seem to be simplified meaning literally, but actually contain a complex social theory. For example, “Yellow Peril” stereotype literally refers to people with yellow skin, East Asians, could destroy white civilization and thus are a danger to the world. A deeper connotation of the stereotype contains a fear of the different and “unassimilable” culture, over-diligent workers and exotic but “dangerous” sexuality of Asian