Chan Asian American Identity

Kayley Morris

Anchor 201

Professor Davis, Shiu, and McDonald

March 3, 2016

Character Analysis: How does the presentation of Chan’s character represent and comment on Asian American identity within the film?

Wayne Wang’s 1981 film Chan is Missing provides risky social commentary on the perception of Asian American identity in American society. Part of the way he did this was though our missing main character: Chan Hung, whose identity is more of a mystery than his whereabouts. The mystery/detective narrative of the plot is also a statement that further comments on the complexities of Asian American identity, and how racial expectations are forced onto its members to produce this identity. For instance, the conflicting assessments about

For example, Steve suggests that Chan is a simple man with no sense of humor who must be taught how to live in America, but Jo sees him as an intelligent man for inventing a word processing machine. Jo explains it as “Steve thinks that Chan Hung is slow with it, but sly when it comes to money. Jenny thinks that her father is honest and trustworthy. Mrs. Chan thinks her husband is a failure because he isn't rich. Amy thinks he's a hardheaded political activist. Presco thinks he's an eccentric who likes mariachi music.” (Wang, Chan is Missing) If we take it as Chan embodying all Asian Americans we can say that Asian Americans can personify many things, but also none of them. By having Chan’s identity be defined by those around him we can see the impact of assumptions and stereotyping. Taking away from this we can then see how Asian Americans in our society often get their identities defined by those around them as well. The audience never gets a real idea of whom Chan is, so in a way never gets to pigeonhole what the Asian American identity is