Asian Americans On YouTube:Representation,Strategy And Institution

Generally speaking,Asian Americans are underprivileged on American media.First,they are underrepresented in media exposure and workforce.Second,Asian roles are often played by Caucasians.Third,they are subject to misrepresentations.With their rapidly growing population,impressive economic achievement and technology savvy,Asian Americans are becoming increasingly vocal and inluencial,especially on new media.YouTube is a typical example.On this platform,famous Asian Americans have gained millions of subscribers and billions of views.In addition to popularity,they have gained absolute control over their content.With their popularity and control,if they will,they can challenge the entrenched misrepresentations prevalent on traditional media.Researches on Asian American representations almost exclusively concentrate on traditional media and literary works.This paper intends to fill the existing gap by studying the representation of Asian Americans on YouTube based on Stuart Hall's representation theory and his discussion on the spectacle of the other.Specifically,this paper will answer the following questions.What are the representations of Asian Americans on YouTube?What strategies do those Asian American YouTubers employ in the representation of Asian Americans?What is the role of YouTube in the representation of Asian Americans on YouTube?This paper employs content analysis,semiotic analysis and textual analysis.Research finds that the vast majority of the characters challenge the stereotypes.Several recognizable representations emerge,including assimilated American,forever foreigner,critical observer,not model Asian,masculine Asian man and other non-traditional roles like gamer,singer and sportsman.The primary representation strategy is the integrationist strategy put forward by Stuart Hall.Those YouTubers represent themselves as assimilated Americans who have fully embraced the mainstream American values and way of life and they tend to depict Asians and Asia as the "other," something to be studied and ridiculed.The application of this strategy is at the cost of abandoning Asian cultural identity and reducing Asia to the "other."The secondary strategy is Hall's "fight-from-within" tactic.This strategy is mainly employed in combating the model minority stereotype.As a potentially democratic platform,YouTube does enable Asian American YouTubers to challenge some of the stereotypical depictions.However,it should be noted that YouTube is essentially a commercial company.Its primary goal is profit maximization.To achieve this goal,YouTube is gradually assuming a playful atmosphere and tends to reinforce people's preconceptions.Besides,traditional media still plays a dominant role on that platform.In the case of Asian American YouTubers,their videos lack in-depth critique of racism and sometimes they even make fun of Asian stereotypes.Their popularity is at the cost of abandoning Asian American identity and portraying Asia as the "other." What's more,they are still living under the shadow of the mainstream media because some of their most popular videos are just reproductions of original mainstream content.Therefore,it's fair to say that Asian American YouTubers are not yet truly independent producers.