Can you name a British-born Chinese TV personality? That's the question Chinese comedians Paul Courtnay Hyu and Paul Chan posed in their short comedy-documentary hybrid The Missing Chink, aired over Chinese New Year on Channel 4.

Following transmission, the programme received more than 100 complaints about its clever if admittedly controversial title. Whilst the resultant furore has brought the show some welcome attention, it seems that the real issue at hand has been all but forgotten.

The Missing Chink raised a poignant point that I highlighted in an article for BBC London last October; as a British-born Chinese (BBC) I've grown up without any major Chinese role model. Why is this so? And what can be done?

Whilst it seems that most companies, including the BBC, now embrace diversity - the Ferreiras, EastEnders' Asian family, have been there almost a year now, for example - it looks like Chinese people have been overlooked.

Although I disagree with Hyu and Chan's claim that the Chinese community is 'invisible' - the neon takeaway signs are highly visible to the eye - I believe that the existing Chinese signifiers are only suffice in maintaining prejudiced age-old stereotypes.

My brief stint as a teaching assistant in an east London secondary school during my gap year showed an understandably transparent ignorance amongst the pupils. 'Show me some Kung-Fu, sir!' they would playfully demand. 'Jimmy, you look like Jackie Chan!' Trust me, we look nothing alike.

Research undertaken by US website Children Now has shown that ethnic representation on television can affect ethnic minorities' self-concepts, as well as others' perceptions. 84% of respondents in their poll agreed that seeing someone of their own race on TV showed them that they were important. So could broadcasters be indirectly affecting viewers' mental health with an underrepresentation of the appropriate ethnic groups?

Two summers ago I was one of 150 18-21-year-olds chosen to attend the Edinburgh Television Festival and partake in a series of workshops to help kickstart our careers in TV. Unsurprisingly, I was the only Chinese delegate there - a common experience in my time as an aspiring media whore. Do Chinese people not want to work in television? Or are they put off by the amount of Chinese people they (don't) see on TV, creating a vicious catch-22-esque cycle?

Talking to a journalist friend of mine who works at the BBC, she commented that she thought TV execs weren't adventurous enough when it came to casting ethnic minorities, in particular Chinese. However, Newsround were adventurous enough to offer me a screen test last September, so perhaps things are beginning to change. Living in a time when just about everyone wants to work in TV, in my opinion, being a little 'different' does little harm.

Television is a cutthroat industry to work in but its role as an entertainer and informer means it holds an extremely powerful position within people's lives. Especially now the TV is experiencing the digital revolution. Television influences people's lives. Why else is the government so keenly involved in the digital changeover?

We live in a society where seeing is believing. A friend of mine told me that he didn't think Chinese people could sing until he saw me perform. It might sound a little ignorant, but it is, unfortunately, true; it's human nature. It's applicable to TV: television is a visual medium; race is a visual characteristic.

The lack of Chinese TV personalities could be down to several reasons. Perhaps Chinese people simply don't want to work in TV. Maybe we're not good enough. Perhaps we don't know the right people in the 'who-you-know' TV industry. Nevertheless, I believe that things can, and will, change and I commend Hyu and Chan for sparking the fire. To make that change, however, aspiring Chinese broadcasters (like myself) will need to work hard to get themselves noticed, but the power ultimately lies within the producers' hands. They need to be a little bit daring and take the 'risk' of putting someone Chinese on screen. Then we can show that there's more to Chinese people than simply Kung-Fu and takeaways and hopefully give the next generation of BBCs some role models.

This article originally appeared in Opportunity magazine (Issue 5.1, Spring 2004), published by The Independent and Windsor Fellowship.

 

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