The Complex History of Asian Representation at the Oscars亚裔登顶奥斯卡的艰难历程

After Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh swept the Best Actress Awards at the 94th National Board of Review Awards and Golden Globes for her outstanding performance in absurdist1 comedy film Everything Everywhere All at Once， she made history again with her Best Actress win at the Oscars 2023.

马来西亚女演员杨紫琼凭借其在荒诞喜剧电影《瞬息全宇宙》中的精湛演技横扫第94届美国国家评论协会奖和金球奖最佳女主角后再次创造历史，一举夺得2023年奥斯卡最佳女主角奖。

The first Asian woman to be nominated for Best Actress was Merle Oberon in 1936， for The Dark Angel. The Mumbai-born actor， who was of mixed race and did not promote her Asian heritage， played white women in her film roles. More than eight decades later， in her speech accepting the Screen Actors Guild Award on Feb. 26， Yeoh said， “This is not just for me， this is for every little girl that looks like me.”

首位获此提名的亚裔女性是出生于印度孟买的混血女演员梅尔·奥勃朗，她凭借出演《黑色天使》提名1936年最佳女主角。但她在电影中多扮演白人女性角色，并未宣扬自己的亚洲血统。80多年后，在2023年2月26日美国演员工会奖的获奖致辞中，杨紫琼说道：“这份荣誉不仅仅是为我一个人，它将鼓励每一位亚裔小女孩。”

Here’s what to know about the history of actors of Asian descent at the Oscars.

下面讲一讲亚裔演员与奥斯卡金像奖的历史渊源。

From passing to “yellowface”

从亚裔隐瞒身份到白人化黄脸妆

In The Dark Angel， Oberon played a white woman in the middle of a love triangle with her two childhood friends who are World War I soldiers. In a line from a 1935 Picture Play profile that now reads as particularly revealing， she said， “It’s easier for me to be something which I am not than it is to act myself.” While her performance received rave reviews2， the Oscar that year ultimately went to Bette Davis for Dangerous.

在《黑色天使》中，奥勃朗饰演的白人女性和她的两个童年好友（同为一战士兵）陷入了三角恋中。她在1935年《美国电影周刊》的人物专栏中提到：“对我而言，扮演与我本人截然不同的角色比本色出演更加容易。”如今读来，引人深思。虽然奥勃朗的表演广受好评，但当年的奥斯卡最终由出演《女人女人》的贝蒂·戴维斯收入囊中。

“She was passing，” Monica Sandler， a historian of Hollywood at the University of California， Los Angeles， says of Oberon’s career playing non-Asian roles. “She’s an example of someone who was hiding her identity， was able to get parts in the industry specifically because she was hiding her identity…If she had been openly Asian at that time， she would not have been able to have any leading roles.” The love triangle in The Dark Angel， she argues， would have been particularly scandalous3 had Oberon’s character been Asian because “you could not have a romantic relationship between two people of two different races in movies during that period of time.”

“她让人相信自己是白人。”加州大学洛杉矶分校的好莱坞历史学家莫妮卡·桑德勒如此评价奥勃朗饰演非亚裔角色的演艺生涯，“她的例子恰恰说明，在当时的电影行业，亚裔只能掩藏起自己的身份才能得到角色。如果她当时公开宣扬自己的亚裔身份，根本不会有担任主演的机会。”她认为，如果奥勃朗的角色是亚裔，《黑色天使》中的畸恋将显得尤为不堪，因为“在那个年代，你不可能看到电影里出现两个不同种族的角色谈情说爱。”

Hollywood did， however， reward white actors who played Asian characters onscreen—a practice of using makeup to change one’s appearance known as “yellowface.” One famous example from this period is German actor Luise Rainer winning Best Actress for The Good Earth， the 1937 film adaptation of the Pearl Buck4 classic. As Sandler sums up this milestone， the Oscars had “never rewarded an Asian person but they did reward a person for playing Asian.”

不过，好莱坞的确曾颁奖给在银幕上扮演亚裔角色的白人演员——这种通过化妆改变外貌的做法被称为“白人黄脸妆”。其中，为人熟知的例子是德国演员路易丝·赖纳，她凭借出演1937年上映、改编自赛珍珠经典作品的电影《大地》获得奥斯卡最佳女主角奖。正如桑德勒对这座“里程碑”奖项的总结， 奥斯卡奖“从未颁给过亚裔演员，但确实颁给过出演亚裔角色的演员”。

Buck’s novel has generated criticism over the years. The Asian characters in the book have been criticized for being oversimplified and portrayed as “victims” who “need a Western outsider to come and save them.” That was a widely shared view among white Americans.

赛珍珠的小说一直受到批评。有批评认为书中的亚裔角色过于简单化，而且被塑造成了“需要西方外来者拯救”的“受害者”。这一观点在美国白人群体中受到广泛认可。

Limited roles and gradually improving representation

从角色受限到出演机会渐增

When Asian women did get cast in Hollywood movies， the options were scant5 and often stereotypical6. An Asian woman did play a part in The Good Earth， but as a mistress to the lead actor Paul Muni， whom he leaves when he decides to stay with his wife. Sandler also singles out7 Anna May Wong8， the most prominent Chinese American actress of her era， who was mostly offered roles as secondary characters who were “villainous9” or “sex objects.” In fact， Wong was supposed to play the leading female role in The Good Earth but lost the part to Rainer.

