The Complex History of Asian Representation at the Oscars亞裔登頂奧斯卡的艱難歷程

After Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh swept the Best Actress Awards at the 94th National Board of Review Awards and Golden Globes for her outstanding performance in absurdist1 comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once， she made history again with her Best Actress win at the Oscars 2023.

馬來西亞女演員楊紫瓊憑借其在荒誕喜劇電影《瞬息全宇宙》中的精湛演技橫掃第94屆美國國家評論協會獎和金球獎最佳女主角后再次創造歷史，一舉奪得2023年奧斯卡最佳女主角獎。

The first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress was Merle Oberon in 1936， for The Dark Angel. The Mumbai-born actor， who was of mixed race and did not promote her Asian heritage， played white women in her film roles. More than eight decades later， in her speech accepting the Screen Actors Guild Award on Feb. 26， Yeoh said， “This is not just for me， this is for every little girl that looks like me.”

首位獲此提名的亞裔女性是出生于印度孟買的混血女演員梅爾·奧勃朗，她憑借出演《黑色天使》提名1936年最佳女主角。但她在電影中多扮演白人女性角色，并未宣揚自己的亞洲血統。80多年后，在2023年2月26日美國演員工會獎的獲獎致辭中，楊紫瓊說道：“這份榮譽不僅僅是為我一個人，它將鼓勵每一位亞裔小女孩。”

Here’s what to know about the history of actors of Asian descent at the Oscars.

下面講一講亞裔演員與奧斯卡金像獎的歷史淵源。

From passing to “yellowface”

從亞裔隱瞞身份到白人化黃臉妝

In The Dark Angel， Oberon played a white woman in the middle of a love triangle with her two childhood friends who are World War I soldiers. In a line from a 1935 Picture Play profile that now reads as particularly revealing， she said， “It’s easier for me to be something which I am not than it is to act myself.” While her performance received rave reviews2， the Oscar that year ultimately went to Bette Davis for Dangerous.

在《黑色天使》中，奧勃朗飾演的白人女性和她的兩個童年好友（同為一戰士兵）陷入了三角戀中。她在1935年《美國電影周刊》的人物專欄中提到：“對我而言，扮演與我本人截然不同的角色比本色出演更加容易?！比缃褡x來，引人深思。雖然奧勃朗的表演廣受好評，但當年的奧斯卡最終由出演《女人女人》的貝蒂·戴維斯收入囊中。

“She was passing，” Monica Sandler， a historian of Hollywood at the University of California， Los Angeles， says of Oberon’s career playing non-Asian roles. “She’s an example of someone who was hiding her identity， was able to get parts in the industry specifically because she was hiding her identity…If she had been openly Asian at that time， she would not have been able to have any leading roles.” The love triangle in The Dark Angel， she argues， would have been particularly scandalous3 had Oberon’s character been Asian because “you could not have a romantic relationship between two people of two different races in movies during that period of time.”

“她讓人相信自己是白人?！奔又荽髮W洛杉磯分校的好萊塢歷史學家莫妮卡·桑德勒如此評價奧勃朗飾演非亞裔角色的演藝生涯，“她的例子恰恰說明，在當時的電影行業，亞裔只能掩藏起自己的身份才能得到角色。如果她當時公開宣揚自己的亞裔身份，根本不會有擔任主演的機會?！彼J為，如果奧勃朗的角色是亞裔，《黑色天使》中的畸戀將顯得尤為不堪，因為“在那個年代，你不可能看到電影里出現兩個不同種族的角色談情說愛?！?/p>

Hollywood did， however， reward white actors who played Asian characters onscreen—a practice of using makeup to change one’s appearance known as “yellowface.” One famous example from this period is German actor Luise Rainer winning Best Actress for The Good Earth， the 1937 film adaptation of the Pearl Buck4 classic. As Sandler sums up this milestone， the Oscars had “never rewarded an Asian person but they did reward a person for playing Asian.”

不過，好萊塢的確曾頒獎給在銀幕上扮演亞裔角色的白人演員——這種通過化妝改變外貌的做法被稱為“白人黃臉妝”。其中，為人熟知的例子是德國演員路易絲·賴納，她憑借出演1937年上映、改編自賽珍珠經典作品的電影《大地》獲得奧斯卡最佳女主角獎。正如桑德勒對這座“里程碑”獎項的總結， 奧斯卡獎“從未頒給過亞裔演員，但確實頒給過出演亞裔角色的演員”。

Buck’s novel has generated criticism over the years. The Asian characters in the book have been criticized for being oversimplified and portrayed as “victims” who “need a Western outsider to come and save them.” That was a widely shared view among white Americans.

賽珍珠的小說一直受到批評。有批評認為書中的亞裔角色過于簡單化，而且被塑造成了“需要西方外來者拯救”的“受害者”。這一觀點在美國白人群體中受到廣泛認可。

Limited roles and gradually improving representation

從角色受限到出演機會漸增

When Asian women did get cast in Hollywood movies， the options were scant5 and often stereotypical6. An Asian woman did play a part in The Good Earth， but as a mistress to the lead actor Paul Muni， whom he leaves when he decides to stay with his wife. Sandler also singles out7 Anna May Wong8， the most prominent Chinese American actress of her era， who was mostly offered roles as secondary characters who were “villainous9” or “sex objects.” In fact， Wong was supposed to play the leading female role in The Good Earth but lost the part to Rainer.

