A crowd marches through Time Square chanting to the beat of a bright red drum. The demonstrators, unfazed by billboards looming overhead, brandish signs and banners of their own. Their destination? A movie theater. The activists pictured above were some of the hundred-strong marchers who gathered at Time Square’s Criterion Theater on July 30, 1993 in protest of the xenophobic film Rising Sun, set to open there that night. CAAAV members Jonathon Sung Bidol, Ginny Moon, and Julia Wang helped organize the New York action, while similar, simultaneous protests took place outside theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Rising Sun, directed by Philip Kaufman and adapted from Michael Crichton’s book of the same name, was a murder mystery framed around a Japanese corporation aiming to seize control of the American economy. Its depictions of Japanese people and culture were far from subtle. As CAAAV wrote in their Voice newsletter, “Virtually all the film’s Japanese male characters are portrayed as venal and sexually deviant foreigners bent on taking over American institutions.” Organizers feared these racist stereotypes would combine with the film’s xenophobic messaging - Crichton himself said his novel was a “wake-up call” to Americans - to incite acts of violence upon members of the Asian American community. Kaufman’s various defenses were uninspired. He cited the film’s Japanese-American cast and that his son was a Mandarin-fluent Asian Studies major, before ultimately comparing the protestors to “thought police.” CAAAV activists were not deterred by Kaufman’s blustering. At the theater, they joined other participating organizations in an education session. A boycott was not on the table; rather, they spoke with and distributed literature to moviegoers and passerby about the racist stereotypes of Rising Sun and their harmful ramifications. Said CAAAV’s Bidol, "I think there is a lot of fear in this country about what Japan owns… when there is not the same concern when some European countries own a similar if not greater share of property." Such “selective economic scapegoating” in popular media is directly related to CAAAV’s prolonged fight against systemic and institutional racism. In fact, the Rising Sun protest was just one of several instances where CAAAV called out anti-Asian media representations. The Spring 1993 issue of The Voice features a skewering of “this year’s bias-adventure film,” Falling Down, whose protagonist attacks people of color, including a Korean shop-owner, for comedic effect. Similarly, a 1994 Voice review of sitcom All-American Girl notes that “never on the show is there a representation of an Asian American who is neither freaky nor whitewashed.” The wanton carelessness of Asian American media representation detailed here - and particularly in Rising Sun - perpetuate stereotypes and reinforce the systemic racisms that CAAAV identifies as a root cause of anti-Asian violence. The activists outside the Criterion on July 30th recognized that threat and took direct action to counter its spread. A second photo shows the same drummer at the theater amongst a crowd of CAAAV members handing out pamphlets. The marquee’s bright red lettering advertises the coming attractions: “Connery / Snipes / RISING SUN.” A fellow protestor’s sign summarizes it more succinctly: “20th Century Movie, 19th Century Mentality.” Bibliography: “All-American Whitewash.” The CAAAV Voice. Winter 1994. https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Voice_Winter_1994.pdf. Chung, L.A. “Protests Planned For `Rising Sun’ - Groups Fear Anti-Asian Violence after the Movie Opens Friday.” San Francisco Chronicle. July 27, 1993, sec. News. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news%2F0EB4F53A9DC561EE. “Falling Down and Down and Down...” The CAAAV Voice. Spring 1993, sec. Media Offenses. https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Voice_Spring_1993.pdf. “History of CAAAV,” CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities. 2021. https://caaav.org/about-us/history-of-caaav. Iverem, Esther. “‘Rising Sun’ Protest.” The Washington Post. July 29, 1993. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1993/07/29/rising-sun-protest/a4b0837d-5978-40c3-9d50-80184232b556/. “Rising Sun! Raising Hate!” The CAAAV Voice. Fall 1993. https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Voice_Fall_1993.pdf. “‘Sun’ Director Counters Protestors.” San Francisco Chronicle. August 2, 1993, sec. Daily Notebook. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.proxy.library.nyu.edu/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=news/0EB4F53D7A2E366E.
Will Brown 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.