nwasianweekly.com
Mar. 11, 2006

(Photo by Assunta Ng)
Nearly all Hong Kong and Taiwan newspapers put Ang Lee on their front pages after his Oscar win.

A night of pride for Ang Lee & Asians

What was it like to be an Asian American watching Ang Lee accept his Oscar for best director last Sunday?

It was a moment of sheer pride, excitement and joy. Here was one of our own accepting the golden trophy from Tom Hanks at the most prestigious awards show in Hollywood. We could relate to him. Like many of us, he is an immigrant with an accent. And like some of us would be in the same situation, he showed modesty and humility as he stood before a sea of industry people at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

Lee broke the proverbial glass ceiling that night as the first Asian and Asian American to win the Oscar for best director. We Asian Americans were lucky enough to witness it live with a worldwide television audience of millions that included the people of Lee’s native Taiwan.

Everyone knows how hard it is to find success in Hollywood as an Asian American actor. But as a director, Lee may have it even harder, as there are very few Asian and Asian Americans working at his level. Whether he accepts it or not, he shoulders the responsibility of paving the way for future Asian and Asian American directors in Hollywood. It’s not fair, but it’s reality: How Lee is perceived, how he interacts with Hollywood’s movers and shakers and how successful he is determine the industry’s acceptance and encouragement of other filmmakers of Asian descent.

This was not the first time Lee has taken home an Oscar. He won the top foreign-language film prize in 2001 for his martial arts flick “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”

Lee has forged an interesting path towards his Oscars. He has shown tremendous versatility in his depictions of the rugged American West in “Brokeback Mountain,” American suburbia in “The Ice Storm,” a mystical and ancient China in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” a comic-book-hero-turned-action-film-star in “The Hulk” and the clashing of Chinese and American cultures in “The Wedding Banquet” and “Eat Drink Man Woman.” In his own quiet way, Lee has challenged people’s notions of what a Taiwanese American director should work on.

He has certainly run into criticism along the way. Not just from movie critics, but also from his own people. Many in Taiwan, China and other parts of Asia criticized his decision to make a movie about the love affair of two gay cowboys, saying the project was too controversial. Lee went ahead with the project anyway, explaining that it isn’t a gay love story, but simply a story about the greatness of love.

Lee’s own versatility shows that Asian and Asian American filmmakers have the ability and interest to pursue any kind of genre, not just stories about martial artists and cultural clashes. We hope Lee’s triumph opens doors for others.

As varied as his films have been, however, there is a theme that runs through much of his work. It is a call for more tolerance in the world. Whether the confrontation is gay versus straight, conservative versus liberal, Western values vs. Eastern values, Lee shows the humanity of all his characters. He makes them real and relatable to show that all of us, in the end, are simply people.

It is taking a groundbreaking director to drive home this less-than-groundbreaking point.

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