Yasmin

Abstract: In contrast to historical representations of women of color as victims and villains, the author argues that the portrayal of contemporary women of color as heroines can be linked to globalization, the economic power of Asian minorities, and prevailing discourses of multiculturalism. Drawing on the television series Relic Hunter, the author outlines the use of the racialized female hero as a strategic sign to appease social anxieties, resolve contradictions, and manage difference.

Key words: Eurasian women, hybridity, mixed-race women, racialized and gendered representations, Relic Hunter, women of color

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In contrast to previous historical periods, contemporary Western television programs and films have increasingly incorporated the racialized Other as heroes rather than simply as villains. The successes of Jennifer Lopez, Lucy Liu, and Jessica Alba as recent female heroines attest to the allure of the exotic Other and its ability as a viable social and cultural currency to attract particular audience segments. The changing representations of women of color in popular Western television reflect responses to the larger forces of globalization as well as the growing economic power exercised by Asian and other minorities in the United States. Furthermore, in this article, I argue that, although these representations have changed considerably, they still draw on a collective stock of sedimented knowledge that results in the construction of an Other reminiscent of standard colonialist and orientalist representations. In discussing the notion of the racialized heroine as typified in shows such as Relic Hunter, the trajectory of the female heroine continually involves hybridity, that is, the mixing of various forms of power to enhance the physical, psychological, and social prowess of these women. As a result, these hybrid heroines end up being symbolically recuperated as signs of an emancipated femininity and an assimilated ethnicity.

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The notion of "Asian" women or "women of color" as a representational category is highly problematic, beginning with the tropes inherent in colonial literature that tend to collapse differences between women to produce a homogeneous categorization of women of color. Such a categorization not only reflects a particular set of political influences but is dependent on the nature of the relationship between the dominant colonizing nation and its subject nation. In addition, the links between these earlier representations and their contemporary avatars shed light on how heroic women of color are represented in current Western television programming, particularly American and Canadian-American co-productions. Relic Hunter and its principal character, Sydney Fox, reveal the underlying ideological premises informing the changing representations of women of color. It also suggests possible reasons for these changes in representations while underscoring their continuities with previous historically inscribed representations.

Representations not only tell us about the world in which we live, they also categorize that world, giving it an order that is intelligible and makes common sense. Himani Bannerji defines media representations of Others as images that describe and prescribe social reality. Similarly, Stuart Hall underscores how media representations not only provide us with the language by which to name the world but also inform our understandings of categories such as "race" ("Narrative" 20). These representations are also used to legitimize particular policies and practices (Hall, "Narrative," Representation, "Whites of Their Eyes: Racist") to nurture a sense of national identity and, as Benjamin Anderson argues, to foster an "imagined community."

Problematizing "Asian" Women

Methodologically, it is problematic to speak of "Asian" women as a monolithic or homogeneous category, particularly given the wide differences within Asia as a continent and within the communities that are typified and categorized as "Asian." Even within these communities, the term "Asian" has different meanings in different postcolonial settings. (1) In examining visual media such as films and television programs, the category "Asian" appears to be rather nebulous and all encapsulating. Women of color appear as "Asians" when their skin tone is brown, unless their appearance is accompanied by other culturally specific signifiers that suggest a specific Native, Hispanic, or Pacific Islander identity. However, even here, their representations tend to be visually collapsed into the category of "women of color" and, within that category, Hispanic/Asian/Indian women are often represented as being interchangeable, much like "natives" were considered interchangeable in colonial discourse (JanMohamed 64). Bearing this in mind, I attempt to capture representations that spill into the category of an "Asian"/Eurasian identity.

However, critical approaches to media representations of Hispanic and mixed-race women are also relevant in analyzing these images, given that many of the traits they are seen to possess are also attributed to Asian and Eurasian women. The rationale for so doing lies in the very fact that these images are still considered interchangeable and, thus, communicate a dominant ideological perspective that resonates with the embedded and historically sedimented colonial stock of knowledge. As Edward Said argues, constructions of Others, which are framed and organized around particular worldviews and dominant discourses such as orientalism, derive their power from the citational nature of this discourse--that is, via the mechanism by which representations are constructed, articulated, and defined in reference to previous representations, sometimes in conformity with them and, at other times, in opposition. Thus, they cumulatively constitute a systematic body of knowledge about these Others (see, for instance, Yegenoglu).

