Many Feel Cultural Insult From ‘The Lost Empire’

Kudos to Jeff Park for his apt criticism of “The Lost Empire’s” awkward insertion of a white, male romantic lead into an old Chinese legend (“Casting of Romantic Male Roles Shows Lack of Cultural Respect,” March 19). I agree with all the points that Park raises. However, I’m concerned that some readers will come away from his article asking, “What’s wrong with interracial love stories between white men and Asian women?”

The problem is that Hollywood regularly pairs white men with Asian women, while hardly ever coupling Asian men with women of any race.

With the fall of the states’ various anti-miscegenation laws in the middle of the last century, Hollywood began featuring Asian women as “exotic” romantic objects for white men. Early examples include “Sayonara” (1957) and “The World of Suzie Wong” (1960), and the practice continues to this day in such works as “Come See the Paradise” (1990) and TV’s “Ally McBeal.”

But although there have been a handful of exceptions, Hollywood consistently avoids portraying Asian men as romantic leads worthy of emulation. Even in the woefully misnamed “Romeo Must Die” (2000), Jet Li’s Romeo never gets to kiss his Juliet.

If Hollywood really wants to win the respect (and the entertainment dollars) of the Asian American community, it will need to make room for more Asian lead roles--not forcibly injecting out-of-place white leads into Asian stories--and feature more Asian men as positive romantic main characters.

ROBERT PAYNE

Studio City

*

Jeff Park is absolutely correct. In fact, I wondered while watching “The Lost Empire” why a white man had the lead and not an Asian. As a Caucasian, I felt the inclusion of a white male lead destroyed the story. Granted, Thomas Gibson is one good-looking man, and maybe that is the root of this miscasting: sexual appeal. But ask yourself these questions: Are women only attracted to white male heroes? And are heroes only white males?

How dumb do they think we are? Is that the only way they thought they could get us to watch this story? Good grief.

DIANA BROWN

Fullerton

*

“Journey to the West” is one of the four classic novels in Chinese literature. Seeing it come to life, sort of, as “The Lost Empire” on American TV was a surprise--a nice surprise. But the plot thickened and ended up with Kwan Ying giving up her duties as a god and becoming a mortal to be with the American scholar.

Blasphemous, I thought. Kwan Ying is a Buddhist god, which means Kwan Ying is neither male nor female. Kwan Ying is the god of kindness. In the Buddhist scripts, Kwan Ying has appeared to humans mostly in the female form. Most statues of Kwan Ying are in the female form. That’s probably how the screenwriter got the idea of Kwan Ying being female. But any true Buddhist would tell you that the Buddhist gods are neither male nor female.

And a Buddhist god fell in love? The ultimate state achieved by all Buddhist gods is one in which human emotions and desires are nonexistent. And if Kwan Ying became a mortal, the foundation that Buddhism has developed on would be shattered. All the temples where Kwan Ying is worshiped would tumble. The god of kindness would cease to exist.

I wonder what the public sentiments would be if a film was made about Jesus falling in love with a Chinese woman and giving up his duties as the savior to be with this woman.

JULIE HSU

Fountain Valley

*

It was certainly a cultural insult to Asians to inject a white, male romantic lead into an ancient and much-loved Chinese myth, but to cast him as the love interest of the Goddess of Mercy was the ultimate offense. Producer Robert Halmi and screenwriter David Henry Hwang are making fun of someone’s deity.

Anything to make a buck, I guess.

BETSY FAN

Rancho Palos Verdes