The Complex History of Asian Representation at the Oscars亚裔登顶奥斯卡的艰难历程

After Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh swept the Best Actress Awards at the 94th National Board of Review Awards and Golden Globes for her outstanding performance in absurdist1 comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once， she made history again with her Best Actress win at the Oscars 2023.

马来西亚女演员杨紫琼凭借其在荒诞喜剧电影《瞬息全宇宙》中的精湛演技横扫第94届美国国家评论协会奖和金球奖最佳女主角后再次创造历史，一举夺得2023年奥斯卡最佳女主角奖。

The first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress was Merle Oberon in 1936， for The Dark Angel. The Mumbai-born actor， who was of mixed race and did not promote her Asian heritage， played white women in her film roles. More than eight decades later， in her speech accepting the Screen Actors Guild Award on Feb. 26， Yeoh said， “This is not just for me， this is for every little girl that looks like me.”

首位获此提名的亚裔女性是出生于印度孟买的混血女演员梅尔·奥勃朗，她凭借出演《黑色天使》提名1936年最佳女主角。但她在电影中多扮演白人女性角色，并未宣扬自己的亚洲血统。80多年后，在2023年2月26日美国演员工会奖的获奖致辞中，杨紫琼说道：“这份荣誉不仅仅是为我一个人，它将鼓励每一位亚裔小女孩。”

Here’s what to know about the history of actors of Asian descent at the Oscars.

下面讲一讲亚裔演员与奥斯卡金像奖的历史渊源。

From passing to “yellowface”

从亚裔隐瞒身份到白人化黄脸妆

In The Dark Angel， Oberon played a white woman in the middle of a love triangle with her two childhood friends who are World War I soldiers. In a line from a 1935 Picture Play profile that now reads as particularly revealing， she said， “It’s easier for me to be something which I am not than it is to act myself.” While her performance received rave reviews2， the Oscar that year ultimately went to Bette Davis for Dangerous.

在《黑色天使》中，奥勃朗饰演的白人女性和她的两个童年好友（同为一战士兵）陷入了三角恋中。她在1935年《美国电影周刊》的人物专栏中提到：“对我而言，扮演与我本人截然不同的角色比本色出演更加容易。”如今读来，引人深思。虽然奥勃朗的表演广受好评，但当年的奥斯卡最终由出演《女人女人》的贝蒂·戴维斯收入囊中。

“She was passing，” Monica Sandler， a historian of Hollywood at the University of California， Los Angeles， says of Oberon’s career playing non-Asian roles. “She’s an example of someone who was hiding her identity， was able to get parts in the industry specifically because she was hiding her identity…If she had been openly Asian at that time， she would not have been able to have any leading roles.” The love triangle in The Dark Angel， she argues， would have been particularly scandalous3 had Oberon’s character been Asian because “you could not have a romantic relationship between two people of two different races in movies during that period of time.”

“她让人相信自己是白人。”加州大学洛杉矶分校的好莱坞历史学家莫妮卡·桑德勒如此评价奥勃朗饰演非亚裔角色的演艺生涯，“她的例子恰恰说明，在当时的电影行业，亚裔只能掩藏起自己的身份才能得到角色。如果她当时公开宣扬自己的亚裔身份，根本不会有担任主演的机会。”她认为，如果奥勃朗的角色是亚裔，《黑色天使》中的畸恋将显得尤为不堪，因为“在那个年代，你不可能看到电影里出现两个不同种族的角色谈情说爱。”

Hollywood did， however， reward white actors who played Asian characters onscreen—a practice of using makeup to change one’s appearance known as “yellowface.” One famous example from this period is German actor Luise Rainer winning Best Actress for The Good Earth， the 1937 film adaptation of the Pearl Buck4 classic. As Sandler sums up this milestone， the Oscars had “never rewarded an Asian person but they did reward a person for playing Asian.”

不过，好莱坞的确曾颁奖给在银幕上扮演亚裔角色的白人演员——这种通过化妆改变外貌的做法被称为“白人黄脸妆”。其中，为人熟知的例子是德国演员路易丝·赖纳，她凭借出演1937年上映、改编自赛珍珠经典作品的电影《大地》获得奥斯卡最佳女主角奖。正如桑德勒对这座“里程碑”奖项的总结， 奥斯卡奖“从未颁给过亚裔演员，但确实颁给过出演亚裔角色的演员”。

Buck’s novel has generated criticism over the years. The Asian characters in the book have been criticized for being oversimplified and portrayed as “victims” who “need a Western outsider to come and save them.” That was a widely shared view among white Americans.

赛珍珠的小说一直受到批评。有批评认为书中的亚裔角色过于简单化，而且被塑造成了“需要西方外来者拯救”的“受害者”。这一观点在美国白人群体中受到广泛认可。

Limited roles and gradually improving representation

从角色受限到出演机会渐增

When Asian women did get cast in Hollywood movies， the options were scant5 and often stereotypical6. An Asian woman did play a part in The Good Earth， but as a mistress to the lead actor Paul Muni， whom he leaves when he decides to stay with his wife. Sandler also singles out7 Anna May Wong8， the most prominent Chinese American actress of her era， who was mostly offered roles as secondary characters who were “villainous9” or “sex objects.” In fact， Wong was supposed to play the leading female role in The Good Earth but lost the part to Rainer.

当亚裔女性在好莱坞电影中获得出演机会时，可选的角色类型很少且多为刻板印象。《大地》中确实有一位亚裔女性参演，但演的是男主角保罗·穆尼的情人，当男主决定回归家庭，便将其抛弃。桑德勒特别提到了黄柳霜。这位在当时风头无二的美籍华人女演员往往也只能饰演配角，要么是“反派”，要么是“性感尤物”。其实，《大地》的女主角本该由她扮演，但最终给了赖纳。

Fast-forward to the late 1990s， and Yeoh was a star in Asia， starring in Hong Kong action films， but facing limited options in Hollywood films. Despite gaining traction10 as a Chinese secret agent who jumps off a skyscraper in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997， she turned down Hollywood film parts repeatedly for the next three years because she refused to play any roles that perpetuated11 stereotypes about Asian women. Even after she starred in the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon （2000）， it was not until 2022 with the release of Everything Everywhere All at Once that Yeoh experienced widespread recognition of her talents by the Hollywood mainstream.