Historical Representations--The Legacy

Representations of people of color (or the colonized) varied depending on the empire that was in power and the particular historical point of colonization. Undoubtedly, there were differences in French, Spanish, and British representations. Images that circulated during the heyday of the British Empire, many of which were then absorbed into the stock of knowledge that informed and underpinned American imperialism, constitute an important point of departure.

Early representations of women of color tended to portray them as exotic, erotic, and dangerous (Jiwani). Especially dangerous when they appeared solo, they were represented as treacherous distractions seducing the white hero into abandoning his civilizing "mission" and reducing him to nativity. En masse, they were often represented as passive and colorful backdrops to the daredevil exploits of the quintessential white male adventurer central to the imperialist narrative (Shohat and Stam). One has only to think of the old James Bond films or the exploits of Indiana Jones as examples of this tradition. These representations were grounded in old British colonial images in which the fecundity of native women was seen as a danger to the empire, and taboos against miscegenation were seen as necessary so that the strength of the empire (i.e., its soldiers) would not be drained through conversion to native ways or through the reproduction of a mixed race (Burney; Greenberger; McBratney). Thus, if the women were signified as dangerous, forbidden, evil, and lustful, their unsuitability as wives or mothers would be communicated. These sentiments were current both in the popular media and policy documents. For instance, Chandra Mohanty cites a memo, the "concubinage circular," disseminated by Lord Crewe in 1909 to colonial officers in Africa, which urged them not to consort with native women, as this diminished their authority and reduced their effectiveness as administrators (17).

Representations of women of color as highly sexualized, extremely fecund, and as objects of the white, male gaze were, thus, a significant trope in the dominant British colonial narrative. These representations contrasted sharply with those of the virginal or sexually repressed white female sexuality. This juxtaposition of innocent white women with the excessive and aberrant women of color helped to reinscribe the hegemonic worldview of the "civilized" superiority of the white race (see also hooks). William Schneider describes how native women were exhibited in circuses and sideshows in Europe. As well, Shohat and Stam underscore the sexualization of native women in their discussion of the anatomical obsession with Saartjie Baartman, popularly known as the "Hottentot Venus," whose body was exhibited widely and whose body parts were subsequently dissected by George Cuvier and held as examples of the animality of the "savages" (see also Abraham; Beltrane; Gilman).

Negative representations of Asians--notably the Chinese and Japanese--were also abundant in the Western popular press. For example, the New York Daily Tribune of September 29, 1854, had a column that described the Chinese as "uncivilized, unclean, filthy beyond all conception, without any of the higher domestic or social relations; lustful and sensual in their dispositions; every female is a prostitute, and of the basest order; the first words they learn are terms of obscenity or profanity, and beyond this they care to learn no more. Clannish in nature, they will not associate except with their own people ..." (qtd. in Rath, par. 11; see also Lim). These observations were made without any reference to the exclusionary laws prevailing in America at the time, which constrained Asian immigration such that women were not allowed to enter except as dependents or chattel labor (see, for instance, Abu-Laban; Backhouse; Chen). (2) Of all the various traits attributed to Asian women in columns like the one in the New York Daily Tribune, their heightened sexuality and profanity were emphasized most. This emphasis often resulted in a more intense scrutiny of the sexual behavior of Asian women, as well as a focus on them as spreading venereal diseases.

In speaking to representations of Asian women, Ronald Takaki notes that

Noting, too, how Chinese men, for their part, "were denounced as threats to white women" (Takaki, qtd. in Pieterse 25-26), it is interesting to see how South Asian men were similarly constructed as threats to white women along the West Coast of the United States. In Canada, these kinds of representations subsequently were used to rationalize laws that prohibited men of color from using white women as laborers in their business enterprises (K. Anderson; Backhouse). However, aside from their strategic uses, these representations also reflect the racial hierarchies that were (and are) present both within U.S. and Canadian societies.

