Asians are Rising, but Whiteness still Dominates Contemporary Television as Seen in Hawaii

Five-O (2010-Present)

Eric Yoon
Asian American Studies 171: Asian Americans in Film and Video
April 16, 2015

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Modern television has actually allowed for directors and producers to have a more
diverse cast compared to movies and older television shows. Casts can change week to week,
especially in supporting characters due to plot lines, and the higher demand for actors and
actresses requires directors to pick up minority actors and actresses. Along with the ease of
watching television both on cable and on the Internet has allowed television to grow and be more
accepting of racially diverse casts. Asian Americans have played significant roles in TV shows
such as Elementary, Greys Anatomy, Big Bang Theory, and Fresh Off the Boat. While Fresh Off
the Boat may be the television show most people have in mind when considering Asian
American actors/actresses, Hawaii Five-O (2010-Present) preceded it as a show that features
multiple Asian American. Still continuing today, Hawaii Five-O is a clich cop show where a
special task force, featuring two Asian Americans (Daniel Dae Kim as Chin-Ho Kelly and Grace
Park as Kono Kalakaua), fights and solves crimes. As seen in Hawaii Five-O, Hollywood has
taken strides to accept Asian Americans in more heroic and major roles, but still loves to
stereotype Asian Americans and leave them as backdrops to more desirable white characters.
Leonard Freeman, Alex Kurtzman, and several others created the show, which is
currently in its 5th season. Multiple directors have directed this show, but to the common TV
watcher, it remains unnoticeable. Along with Kono and Chin-Ho Kelly, Steve McGarrett (Alex
OLaughlin) and Detective Danny Williams (Scott Caan) are the lead characters in this show.
Both McGarrett and Detective Williams are your typical white alpha males, much of they
storyline and screen time focuses on them. Chi McBride, an African-American actor, joins the
Five-O task force later in the series as Lou Grover. The Five-O task force differs from your other
cops in cops show such as NCIS because they are given unrestricted power from the governor.
For example, all five members of Five-O use torture tactics to question suspects obtain

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information illegally, and searching homes without warrants. With respect to race, the show does
a good job of showing different types of Asians in Kono and Kelly along with side characters
such as police officers, criminals, and extras. Ironically, even with the amount of Asians in
Hawaii compared to the mainland US, the leads in the series are still white alpha males.
Before looking at how Asian Americans fall behind the white lead characters, one must
understand how the major characters are presented.
Chin-Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) is presented as a tough and smart officer that is
extremely determined to fight crime and danger. Chin-Ho Kelly is first presented in the Pilot as a
disgraced officer who was fired for being a dirty cop, although he claims he never did anything
wrong.1 Still McGarrett asks him to join his task force primarily due to Kellys relationship with
McGarretts late father. In the pilot episode, an officer Kelly trained completely ignores Kelly
thinking he is dirty, but later Kelly is able to clear his name through his dedication to Five-O and
the Honolulu Police Department (HPD). Kelly adamantly claiming that he did not do anything
wrong counter the stereotype that Asian Americans are passive and will accept things the way
they are. This adamancy parallels Chin-Hos confidence and swagger, which can be seen in
which how well he does as a member of Five-O. Through the series, Chin-Ho is never seen with
a woman, and the only thing we learn about his love life is that his wife was killed, and he is a
bitter. Despite being a masculine character that can fight and is confident, Chin-Ho is no way the
heroin womanizer that exists in other films or TV shows. This characteristic of Chin aligns with
the stereotype of Asian American males as not being able to get women. Chin-Hos constantly
reminiscing about his dead wife shows that he is emotionally weak, which also aligns with the
stereotype of Asian males not being good with women. In this sense Chin-Ho parallels that of
1 Hawaii Five-O. CBS. First broadcast September 2010.