當亞裔女性在好萊塢電影中獲得出演機會時，可選的角色類型很少且多為刻板印象?！洞蟮亍分写_實有一位亞裔女性參演，但演的是男主角保羅·穆尼的情人，當男主決定回歸家庭，便將其拋棄。桑德勒特別提到了黃柳霜。這位在當時風頭無二的美籍華人女演員往往也只能飾演配角，要么是“反派”，要么是“性感尤物”。其實，《大地》的女主角本該由她扮演，但最終給了賴納。

Fast-forward to the late 1990s， and Yeoh was a star in Asia， starring in Hong Kong action films， but facing limited options in Hollywood films. Despite gaining traction10 as a Chinese secret agent who jumps off a skyscraper in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997， she turned down Hollywood film parts repeatedly for the next three years because she refused to play any roles that perpetuated11 stereotypes about Asian women. Even after she starred in the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon （2000）， it was not until 2022 with the release of Everything Everywhere All at Once that Yeoh experienced widespread recognition of her talents by the Hollywood mainstream.

時間來到1990年代后期，楊紫瓊已經在亞洲成名，出演了不少香港動作片，但在好萊塢電影中，留給她的選擇仍然很有限。她在1997年上映的《007之明日帝國》中飾演了一位中國特工，從摩天大樓縱身一躍，受到關注。但在接下來的三年里，她因為不想扮演任何延續對亞裔女性刻板印象的角色，一再拒絕出演好萊塢電影。雖然早在2000年，她出演的《臥虎藏龍》就已經獲得奧斯卡獎，但直到2022年《瞬息全宇宙》上映，她的演藝天賦才得到了好萊塢主流的認可。

But there have been breakthroughs in recent years： In 2018， TIME lauded12 Crazy Rich Asians—in which Yeoh plays the protective mother of a groom—as the first modern story with an all-Asian cast and an Asian American lead in 25 years， since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. Comedies like The Farewell and Always Be My Maybe were hailed13 for their relatable14 depictions of Asian American characters. And at the 2021 Oscars， Yuh-jung Youn won Best Supporting Actress for Minari， becoming the first Asian actor to win an acting Oscar since 1985 when the Cambodian actor Haing Ngor won for The Killing Fields.

不過，近年來已經有了一些突破：2018年，《時代周刊》稱贊《摘金奇緣》是《喜福會》（1993）上映25年來第一部由亞裔美國人擔任主角、全亞裔演員陣容、講述當代故事的電影。楊紫瓊在其中飾演了對新郎保護欲極強的母親。諸如《別告訴她》和《兩大無猜》等喜劇因其對亞裔美國人角色的貼切塑造而受到好評。尹汝貞更是憑借《米納里》獲得2021年奧斯卡最佳女配角獎，成為繼1985年出演《殺戮戰場》的柬埔寨裔演員吳漢潤后又一獲奧斯卡表演類獎項的亞裔演員。

The Oscars have also seen some strides15 when it comes to Asian and Asian American filmmakers behind the camera. Ang Lee was the first director of Asian descent to win Best Director， for Brokeback Mountain， in 2006; he won it again for Life of Pi seven years later. Bong Joon-Ho won for Parasite in 2020.

鏡頭背后，在亞裔和美籍亞裔電影制作人方面，奧斯卡獎也有了一定進步。2006年，李安憑借《斷背山》成為首位獲得最佳導演獎的亞裔；七年后，《少年派的奇幻漂流》為他再下一城。2020年，韓國導演奉俊昊憑借《寄生蟲》獲獎。

On a broader level， authentic representation of Asian stories on-screen can lead to a better understanding of Asian stories off-screen. As Yeoh told TIME in 2022， her fans tell her that her career has the power to uplift the entire Asian community， “They come up to me and they say， ‘You’re doing it for us.’”

從更廣泛的層面來看，銀幕上原汁原味的亞洲故事可以幫助觀眾更好地理解銀幕外現實中的亞洲敘事。楊紫瓊在2022年接受《時代》周刊采訪時曾說，她的粉絲們告訴她，她演藝事業的成功能鼓舞整個亞裔群體?！八麄儊淼轿业母案嬖V我：‘你這樣做是為了我們。’”

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）

1 absurdist荒誕主義的。

2 rave reviews熱情洋溢的評論文章。 3 scandalous令人反感的；令人震驚的。

4美國作家，1932年憑借長篇小說《大地》獲得普利策小說獎，并在1938年以此獲得美國歷史上第三個諾貝爾文學獎。 5 scant數量稀少的。 6 stereotypical（符合）刻板印象的。

7 single out單獨選出。 8 美籍華裔女演員。 9 villainous邪惡的，極壞的。 10 gain traction（觀點或產品等）變得流行（或被接受）。 11 perpetuate使持續。 12 laud稱贊，贊揚。

13 hail贊揚（或稱頌）……為（尤用于報章等）。 14 relatable可明白的，可理解的。 15 stride進展，進步。