当亚裔女性在好莱坞电影中获得出演机会时，可选的角色类型很少且多为刻板印象。《大地》中确实有一位亚裔女性参演，但演的是男主角保罗·穆尼的情人，当男主决定回归家庭，便将其抛弃。桑德勒特别提到了黄柳霜。这位在当时风头无二的美籍华人女演员往往也只能饰演配角，要么是“反派”，要么是“性感尤物”。其实，《大地》的女主角本该由她扮演，但最终给了赖纳。

Fast-forward to the late 1990s， and Yeoh was a star in Asia， starring in Hong Kong action films， but facing limited options in Hollywood films. Despite gaining traction10 as a Chinese secret agent who jumps off a skyscraper in the James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies in 1997， she turned down Hollywood film parts repeatedly for the next three years because she refused to play any roles that perpetuated11 stereotypes about Asian women. Even after she starred in the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger， Hidden Dragon （2000）， it was not until 2022 with the release of Everything Everywhere All at Once that Yeoh experienced widespread recognition of her talents by the Hollywood mainstream.

时间来到1990年代后期，杨紫琼已经在亚洲成名，出演了不少香港动作片，但在好莱坞电影中，留给她的选择仍然很有限。她在1997年上映的《007之明日帝国》中饰演了一位中国特工，从摩天大楼纵身一跃，受到关注。但在接下来的三年里，她因为不想扮演任何延续对亚裔女性刻板印象的角色，一再拒绝出演好莱坞电影。虽然早在2000年，她出演的《卧虎藏龙》就已经获得奥斯卡奖，但直到2022年《瞬息全宇宙》上映，她的演艺天赋才得到了好莱坞主流的认可。

But there have been breakthroughs in recent years： In 2018， TIME lauded12 Crazy Rich Asians—in which Yeoh plays the protective mother of a groom—as the first modern story with an all-Asian cast and an Asian American lead in 25 years， since The Joy Luck Club in 1993. Comedies like The Farewell and Always Be My Maybe were hailed13 for their relatable14 depictions of Asian American characters. And at the 2021 Oscars， Yuh-jung Youn won Best Supporting Actress for Minari， becoming the first Asian actor to win an acting Oscar since 1985 when the Cambodian actor Haing Ngor won for The Killing Fields.

不过，近年来已经有了一些突破：2018年，《时代周刊》称赞《摘金奇缘》是《喜福会》（1993）上映25年来第一部由亚裔美国人担任主角、全亚裔演员阵容、讲述当代故事的电影。杨紫琼在其中饰演了对新郎保护欲极强的母亲。诸如《别告诉她》和《两大无猜》等喜剧因其对亚裔美国人角色的贴切塑造而受到好评。尹汝贞更是凭借《米纳里》获得2021年奥斯卡最佳女配角奖，成为继1985年出演《杀戮战场》的柬埔寨裔演员吴汉润后又一获奥斯卡表演类奖项的亚裔演员。

The Oscars have also seen some strides15 when it comes to Asian and Asian American filmmakers behind the camera. Ang Lee was the first director of Asian descent to win Best Director， for Brokeback Mountain， in 2006; he won it again for Life of Pi seven years later. Bong Joon-Ho won for Parasite in 2020.

镜头背后，在亚裔和美籍亚裔电影制作人方面，奥斯卡奖也有了一定进步。2006年，李安凭借《断背山》成为首位获得最佳导演奖的亚裔；七年后，《少年派的奇幻漂流》为他再下一城。2020年，韩国导演奉俊昊凭借《寄生虫》获奖。

On a broader level， authentic representation of Asian stories on-screen can lead to a better understanding of Asian stories off-screen. As Yeoh told TIME in 2022， her fans tell her that her career has the power to uplift the entire Asian community， “They come up to me and they say， ‘You’re doing it for us.’”

从更广泛的层面来看，银幕上原汁原味的亚洲故事可以帮助观众更好地理解银幕外现实中的亚洲叙事。杨紫琼在2022年接受《时代》周刊采访时曾说，她的粉丝们告诉她，她演艺事业的成功能鼓舞整个亚裔群体。“他们来到我的跟前告诉我：‘你这样做是为了我们。’”

（译者为“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛获奖者）

1 absurdist荒诞主义的。

2 rave reviews热情洋溢的评论文章。 3 scandalous令人反感的；令人震惊的。

4美国作家，1932年凭借长篇小说《大地》获得普利策小说奖，并在1938年以此获得美国历史上第三个诺贝尔文学奖。 5 scant数量稀少的。 6 stereotypical（符合）刻板印象的。

7 single out单独选出。 8 美籍华裔女演员。 9 villainous邪恶的，极坏的。 10 gain traction（观点或产品等）变得流行（或被接受）。 11 perpetuate使持续。 12 laud称赞，赞扬。

13 hail赞扬（或称颂）……为（尤用于报章等）。 14 relatable可明白的，可理解的。 15 stride进展，进步。