Fast as lightning...

Kung Foo Fighting....

When we think of the Asian Identity in film, we often think of the martial art stereotype; or the ninja.  Lego's latest range of children's toys , Ninjago,  perpetuates this stereotype  to younger generations. Shah (2003) in the article, "Asian culture and Asian American identities in the television and film industries of the United States", discusses that, "Mass media as important sites for the production and distribution of cultural symbols, can be understood as central not only to the policing of symbolic boundaries of difference between, for instance, acceptable and unacceptable people and human characteristics, but also as complicit in policies to segregate and degrade those deemed different," (Shaw. 2003. pp.2).  Thus it is seen that marketable ideas such as the ninja, are used by mass media in, the toy, film and media industries to encase a racial group into a stereotypical form that is intriguing and different from western cultural attributes. This ninja stereotype however is quite restrictive and with the ever increasing globalisation of our world, we come to know it as one dimensional. There needs to be a greater force in the world of media to propagate and celebrate global identities; that are not restricted to a stereotypical form.

Reference Work:

Shah. H, 2003. Asian culture and Asian American identities in the television and film industries of the United States.Studies in Media and Information Literacy Education, vol. 3, no. 3, pp.1-10.