The Chinese in America - Iris Chang [264]
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For example, in October 2000, the Republicans ran a television commercial suggesting that electing Al Gore for president might result in nuclear annihilation by the People’s Republic of China. The commercial claimed that China had “the ability to threaten our homes with long-range nuclear warheads” because the Clinton-Gore administration “sold” out the nation’s security “to Communist Red China in exchange for campaign contributions.” The advertisement featured a little white girl plucking daisy petals as she counted backward. Her counting was abruptly followed by the countdown for a missile, and then a nuclear explosion. “Don’t take a chance,” the commercial warned. “Please vote Republican.” This TV ad was a remake of the well-criticized 1964 “Daisy” commercial, made for President Lyndon Johnson and implying that the views of his opponent, Barry Goldwater, would lead to an atomic war. The “Daisy” remake provoked a furor in the Chinese American community, which accused the Republican Party of playing the “yellow peril” card.
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Even newspaper editors openly indulged in anti-Chinese stereotypes. In April 2001, Amy Leang, a Chinese American college senior, began an internship at the ASNE Reporter, a publication of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, during its convention in Washington, D.C. Assigned to photograph the performance of a comedy troupe during the convention’s opening reception, Leang watched, to her surprise, a crudely racist skit about U.S.-Chinese relations. What was particularly disturbing was that the audience for the skit comprised those who represented themselves as leaders among American editors. As she later wrote, “White males impersonated a Chinese official and his translator. The official sported a black wig and thick glasses and spoke fake Chinese. ‘Ching ching chong chong,’ the man shouted as he gestured wildly. What was disturbing was not just the fact that this was happening, but that hundreds of editors, my future bosses, were laughing. I felt myself swallowed by all the loud laughter. Each time the ‘Chinese’ voice became more jarring, the editors would laugh even harder. Despite feeling humiliated, I finished the job and turned in my pictures. The next morning, I woke up crying.”
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The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) is a Washington, D.C.-based civil rights lobbying group founded by Kung Lee Wang in 1973. The Committee of One Hundred (C100) is a nonpartisan organization of prominent Chinese Americans, designed to promote Sino-American relations and address crucial issues within the Chinese American community. The intent of the 80/20 initiative, organized by S. B. Woo, a Chinese American physicist and former lieutenant governor of Delaware, is to persuade 80 percent of the registered Asian American voters to support a single endorsed presidential candidate, the person most likely to provide policy benefits for the ethnic Asian community.
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Interracial marriages soared after 1967, when the Supreme Court in Loving v. Virginia declared all anti-miscegnation laws unconstitutional. Before the ruling, it was still illegal for white people to marry out of their race in sixteen states, but the landmark Supreme Court decision helped spawn an interracial baby boom.
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In the past, only a few Eurasian actors achieved stardom, and they were typically cast as Asian, not white. The two most famous Hapa stars were Bruce Lee, who popularized Chinese martial arts in films like Enter the Dragon, and Nancy Kwan, immortalized for her roles in The World of Suzie Wong and Flower Drum Song.