Beyond Jackie Chan

This chapter examines the way the media implicitly frames Asian masculinities. It sketches how the portrayals of Asian masculinity in Western media are informed by Eurocentric and Orientalist ideologies as well as the economics of identity. It shows how Western media producers frame Asian masculine Otherness as a means of enhancing the normativity of white European masculinity. It argues that instead of industry producing culture, industry produces caricature in order to uphold notions of Asian masculinity. The chapter argues that creating alternative masculinities for Asian men in Western media has not been economically beneficial for media producers. Using the Rush Hour films as a case study, and guided by postcolonial and political economic frameworks, it analyzes how images of Asian masculinity conform to or cultivate notions of Otherness.