25年前，《喜福会》也曾给亚裔带来希望，后来呢？
如果你问许多亚裔美国演员和创作者，他们会告诉你，好莱坞对他们所属社群的呈现正在转变。
Last month, “Crazy Rich Asians” stormed to the top of the box office and earned the greenlight for a sequel. “Searching,” starring John Cho, and “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,” starring Lana Condor, both received joyous reviews. The rise in these stories being told onscreen has led to the celebratory hashtag, #AsianAugust, circulating online.
上个月，《疯狂的亚洲富人》(Crazy Rich Asian)登上票房冠军位置，为续集打开了绿灯。由约翰·赵(John Cho)主演的《搜寻》(Searching)和拉娜·康多(Lana Condor)主演的《致所有我爱过的男孩》(To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before)也都收到了好评。这些影片的出现，带出了“#亚洲八月”(#AsianAugust)这个庆祝标签在网上走红。
But a similar optimism also swelled 25 years ago, when the film adaptation of Amy Tan’s novel “The Joy Luck Club” arrived in theaters to lines around the block in cities like New York and Los Angeles. The movie was greeted with enthusiasm from critics, who lauded the nuanced portrayal of four middle-aged Chinese immigrant mothers and their Americanized daughters.
但25年前，根据谭恩美的小说《喜福会》(The Joy Luck Club)改编的电影在纽约和洛杉矶等城市的影院上映时大受欢迎，也出现过类似高涨的乐观情绪。影片受到了影评人的热烈欢迎，称赞其对四位人到中年的华人移民母亲和她们美国化的女儿做出了细致入微的刻画。
Many of the actresses, as well as the director Wayne Wang, began receiving high-profile offers. “I thought it would be a new beginning for Asian-Americans,” Rosalind Chao, who played Rose in the film, said in an interview.
片中的许多女演员以及导演王颖开始收到各种引人注目的邀约。“我认为这对亚裔美国人来说，将是一个新的开始，”在片中饰演罗斯的赵家玲在一次采访中说。
But roadblocks proved shockingly resilient. Instead of ushering in a crop of Asian-American projects, “The Joy Luck Club” remained a token for more than two decades — until “Crazy Rich Asians” became the next Hollywood blockbuster to feature a contemporary story with an all-Asian cast.
但事实证明，障碍的突破是非常困难的。《喜福会》之后，并没有出现大量的亚裔美国人电影，在20多年时间里，它始终是一种象征，直到《疯狂的亚州富人》成为又一部讲述当代剧情、全亚裔阵容的好莱坞大片。
In the wake of #AsianAugust, Mr. Wang, Ms. Tan, and five of the movie’s actresses — Ms. Chao, Lisa Lu, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita and Ming-Na Wen — reflected on the challenges and prejudices they faced before and after “The Joy Luck Club” and whether they believe “Crazy Rich Asians” truly signals a new era.
在“#亚洲八月”这个标签出来后，王颖、谭恩美和电影里的五位女演员——赵家玲、卢燕、劳伦·汤姆(Lauren Tom)、富田谭玲(Tamlyn Tomita)和温明娜反思了在《喜福会》之前和之后，他们所面临的挑战和偏见，以及他们是否相信《疯狂的亚洲富人》真的预示着一个新时代的到来。
Before “The Joy Luck Club,” Asian characters with depth in Hollywood were few and far between. There were martial artists (often played by Bruce Lee), caricatures (Long Duk Dong in “Sixteen Candles”) or yellowface roles (Mickey Rooney’s I. Y. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”).
《喜福会》之前，在好莱坞有深度的亚洲角色难得一见。通常是一些武打角色(通常由李小龙扮演)、漫画式的人物(《十六支蜡烛》[Sixteen Candles]里的角色龙大东)，或者“黄脸”角色(《蒂芙尼的早餐》[Breakfast at Tiffany’s]中米基·鲁尼[Mickey Rooney]扮演的国吉先生)。
Lisa Lu, who played An-Mei, one of the mothers in “The Joy Luck Club,” experienced these archetypes first hand. When she acted in a China-set 1958 episode of “Shirley Temple’s Storybook,” she was relegated to second fiddle while a white woman, Judith Braun, played the lead role in yellowface. “I was frustrated when I was in Hollywood because there was no script that really describes the Chinese as they are,” Ms. Lu said in an interview.