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Bruce Lee, as a longhaired martial art expert that is not able to seduce women unlike McGarrett
and Williams, who do so seemingly constantly. Chin-Ho also works most of the technology at
the Five-O headquarters while McGarrett, Williams, and Grover hardly touch the technology.
Finally, Hollywood still decides to interchange Asian races without the audience noticing. ChinHo is said to be a native Hawaiian and of Japanese descent, but Kim who plays Chin-Ho was
born in Korea and grew up in Pennsylvania, far away from the Hawaiian Islands where the series
is based and filmed at. This continual tactic that Hollywood producers and directors decide to
employ can be considered racist as it demonstrates that Hollywoods so called post-racial error
cannot even distinguish between races let alone portray them correctly.
Multiple Asian American characters in the series allow the show to illustrate multiple
Asian American representations. Kono (Grace Park), another member of the Five-O task force
represents both the stereotypical and the non-stereotypical Asian American features. Kono
embodies similar characteristics to early Anna May Wong characters. For example, Konos first
scene shows her in a bikini. This makes the audiences first impression of Kono as a sexual being
with clear oriental features. In the Pilot episode, she uses her beauty to go undercover and try and
get information from the suspected criminals. The use of her beauty to do her job continues the
over sexualization of Asian women in Hollywood. Another note about Konos sexuality in the
series is in later seasons of the show, she dates a Japanese man, Adam (Ian Anthony Dale) whose
family is heavily involved with the Yakuza, implying that he is fully Japanese. However, Ian
Anthony Dale who plays Adam is a mixed race Asian. The continued story of Asian women
falling for white men is slightly continued here as viewers see Kono with a supposedly Japanese
man that clearly has Caucasian features. Along with Chin-Ho, Kono works well with technology,
and McGarrett always tells her to look up or seek information, reinforcing an Asian stereotype,

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but not that of a sexualized Asian women. However Kono is unlike other Asian and American
women [who] are constructed both as sexual objects and as lacking power2. Although Kono
embodies the sexual object part, she in no way lacks power. Again, in the pilot episode, Kono
fights multiple criminals on her own using martial arts. This partly reinforces the stereotype of
the dangerous dragon lady or the martial art fighter, two of the top five Asian American
stereotypes according to Hannah Mitchell. Kono; however, is a twist on these stereotypes since
she proves herself as tough. Two examples of her toughness include deciding to work a case in
the death of her mentor, and not being afraid to speak her mind to a football referee, something
usually reserved for the white male stereotype. Chin-Ho also reassures the others that Kono, his
cousin, will be able to take care of herself before sending her in undercover. She isnt afraid of
backing down from confrontation outside of police work. While surfing, she confidently yells at
another surfer who gets her in way. Ono and Pham claim that many representations of Asian
American women leave them replaceable but for Kono her skill set and uniqueness make her
hard to replace. Interestingly, in the original Hawaii Five-O series, which ran from 1968-1980,
had Kono as a chubby Asian male3. This change remains significant since the producers of the
current show make a conceded effort to show different representations of Asian Americans.
Along with Chin-Ho, Konos background remains mysterious and the audience learns only that
she is Japanese, related to Chin-Ho, and comes from a family of cops. This fact will become
important in our discussion of dominant whiteness.

2 Ono, Kent A., and Vincent N. Pham. Asian Americans and the Media. Cambridge: Polity, 2009.
66
3 Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980). IMDb. Accessed April 27, 2015.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062568/.

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Our last major character is Dr. Max Bergman, a criminal investigator. Unlike Kono and
Chin-Ho, Max is a purely stereotypical Asian American character. Played by Masi Oka, Max is a
nerdy and quirky character. He constantly uses smart medical terms that others cant understand,
and he always has a sophisticated way of speaking. Like other nerdy Asians and Asian American
characters, he is into hobbies like collecting action figures. Despite not having major screen time,
he still appears in eighty percent of the episodes. This is a reminder despite changing times and
an effort to become less stereotypical and color blind, representations of Asian Americans will
continue to challenge and support stereotypes.
A note on McGarrett and Williams is they are sexualized as well. In a commercial for
season 4, McGarrett and Williams are shown shirtless. McGarrett and Williams muscular frames
are in sharp contrast to Chin-Ho who is never shown in that aspect. In the series, women
constantly comments on the pairs good looks. Williams gets a share of women he dates while
McGarrett finds a smart attractive woman that he dates throughout the series. The show also goes
much deeper into the lives of McGarrett and Williams. It goes into the life of McGarretts family
investigating aspects such as his moms mysteriousness as a government agent and his Dads
secretive life. The audience learns a lot about Williams family life especially about his
relationship with his daughter Grace, and the joys and frustrations of parenting. In earlier seasons
the audience is heavily involved in experiencing the frustrations of a divorce that Williams is
going through. Most importantly, the audience sees the true personalities in Williams and
McGarretts many arguments as McGarretts macho alpha male personalities contrasts with the
softer and more emotional Williams. These arguments, much of which take place while driving
or even in therapy sessions brings both comedic value and attention as the two men argue like a
married couple.

