The stereotype of the Dragon Lady came about with the rise of Anna May Wong, an Asian-American actress in Hollywood. She was a very famous actress who worked alongside very famous actors in Old Hollywood, but tended to be typecast as a seductive, desirable woman who could use her feminine wiles to attract men and more importantly, bend them to her will. Wong was considered a Vamp in the book Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers, and that same description applies to the Dragon Lady as a woman who will control men using her sexuality.
Surely a woman in control of her sexuality should be praised, not stigmatized with a stereotype. However, this is still a term that implies that Asian women are inherently sexual and that they rely on sensuality to manipulate another person. Many women are able to use their bodies as a form of seduction for manipulation, but Asian women are the only ones with a specific named stereotype to show it.
China Doll
While a Dragon Lady is aggressive, a China Doll is a much more submissive Asian woman who is docile and servile. This stereotype came from the 1960 movie The World of Suzie Wong (pictured right), in which a Chinese prostitute falls in love with a white man. After financial setbacks, she resumes prostitution work to provide for him. While the film was not a huge success, the stereotype of the submissive, self-sacrificial Asian woman still remained. With the onset of Asian feminism, this stereotype is not as prevalent as it once was, but Asian women continue to be attractive to men looking for a wife who will remain submissive to them without any objection. This is shown through the thriving market for mail order brides, especially for those women with East Asian origin. The assumption that Asian women are naturally docile makes them attractive wives and has perpetuated the idea of the China Doll stereotype.
Asian women are definitely willing to sacrifice for others, but not because they are submissive. Indeed, it can be said of any woman of any race that self-sacrifice is not necessarily because of one's inherent docility as the China Doll stereotype implies, but that there is something that they find worth the sacrifice, as Suzie does in the film for her lover.
Tiger Mother
This stereotype comes from Amy Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in which she describes raising her children with an iron fist in order to make them excel academically and in their extra-curricular work. The Tiger Mother expects the best from her children and threatens them by withholding food, play, and toys until they perform as well as she hopes. Although Chua's book put a name to the stereotype, it existed long before to characterize Asian mothers who insisted that their children exceed all expectations in school and who would stop at nothing to make sure that their children could achieve this academic success.
While the Tiger Mother is often considered to be suffocating and overly demanding of her children, it is eventually up to the children to determine if the parenting they were subjected to was effective or not. Although many Asian American children criticize Chua and her parenting tactics, most appreciate their own Tiger Mothers for their pressure for high academic achievement. In a conversation with a group of Asian students about their mothers, I found that many defended them and were grateful to them for their belief that they could always do better. A typical Tiger Mother, like Chua, will know exactly when to let her chicks fly from the proverbial nest, and set out to find their own successes without pressure from her.
Dragon Lady
The stereotype of the Dragon Lady came about with the rise of Anna May Wong, an Asian-American actress in Hollywood. She was a very famous actress who worked alongside very famous actors in Old Hollywood, but tended to be typecast as a seductive, desirable woman who could use her feminine wiles to attract men and more importantly, bend them to her will. Wong was considered a Vamp in the book Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers, and that same description applies to the Dragon Lady as a woman who will control men using her sexuality.Surely a woman in control of her sexuality should be praised, not stigmatized with a stereotype. However, this is still a term that implies that Asian women are inherently sexual and that they rely on sensuality to manipulate another person. Many women are able to use their bodies as a form of seduction for manipulation, but Asian women are the only ones with a specific named stereotype to show it.
China Doll
While a Dragon Lady is aggressive, a China Doll is a much more submissive Asian woman who is docile and servile. This stereotype came from the 1960 movie The World of Suzie Wong (pictured right), in which a Chinese prostitute falls in love with a white man. After financial setbacks, she resumes prostitution work to provide for him. While the film was not a huge success, the stereotype of the submissive, self-sacrificial Asian woman still remained. With the onset of Asian feminism, this stereotype is not as prevalent as it once was, but Asian women continue to be attractive to men looking for a wife who will remain submissive to them without any objection. This is shown through the thriving market for mail order brides, especially for those women with East Asian origin. The assumption that Asian women are naturally docile makes them attractive wives and has perpetuated the idea of the China Doll stereotype.
Asian women are definitely willing to sacrifice for others, but not because they are submissive. Indeed, it can be said of any woman of any race that self-sacrifice is not necessarily because of one's inherent docility as the China Doll stereotype implies, but that there is something that they find worth the sacrifice, as Suzie does in the film for her lover.
Tiger Mother
This stereotype comes from Amy Chua's book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother in which she describes raising her children with an iron fist in order to make them excel academically and in their extra-curricular work. The Tiger Mother expects the best from her children and threatens them by withholding food, play, and toys until they perform as well as she hopes. Although Chua's book put a name to the stereotype, it existed long before to characterize Asian mothers who insisted that their children exceed all expectations in school and who would stop at nothing to make sure that their children could achieve this academic success.
While the Tiger Mother is often considered to be suffocating and overly demanding of her children, it is eventually up to the children to determine if the parenting they were subjected to was effective or not. Although many Asian American children criticize Chua and her parenting tactics, most appreciate their own Tiger Mothers for their pressure for high academic achievement. In a conversation with a group of Asian students about their mothers, I found that many defended them and were grateful to them for their belief that they could always do better. A typical Tiger Mother, like Chua, will know exactly when to let her chicks fly from the proverbial nest, and set out to find their own successes without pressure from her.
- An Bui