Hollywood Singapore

http://www.citylab.com; August 24, 2018

Hello Everyone:

Blogger is back from a nice three-day weekend, ready to go.  Shall we start with a little news?  The Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court in contentious fashion. There were protesters but most important thing to note was the midnight release by lawyers from George W. Bush White House of Judge Kavanaugh's legal papers after the Trump adminsitration, citing executive privilege, refused to release his papers. This infuriated Democratic senators on the committee who motioned for an adjournment until they could fully review them. A fair enough request that was denied by the majority Republican members.  What would be the harm in giving committee members some time to review and better prepare questions for Judge Kavanaugh?  Obviously it was a politically motivated decision to rush through his nomination in time for possible (big possibility) impeachment hearings, should trends hold and the Democrats become the majority in Congress. Day one is done and more tomorrow. In the meantime, Singapore is having a Hollywoord moment. 

Movies have a way of shaping cities in a very romantic way. For example, the movies of Woody Allen have ruined (in a good way) the cities of Manhattan, London, Paris, and Barcelona with gorgeous art direction and cinematography. However, when it comes to non-Western cities--such as Singapore and Tokyo--the picture gets blurred. Mimi Kirk writes in her CityLab article "The Selective Singapore of 'Crazy Rich Asians,', "... when Hollywood invoked non-Western metropolises for this purpose, the portrayal can be shallow--though this may not register with register with or feel significant to Western audiences."

Sofia Coppola's witty 2003 movie Lost in Translation is story of two lonely Americans who find each other in the neon-lit jungle of Tokyo. The movie was well loved in the United States (Blogger enjoyed it as well) but--winning an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and three Golden Globes--however Asian Americans (international.ucla.edu; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018) Japanese audiences and critics were less than enamored.  Robert Marquand wrote in The Christian Science Monitor,

... the film is under attack for cultural bias, and for maximizing its humor by depicting Japanese as robotic and cartoon-like. The question is: to what degree is the film insensitive-and to what extent is this kind of "poking fun" that some ethnic groups now ignore? (csmonitor.com; Apr. 19, 2004; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018)

The critics cited the "depictions of Japanese people (short, eccentric, unable to pronounce English correctly) and urban life (alienating, hypersexualized, and either ultramodern or nostalgically traditional) discriminatory [filmquarterly; Sept. 1, 2005; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018] and insulting."

Flash forward to 2018 and the crazy successful romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians, based on the 2013 book by Singaporean-American writer Kevin Kwan. Ms. KIrk writes, "The Southeast Asian city-state's lush green spaces and modern architecture serve as an apt co-star to the equally beautiful and polished 1 percent at the center of the plot, which concerns a Chinese-American woman who travels to Singapore to meet her boyfriend's insanely rich and snobbish family for the first time."

While the presentation of the city and its residents may not be as offensive as Lost in Translation, the question is this a Hollywood version of Singapore?

Ms. KIrk shares her experience of living in the city-state between 2011-13: "...I took great pleasure in recognizing beloved spaces I frequented: acacia tree-lined highways, inexpensive open-air food and drink complexes called hawker centers [citylab.com; Dec. 6, 2011; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018], streets lined with shophouses.  But I was struck that I didn't see what I most associat with Singapore: public housing, public transportation, and a diverse ethnic and religious population."

American audiences and critics are crazy raving over Crazy Rich Asians.  What really makes it stand out from the giggly rom-com crowd is its "all-Asian cast who don't look or act like the usual Asian tropes of American cinema."  Washington Post reporter Allyson Chu, who is Chinese-American, wrote about her experience seeing the trailers,

It's an entire movie about Asians without martial arts or stereotypical nerd...a film with Asian character who are like me. (washingtonpost.com; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018)

Not all Singaporeans have enthusiastically embraced the movie, offering criticism that Ms. Kirk tends to agree with:  "Journalist Kirsten Han noted that the film's depiction of Singapore is as realistic as Gossip Girl is of America, and pointed to its lack of ethnic minorities..., 15 percent of the country's citizens are Malay and 6.6 percent are Indian.  Ms. Han wrote in Foreign Policy,

