The two-time Oscar-winning director Ang Lee is among a host of east Asian Hollywood talent who have written a letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) protesting at this year’s Oscar ceremony’s “tone-deaf” attitude to their race, according to Variety.
Lee, from Taiwan, joined a number of signees, including actors Sandra Oh (Canadian, of Korean descent) and George Takei (American, of Japanese descent), in criticising AMPAS for including in this year’s Oscar show jokes based on racial stereotyping. In the later stages of the broadcast, host Chris Rock introduced “the accountants” who had tabulated the Oscars results. They were three children of east Asian descent called “Ming Zhu, Bao Ling, and David Moskowitz”. “If anyone is upset about that joke you can tweet about it on your phone, which was also made by these kids,” he said.
“We are writing as Academy members of Asian descent to express our complete surprise and disappointment with the targeting of Asians at the 88th Oscars telecast and its perpetuation of racist stereotypes,” said the protesters in their letter, which was addressed to AMPAS president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, CEO Dawn Hudson, and ceremony producers Reginald Hudlin and David Hill.
“In light of criticism over #OscarsSoWhite, we were hopeful that the telecast would provide the Academy a way forward and the chance to present a spectacular example of inclusion and diversity. Instead, the Oscars show was marred by a tone-deaf approach to its portrayal of Asians”.
While the inclusion of the accountant joke was raised by many as offensive, Rock’s performance as a whole was widely praised by commenters, who commended his handling of the #OscarSoWhite controversy, which had dogged the Academy leading up to the Oscars. Rock, commenting on the fact that, for a second year in a row, there were no non-white acting nominees, devoted the entirety of his opening monologue to the issue. “Is Hollywood racist? You’re damn right Hollywood is racist,” he said. However, it’s understood that the accountant joke was included at Rock’s request and that the parents of at least one of the children were unaware of its full context before the broadcast.
“I did wonder, ‘Why all Asians?’” Laura Kung, mother of eight-year-old Estie Kung, told Public Radio International. “But I assumed there was a bigger picture, a more complex joke given all the emphasis placed on diversity at the Oscars this year.”
“We’d like to know how such tasteless and offensive skits could have happened and what process you have in place to preclude such unconscious or outright bias and racism toward any group in future Oscars telecasts,” wrote Lee and his co-signatories. “We look forward to hearing from you about this matter and about the concrete steps to ensure that all people are portrayed with dignity and respect.”
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