The taboo against miscegenation underpinned many of these negative colonial representations. Early and even recent Hollywood films have emphasized the negative outcomes of miscegenation (Ito). The woman of color usually dies a tragic death or is transformed into a horrible hag (see, for instance, She, Ayesha). As for the white male hero, he inevitably stages a miraculous escape from the claws of the evil dragon lady. All of these dastardly "fates," as I have outlined elsewhere, reinforce the notion of Asian women, like other women of color, as exotic, erotic, and dangerous (Jiwani).

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Harold Isaacs has traced some of these early representations to the phenomenon of the "yellow peril," arguing that American (and Canadian) fears were rooted in what was seen as a growing Asian population that would soon engulf the country. Similarly, the fear of "difference" also underpins many economic and political policies of exclusion that were articulated in the colonies against Asians and other non-European immigrants (Huttenback). The way that this "difference" was framed varied according to the prevailing political sentiments of the day. As a result, representations of Asians oscillated between the image of "hordes" invading the American and Canadian landscape and images that emphasized their spirituality, mysticism, and lives of abject poverty (Buchignani and Indra).

It appears that the more sympathetic, though highly patronizing, representations were often--but not always--articulated by Western feminists whose preoccupation with their long-suffering sisters in the colonies resulted in lurid tales of the cultural backwardness of the colonized. For example, in writing about Indian women, prominent British feminist Josephine Butler defined them as caught

Although other more egalitarian sentiments were articulated by some of the lesser-known feminists, the dominant discourse of the day emphasized the barbarism of Asian cultures and the oppressed conditions of Asian women. Western feminism was often communicated as the dominant "rescue" meta-narrative (Cooke; Razack). This theme continues to inform contemporary representations of Asian women in popular Western television programming. (3)

Stuart Hall ("Whites of Their Eyes") argues that these colonial representations were characterized by a structure of ambivalence. Thus, representations of black women often cohered around the image of the kindly and maternal Aunt Jemima in contradistinction to their representations as Jezebels. Similarly, representations of the loyal house slave contrasted with representations of the field slaves as cunning and rebellious. Representations of faithful, submissive, and self-sacrificing Asian women contrasted with other representations, which highlighted them as cunning figures of the under-world. This ambivalence has enabled the continuities and ruptures to exist simultaneously in contemporary representations of Asian women in popular Western media. It has also served to strategically "deactivate" the transgressive element of their difference, thereby containing its immanent threat and facilitating its commodification as an exotic difference that can be easily consumed (Beltrane; Lalvani).

Contemporary Representations

Over the past few years, popular representations of Asian women have changed remarkably. In part, this change may be due to the economic and demographic power of the Asian population in the United States. As Tom Kagy points out, in 1993 there were more than eight million Asians living in the United States, and the average income of the Asian household was higher than the national average. Moreover, Asian representation in managerial positions, colleges, and universities has increased tremendously. The consuming power of Asians is similarly high. Kagy notes that "a survey of counter people of premium cosmetic brands like Estee Lauder, Chanel, Lancome and Christian Dior in top-flight California department stores shows that 20-65% of all sales are to Asian women" (3). As well, there is the lure of the Asian markets, especially for syndicated shows. Kagy estimated that by 2001 the Asian market would "account for 50% of all world box office revenues" (4). Added to this is the popular representation of Asian communities as "model minorities"--assimilating rapidly and acquiring economic power without insisting on cultural retention in the public sphere of politics and business.

In other words, economics may be an important driving force contributing to the change in representations. However, the positioning, ideologically and materially, of some Asian communities as model minorities in the United States may be a more critical factor. Certainly, in light of the contemporary racialized stratification order that positions Native, black, and Hispanic minorities (or majorities) on the lower rungs, the use of a model minority to maintain the stratification order becomes paramount and is predicated on a "divide and rule" strategy. As suggested earlier, another possible explanation for these changes is the influence of Asian markets outside the United States that, as Zhao and Schiller point out, cannot be ignored in light of the access afforded to them by various international trade agreements under the aegis of the World Trade Organization.

