Really Sixteen Candles? Really?

The “other”. A key phrase in the lecture on Orientalism defined as deviant, unnatural and strange. In other words anything that exists outside of what is considered normal (Western). And oh boy have I found an example for you. While I do love this hideously 80s movie, I can’t even begin to defend its character, Long Duk Dong…

Here is a short clip of some of his scenes so you get the general idea of the way the only Asian character in the movie is represented:

So basically Long is an exchange student staying with the main character, Samantha’s grandparents. It never mentions where he is actually from which brings up some issues that I will be focusing on in this post. He seems to be Japanese based on his accent and use of Japanese words (“Banzai!), but in this movie he seems to be viewed as basically anyone from anywhere in Asia. For example while he seems Japanese a gong chimes in the background whenever he comes onto the set. While this is obviously racist anyway, it isn’t even from the right country as gongs are Chinese. This pretty much sums up the amount of research the writers bothered to do which we unfortunately see often on the big screen, like the apparent (according to Hollywood) use of the same tools and clothing by every Native American ever.

This crossing of elements from numerous cultures serves to put those characters into the category of the ‘other’. It doesn’t matter that Long Duk Dong speaks Japanese words or that Japanese music plays as he sits at the dinner table and then is introduced into every scene with the chime of a Chinese gong, what matters is that we recognise these things as non-western and so categorise Long into the ‘other’.

Putting Long into this category serves no other purpose than entertainment. Humour is made off of his failure to understand anything going on, his crasy behaviour and the fact that for most of the movie he is just getting super drunk. As is alcohol and women don’t exist in… Wherever he is from. His character literally adds nothing to the plot, other than I guess he drives Samantha to a party at one point. But that drive is also filled with humour based on his strangeness such as him crashing the car, failing to understand a high-five and drink driving.

So basically in Sixteen Candles, the character Long Duk Dong seems to fit the orientalism lecture pretty well. His ‘Otherness’ is used as entertainment to the presumed western audience who find humour in his strange behaviours and inability to fit in to the boundaries of western society. He even seems to defy or act against some western ideologies, for example his extreme promiscuity and drinking habits.

 His character only seems to be there to create a humorous conflict between the North American and Asian identities yet we don’t even know where he is from. His actual nationality seems unimportant to the writers, just the fact that he is different to the American characters.

Still an awesome movie though…

Thanks for reading.