The film's producers are well-versed in American racial politics and white dominance but don't seem to have realized that, in the Singaporean context of power and privilege, Chinese Singaporean--especially the superrich ones--are the 'white people' here.  (foreignpolicy.com; Aug, 17, 2018; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018)

CNN reported (cnn.com; Aug. 22, 2018; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018) that Singaporean audiences seemed to enjoy the movie however viewer comments were mixed:

The movie did not depict our culture in all its depth,.... Not everyone is rich here, a lot of people live normal lives...

Admittedly, when it comes to all things Singaporean, Westerners are working from tabla rasa.  Mimi Kirk observes, "The city-state is sometimes confused with being part of China [quora.com; Sept. 15, 2017; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018]-a notion the film strengthens with an opening quote by Napoleon:

China is s sleeping giant.  Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.  Pro tip: Singapore is NOT part of China.

Mimi Kirk noticed that Americans (including Yours Truly) know things about Singapore: "that it has immense wealth [businessinsider.sg; Oct. 26, 2017; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018] and it has strict laws, such as high fines [Ibid; Aug. 4, 2015] for selling gum or spitting [seriously]."  Crazy Rich Asians reinforces the wealth stereotype and he depiction of its urban spaces "affirms this one-dimensional view of the city and its people."

Although one of the early scenes takes place at Ms. Kirk's beloved hawker center, the majority of the film focuses on the pretty, shiny parts of the city-state, tailored to perfection for a movie about the extremely wealthy: "the luxury casino and hotel Marina Bay Sands [marinabaysands.com; date accessed; Sept. 4, 2018], the fantastical Gardens by the Bay [gardensbythebay.com.sg; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018], the Disney-like Sentosa Island [sentosa.com.sg; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018], and the gleaming colonial Raffles Hotel [raffles.com; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018]."

The majority of Singaporeans live in public housing blocks--HBDs--unseen in the movie.  Nor do we see thriving area like Little India, where foreign workers spend their day off. Also absent is the typical why Singapireans get around.  Only about 15 percent of the population (web.archive.com; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018) can afford  a car (citylab.com; June 18, 2013; date accessed Sept 4, 2018) therefore, buses and subways are the usual way to go.

You could argue that since the film is about the Singaporean 1 percent, it makes sense to only show the elite spaces.  However, "the result is a sense of place so wealthy and ethnically Chinese it feels hermetically sealed from anything--or anyone--else."

This image matters because Asia has been "othered" by the West for centuries (amazon.com; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018), filtered through a Western sense of authority and supremacy.  Nowhere is this more acutely true than the Hollywood version of Asia (theconversation.com; Sept. 5, 2017; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018).

What excited and pleased Asian-Americans was how Crazy Rich Asians put Asians front and center of a story of success and romance, a place usually reserved for Caucasian actors. However, Mark Tseng-Putterman write in the Atlantic, "the story is one of white norms, when representation means literally swapping Asians faces onto white bodies (theatlantic.com; Aug. 23, 2018; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018)."  The Asian faces are a specific type: "ethnic Chinese, Christian, and educated in the West."  What is missing is more full picture of Singapore, "one with brown South and Southeast Asians as well as city soac d that aren't quite so deluxe and perfect."  Once again, the West reaffirms its supremacy, through this story, by speaking for the East.

Crazy Rich Asians' director John Chu responded to criticisms (theguaridan.com; Aug. 21, 2018; date accessed Sept. 4, 2018) in press conference by flatly stating that no movie can be all things to all people. He said,

We decided very early on that this is not the movie to solve all representation issues,... This is a very specific movie, we have a specific world, very specific characters.

Singaporean writer Pooja Nansi perfectly responded on the Chinese-centric website Inkstone: 

You can't have your dim sum and eat it too,.... You can't position yourself as a vehicle for representation and then wash your hands of that role when questioned about those you are eclipsing.