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Hawaii, the United States last and perhaps the most beautiful state, has quite a large
Asian American population. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders make up 50% of the
population, a number that does not include those of mixed race4. Compared to the rest of the
United States, Asians only make up 6.7% of the population5. Despite the large presence of Asian
Americans on the island of Hawaii, and in the TV show, the producers of Hawaii Five-O choose
to still have whiteness be the focal point of the show.
The first way this is done is providing mostly stereotypical major characters in Kono, Chin-Ho,
and Max. The stereotypical representations, makes them non-unique and difficult to be the stars
of the show. By blending Kono, Chin-Ho and Max with the rest of Hawaii in terms of race, the
audience doesnt feel a need that they deserve any special attention. Although the model minority
stereotype is portrayed as Kono and Chin-Ho are part of an elite police task force and are clearly
smart, it is slightly negated, as another member of the task force Lou Grover is AfricanAmerican. Having another minority make it negates the message of the model minority, that
other minorities should be able to achieve the successes of Asians.
Despite being respectable cops that keeps the beautiful Hawaiian safe, Kono and ChinHo questionable tactics in conducting business such as near torture methods (ex: punching and
mental games) takes away takes away from their the model minority stereotype. Ono and Pham
in turn state, the model minority stereotype is not a compliment. Instead, Asian Americans are
exceptional minorities not of the mainstream resulting in Asian American being an implicit

4 "Demographic Statistics Hawaii." InfoPlease. Last modified 2014. Accessed April 29, 2015.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/hawaii/demographic.html.
5 "State & County QuickFacts USA." United States Census Bureau. Last modified 2014.
Accessed April 29, 2015. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html.

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threat, a villainy of a different magnitude6. To give an example of this, Ono and Pham highlight
Christina Yang (Sandra Oh) on Greys Anatomy who is portrayed as an excellent doctor but is
also portrayed as robotic and wanting to build her technical skill at the expense of the patient7.
Similarly, Max talks and acts in a robotic manner and is able to investigate dead bodies without
any hard feelings. In contrast, Dr. Mindy Shaw (Amanda Setton), another crime scene
investigator, is an attractive woman of ambiguous race that has an amorous personality. She is
able to comfort Williams when he is trapped in an elevator and clearly carries the street smarts
that Max doesnt. Mindys exceptionalness along with appealing to the mostly male audience
makes Max foreign leaving the whiteness in the dominant role.
The idea of the ambiguous race actors and actress like Dr. Mindy Shaw play an important role in
the pervasiveness of whiteness in this show. Mary C. Beltran discusses the future of racelessness
in Hollywood while suggesting how it tends to satisfy white audiences. The multiracial or
racially ambiguous first started out with biracial buddy cop film leading to the well known Fast
and Furious series. As a result of lobbying by civil rights groups against stereotyping Asian
Americans in media, which decreased stereotyping in movies for a short period. Amidst all this
Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, and Jet Li help transform traditional notions of the protagonist as
Asian leads8. One thing that noticeably changed was that white actors and models were
increasingly modifying their appearance to promote an ethnic look such as tanner skin,
something OLoughlin and Caan posses. This effect of this change is that minority audiences are
appeased but the fact remains that the actors are still white, and Ono and Pham remind us that the
6 7 Ono, Kent A., and Vincent N. Pham. Asian Americans and the Media. Cambridge: Polity,
2009. 85.
7
8 Beltran, Mary C. "The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the Fast, Furious, and Multiracial
Will Surive." Cinema Journal 44, no. 26 (Winter 2005): 50-67.

