Race/Related: Seeing Asian languages onscreen

Across many films and series about Asians and Asian Americans, language is increasingly used as a world-building tool. [View in browser](~/AAAAAQA~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)|[nytimes.com](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SyaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vP2NhbXBhaWduX2lkPTM3JmVtYz1lZGl0X3JyXzIwMjQwNTI0Jmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTEyNDM0MCZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZyZWdpX2lkPTc3Njc0OTUyJnNlZ21lbnRfaWQ9MTY3Njc3JnRlPTEmdXNlcl9pZD1hYTQ5MWVmN2YxZDk2NGU0OTc5ZmI3ODRlNzRlMDFkN1cDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~) [Ad](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SmaHR0cHM6Ly9saXZlaW50ZW50Lm5ld3lvcmt0aW1lc2luZm8uY29tL2NsaWNrP3M9MjA3NTgwJmxpPVJSJm09YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDcmcD1SUl8yMDI0MDUyNCZzdHBlPWRlZmF1bHQmdGU9MSZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNFcDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~) [Race/Related](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0TAaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vc3BvdGxpZ2h0L3JhY2U_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9MzcmZW1jPWVkaXRfcnJfMjAyNDA1MjQmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MTI0MzQwJm5sPXJhY2UlMkZyZWxhdGVkJnJlZ2lfaWQ9Nzc2NzQ5NTImc2VnbWVudF9pZD0xNjc2NzcmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPWFhNDkxZWY3ZjFkOTY0ZTQ5NzlmYjc4NGU3NGUwMWQ3VwNueXRCCmZFYYFQZhWTLnRSG3RyaXN0cmFtYmFsZHdpbjkwQGdtYWlsLmNvbVgEAAAAAw~~) May 24, 2024 [Ad](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SnaHR0cHM6Ly9saXZlaW50ZW50Lm5ld3lvcmt0aW1lc2luZm8uY29tL2NsaWNrP3M9MTA4MDc1NCZsaT1SUiZtPWFhNDkxZWY3ZjFkOTY0ZTQ5NzlmYjc4NGU3NGUwMWQ3JnA9UlJfMjAyNDA1MjQmc3RwZT1kZWZhdWx0JnRlPTEmbmw9cmFjZSUyRnJlbGF0ZWQmZW1jPWVkaXRfcnJfMjAyNDA1MjRXA255dEIKZkVhgVBmFZMudFIbdHJpc3RyYW1iYWxkd2luOTBAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAD) A24; Allyson Riggs/A24; Hopper Stone/HBO; David Bornfriend/A24 Narratives told through Asian languages By Brandon Yu American audiences used to balk at subtitles. But recent hits like “Shogun” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” show how much that has changed. In mainstream Hollywood today, not only are Asian and Asian American narratives more prominent than ever, but they are also being told in increasingly dynamic ways through the artful use of Asian languages. A scene from the FX show “Shogun.” Katie Yu/FX, via Associated Press Take, for instance, the following scene from the recent HBO mini-series “The Sympathizer,” which airs its final episode on May 26. In the series, Robert Downey Jr. plays an auteur director making a movie called “The Hamlet,” set during the Vietnam War. In this scene, American soldiers confront a Vietnamese villager. Except something isn’t quite right: She is speaking Cantonese. In the lineage of the [Hollywood Vietnam War movie](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0ToaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyNC8wNS8wNi9hcnRzL3RlbGV2aXNpb24vdGhlLXN5bXBhdGhpemVyLXNhdGlyZS5odG1sP2NhbXBhaWduX2lkPTM3JmVtYz1lZGl0X3JyXzIwMjQwNTI0Jmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTEyNDM0MCZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZyZWdpX2lkPTc3Njc0OTUyJnNlZ21lbnRfaWQ9MTY3Njc3JnRlPTEmdXNlcl9pZD1hYTQ5MWVmN2YxZDk2NGU0OTc5ZmI3ODRlNzRlMDFkN1cDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~), where Vietnamese characters rarely had lines beyond screaming in agony, authenticity wasn’t exactly a top priority. A crew member sheepishly explains to the director that they didn’t bother casting a Vietnamese speaker since “there’s no line in the script.” Eventually, another actress who does speak Vietnamese is brought in, and they reshoot the scene. Instead of the line the director suggests — “Don’t shoot me, I’m only a peasant” — the actress shouts one fed to her by the Captain, the on-set cultural consultant who is actually a Communist spy: “Our hands will close around