Yellow Trash: Jimmy Wang Yang
by Michael Park, originally published at Tripmaster Monkey
After decades of racist characterizations, World Wrestling Entertainment (formerly the World Wrestling Federation) has finally broken its own mold—by merging two stereotypes into one. Meet one of the WWE’s newest faces, Jimmy Wang Yang, the Asian Redneck, played by real-life Georgia boy James Yun.
“He may look ‘Asian,’ but in reality he is one certified redneck,” the WWE Web site assures viewers. “If any Yankees slip up, Jimmy Wang Yang is sure to culture them with a good ol’-fashioned country-style whippin’.”
Yes, this counts as progress in the pro-wrestling world.
Consider the starting point: Against good ol’ boys like Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage, foreign-born and non-white villains like sneaky Oriental Mr. Fuji, Cold War automaton Nikolai Volkoff, snobby French pouf Rene Dupree and mustachioed Middle-Eastern strongman Iron Sheik were caricatured (and eventually dispatched) with comforting certitude.
Asians fared especially badly—Mr. Fuji, the perennial “heel” manager, was infamous for creeping up to “faces,” or “good-guy” characters, and throwing salt in their eyes when his wrestlers were losing. That is, when he wasn’t threatening to ruin the U.S. economy by selling us affordable cars with good mileage.
Okay, so what to make of Jimmy Wang Yang?
“Ain’t no yeller about me,” the 205-pound, 5’9” cowboy-hatted Yang drawls into the camera in WWE promos. You could read this statement in several ways:
1) He’s a self-hater who equates being Asian with being un-American, or even wimpy.
2) Group affiliations can overcome racial differences, i.e. red-state trumps yellow skin.
3) This isn’t your daddy’s Model Minority.
We vote for three. As the Asian Redneck might say, “Ain’t we got enough docters and lahyers and folks what can count?”
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of 
merq wrote:
Interesting post. Another interesting fact is that the nefarious Mr. Fuji was actually a white actor in yellowface.
Posted 25 Oct 2006 at 8:49 am ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:
My first thought on reading “ain’t no yeller about me” is that it meant something that could have been better expressed by something like “I may be yellow, but I’m not yellow” where the first ‘yellow’ refers to his race and his second to being cowardly. I don’t think it assumes that all Asians are cowardly or that Asians tend to be cowardly. It could be just a bad pun, one not expressed very well (but hey, this is professional wrestling, which isn’t exactly run by masters of the English language).
After thinking about it a bit, though, I do think the depiction is supposed to be showing a rejection of some of the public image of Asians, but I don’t see how that’s necessarily self-hating. Couldn’t it just be that he doesn’t fit the stereotype and doesn’t want to? If it’s the stereotype that he doesn’t like, then there’s nothing necessarily anti-Asian about it. It’s just his strange way of trying to resist stereotypes, one whose strangest element is fulfilling other stereotypes about the denizens of red states (which of course may actually be the way he really is, but I doubt it; pro wrestling personas are usually written for the actors by a writing team, the same way the matches themselves are largely scripted).
Posted 25 Oct 2006 at 6:25 pm ¶
Anonoguy wrote:
What? Harry Fujiwara (aka Mr. Fuji) was born in Hawaii, he was not a white guy.
In any case, it’s a shame - Jimmy Yang is a great wrestler, but he is perpetually ignored as most of the agile/cruiserweight/shorter wrestlers are in WWE. Being Asian doesn’t help either. He would probably do better in a company like TNA, but they’re becoming a crappy clone of WCW.
It is surprising in recent times they’ve given the main strap to Latinos like Eddie Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, who are extremely popular. And until a few months ago, there had been no “pure black” World champion in the company. Just saying, the company has made incredibly slow, but some, progress in this area.
But as far as this gimmick, it is just pure and stupid racism. The wrestling industry, even in 2006, doesn’t care about this sort of thing (ergh, don’t look up Cryme Time).
Posted 25 Oct 2006 at 9:00 pm ¶
brad wrote:
Randy Savage is biracial. His dad is mulatto.
Posted 26 Oct 2006 at 12:26 am ¶
brad wrote:
Ugh, I just went to the WWE site and watched a video of Jimmy. The fool is wearing a vest with a frakin’ Confederate flag on its back. Okay, this guy is a dirtbag. It’s one thing to be play a part but it’s another to pick up racist symbols and brandish.
Stepin’ Fetchit 2006
Posted 26 Oct 2006 at 12:32 am ¶
Anonoguy wrote:
It does suck, but wrestling ain’t an easy life, and there are several reasons why a guy would take the crappiest job in the (by far) biggest, richest wrestling promotion in the world. Most wrestling gigs don’t offer steady paychecks, insurance, and the amount of sheer exposure that WWE gives. Of course, I don’t expect most non-wrestling fans to give a damn about these entertainers.
As a racial minority… Think it’s bad on WWE? Imagine how bad it is on in the small-town indie promotions, especially in the South… otherwise, it’s going back down the ladder to Japanese or Mexican feds.
But yeah… it sucks. Both as contemptible racism AND as a gimmick.
Posted 26 Oct 2006 at 4:51 am ¶
Minter wrote:
It’s a shame that stereotypes have become so attached to “yellows” that we’ve had to shrug off and even feel disgusted about the very race we are.
Even with those of us powerful and independent enough not to rely on society’s judgement to be proud of who we are, it’s hard not to feel disheartened when the rest of the country essentially view you as a foreigner living in their country, their lifestyle. If only they knew!
Posted 26 Oct 2006 at 12:34 pm ¶
Minter wrote:
Forgot to add in rsponse to point 2; while it’s slightly true that group affiliations will make you less detached from the conventional stereotype, you’ll always be “the yellow one” in that group. Not the witty/over the top/eccentric/sarcastic one, just your race.
Speaking from experience here.
Posted 26 Oct 2006 at 12:37 pm ¶
Rachel S. wrote:
Y’all forget the 1990s wrestler (who they claimed was Samoan). I think he name was Rikishi, or something like that. His number one move was rubbing is butt in the faces of his opponents.
Posted 26 Oct 2006 at 6:42 pm ¶
Jay wrote:
Rachel,
Rikishi is the stage name of Solofa Fatu, Jr. He’s really Samoan; he comes from a family of Samoan wrestlers.
There are two families of Samoans in pro wrestling, Fatu and Anoa’i; The Rock is from the other one (Anoa’i), being half-Samoan.
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solofa_Fatu
Posted 27 Oct 2006 at 1:07 am ¶
deb wrote:
He’s Michelle Malkin’s brother, right?
Posted 03 Nov 2006 at 10:58 pm ¶
Amy Tsai wrote:
Asian cowboy lol, rare as an Asian American veteran
(about 2% of Asians in USA)
btw wrestling is GOOFY
Posted 07 Jul 2007 at 11:10 am ¶