Finally, it could be argued that such changes may be the result of increasing momentum on the part of media advocacy organizations in the last decade. In the last few years alone, the intensity of media education and literacy combined with the work of organizations such as the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) have advanced the issue of media representations to a broader arena. These advocacy initiatives have relied on annual research reports published by the Screen Actors Guild, as well as on the extensive cultural indicators project of the Annenberg School of Communications. The latter reports have consistently demonstrated the under-representation and "misrepresentation" of Asian Americans in American film and television. (4) Likewise, the 1998 Screen Actors Guild report, Casting the American Scene: Fairness and Diversity in Television, emphasizes the under-representation of Asian Americans in television programming--both daytime and prime time. Based on "weeklong samples of prime-time network drama recorded from 1994 to 1997 and daytime serial drama from 1995-1997" (Gerbner), the report indicates that Asian representation (in terms of the number of television characters) increased from 0.8% in the 1982-92 period of analysis to 1.3% in the 1994-97 period. However, the Asian population also increased during this period, thus detracting from any real significant increase in television representation. (5)

For the communities concerned, as well as for media activists, this under-representation is compounded by the concentrated representation of minorities in stereotypical roles. In an open letter to Hollywood, MANAA identified a list of media stereotypes and urged Hollywood to dismantle these by offering suggested alternatives. Those findings have been echoed by other scholars and critics (e.g., Chen; Chung; Feng; Hagedorn; Lim; Marchetti; McAllister; Shu; Tajima). Common stereotypes that MANAA identified included the portrayal of Asian Americans as unassimilable immigrants and as exploitive of others. The Media Action Network also found that Asians were repeatedly cast in supporting roles in which their features, style, and comportment were communicated as being inferior, comical, or ominous. Furthermore, MANAA argued that Asian males were consistently emasculated in the media, as epitomized by their frequent portrayal as either asexual or feminine. For their part, Asian women were represented as the "China dolls/geisha girls or lotus blossoms"--as "exotic, subservient, compliant, industrious, eager to please." Recounting her experiences growing up in the Philippines and being exposed to American representations of Asian women, Jessica Hagedorn speaks to these often contradictory stereotypes when she suggests that she

These prevailing representations, in other words, are constructed as binary oppositions. Thus, the implacable China doll is contrasted with the "inherently scheming, untrustworthy, and back-stabbing" dragon lady (Media Action Network); the self-sacrificing Asians, like the faithful Gunga Dins of the Kipling era, or the man of color sidekick to the Robinson Crusoe type of white hero (Zackel), or the obedient and submissive "Asian" heroine in The Good Earth, are contrasted with the rebellious Others who undermine the moral order and suffer the fateful consequences of their actions. (7)

From Dragon Lady to Warrior Woman

From the hard-edged and sarcastic Lucy Liu in Ally McBeal to the martial arts expert Kelly Hu in Martial Law and Shanghai Noon, Asian women are increasingly visible on television screens and in Hollywood films. (8) That said, many of these Asian women are in fact Eurasian and, in some cases, are used to fill in for Native women. For instance, Kelly Hu represents an Aboriginal woman in Shanghai Noon. In the Joy Luck Club--a film ostensibly about Chinese women--Tamlyn Tomita, who is part Japanese and part Filipino, plays one of the characters.

The homogeneity that marks these representations is itself telling of how the interchangeability of Others remains a dominant feature of contemporary media discourses dealing with representations. This casual blurring of boundaries lends itself to the various combinations and permutations that are possible to tell a story--whether this is told from the perspective of the Other or from the perspective of the dominant self. What is critical, however, is how these representations are drawn from myriad cultural traditions as fodder to be recirculated and recombined in the interests of satiating the thirst for novelty and, at the same time, the need for familiarity. Thus, the figure of Mulan can be derived from a particular tradition, divested of certain particularities of that tradition, and then reinscribed with familiar characteristics to create a hybrid that is at once different and the same (for an insightful take on this phenomenon, see Lang).

