On Nov. 17, De Anza faculty members Christine Chai and James Nguyen hosted a screening and discussion of Elaine Kim’s “Slaying the Dragon: Reloaded,” a documentary on the portrayal of Asian American women in Hollywood.

“Part of the purpose of showing the film is the awareness and consciousness of people of color and how they’re represented in the media,” said Chai. 

Conference Room B at the Hinson Campus Center was packed. Chai explained that the film, which originally screened at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, is a sequel to Kim’s 1986 film “Slaying the Dragon.”

Discovering whether or not “the perception of all those stereotypes that we’ve grown up with about Asian Americans still holds true in today’s generation,” was very important, Chai explained.

While Chai wanted students to take away the idea that these themes are still present, she said she “wanted to know what their reaction was, whether they believe it’s relevant.”

The 30-minute film featured interviews with Kim’s students, as well as other professors, artists, and others who felt it was important to acknowledge and challenge the current ideas of Hollywood. 

The interviews were interspersed with a variety of clips, including Hollywood films, such as Lucy Liu in “Charlie’s Angels,” and MySpace celebrity-turned-star Tila Tequila. 

Chai explained that Kim, a professor of ethnic studies at UC Berkeley, decided to create a modern successor to her original film because her current students did not understand the references used in it. 

The new clips were highly recognizable, and many in the audience laughed along to the more comedic or overtly stereotypical scenes, such as those from “Rush Hour 2.”

“On the one hand, it seems like it might be a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of those kinds of images,” said Sylvia Chan-Malik, in response to such scenes. “But on the other hand, you have to be in on the joke. My question is, are we all in on the joke?” 

Before the film, Nguyen asked the crowd what their idea of a stereotypical Asian-American woman would be. “Hyper-sexualized… subservient, docile, quiet,” he suggested. The crowd agreed. 

Chai said she sees De Anza as a place to challenge these and any other stereotypes facing the various ethnic groups on campus.

“The atmosphere of the faculty, staff, students, and student-run government [creates] so much awareness about diversity and this openness to change,” she said. “Although [you’ll] meet resistance, the community and the attitude is open, accepting and friendly to at least put forth the request for change.”

Chai encouraged students to take ethnic studies classes, or at least look for professors of other subjects who are open to exposure of diversity in their classrooms.

For more information on the film, go to http://www.asianwomenunited.org/slaying-the-dragon-reloaded-2011/