the throat of American imperialism!” The swap goes over the director’s head, but for the viewer, who can read the subtitles (and for anyone who speaks Vietnamese), the layers of language become a narrative tool for political satire. The sequence is emblematic of a significant shift in how Asian languages are featured in American film and TV. Just a few years ago, when his Korean dark comedy “Parasite” won the 2020 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, the writer and director Bong Joon Ho ribbed Americans for their aversion to “the one-inch-tall barrier of subtitles.” Bong Joon Ho and his interpreter, Sharon Choi, at the Golden Globe Awards in 2020. Paul Drinkwater/NBCUniversal Media, via Getty Images But in 2024, “The Sympathizer” is among a growing number of American works — including the recent prestige films “Minari” (2020), “Past Lives” (2023) and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” (2022); the television epics “Pachinko” (2022) and “Shogun” (2024); and the family-friendly series “Ms. Marvel” (2022) and “American Born Chinese” (2023) — that use Asian languages to bring additional depth and nuance to their stories. “I don’t think it is just a temporary blip,” said [Minjeong Kim](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0TKaHR0cHM6Ly9zb2Npb2xvZ3kuc2RzdS5lZHUvZmFjdWx0eS1hbmQtc3RhZmYva2ltP2NhbXBhaWduX2lkPTM3JmVtYz1lZGl0X3JyXzIwMjQwNTI0Jmluc3RhbmNlX2lkPTEyNDM0MCZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZyZWdpX2lkPTc3Njc0OTUyJnNlZ21lbnRfaWQ9MTY3Njc3JnRlPTEmdXNlcl9pZD1hYTQ5MWVmN2YxZDk2NGU0OTc5ZmI3ODRlNzRlMDFkN1cDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~), the director of the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies at San Diego State University. “The trend has shifted.” It’s a startling evolution from how Asian languages have typically appeared on American screens. Don McKellar, the co-creator of “The Sympathizer,” said that after the show’s multilingual writing staff watched the 1978 Vietnam War film “The Deer Hunter,” there was confusion about what language that film’s Vietnamese characters were even speaking. [Ad] [Ad](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SmaHR0cHM6Ly9saXZlaW50ZW50Lm5ld3lvcmt0aW1lc2luZm8uY29tL2NsaWNrP3M9MTc0MTQ5JmxpPVJSJm09YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDcmcD1SUl8yMDI0MDUyNCZzdHBlPWRlZmF1bHQmdGU9MSZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNFcDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~) [Ad](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SmaHR0cHM6Ly9saXZlaW50ZW50Lm5ld3lvcmt0aW1lc2luZm8uY29tL2NsaWNrP3M9MTc0MTQ5JmxpPVJSJm09YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDcmcD1SUl8yMDI0MDUyNCZzdHBlPWRlZmF1bHQmdGU9MSZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNFcDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~) “No one could understand them,” he said. “They were either Thai speakers who had been given a word or two of Vietnamese or they were just speaking Thai with a ‘Vietnamese’ accent.” McKellar has seen a shift, though. When he wrote the 1998 film “The Red Violin,” which has dialogue in several languages including German, French and Mandarin, he had to tally up the percentage of English dialogue to reassure studio executives who were nervous about a Western audience’s tolerance for subtitles. “It was one of those understood things,” he recalled. But with “The Sympathizer,” which has long stretches in Vietnamese, “I never had to count.” Nowadays, some [50 percent of Americans](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0TMaHR0cHM6Ly9wcmVwbHkuY29tL2VuL2Jsb2cvYW1lcmljYXMtc3VidGl0bGVzLXVzZS8_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9MzcmZW1jPWVkaXRfcnJfMjAyNDA1MjQmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MTI0MzQwJm5sPXJhY2UlMkZyZWxhdGVkJnJlZ2lfaWQ9Nzc2NzQ5NTImc2VnbWVudF9pZD0xNjc2NzcmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPWFhNDkxZWY3ZjFkOTY0ZTQ5NzlmYjc4NGU3NGUwMWQ3VwNueXRCCmZFYYFQZhWTLnRSG3RyaXN0cmFtYmFsZHdpbjkwQGdtYWlsLmNvbVgEAAAAAw~~) would prefer to watch videos