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lead characters still reflect the legacy of Hollywood whiteness9. Unlike the lead characters,
side minority characters such as Max and others are not developed and sometimes are even in
inferior. In Fast and Furious, RJ DeVera who was an Asian American street racer in real life is
still beaten badly by the white protagonists of the film. This unrealistic outcome written by
Hollywood clearly serves as a reminder to the audience on white dominance in Hollywood.
Similarly in Hawaii Five-O, Kono and Chin-Ho are trained cops while Williams is a detective
and McGarrett is an ex-Navy SEAL. Still, Williams and McGarrett lead the police task force.
This clearly establishes a racial hierarchy in the series as whiteness lies above Asianess.
However the Fast and Furious, genre film does portray Asian Americans having a fun culture.
Taking place in multiethnic places such as Los Angeles, the films detail the party and street life
as fun and exciting with beautiful women, clubs, and bars. The same is done in this show as the
beauty and peacefulness of the Hawaiian Islands is displayed along with a fun nightlife, plenty of
beautiful exotic women, and sunny skies. This is all overshadowed by the presence of tourism
where primarily white mainlanders come and invade the island, making it once again white. A
last thing to note about the multiracial Hollywood that Beltran discusses is that the side women
even though they are not white have very western features such as being tall and skinny with
bigger eyes10. They conclude by explaining that multicultural film narratives sooth white
sensibilities even while attempting simultaneously to appeal to young viewers with urban mediasavvy tastes11. By aiming their content mostly on a white audiences and arguably a white male
audience, the producers make it clear that whiteness will continue despite the rise of racelessness
in Hollywood.
9 10 11Beltran, Mary C. "The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the Fast, Furious, and
Multiracial Will Surive." Cinema Journal 44, no. 26 (Winter 2005): 50-67.
10
11

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In comparison to the original Hawaii Five-O series, the Huffington Post claims that, the ethnic
stars of the show have not been leveled to complete stereotypes as they were in the first
edition12. They give the example of Kono who was a brute force Hawaiian man but now is a
pretty and tough Asian woman. Brian Ross, the writer of this article also claims that the new
series is much more action packed, pretty people, and mellowed down13. This proves that also
stereotypes have improved over the past thirty years, but still exist. Ross also nonchalantly
supports the dominance of whiteness as he describes McGarrett as the lead character and calls
Williams as the cerebral second in command14. Ross also describes and ponders at length
whether the new show would meet the high standards of the original show. The producers and
directors were likely affected by the pressure to meet expectations especially of the older
generation who was around for the original series. As a result, the producers probably felt a need
to have whiteness dominate as well as to keep certain stereotypes.
The dynamic of shows trying to portray a less stereotypical cast relates to a point that David
Leonard makes on Jeremy Lins rise to fame. Even though shows are trying to be less
stereotypical, they always drop certain hints or scenes where the character becomes a
stereotypical character as a whole. Given this, Leonard states that during Linsanity, TV
commentators continued to comment on Lins high basketball IQ, his hard work, intelligence,
humbleness, and his Harvard education15. In fact Lins game and success relied mostly on his
physical tools and quickness, quite the contrary to what commentators described him as. While
12 13 14 Ross, Brian. "Hawaii Five-O Measures a Different America." Huffington Post. Last
modified September 21, 2010. Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brianross/hawaii-five-o-measures-a_b_733247.html.
13
14
15 Leonard, David J. "#LinSanity and the Blackness of Basketball." New Black Man. Last
modified February 23, 2015. Accessed April 29, 2015.