Contemporary representations of Asian women reflect this interplay between sameness and difference. Often embodying a Xena warrior princess kind of style--beautiful, talented, and skilled in martial arts--their pedigree not only reaches far back but is emblematic of the syncretistic tendencies of postmodern popular culture. Amidst this pastiche of styles glued together from a variety of sources, the syncretism is further reflected in their own mixed-race heritage. Tia Carrere, for instance--the actor who plays the main character in Relic Hunter--is Filipina born in Hawaii. The positioning of Carrere (whose actual name is Althea Janairo) as Sydney Fox, "relic hunter," is quite a departure from the traditional portrayal of Asian women as powerless, submissive, and docile victims, or alternatively as exotic, evil, and scheming dragon ladies.

Relic Hunter

Relic Hunter lasted for three seasons and generated a total of sixty-six episodes. It began in September 1999 and ended in May 2002; the reruns are still being shown. Originally produced by Fireworks Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Can-West Inc. and Gaumont Television (France), the program was filmed in Toronto, Paris, Spain, and England. Subsequent seasons were produced by Fireworks Entertainment Inc. and Farrier Ltd. and distributed by Paramount Domestic. The series is reflective of a growing tendency of different countries to collaborate on co-productions--a strategic move on the part of Western telecommunication companies hoping to capture the ever-expanding non-European market (see Zhao and Schiller). In terms of genre, Relic Hunter can best be described as a comic adventure action program.

Relic Hunter deserves analysis because of both its popularity and its strategic use of an Asian woman as the main heroine/actor. Furthermore, the very notion of the Asian woman as a relic hunter merits attention because such a role has, historically, been confined to white males playing such heroes as Allen Quartermain and Indiana Jones. In a sense, placing a woman--and an "Asian" woman at that--in such a dominant position signals a reversal of roles. But it also speaks to the widespread belief (heavily promoted by the Western media) that women have achieved equality and often have even surpassed males in achieving power and dominance--especially if they are allowed to flourish in the democratically fertile soil of the liberal West.

In Relic Hunter, Sydney Fox is a swashbuckling explorer searching for the lost and time-forgotten relics of the past. Although the term "relic" has religious origins, Sydney is not a Madonna-like figure in any way. She is an extremely intelligent history professor teaching at Trinity University--an institution that resembles one of the Ivy League schools in the United States. Sydney's background information (posted on the popular Relic Hunter Web site) indicates that she is a child of an Asian mother and a white father. Her mother died when she was very young (likely as a result of miscegenation, if we are to believe old Hollywood's edicts!), and she grew up with her civil engineer father, traveling with him as he worked his way around the globe. Her origins, in other words, conform with Franklin Wong's argument that "most Hollywood Eurasians have Caucasian fathers and Asian mothers, symbolically naturalizing the western male's sexual access to the Asian female" (qtd. in Marchetti 68).

Sydney's access to the privileges of her white father is most apparent in her educational background, her familiarity with other cultural and linguistic traditions, and her hybrid beauty--symbolizing in its totality a seductive femininity traditionally associated with the East and the honor, integrity, and intelligence commonly associated with the West (see, for instance, Said). As a history professor teaching ancient civilizations, she has no problem appropriating different traditions and dances and exhibiting these to her students. As a relic hunter, she is often hired by private investigators, rich families, governments, and a host of other parties to find elusive objects. However, not all the relics she recuperates are ancient. For instance, in one episode, Sydney is hired by a collector to retrieve Elvis Presley's original guitar. Hence, she crosses the boundaries between a retriever of ancient treasures and a finder of local Americana.

