"Rising Sun" Demonstration

"Rising Sun" Demonstration

Following the release of the film Rising Sun on July 30, 1993, members of the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), along with members of numerous other activist organizations such as the New York Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, took part in a protest in front of the Criterion Theater in Times Square. The film is based off of Michael Crichton’s book of the same name which centers on the murder of a white woman discovered in the conference room of a major Japanese business in Los Angeles.[1] Over one hundred protesters joined together to teach moviegoers about the potential of racist, in this case anti-Asian, stereotypes to trigger violence. The majority of the Japanese male characters in the film, which starred Sean Connery and Wesley Snipes, were depicted as “venal and sexually deviant foreigners bent on taking over American institutions.”[2] In his criticism of the film, Joshua S. Mostow asserts that this serves as a means “to exorcise the” supposed “threat to American power, both sexual and commercial, and to reestablish white male hegemony.”[3]

CAAAV volunteers protested the fact that the media and entertainment industry are largely responsible for maintaining and perpetuating harmful Asian stereotypes. This particular protest was planned and led by Jonathon Sung Bidol, Ginny Moon, and Julia Wang, interns in the organizations’ Youth Leadership .[4] Although the protest was organized by youth volunteers, people of all ages are present in the photographs from that day. One image in particular, item 1044, shows four large banners being held by a group of protestors.[5] While the writing on some of the banners is hard to make out, one woman holds a sign that reads “Protocols of Zion Anti-Asian Style,” linking the film’s negative portrayal of Asian people to an established Anti-Semitic trope. This woman can be seen in several other photographs including items 1302, 968, and 1104. In numerous other images including item 949, a youth activist holds a large red drum, asserting his heritage proudly as he marches down Times Square.[6]

Anti-Asian representations and violence have occurred throughout American history, even before a significant number of people began immigrating to the United States from Asian countries. Unlike other immigrant groups who are able to acquire American national identities, thereby protecting them from violence and exclusion, Asian Americans have remained separate.[7] The correlation between “selective economic scapegoating and racism” is a theme that CAAAV has highlighted and endeavored to combat since its inception in 1986. Even before Rising Sun was released, CAAAV’s newsletter was reporting a rise in “Japan-bashing.”[8] In the case of Japanese Americans, there is a hostility that extends back to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. However, anti-Japanese attitudes have morphed into general anti-Asian attitudes because “Asians are perceived to ‘all look alike.’”[9] Indeed CAAAV was founded in the wake of the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American mistaken for a Japanese.[10] The omnipresence of these “anti-immigrant sentiments” have for so long served as a cover for racism.[11] Debunking such adverse characterizations is an important step in achieving equality for and stamping out violence towards Asian Americans.

Notes

[1] “Japan-bashing making mileage,” The CAAAV Voice 1, no. 4 (Spring 1992): 3, https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Voice_Spring_1992.pdf.

[2] Rising Sun! Raising Hate!” The CAAAV Voice 5, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 3, https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Voice_Fall_1993.pdf.

[3] Joshua S. Mostow, “Rising Son: Race, Women, and Exchange in the Film Rising Sun,” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal. English Supplement, no. 16 (1999): 90, https://www.jstor.org/stable/42772141.

[4] “Rising Sun! Raising Hate!”

[5] “The Protocols of Zion Anti-Asian Style ,” CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities Digital Archive, accessed March 31, 2021, http://maggie.hosting.nyu.edu/caaav/admin/items/show/1044; “Woman Holding Sign at Joint AAALDEF/CAAAV Protest in Times Square,” CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities Digital Archive, accessed March 31, 2021, http://maggie.hosting.nyu.edu/caaav/admin/items/show/1302; “A Protest Against Anti-Asian Sentiments ,” CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities Digital Archive, accessed March 31, 2021, http://maggie.hosting.nyu.edu/caaav/admin/items/show/968; “Demonstration Against Anti-Asian Violence,” CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities Digital Archive, accessed March 31, 2021, http://maggie.hosting.nyu.edu/caaav/admin/items/show/1104.

[6] “Interracial Demonstration Against Racism and Anti-Asian Sentiments,” CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities Digital Archive, accessed April 1, 2021, http://maggie.hosting.nyu.edu/caaav/admin/items/show/949.

[7] Vivian Wong, Tom Ikeda, Ellen-Rae Cachola, and Florante Peter Ibanez, “Archives (Re)Imagined Elsewhere: Asian American Community-based Archival Organizations,” in [Through the] Archival Looking Glass: A Reader on Diversity and Inclusion, ed. Mary A. Caldera and Kathryn M. Neal (Chicago: Society of American Archivists, 2014, 113; Vivian Truong, “From State-Sanctioned Removal to the Right to the City: The Policing of Asian Immigrants in Southern Brooklyn, 1987-1995, Journal of Asian American Studies 23, no. 1 (February 2020): 61-92.

[8] “Remember Pearl Harbor!” The CAAAV Voice 3, no. 1 (Fall 1991): 3, https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Voice_Fall_1991.pdf.

[9] “Japan-bashing making mileage.”

[10] “About Us,” CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, accessed March 31, 2021, https://caaav.org/about-us; “History of CAAAV,” CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, accessed March 31, 2021, https://caaav.org/about-us/history-of-caaav; “Japan-bashing making mileage.”

[11] “Rising Sun! Raising Hate!”

Circa 1993

Julia Gatenio

This post was completed as coursework for HIST-GA 3901 Community Archives, taught by Maggie Schreiner, in the Archives and Public History MA program at New York University.

Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities.

Photograph.

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