with subtitles regardless of the language they’re hearing. Videos on social media are increasingly closed-captioned and, as [sound mixing becomes more complicated](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP4QEAWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMjMvMDgvMTcvdGVjaG5vbG9neS9wZXJzb25hbHRlY2gvc3VidGl0bGVzLXN0cmVhbWluZy1zaG93cy1zcGVlY2gtZW5oYW5jZXJzLmh0bWw_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9MzcmZW1jPWVkaXRfcnJfMjAyNDA1MjQmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MTI0MzQwJm5sPXJhY2UlMkZyZWxhdGVkJnJlZ2lfaWQ9Nzc2NzQ5NTImc2VnbWVudF9pZD0xNjc2NzcmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPWFhNDkxZWY3ZjFkOTY0ZTQ5NzlmYjc4NGU3NGUwMWQ3VwNueXRCCmZFYYFQZhWTLnRSG3RyaXN0cmFtYmFsZHdpbjkwQGdtYWlsLmNvbVgEAAAAAw~~) across devices, the near universal accessibility of subtitles — a rarity before the rise of streaming — has made them more of a boon than a barrier. [Ad] [Ad](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SmaHR0cHM6Ly9saXZlaW50ZW50Lm5ld3lvcmt0aW1lc2luZm8uY29tL2NsaWNrP3M9MjA3NTc3JmxpPVJSJm09YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDcmcD1SUl8yMDI0MDUyNCZzdHBlPWRlZmF1bHQmdGU9MSZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNFcDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~) [Ad](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0SmaHR0cHM6Ly9saXZlaW50ZW50Lm5ld3lvcmt0aW1lc2luZm8uY29tL2NsaWNrP3M9MjA3NTc3JmxpPVJSJm09YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDcmcD1SUl8yMDI0MDUyNCZzdHBlPWRlZmF1bHQmdGU9MSZubD1yYWNlJTJGcmVsYXRlZCZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNFcDbnl0QgpmRWGBUGYVky50Uht0cmlzdHJhbWJhbGR3aW45MEBnbWFpbC5jb21YBAAAAAM~) The internet’s broad entertainment ecosystem has also diversified the American media palate. “YouTube, social media, TikTok, those things that are really open — people can actually access and be exposed to content in different languages,” Kim said. That means “they might be less reluctant to watch movies or TV shows that have different languages.” Read the rest of the story [here](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0TyaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vaW50ZXJhY3RpdmUvMjAyNC8wNS8yMy9hcnRzL2FzaWFuLWxhbmd1YWdlLW1vdmllcy1zdWJ0aXRsZXMuaHRtbD9jYW1wYWlnbl9pZD0zNyZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNCZpbnN0YW5jZV9pZD0xMjQzNDAmbmw9cmFjZSUyRnJlbGF0ZWQmcmVnaV9pZD03NzY3NDk1MiZzZWdtZW50X2lkPTE2NzY3NyZ0ZT0xJnVzZXJfaWQ9YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDdXA255dEIKZkVhgVBmFZMudFIbdHJpc3RyYW1iYWxkd2luOTBAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAD). EDITORS’ PICKS We publish many articles that touch on race. Here are several you shouldn’t miss. 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By Charlie Scudder](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0TjaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyNC8wNS8yMy9kaW5pbmcvZXJpdHJlYW4tYnJld2luZy10cmFkaXRpb24uaHRtbD9jYW1wYWlnbl9pZD0zNyZlbWM9ZWRpdF9ycl8yMDI0MDUyNCZpbnN0YW5jZV9pZD0xMjQzNDAmbmw9cmFjZSUyRnJlbGF0ZWQmcmVnaV9pZD03NzY3NDk1MiZzZWdtZW50X2lkPTE2NzY3NyZ0ZT0xJnVzZXJfaWQ9YWE0OTFlZjdmMWQ5NjRlNDk3OWZiNzg0ZTc0ZTAxZDdXA255dEIKZkVhgVBmFZMudFIbdHJpc3RyYW1iYWxkd2luOTBAZ21haWwuY29tWAQAAAAD) [[An oil portrait shows a man in formal wear. ] Amani Willett for The New York Times](~/AAAAAQA~/RgRoMwZhP0TkaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubnl0aW1lcy5jb20vMjAyNC8wNS8yMy9hcnRzL2pvaG4tamFjb2JzLXNsYXZlcnktZGlzY292ZXJ5Lmh0bWw_Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQ9MzcmZW1jPWVkaXRfcnJfMjAyNDA1MjQmaW5zdGFuY2VfaWQ9MTI0MzQwJm5sPXJhY2UlMkZyZWxhdGVkJnJlZ2lfaWQ9Nzc2NzQ5NTImc2VnbWVudF9pZD0xNjc2NzcmdGU9MSZ1c2VyX2lkPWFhNDkxZWY3ZjFkOTY0ZTQ5NzlmYjc4NGU3NGUwMWQ3VwNueXRCCmZFYYFQZhWTLnRSG3RyaXN0cmFtYmFsZHdpbjkwQGdtYWlsLmNvbVgEAAAAAw~~) [A Furious, Forgotten Slave Narrative Resurfaces After Nearly 170 Years John S. Jacobs was a fugitive, an abolitionist — and the brother of the canonical author Harriet Jacobs. Now, his own fierce autobiography has re-emerged. 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