The Wedding Banquet Film Analysis

Ang Lee attempts to challenges racial stereotyping and heteronormativity present in Hollywood by adding a racial and homosexual twist to the screwball comedy genre in The Wedding Banquet. The Wedding Banquet is a 1993 film about an interracial, homosexual American couple, Wai Tung and Simon. Due to the patriarchal nature of Taiwanese culture, Wai Tung cannot reveal his sexual orientation or his relationship with Simon to his parents and therefore is incessantly pestered by his parents in Taiwan to get married and have children to carry on the family name. In order to make Wai Tung’s parents happy, Wai Tung and Simon attempt to trick them by having Wai Tung marry Wei Wei, a Chinese tenant of Wai Tung’s. This backfires when the parents come to America to meet the bride and consequently leads to an extravagant

Not only was it rare for an Asian to be the main protagonist, or even just a character of significance, in an America film, but also Asians were usually depicted according to Hollywood stereotypes where Asian males were emasculate, while Asian females were either exotic objects of sexual desire or the fabled overbearing tiger mom. Wai Tung and Wei Wei defy these stereotypes. Having fully assimilated into American culture, Wai Tung speaks immaculate English and looks fully comfortable in a western business suit. He is also shown working out at gym in various scenes throughout the movie. Despite his traditional Taiwanese upbringing, Wai Tung’s physique and mindset is more like that of a white American male. In fact, in his relationship with Simon, a white American male, Wai Tung is the more masculine of the two; Simon is the one who cooks their meals and provides emotional support when Wai Tung is stressed. This completely disrupts the typical racial power structure in an American film where Asians are inferior to