Marco Polo Character Analysis

2.2.2 Analysis of Chinese stereotypes

It is usually hard to avoid stereotypes in any representation of China or Chinese people in Western film. As argued in Part 1 of this thesis, stereotype is necessary in representation of the “Other” because we need ordered, fixed and simplified information for things we are not familiar with; we want to exclude things that are different to free ourselves from anxiety; it is always inequalities of power behind stereotypes.

In Marco Polo themed films, there are many Chinese characters appear when Marco Polo travelled to China. However, the character Marco Polo in both films does not see Chinese people as stereotypes. In Montaldo’s Marco Polo, Marco observes many differences among different locations and he

Nevertheless, as Louis Alvin Day argues, some stereotypes are “not entirely false”, because they are “frequently based on reality”. The stereotype of Chinese people as weak, obedient, timid or overcautious “yellow faces”, actually also reflects some personalities that many Chinese people have. The character Prince Jingim portrayed in Fusco’s Marco Polo is considered to be “weak” because of his “Chineseness”. In history, Jingim is raised by Kublai in a Chinese way by learning Confucianism and reading Chinese books. In Fusco’s film, Jingim’s appearance is more like a Chinese than a Mongol: his hair is not traditional Mongol style; he does not wear a bear as other Mongols either. He looks Chinese, or even feminine. This obvious difference of appearance of Jingim is not represented in Montaldo’s film, but his “Chineseness” can also be found from his civilized behavior, and his talks with Marco which reflect his wide arrange of knowledge about China. The influence of Chinese culture to Jingim is positive, and his “weakness” is just because of physical quality, since sickness such as epilepsy cannot be related to “Chineseness”. However, in Fusco’s film, Chinese culture is to blame for the “weakness” of Jingim. Kaidu Khan always looks down upon Jingim because he thinks that a Mongol should be trained in Mongol way to develop his manhood, should fight hard in the battle than sit down and negotiate, as he says, “A Mongol raised Mongol, bathed in the blood spilt by Genghis, steeped in his ways” but not like Chinese who are less strong. This representation of “Chinesness” is very