TRANSCRIPT
Benjamin Law has been a long-time fan of Survivor.
A self-confessed fanboy of the show, the Australian writer and broadcaster, born to parents from Hong Kong and Malaysia, jumped at the opportunity to be a contestant on the reality series in 2023.
But he says his experience on-screen is a little different to audience and contestant perceptions of him.
“You know it's interesting because my experience in the game is a little bit different to me watching myself on TV (Laughs). Because we're not aware of the conversations people are having about us, until we watch it on TV with the audiences.”
It wasn't until after the show aired that Law became aware that some of his fellow contestants were calling him shifty.
“You know, audiences have been like, 'Well, he was making a fake idol in front of everyone! Isn't that shifty?' And the other half of the audience are like, 'Well, he was making the fake idol as a team project to help preserve and protect the team, because he's really trying to be a team player.' So that that second perspective is absolutely the genuine attitude I had in the game. But now I see it. I'm like, 'wow, I had to, um, you know, I was I'm now so much more aware that .”
Since then, some audiences online have been critical of non-Anglo players being labelled with words like 'shifty' and criticised the show's lack of diverse casting.
Law says while race doesn't account for everything during his stint on the show, it does explain some things.
“It does get tricky, because a lot of people from minority backgrounds were knocked out really early. At the same time, a lot of women were knocked out early. A lot of returning-- a lot of first time players were knocked out early. And I'm not a woman, but I'm a first time player, and I'm like, I'm not a jock. (Laughs). And I'm not a white person. And I'm one of the few queer people on the show. So it's like, 'Ooh, I'm really, really on the outer'. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you have no chance of winning. But it means that the less you have in common with the people around you, the harder it can be to form those links.”
He says the American version of Survivor has taken steps to address this.
“They've got a 50 per cent casting mandate where half the cast has to be at least from a Black, Indigenous or another ethnic minority background nowadays. And I don't think people like viewers, I don't think necessarily are conscious of that. But what I think it allows players to do is to be less conscious of race once they're on the show, you know. So you don't ever have to second-guess, 'Wait, am I an outsider because we're not gelling? Or am I an outsider because we're from, you know, because I'm a minority.'“
There is a history of different Asian character tropes and their portrayals in Western media.
From the model minority, to the so-called Magical Asian - often portrayed as a wise martial arts master - to fetishising Asian women in Orientalist tropes.
Associate professor at the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute, Dr Jay Song, says the perpetuation of these stereotypes means many Asian people - and she says in particular, women - have to work twice as hard to earn positions of respect.
“They have these double barriers, right. We have to fight against sexism, which is quite deeply embedded in Australian culture. But then, the other layer is the racism. So you have to break the glass ceiling, and after that the 'bamboo ceiling' is waiting for you.”
The 'bamboo ceiling' is a term coined and popularised by Asian-American academic Jane Hyun in her 2005 book, Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling: Career Strategies for Asians.
Similar to the term 'glass ceiling', which refers to invisible barriers preventing women from attaining leadership positions in their fields, the 'bamboo ceiling' describes the individual, cultural and organisational barriers that keep Asian people from progressing and attaining leadership positions.
More recently there's been a small, but seismic, shift.
From the Oscars:
“And the Oscar goes to... Michelle Yeoh. (Applause).”
To K-Pop:
EXCERPT OF BTS SONG DYNAMITE: "'Cause I - I - I'm in the stars tonight. So watch me bring the fire, set the night alight. Shoes on, get up in the morning, cup of milk, let's rock and roll.”
Over the past few years, genres like K-pop, K-dramas, and films like 'Parasite', 'Crazy Rich Asians' and 'Everything Everywhere All At Once' have surged in popularity.
Dr Song says consequently, the image of Asian people and culture within western society is shifting.
But she says their success stories within the arts industry aren't necessarily amplified in the same way as their counterparts.
“Often the Korean pop culture, the K-pop, is portrayed as very sort of childish; it's all for teenage girls, so it's created as a sort of 'second class' music industry. Now you see, you know, not just K-pop but K-films and K-dramas, and the way they're winning Oscars and, you know, Squid Game is popular; now The Glory is watched by many Australian populations.”
But is this shift reaching Australian shores with the same intensity?
A recent study by Screen Australia found while diversity has improved, more work needs to be done.
Screen Australia's Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Australian TV Drama report is a follow-up to the landmark 2016 study, Seeing Ourselves.
The report analysed more than 3,000 main characters from over 360 Australian TV dramas broadcast between 2016 and 2021.
Screen Australia's former chief executive officer Graeme Mason says the findings show there's still a long way to go.
“We're nowhere near yet getting to parity with population, but things are definitely improving with particular note First Nations is, you know, hitting it out of the ballpark (strongly achieving), which is great. And that's a beacon I think that we'd like to see with all the others.”