在《喜福会》中扮演安梅的卢燕亲身经历过这些原型。1958年，在以中国为背景的一集《秀兰·邓波儿的故事书》(Shirley Temple’s Storybook)中，她被安排出演女二号，而白人女演员朱迪斯·布劳恩(Judith Braun)则“黄脸”出演女一号。“在好莱坞的时候我郁闷，因为没有真实描绘华人的剧本，”卢燕在一次采访中说。
Decades later, the “Joy Luck Club” daughters faced similar prejudices. Tamlyn Tomita, who plays Waverly in the film, described many of her early television and film roles as: “She’s a loose girl; she’s a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with a heart of gold.”
几十年后，《喜福会》中的女儿们也面临着类似的偏见。在电影中饰演韦弗利的富田谭玲形容她早期的影视角色：“要么是放荡的女孩，要么是出身卑微、心地善良的姑娘。”
Rosalind Chao took on roles like a laundryman’s daughter in a Lucille Ball TV series and a docile Korean bride who talked about eating dogs in “M*A*S*H” and “After MASH.” “Asian-American women were objectified,” she said. “Pretty was really all that they cared about.”
赵家玲在露西尔·鲍尔(Lucille Ball)的一个剧集中饰演一个洗衣工的女儿，在《陆军野战医院》(M*A*S*H)及其续集《陆军野战医院之后》(After MASH)中饰演一个温顺的、谈论着吃狗肉的韩国新娘。“亚裔美国女性被物化了，”她说。“他们只要你美美的就好。”
The characters in the novel “The Joy Luck Club,” which arrived in 1989, were a welcome contrast. They celebrated family bonds as they struggled with high expectations, psychological trauma and cultural differences. “When I read the book, it was the first time I felt someone was writing about my life,” Ms. Wen, who plays June, said.
小说《喜福会》在1989年问世，其中的人物与之前形成了可喜的对比。他们一边与高期望值、心理创伤和文化差异斗争，一边珍视家庭的纽带。“当我读这本书的时候，我第一次感觉到有人在写我的生活，”饰演钟的温明娜说。
While almost every movie studio passed on the project, Mr. Wang, Ms. Tan and the screenwriter Ronald Bass struck pay dirt with Jeffrey Katzenberg at Walt Disney Studios, who granted the team a $10 million budget and full creative control. The film was received warmly by critics and performed respectably at the box office, easily making back its budget on the way to a total of $32.9 million.
虽然几乎所有片厂都没有选择这个项目，王颖、谭恩美和编剧罗纳德·巴斯(Ronald Bass)同华特迪士尼工作室(Walt Disney Studios)的杰弗里·卡岑伯格(Jeffrey Katzenberg)一起还是大赚了一笔——卡岑伯格给了这支团队1000万美元的预算和完全的创作权限。影片受到了影评人的热烈欢迎，票房表现也很好，轻易地就赚回预算并取得3,290万美元的总票房。
The positive effects were almost immediate. Lauren Tom, who plays Lena, was quickly cast as Ross’s love interest in “Friends,” after one of the show’s producers saw the movie. Ms. Wen voiced the title character voice in Disney’s “Mulan” and nabbed other roles.
积极影响几乎是立竿见影的。饰演琳娜(Lena)的劳伦·汤姆(Lauren Tom)很快就被选为《老友记》中罗斯的恋人，因为该剧制片人之一看了这部电影。温明娜在迪士尼的《花木兰》(Mulan)中配音，并获得了其他角色。
“I always say that ‘The Joy Luck Club’ was my green card to Hollywood,” Ms. Wen said.
“我总说《喜福会》是我进入好莱坞的绿卡，”温明娜说。
Mr. Wang’s stature also took off. On the day of the film’s opening, he recalled receiving a phone call from Harvey Weinstein, who agreed to finance his next project, “Smoke,” on the spot. (Mr. Wang says he wasn’t aware of Mr. Weinstein’s predatory behavior, but that working with him was difficult: “He was obviously a bully of some kind.”) Mr. Wang would go on to direct diverse films like “Maid in Manhattan,” with Jennifer Lopez, and the family drama “Because of Winn-Dixie.”