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the commentators were not making up that Lin was Harvard educated with a degree in education
or that he was a hard worker, they unconsciously described him as a stereotypical Asian
American despite the fact that Lin was supposed to be an example of a non-stereotypical Asian
American. Similarly, in Hawaii Five-O, Kono and Chin-Ho on paper are non-stereotypical since
they are cops, an uncommon job for Asian American. However, the show chooses to highlight
some of the stereotypical representations of Asian Americans in the past including martial arts
fighter, dragon lady, and geekiness. By simply highlighting stereotypical aspects of characters, it
leaves minority characters seem ordinary, so the audience naturally diverts their education to the
white leads.
The final way that whiteness dominates the series is because of xenophobia. Many of the
criminals and villains of the show are Asian. Whether Asian or Asian American, they pose a
threat to the American people and the scenic Hawaiian Islands. The Five-O task led by the
whiteness of McGarrett and Williams combat this foreign and homegrown threat. Often these
criminals are stereotypical as they know martial arts, know computer hacking, or just exhibit that
sinister look of Fu Manchu or Rick Yune in Olympus Has Fallen. Part of the impact of having
Asian American antagonists is to demonstrate that the threat is close to home and can have a
stronger effect of spreading yellow peril into some viewers minds. Although the show does mix
up the race of the criminals, putting Asian characters in the villain role automatically puts
whiteness in the drivers seat. In one episode, McGarrett goes to Korea to try and find out what
happened to an old Navy SEAL buddy. He ends up running into a North Korean played by Rick
Yune and they end up fighting. McGarretts buddy ends up dying but at the cost of saving
McGarretts life. This scene illustrates another positive scene with white leads where they are
altruistic while the Asians are trying to hurt them, again demonstrating how whiteness rules the

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show. In several episodes, Kono also must be saved from the hands of the criminals by the rest of
the task force illustrating the possibility that Asian women still need white males to rescue them
no matter how tough or qualified they are. Still Kono, like Mina in Mississippi Masala, is not
over determined by her gender or ethnicity, which allows her to have successful exchanges
across race, culture, and ethnicity16.
Hawaii Five-O is a great show to look at Asian American representation in media due to multiple
Asian American characters with significant roles. Chin-Ho and Kono have mixed representations
of non-stereotypical and stereotypical features. Meanwhile the leads, McGarrett and Williams
become of the focal point of the audience due to their alpha male representation. By looking at
Hollywood moving toward a raceless period, producers look to satisfy white audiences while
only making sure that minority audiences arent protesting overly stereotypical representations.
In looking at how Kono and Chin-Ho and other Asians in the show are represented it is important
to note that the stereotypes are enforced while non-stereotypical things might be subtle. As a cop
show, Asian criminals serve as another reminder of white dominance. Looking towards the
future, Asian representations in shows like Hawaii Five-O can and should improve through new
media where Asian American audiences can engage in discourse to help producers and directors
better represent Asians on the big screen. Like Ono and Pham say, the Internet has the potential
for actors to cultivate and use this space to construct and/or promote resistant ideas17.

Bibliography
16 Bhavani, Kum-Kum. "Organic Hybridity or Commodification of Hybridity? Comments on
Mississippi Masala." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 1, no. 1 (2000): 187-203.
17 Ono, Kent A., and Vincent N. Pham. Asian Americans and the Media. Cambridge: Polity,
2009. 155

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Beltran, Mary C. "The New Hollywood Racelessness: Only the Fast, Furious, and Multiracial
Will Surive." Cinema Journal 44, no. 26 (Winter 2005): 50-67.
Bhavani, Kum-Kum. "Organic Hybridity or Commodification of Hybridity? Comments on
Mississippi Masala." Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 1, no. 1 (2000): 187203.
"Demographic Statistics Hawaii." InfoPlease. Last modified 2014. Accessed April 29, 2015.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/census/data/hawaii/demographic.html.
Hawaii Five-O. CBS. First broadcast September 2010.
"Hawaii Five-O." IMDb. Accessed March 29, 2015. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1600194/.
Hawaii Five-O (1968-1980). IMDb. Accessed April 27, 2015.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062568/.
Leonard, David J. "#LinSanity and the Blackness of Basketball." New Black Man. Last modified
February 23, 2015. Accessed April 29, 2015.
http://newblackman.blogspot.com/2012/02/linsanity-and-blackness-of-basketball.html.
Ono, Kent A., and Vincent N. Pham. Asian Americans and the Media. Cambridge: Polity, 2009.
Ross, Brian. "Hawaii Five-O Measures a Different America." Huffington Post. Last modified
September 21, 2010. Accessed April 26, 2015. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brianross/hawaii-five-o-measures-a_b_733247.html.
"State & County QuickFacts USA." United States Census Bureau. Last modified 2014. Accessed
April 29, 2015. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html.