28/04/2021
It's a year of multiple firsts at this year's Oscars, particularly for the Asian community. While we must lament the fact that it took 93 years for women of color to win these awards, it doesn’t detract from our joy at these turn of events. Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao made history by taking home the trophy for Best Director, making her the first Asian woman — and only the second woman ever — to win the category. Yoon Yuh-jung's win as the Best Supporting Actress through her acting on "Minari" marks the first time that a South Korean has ever taken home an Oscar statuette. Also, the half Filipino, half American singer-songwriter, H.E.R., got to add an Oscar to her trophy shelf after her song, "Fight For You" from Judas and the Black Messiah took home the award for Best Original Song.
For so long, Asian women have been stereotyped as being docile and subservient homemakers. The community has long been fetishized and hypersexualized due to the many false representations of Asian women, especially within the mainstream media. It wasn’t so long ago that a film like Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) was released, which starred a predominantly Chinese cast for a story so deeply ingrained in Japanese culture. These perceptions form part of the barrier holding them back from leadership roles and success in general. Being a woman in any hierarchical organization is one thing, but to move up the career ladder as a woman of Asian descent comes with its own set of barriers — a phenomenon that is commonly known as the 'Bamboo ceiling.’
The Bamboo ceiling is an invisible barrier that the female Asian community needs to face on a day-to-day basis. It does not matter how much of an effort that you put into your work, because at the end of the day, there is still a lack of visibility for Asian women at the top. This is why this year’s Academy Awards winning lineup of Asian women is momentous, as it not only marks another step forward for women and people of color in shattering the ever-present Bamboo ceiling, but it also proves to the world that Asian women, in fact, can be on top.
(Credit: Eveline Stella Budiman)