王颖的声望也得到了提升。在影片上映的当天，他回忆起曾接到哈维·韦恩斯坦(Harvey Weinstein)的电话，后者当即同意为他的下一部影片《烟》(Smoke)提供资金。(王颖说，他当时不知道韦恩斯坦的掠夺性行为，但与他合作很困难：“他显然是某种霸凌者。”)后来，王颖导演了多种影片，比如有詹妮弗·洛佩兹(Jennifer Lopez)出演的《曼哈顿女佣》(Maid in Manhattan)，以及家庭剧《都是戴茜惹的祸》(Because of Winn-Dixie)。
“It’s so easy in this industry to be pigeonholed,” he said. “I didn’t want to get stuck.”
“在这个行业里，你很容易被限制在一个类别里，”他说，“我不想被困住。”
As Mr. Wang broadened his reach, he also tried to pitch Asian-American films to studios — without success. While his large ideas, like an adaptation of “West Side Story” set in Chinatown, were rejected, so were his more modest efforts to place Asian characters in his films. “I would always say, ‘I know this character wasn’t written for an Asian, but why can’t we take a good Asian actor or actress and put them in that role?’ ” he said. “And that would always be a fight that I couldn’t win.”
在扩展他的疆域的同时，王颖也试图向片厂倡议拍关于亚裔美国人的电影——但没有成功。他的宏大构想，比如一部设定在唐人街的《西区故事》(West Side Story)改编版，遭到了拒绝;他在自己的电影中加入亚洲角色的努力也遭到了拒绝。“我总是说，‘我知道这个角色不是为亚洲人写的，但是为什么我们不能选择一个好的亚洲演员来扮演这个角色呢?’他说。“那将是一场我永远赢不了的斗争。”
The four daughters in “The Joy Luck Club” eventually found themselves competing against each other for the few paltry film roles available to Asian women; they mostly moved to TV, doing short arcs on shows like “ER” and “The West Wing.”
《喜福会》中的四个女儿最终发现，她们在为了向亚洲女性提供的几个微不足道的角色而竞争，她们大多转向电视行业，在《急诊室的故事》(ER)和《白宫西翼》(The West Wing)等剧中出演短期角色。
“A lot of my friends who were white, and were the same age and a similar type, they would get called in,” Ms. Tom said of film auditions, “but my agent could not get me in the room.” She eventually found stable work in voice acting, with characters like Amy Wong in “Futurama,” which she said she found freeing: “It didn’t really matter what age you were, what you looked like or what gender, even.”
“我的很多朋友都是年龄相同、类型相仿的白人，她们会接到电话。但是我的经纪人无法让我进入房间，”汤姆谈到电影试镜时说。她最终在声音表演方面找到了稳定的工作，包括为《飞出个未来》(Futurama)中的艾米·王(Amy Wong)等角色配音，她说她最终在其中发现了自由。“你的年龄、你的样子，甚至你的性别都没有关系。”
Perhaps the biggest opportunity that Hollywood offered to a “Joy Luck” alumni was to Ms. Tan herself. After the film’s release, Disney offered to adapt her sophomore novel, “The Kitchen God’s Wife,” as a live action feature, Ms. Tan said in an interview. But she pulled out of talks in order to focus on her novel writing.
也许好莱坞为《喜福会》班底提供的最大机会落到了谭恩美本人头上。谭恩美在采访中说，《喜福会》上映后，迪士尼提出把她的第二部小说《灶神之妻》(The Kitchen God’s Wife)改编成动画。但她退出了谈判，专注小说创作。
That solitary work suited her better than the film industry, Ms. Tan said, which often forced her into compromises she refused to make. She recalled pitching one Asian-driven idea to Amy Pascal — the former Sony studio head — who instead suggested they shoot a Shanghai romance starring Lucy Liu and Matthew McConaughey and tailored to the Chinese box office. Ms. Tan declined.
