Tired of being the butt of the joke?

Well, so is Arthur Dong. Last Thursday, the Academy Award-nominated director and San Francisco native presented "Scenes from Hollywood Chinese," an informal question and answer forum held in the Coppola Theatre at SF State. The 90-minute gathering featured a strongly opinionated discussion of how Chinese actors and actresses are portrayed in Hollywood.

Audience members questioned Dong about his newest documentary, "Hollywood Chinese," the winner of the Taipei Golden Horse — the Taiwanese equivalent of an Academy award. He showed a nine-minute sneak peak from the 89-minute documentary, which included scenes from movies such as the “Flower Drum Song,” “The World of Suzie Wong,” “The Curse of Quon Gwon” and other Hollywood classics. Short interviews with James Hong, Nancy Kwan and Tsai Chin were a few of the Hollywood stars shown in the sneak preview.

"He is one of the most illustrious alum[ni] in the cinema department and has had success in festivals throughout the world," said cinema department chair Stephen Ujlaki, about Dong, who was nominated for an Oscar in 1982 for a documentary he produced while at SF State. "We are all deeply honored that he came on the eve of the premiere of his film."

The evening’s discussion pinpointed stereotypes among Asian actors and actresses. Dong said that he felt that Asians are categorized into a narrow set of characteristics. Asians are usually the doctor characters or the "prop" with the choppy English, according to Dong.

"There is an entire spectrum that needs to be covered," he said. "I want to see a balance. Chinese people should be fools, but intelligent as well."

Dong used the movie “Juno” as one of his examples for how Asians are shown in feature films. He reflected upon the scene where Juno MacGuff is faced by a picketer at an abortion clinic, who is played by an Asian actress.

"[The Asian actress] is the only non-white character with substantial lines in the movie, but she plays the comical bigot with an accent," Dong said. "It's a slight subtle character like this that is dangerous. Subconsciously we absorb stereotypes, so for any mid-western teenager, we look like the 'others.'"

Phuong Cooc, a 22-year-old theatre arts major, was pleased with Dong's presentation, but wanted to see more clips from films. She said, however, that Dong did a good job of showing how Asians are characterized within films.

"He tackled a lot of social problems that Asian Americans face," Cooc said. "He provided an overall picture of the stereotypes and images that are displayed in Hollywood."

Dong also touched upon cross-casting and used the term "yellow face," which is when an Asian character is played by another actor of a different ethnicity.

"I believe in being colorblind when casting characters...well, in a perfect world," Dong said. "The struggle of an Asian actor wanting an Asian role, then hiring a Caucasian to play the role is something that I struggle with."

Dong and his team worked on "Hollywood Chinese" for 10 years. They watched over 300 films and picked films that strongly reflected the Chinese in feature films. It was a long and difficult process that required a lot of work, Dong said.

Valerie Soe, a 10-year lecturer who teaches AAS 693: Asian Americans and Mass Media, has already seen the documentary. She expressed her gratitude for Dong's hard work and his ability to create a film like "Hollywood Chinese."

"Arthur is so interesting and articulate. He is so entertaining," Soe said. "He has dug up so much footage and he covers a lot of the points that I mention in class. Maybe I should just start showing his film."

The night ended with cookies and tea and some socialization in the reception area outside of the theater. Dong autographed programs and mingled with fans.

For more information on "Hollywood Chinese," visit www.deepfocusproductions.com.