In the series, Sydney is flanked by a white British male research assistant, Nigel, who is as weak as she is strong and as passive as she is assertive. Interestingly, most of the chat room discussions focus on his cuteness, and most of the Web sites focus on her sexuality. Nigel is timid about venturing into strange lands. He is the antithesis of the white male explorer, whereas Sydney is the female counterpart of this explorer. Yet, Nigel maintains his masculinity, as signified by his constantly roving eyes and his appreciation for the female secretary, as well as for any other attractive female who crosses his path. Sydney, on the other hand, maintains her focus and is relentless in her pursuit of the particular artifact she has been hired to retrieve. Many of these artifacts subsequently become the property of the university--especially if they are in the realm of public works of art--and, in turn, the university not only benefits financially from Sydney's exploits but uses this as a rationale to retain her as faculty while overlooking her numerous absences from the classroom.

Completing this unusual character triad is a blonde secretary/clerical assistant named Claudia, who is described by the show's Web site as the "ditzy" undergraduate. Her interests extend to her personal appearance and an obsession with an appropriately hunky male. The official Web site indicates her expertise as being "popular culture." She represents the present, whereas Sydney travels between the past and present. (9)

A number of interesting points about the current state of race, nationhood, and gender roles can be made with regard to Relic Hunter's cast. Sydney clearly signifies the modern, middle-class, university-educated American woman of color; Nigel represents a feminized British white male. As for Claudia, she--like Sydney--is American. However, she is white, younger than Sydney, and not all that accomplished. Thus, if the two share the privileged status of being American, Claudia signifies the youthful, self-interested, and not-so-worldly aspect of this status, whereas Sydney typifies the American Dream: the self-made woman whose professional and material success can be attributed to a combination of the innate race and class privilege imparted by her father and that certain je ne sais quoi afforded by her mother's cultural legacy. Sydney, in other words, epitomizes the liberal ideology of equality that is enshrined in the whole notion of the American Dream.

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In terms of gender roles, Nigel's positioning as the lone male in this triad allows the two women to enact the dual legitimized aspects of femininity. Sydney is always protecting Nigel, chiding him for his negligence, and supporting him through his many weaknesses. She becomes, in relation to Nigel, a mother-like figure. Claudia, on the other hand, titillates Nigel, luring him into making advances that are laughable as they belie his ability to mimic the more acceptable "macho" notions of masculinity. Yet, in an important sense, Claudia represents Nigel's female counterpart--a companion from his peer group who has the potential to be "girlfriend material." She is, thus, more like a potential girlfriend or companion. These symbolic inversions are thrown into relief when viewed against the backdrop of colonial tropes shown in Figure 1.

The relationship among these three characters can also be read as one in which Western superiority in terms of intelligence and physical prowess meets with Eastern exotica as exemplified in such qualities as beauty, agility, grace, and cunning. As suggested earlier, Sydney--the woman-of-color heroine--is positioned in the "in-between" zone of hybridity. This is a hybridity, as Young argues, that "makes difference into sameness, and sameness into difference, but in a way that makes the same no longer the same, the different no longer simply the different" (26). Hybridization, in other words, symbolizes an intervention--one designed to contain the excesses of the original sign but also to assimilate its difference in a way that is non-threatening (Minh-ha). (10) Central to this understanding of hybridity is its assumption of a first-order--a "pure race"--that is then altered or transformed (Mahtani).

Religion and science traditionally have been the patriarchal pillars that have served to influence and define women's bodies and status (Balsamo; Haraway). In both traditions, women have been defined in terms of a quintessential "lack," and the challenge has been one of rectifying this "lack" through mechanical and biological interventions. In the case of Relic Hunter, the assumed lack within women of color is rectified through hybridity--through a literal mixing of traditions and genes that, when molded through the Western educational system, end up fashioning an Other that is more like "us." Science and orientalism come together to forge the contemporary Asian woman. Unlike her black sisters, the hybridized Asian woman is able to transcend the structural barriers of racism and sexism. This resonates with the neocolonial strategy identified by Ono when he argues that the "media rely on racial hierarchicalization of people of color" (179).

