Entrenched Orientalism: Insidious Anti-Asian Racism in Contemporary Hollywood Films

Abstract

This thesis investigates Hollywood’s subtle and pervasive use of anti-Asian stereotypes and racialized narratives in contemporary cinema, revealing how the industry disguises systemic racism under the façade of diversity and progressivism. Despite claims of inclusivity, Hollywood continues to perpetuate harmful stereotypes such as the Yellow Peril, White Savior, Lotus Blossom, Dragon Lady, Asexual Asian Man, Model Minority, and Techno-Orientalism, all of which reinforce White superiority while marginalizing Asians and Asian Americans. Through close textual analysis of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Plane (2023), and Ghost in the Shell (2017), this study demonstrates how these films replicate colonial hierarchies by framing Whiteness as morally and intellectually superior. Each film uses racial tropes and Orientalist imagery to exoticize, fetishize, or erase Asian identity, revealing how post-racial rhetoric conceals structural inequity. Drawing upon scholars such as Edward Said, Nancy Wang Yuen, Jane Chi Hyun Park, and David C. Oh, this thesis exposes how the illusion of inclusion in modern cinema sustains rather than dismantles racial hierarchy. Ultimately, this research argues that Hollywood’s post-racial mask continues to serve White hegemony, transforming anti-Asian prejudice into aesthetic pleasure. True representation demands not cosmetic diversity, but the dismantling of White-centered power structures within the American film industry.