Given the scarcity of Asian female film and TV characters in general, it isn't surprising that, except for the rare occurrence in low-budget independent films or pornography, lesbian and bisexual Asian characters have historically been fairly non-existent in Western entertainment. But in the last few years, queer Asian women have finally started to make an appearance.

When Asian women began cropping up in Western films in the 1970s and 80s, the characters were almost always positioned as sexual vehicles (often as rape victims or prostitutes) whose sole purpose was to glorify the hero or play out some stereotype of Asians. Movies like Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), Casualties of War (1989) or London’s theatrical play Miss Saigon (1989) used Asian women primarily as stereotypes to reinforce the "otherness" of Asian culture.

This began to change a bit in the 1990s with a few movies featuring fully developed Asian women like The Joy Luck Club (1993) and Double Happiness (1994), and in the last few years, with the rising popularity of a handful of Asian American actresses (like Lucy Liu and Ling Bai) that has seen Asian women cast in roles that aren't race-specific (like Liu's role in Charlie's Angels). But well-developed female Asian characters are still few and far between.

Queer Asian women didn't really become visible at all in mainstream films until the mid-90s with the release of the movie Wild Side (1995), which features a Chinese American bisexual woman, Virginia Chow (played by Joan Chen) involved in an extramarital affair with another female character, Alex (played by Anne Heche). Virginia is portrayed as an intelligent, sexually aggressive (but not overly so) woman whose affair with Alex is pursued for her sexual satisfaction and not to play out her husband’s fantasy—a groundbreaking depiction given that almost no other Asian female film characters had yet been allowed to explore their sexuality with such confidence.

The movie is also notable because it did not reinforce the typical Hollywood stereotype of the "evil bisexual" (although it did have more than its fair share of violence), and no bisexual or lesbian characters end up dead or decimated by emotional heartbreak. In fact, the affair between the two women results in a happy Hollywood ending when the two women ride off into the sunset (literally) together.

Since Wild Side, a handful of Asian bisexual/lesbian women have been introduced in both television and film. The characters have been surprisingly diverse in age, personality and life circumstances, making each relatively relatable not only to Asian bisexual/lesbian women, but to women in general.

In the U.S., the critical hit High Art (1998) featured a Chinese American lesbian character, Zoe (played by Elaine Tse), who is not your typical Hollywood lipstick lesbian, but a butch lesbian in a passionate, long-term relationship with her girlfriend, Delia (played by Cindra Feuer). Zoe is not perfect, but the fact that her character flaw is drug addiction and not her sexual orientation is a step in the right direction.

Beginning in 2002, Canada's TV series Edgemont featured a Chinese Canadian lesbian high school student, Shannon (played by Grace Park), as a central cast member. Shannon is depicted as a good Christian and a good daughter living in a middle-class Vancouver suburb in British Columbia, who develops a crush on the new girl Laurel (played by Kristin Kreuk), starts to daydream about her, and emotionally struggles with possibly never being able to gain her affection. Shannon is an ordinary, confused teenager—except for the fact that she likes girls. This character is identifiable to almost every teenager who is struggling with love, fitting in and meeting expectations.

Page 1 / 2 - Next