谭恩美说，这项孤独的工作比电影业更适合她，电影业往往会迫使人妥协，而她拒绝妥协。她回忆曾向前索尼影业负责人艾米·帕斯卡(Amy Pascal)提出一个由亚洲人主导的创意，后者建议他们拍一部由刘玉玲和马修·麦康纳黑(Matthew McConaughey)主演的上海爱情故事，并为中国票房量身打造。谭恩美拒绝了。
“It would be horrible, and I would regret it,” she said. “Everybody gets their finger in the pie, and they turn it into mush.”
“那会很可怕，我会后悔的，”她说。“每个人都要插手，然后搞得一团糟。”
Before “Crazy Rich Asians” arrived this summer, the tide had already begun to change for Asian actors and directors.
在《疯狂的亚洲富人》今年夏天上映前，对于亚洲演员和导演来说，风向已经开始发生变化。
A boom era of television has led to both the production of culturally insightful shows like “Fresh Off The Boat” and the awarding of roles to a diverse pool of actors. Three of the “Joy Luck” daughters, for instance, are currently part of the casts of successful TV shows: Ms. Wen on “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Ms. Tom on “Andi Mack” and Ms. Tomita on “The Good Doctor.”
电视的繁荣带来了诸如《初来乍到》(Fresh Off The Boat)这样具有文化洞察力的电视剧，各种各样的演员都得到了角色。例如，《喜福会》中的三位女儿目前都在大获成功的电视剧中扮演角色：温明娜在漫威的《神盾局特工》(Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.);汤姆在《安迪·麦克》(Andi Mack);富田在《良医》(The Good Doctor)。
In the film industry, the presence of Asian executives at major studios — like Kevin Tsujihara at Warner Bros. — and the increased power of the Chinese box office has led to the creation of more Asian-centric stories. One is the live action adaptation of “Mulan,” which will feature Ms. Chao as the title character’s mother.
在电影行业，大制片公司有了亚洲高管——如华纳兄弟的凱文·辻原(Kevin Tsujihara)——以及中国票房的实力增强催生了更多以亚洲为中心的故事。其中包括《木兰》(Mulan)的真人改编影片，其中赵家玲饰演木兰的母亲。
And Ms. Lu, who is now 91 years old, forged a direct link between the two eras when she starred in “Crazy Rich Asians” as Shang Su Yi, Nick’s wealthy and stern grandmother. “I’m so happy the picture came out so entertaining, but so moving,” she said.
现年91岁的卢燕在《疯狂的亚洲富人》中饰演尼克富有而又严厉的祖母尚苏伊(音)，在两个时代之间建立了直接的联系。“我很高兴，这部影片最后很有趣，但也很感人，”她说。
Last month, many members of the “Joy Luck” cast and creative team gathered for a 25th anniversary celebration of the film in Los Angeles. Afterward, Ms. Tan, Mr. Wang and Mr. Bass discussed the possibility of a sequel. This time, they believe, the film might be supported even more by an Asian-American community, which has learned to mobilize through social media and speak loudly about its accomplishments. That’s a far cry from the approach typified by the character Lindo in “The Joy Luck Club,” who presents her best dish at dinner by insulting it.
上个月，《喜福会》演员和主创团队的许多成员在洛杉矶聚会，庆祝这部电影上映25周年。之后，谭恩美、王颖和巴斯讨论了续集的可能性。他们相信，这一次，这部电影可能会受到亚裔美国人社区的支持，这个社区已经学会通过社交媒体动员起来，并大声谈论自己的成就。这与《喜福会》中的人物林多(Lindo)所代表的方式相去甚远，她在晚餐时会通过贬低来呈上她最拿手的菜肴。
“Back then, we were a little more self-critical. As an Asian-American community, we’re starting to realize that self-flagellation only hurts,” Ms. Chao said.
“那时候，我们有点自我批评的倾向。作为一个亚裔美国人社区，我们开始意识到自我鞭笞只会带来伤害，”赵家玲说。
Ms. Tom put it more succinctly: “I don’t think there’s any shutting us up anymore.”
汤姆用更直截了当的方式说：“我认为不再有任何事能让我们闭嘴了。”
