“I prayed, I prayed, I prayed!” shouted the young daughter of the director of “Minari”, Lee Isaac Chung, when receiving the Golden Globe on Sunday night for the best film in a foreign language. I also prayed that Asian American films like “Minari” would receive all kinds of important awards. But the award for best foreign language was not what I had in mind. Like most Asian Americans, I have faced the stereotype of the perpetual stranger all my life. I often ask questions like “where are you? same from? “and I was told to” go back to China. “So when” Minari “was nominated in the foreign language category and excluded from the competition for the best drama, Asian Americans let out a collective groan. And when he won, what should have been a moment of collective joy seemed like the prize equivalent to indirect praise: “Your English is so good!”
Like most Asian Americans, I have faced the stereotype of perpetual strangers all my life. I often ask questions like “where are you really from?”
“Minari” is a beautiful film written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, based on his own creation on a farm in rural Arkansas. The film shows a Korean-American family overcoming difficulties in pursuit of the American dream. It is obviously a American story. The footprint? Much of the dialogue was in Korean, which under the Golden Globes rules disqualified him from the main categories. Official rules state that films must have “50% or more dialogue in English” to compete for awards for best drama or musical / comedy film. Films in any other language are therefore isolated.
Although I grew up in California, there were scenes in “Minari” that resonated with my own life. Like David, the youngest son in the film, I also sadly said to my grandmother “you smell bad” when she came to visit us in the United States. When the Yi family visits a local church for the first time and a white boy turns on the benches to look at David in confusion, I have had flashbacks from my entire childhood. Calling “Minari” a “foreign language film” seemed like a denial of my own American history and that of so many Americans from immigrant families.
Like Lulu Wang, director of “The Farewell”, tweeted when the nominations were announced in December: “I haven’t seen a film more American than #Minari this year. It is the story of a family of immigrants, IN America, chasing the American dream. We really need to change those old-fashioned rules that characterize Americans as just English speakers. Wang’s excellent “The Farewell” – another film about an Asian-American family – was also nominated in the year before the Golden Globe for best foreign language because of its majority dialogue in Mandarin.
“The Farewell”, starring New York-born (and Mandarin-speaking) actress Awkwafina, is just one more piece of evidence as to why the Globes rule is outdated and discriminatory. English is not even the official language of the United States (hint: it doesn’t exist). In fact, 21.6% of Americans (aged 5 and over) speak a language other than English at home. Given that immigrants and their children represent more than 25% of the US population, films like “Minari” and “The Farewell” should be recognized for what they are – American stories.
Another problem with the English dialogue rule is that it is applied inconsistently. In 2012, “The Artist”, a silent French film without dialogues, was nominated and won the Golden Globe for best musical or comedy. In addition, foreign European films are regularly nominated for major awards. This year, “The Father”, a Franco-British co-production with a French director, was nominated for best drama. But “Minari” – an American production, with an American director – was prevented from competing for the main prize. This does not make sense if the aim is to divide “foreign” from “domestic”.
In a climate of increasing anti-Asian violence, labeling an Asian-American film “Minari” as “foreign” seems even more offensive.
In a climate of increasing anti-Asian violence, labeling an Asian-American film “Minari” as “foreign” seems even more offensive. Advocacy groups like “Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate” have received more than 2,800 reported incidents of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans in the United States. Asian Americans report physical assaults along with verbal harassment as “stop bringing this Chinese virus here”. At the center of these attacks is a xenophobic perception of Asian Americans as foreign threats. Although anti-Asian racism is not new, the recent increase has been fueled by the government using words like “foreign virus” and “Chinese virus”. The World Health Organization has condemned the use of this language and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have criticized the phrases as “inaccurate and potentially harmful in promoting racist associations”. Consequently, the “foreign” label (even if commemorative) is misleading at best and dangerous at worst.
The Golden Globe needs to be like the Oscars and allow films of any language to compete for the award for best film in drama or comedy. In 2020, the South Korean film “Parasite” won the Oscar for best film, making history as the first non-English film to win the award. Moving from the celebration of the victory of “Parasite” to a consolation prize for “Minari” is bittersweet. (If “Minari” receives an Oscar nomination for best film this year, it would be like a redemption.)
Lee Isaac Chung’s acceptance speech showed how “Minari” is not limited by any language. “‘Minari’ is about a family,” he explained. “It is a family that tries to learn to speak its own language. It is deeper than any American language and any foreign language. It is a language of the heart, and I am trying to learn and transmit it, and I hope that we can all learn to speak this language of love to each other, especially this year. “
Hollywood needs to recognize that whatever language Asian Americans choose is American, because we we are Americans.