For the disempowered, Sydney Fox represents the hope that there is a way out: If one tries hard enough and is disciplined enough, one can succeed. In the context of a climate of backlash against feminism and the fight for women's rights, this message reinforces the illusion of equality and suggests that any setbacks women experience can be overcome through sheer will and determination and, if all else fails, training in martial arts. In other words, there is no talk here of dismantling systemic structures. Patriarchy in the world of Relic Hunter exists only in an institutionalized form and that form, as represented here by the mythical Trinity University, is portrayed as being harmless--a benign force that can be overridden by intellectual brilliance, meritocracy, and the "foxiness" of the Fox. This latter characteristic is also reflected in the ease with which Sydney Fox traverses numerous and varied cultural terrains, simply donning the appropriate garb to "pass" and, in so doing, find her relics. In these exotic cultural landscapes, the natives are merely the colorful backdrops against which she enacts her heroism; the natives' backwardness and barbarism merely a foil to her own enlightened humanity (or, as Jhally and Lewis might put it, her own "enlightened racism").

As a "bronzed Barbie doll" or the "multinational other" (Bogle 210-11), Sydney Fox represents the quintessential assimilated Asian American woman. Many of the relics she rescues from corrupt officials and obscure places span the continuum from the exotic (a genuine article purportedly belonging to the Buddha in "Buddha's Bowl") to the patriotic (an old, authentic American map salvaged in small-town America in "Flag Day") to the trivial (Elvis's original guitar). In the latter two cases, the settings are highly localized and parochial. However, in these settings, Sydney's race is of no consequence. She can brazenly walk through a deserted Western town in her cowboy boots, easily taking on the crude beer-drinking white males with her martial arts that, though incongruous in such a setting, still get her out of a bind. Alternatively, she can single-handedly take on the natives in the jungles of a generic Asia.

Able to travel the myriad cultural landscapes, Sydney represents the American arrogance of "knowing it all," and yet, at the same time, her race and ethnicity give her the passport to be able to enter otherwise forbidden spaces with impunity and immunity. Her appropriation of artifacts from these sites is permitted under the guise of benevolent Western intrusion motivated by the higher moral goal of protecting that which the natives do not value--their own history. In such a way, she reaffirms the colonial narrative of Western superiority, but this time as its heroine.

Conclusion

The popular success of television programs such as Relic Hunter lies in their ability to resonate with a wide and global audience. In part, these resonances draw on the larger meta-narratives of the female hero as warrior or as goddess. At the same time, these contemporary representations--although framed as being "positive" as they depart from traditional iconic representations of Asian women--perpetuate many of the old imperial tropes discussed at the beginning of this article.

The market rationale for including "positive" representations is clearly a major motivating factor behind programs such as Relic Hunter, as is the growing population of Asians in America. Yet, by containing "difference" through the kinds of strategies identified throughout this article, popular media render such differences palatable for the consuming audience. The underlying message of assimilation, the lack of cultural ties and identity, and the emphasis on individual skills all play into the ideological narrative that underlies the American Dream of upward mobility. The dragon lady has been tamed. And she has been tamed by an inclusion that is itself predicated on Asians constituting a formidable economic and demographic force within America as a result of migration, intermarriage, and socialization. As heroine, she represents the resolution of Western anxieties and dreams.

An implicit message in these programs is that Asian women can have strength only if they are shaped by the prevailing dominant Western influences--whether these be of a technological nature (i.e., superiority in bio-engineering) (11) or of a value-based social nature. Difference is then contained and shaped according to the West's own needs. Thus, the Asian woman has entered the nexus of signs to become an iconic representation of the West's success story--she is the hybrid hero. As such, she lends herself easily to a kind of ideological recuperation in the dominant Western paradigm of the successful, self-made woman--a status helped along by the structural positioning of Asian communities as model minorities in the American landscape (see Palumbo-Liu). The economic success of these communities and their self-reliance (often because of exclusion and ghettoization) are features that have not only legitimized these communities but have also allowed them to be used as token examples of the veracity of the American Dream.

