Rising Sun Protest speech

Rising Sun Protest speech

Throughout CAAAV’s history, this organization has been highly involved in protesting against anti-Asian violence and unfair representations of Asian individuals. When exploring CAAAV’s newly archived photographs under the “Anti-Asian Violence and Representations” tag, it is important to note how many of the images are from the 1993 protests centered around the release of the controversial film, Rising Sun. One particularly evocative image can be seen above, in which a crowd of protestors demonstrate against the film in New York City’s Times Square, wielding posters and instruments to bring attention to their important cause.[1] Adapted into a film by director Philip Kaufman, Rising Sun became an extremely controversial piece of media due to its underlying xenophobic and racist attitudes towards Japanese people, who mainly function as the, “inscrutable, generalized, unknown other from abroad, whose yellow skin and strange manners announce their evil purposes as much of their unfair trade practices,”[2] within the film’s plot. Concerns over the anti-Asian sentiments the film would produce among the general American population, Asian advocacy groups, such as the Japanese-American Citizens League (JACL) and the Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA), and individuals began to take action. Before the film’s official release, meetings between JACL and MANAA and the film’s director and production team yielded some changes, but multiple requests intended to relieve anti-Asian sentiments, such as placing a disclaimer at the start of the film, were denied.[3] Frustrated by the lack of respect for the Asian-American community and fears that the continual production and release of a film blatantly stereotyping Asian people would contribute to the continual increase in anti-Asian violence,[4] these groups decided to do more. A few days prior to the film’s release date of July 30, 1993, the Los Angeles Times reported that the JACL and MANAA were planning, “opening night ‘educational demonstrations’ in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Washington”[5] to bring political attention to their cause and protest the contents of the film.

The Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV) was a major Asian advocacy group that joined in on these protests. Created to, “organize Asian communities to fight for institutional change”[6] and fiercely committed to combatting racial and other forms of injustice, CAAAV was primed to jump into motion and enter the demonstrations against Rising Sun. In the Fall 1993 edition of The CAAAV Voice, the newsletter notes that CAAAV participated in the protest movement happening across the country, working with other groups to “educate moviegoers about the film’s insidious stereotyping and the potential for anti-Asian violence its xenophobic message promotes”.[7] CAAAV was particularly active in their home base of New York City, where many actively demonstrated in front of Time Square’s Criterion Theater. Holding aloft large banners, giving speeches, playing instruments, and more, CAAAV made their presence and cause known as they marched down the busy city streets. Uniting in a broad pan-Asian movement, CAAAV and other advocacy groups not only lent their support to the Japanese-American community, but ensured that they would not stand and accept representations that had the potential to hurt Asian-Americans more broadly. In stepping out and standing up, CAAAV assisted in bringing this important issue forward into the forefront of the American national consciousness.

Notes
[1] “Rising Sun Protest,” CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities Digital Archive, accessed April 14, 2021, http://maggie.hosting.nyu.edu/caaav/admin/items/show/1238.

[2] Vincent Canby, “Review/Film: Rising Sun; A Tale of Zen and Xenophobia in Los Angeles,” The Nork York Times, July 30, 1993, sec. Movies, https://www.nytimes.com/1993/07/30/movies/review-film-rising-sun-a-tale-of-zen-and-xenophobia-in-los-angeles.html, accessed March 21, 2021

[3] Steve Persall, “Saving Face,” Tampa Bay Times, August 1, 1993, https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/08/01/saving-face/, accessed March 21, 2021.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Elaine Dutka, “Asian-Americans: Rising Furor Over ‘Rising Sun’: Movies: Two Groups Will Stage ‘Educational Demonstrations’ in Four Cities. ‘The Movie Company Clearly Hasn’t Tried to Accommodate Our Concerns,’ Says the Director of UCLA’s Asian Studies Center,” Los Angeles Times, July 28, 1993, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-07-28-ca-17863-story.html, accessed March 21, 2021.

[6] “About Us | CAAAV.Org,” Accessed March 21, 2021, https://caaav.org/about-us.

[7] “Rising Sun! Raising Hate!,” The CAAAV Voice 5 (Fall 1993): 3, Accessed March 21, 2021, https://caaav.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Voice_Fall_1993.pdf.

1993

Hannah Berman

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

CAAAV_1546