'EVERYTIME EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE': AND THE QUESTIONS OF ASIANESS AND CHINESENESS…AND THE MANY CHINATOWNS!

By Mansor bin Puteh

That Michelle Yeoh is Malaysian is interesting to Malaysians to appreciate her winning the Oscar for Best Actress recently to be the first Malaysian to achieve such a recognition. And the fact that I majored in film at Columbia University in New York City make it even more, especially on how the issue on the Asianness and Chineseness are pared together when they are distinctively different.

I am part Chinese too with my ancestors on my mother's side who came from China not so long ago! And I also have Malay or Melayu blood to make an interesting combination.

So no wonder I have often been mistaken for a Japanese when I am in America and the thirty-nine countries I have visited so far, because none of them knew the Melayu Race and they do not think I could be Chinese with my style and appearance. The best bet is to guess that I am Japanese and also Mongolian…

Many Malaysians, too think I am a foreign tourist when I am at certain parts of the country where there are tourists and in hotels.

Michelle Yeoh's background is more peculiar because her own Chineseness is stark and there is no shade in her personal demeanor as there are six million Chinese in Malaysia which has a population of thirty-two million.

Therefore, what's not interesting at all is how Asians in America and the west especially have been referred to only the Chinese and Japanese and also Koreans; whereas Asia is such a vast region comprising of forty-eight countries that stretches from Saudi Arabia to Japan with Palestine, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Philippines and all the way to Japan.

Therefore the Asianess in Everytime Everywhere All At Once including the other films that have a cast of mostly Chinese characters in them produced in America and the west and also by some Chinese countries especially Hong Kong, Taiwan and China simply cannot be assumed as such.

This particular film has been touted as an 'Asian' film when it is just another Chinese or Chinese American film and no more. 

The diversity that Michelle and the producers of her films including those that were produced in Hong Kong where she started her acting career are just Chinese films and no more.

Asianess has to be redefined and it should be inclusive. And for that matter films made by Asian filmmakers that deal only with issues and characters from their particular country cannot claim to be 'Asian films'. To me they are either Filipino, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and so on films…

True Asian films must be those that have a vast array of characters from at least a few countries in Asia and dealing with Asian issues and not specifically Chinese, Indian or Malaysians, etc.

Lastly, no one wonders why they aren't any Asian films shown in the cinemas in the many 'Chinatowns' in America and all over the world…