Generic Western values (and, by extension, generic Asians) form the backdrop of these programs, which, although produced by different countries such as Canada and France, do not reflect the specificities of these national entities. Rather, there is a homogenizing tendency at work in these representations--a tendency that is only offset by the simultaneous but limited production of cultural products specific to national cinemas and indigenous cultural industries. However, even these latter tend to internalize and reproduce dominant Western modes of thought and self-representation, thereby contributing to a global consumer culture or what Shu has termed a kind of "managed multiculturalism." In the Canadian context, for instance, the resonance of the program may lie in its packaging of cultural difference within the rubric of the state policy of multiculturalism and its interpellation of hybridity through the hyphenated identity of racialized and immigrant Canadians. As Mahtani has observed, in such a context "a vacant celebration of cultural hybridity veils gendered and racialised power dynamics" (74). In this way, the sign of the Asian--now Eurasian--woman is emptied of its historical materiality and filled with a dose of liberal sameness so as to signify not only Western liberal traditions but also to render American penetration of other markets economically viable and justifiable. And all this in the name of "the hero."

NOTES

(1.) For instance, "Asian" in Britain often refers to South Asians (from India, Pakistan, and the Indian diasporic peoples). On the other hand, in Western Canada, notably in British Columbia, the term "Asian" refers specifically to the Chinese, with other South East Asian peoples being popularly referred to as "East Indians."

(2.) In the United States and Canada, specific laws were enacted to curtail Asian immigration, for example, the Pacific Barred Zones Act (1917) in California and the Continuous Voyage Act (1908) in Canada.

(3.) For example, in a recent episode of the popular series Stargate SG-1, which is produced in Vancouver, British Columbia, the white woman officer on the Star Gate team goes out to "rescue" her alien sisters who are being oppressed by the males of their culture. This interplanetary rescue mission succeeds in communicating the superiority and "progressiveness" of Western feminism as compared to the oppressiveness of "other" cultures. These Others are visibly different in their appearance and clothing.

(4.) While the issue of "misrepresentation" relies on the argument that an accurate ontological representation exists, its import in the debate about self and Other representation lies in public policy consequences of negative representations. Furthermore, a key concern of the debate rests on the power of the dominant Others to define a community rather than empowering that community to define itself (see also Parmar for a discussion of this point).

(5.) The Screen Actors Guild's report concludes that "People of color, the vast majority of humankind, estimated to reach a majority in American by the year 2000, are 18.3% of the major network prime time cast. African Americans are 12.3% of prime time, but Latino/Hispanics, over 10% of the US population, are about 2.6% of prime time and 3.7% of daytime serials. Americans of Asian/Pacific origin, 3.4% of the US population, also suffer conspicuously by their virtual absence as 1.4% of prime time and 0.4% of daytime roles" (Gerbner 7).

(6.) Many of these roles were played by white women fitted with prosthetics and made up to look like Asians (Ito).

(7.) These portrayals have been artfully captured by Valerie Soe in All Orientals Look the Same and Picturing Oriental Girls, A (Re) Educational Videotape, and Deborah Gee's Slaying the Dragon.

(8.) Although television and film differ in terms of media formats, there is a certain amount of slippage of representations between the two. The latter is particularly evident in the reformatting of films for screening on television and in the use of VCRs, which make the viewing of films more accessible within the domestic sphere.

(9.) In later episodes, Claudia is replaced by another female character who is some-what more intelligent and who never fails to use her sexual charms to achieve her goals. This latter tactic proves especially effective in protecting Professor Sydney Fox from the newly arrived, ruthless, budget-cutting university administrator.

(10.) For a further discussion of the containment of ethnicity, see Diane Negra's discussion of Marisa Tomei.

(11.) As exemplified in the representation of Jessica Alba in The Dark Angel (see McConnell).

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YASMIN JIWANI is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Concordia University. Prior to her move to Montreal, she was the executive coordinator and principal researcher at the BC/YUKON Feminist Research, Education, Development and Action Centre (FREDA). Her interests lie in mapping the intersections of institutional, structural, and symbolic forms of violence with intimate and interpersonal forms of violence as refracted through the language of race and gender. She has recently completed a book manuscript entitled Discourses of Denial, which is under review at the University of British Columbia Press. She has also published numerous articles and book chapters. Her work ranges from a critical examination of violence against women and girls of color to representations of women of color in popular and news media.

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