In those five years, First Nations representation increased from 4.8 per cent to 7.2 per cent - almost double the figure in the Australian population.
There were also more LGBTIQ+ characters - that figure rising to 7.4 per cent - but falling short of reflecting their 11 per cent share of the real population.
'Non-European representation' surged from 6.9 per cent to 16 per cent - but still didn't reflect the 25 per cent of the population they make up.
And a number of communities remain under-represented on-screen compared to population benchmarks, particularly people with disabilities and older people.
Mr Mason says there is an appetite for change.
“Everybody is on the same page and trying to make shifts; we do have a way to go. We want to see a lot more different faces and different abilities being recognised. Another one I'd flag would be older people. I mean, they've just become invisible. They've just disappeared. That's crazy, full stop. But particularly in an ageing population, which we are. So there's a multitude of underrepresented groups we want to do here. It's not just one thing. There's a whole lot of people. We want all of Australia to be able to see themselves.”
Benjamin Law says in that respect, he thinks everyone wants the same thing.
“I think the more difficult question is, how do you want to go about doing that? And, you know, I think like when it comes to Survivor, we're light years away from the first season where I think there might have been like one non-white player, you know, in a country where roughly a third of us aren't white, and roughly one in five of us speak languages other than English at home. Like when you compare season one to season eight, we're like light years apart. Could we do better? Probably, but I think the question is, like, what, what do we want to do and how do we want to do it? And I think like, there are so many avenues ahead. And so whether it's reality TV or scripted TV, I think it's like worth thinking about like, well, what does that look like if we take action? What does that actually look like?”
Screen Australia's former chief executive officer Graeme Mason says there are several options.
“So everybody's really keen. We've run a ton of initiatives over the last couple of years. But what we've got to do is not just do one-offs, because that's what I mean, collaboration. So, whether it be the SBS or ABC or Channel 10, everybody's interested. I think if we can try and coordinate together, that will be the way to go.”
Joy Hopwood is an independent Asian-Australian filmmaker.
While she feels the cultural shift, she says she has struggled to receive government funding for her projects.
“My colleagues have been noticing that they give it out to the same people over and over again. I think there should be a requirement that, you know, once you had that funding from our government body, you are not eligible for the next round. I think that that will just help you know my fellow filmmaker friends and I, you know, hopefully get that step up in the industry in terms of funding.”
Hopwood says the success of films like ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, and ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ have helped make people more open-minded.
But prior to the release of her first film, The Script of Life in 2019, she was wary of how people might react, with Asian actors making up around half of the cast.
I wasn't prepared at that first film, to have an all Asian cast, because I know many people have said to me that, 'It's not the time yet, Joy.' So I was like, putting a 50 per cent foot in. And I wrote a script that had you know, 50/50. And that was a test. And I wasn't sure how that that film would be received.”
After the film won the Best Romance award at the Amsterdam International Film Festival, Hopwood went on to make one of the first Asian-Australian rom-coms, titled Rhapsody of Love.
“I thought, okay, this, this is the path I'm going to travel, I am going to start making more content of Asians. And we made a first Asian Australian rom-com that was very well received, especially at Gold Coast Film Festival. It was our first film where we felt appreciated by the public because they stayed an hour and a half after the film and said, you know, congratulations, we feel, you know, represented and, and good on you for making this film. And that was the first seed that then gave me confidence as a filmmaker.”
She's now gone on to make more films, including 'Get A Life, Alright’ and ‘The Gift That Gives’.
Benjamin Law says he too has faced resistance against diverse casting in the past but it's very hard to explain why that still exists in the present.
“I do know that when I've worked on other shows, and I know colleagues who've worked on other shows, you often had a character and you're like, this character is Black. And they'll say, well here's who we're auditioning. And none of the actors are Black. And it's like, in what universe (why and how) do you not understand what we're trying to do? And these talents are not difficult to find, you know, once you actually go looking for them properly. So, I don't know. I just feel like there are fewer excuses for a lack of diversity on screen in 2023.”
Screen Australia's former chief executive Graham Mason says media companies in Australia and around the world are re-examining how people are represented.
“It matters creatively, to have a range of voices telling a range of stories; it also matters commercially, because anyone who's really trying to attract viewers, whether to sell ads, or make sure you keep subscribing or just to be aware of that channel, the need to reflect back to people, themselves and things that they may be interested in. So I think that's why there's been a shift. And I think there'll continue to be a shift for better reflecting Australia as she is, not maybe how we used to think she was.”
Law says this shift is both present, but somewhat paradoxical in nature.
“We're kind of simultaneously living within a revolutionary moment, both overseas and here in terms of Asian rights representation, diaspora representation in the mainstream. And simultaneously, we've got a long way to go. Both things can be true.”
