Slanted View

William Hung Over
by Nathaniel Jue

William Hung’s watch must be broken. Aren’t his fifteen minutes of fame up? Is that clock right? Somebody please check the timer.

When I look at the calendar and see 2005, I realize that William has hung around the fringes of pop culture for quite some time now. I think we’ve consumed a bit too much of William and are pretty Hung over. It’s been almost a year since he first banged out that offbeat rendition of “She Bangs” on American Idol, in his thick Chinese accent, generating both laughter and sympathy from the American audiences for his efforts. Call him Ricky Martin Yan.

Like the famous television chef says, if Yan can cook and be a successful Asian American male, so can William Hung in his pursuit of a music career. Can he, though? As what? As an talented singer who believes he can be a serious musician? Or a geeky Chinese kid with Oriental flavor, whose “success” is perceived as a mere comical novelty? Seriously...

As an Asian American male, my belief is the latter. William’s notoriety is fodder for the exacerbation of the Asian man stereotype, the one that we’ve been trying to shed for the last 150 years. The fobby appearance, thick accent and silly dance moves are obvious subjects of mockery, ones that override anything and everything he’ll ever do. Basically William Hung perpetuates this stereotype by being William Hung. Why does he continue to do this? Well, Will's a smart guy, and even he sees the dollar signs. His face and voice have earned him fame and money, and with that money he can buy more fame. Fame that is too easy to trade in for his life as an average college student. That's the way of life.

Still, how is it that outside of Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Yao Ming and Ichiro, William Hung is the most famous Asian male in America? Has this country gone mad? This doesn't bode well for aspiring Asian American males who want to make it in the entertainment industry. In fact, any Asian male who wants to appear on television must now break that mold that William has so successfully cast by exploiting himself. He has set a bar that needs to be taken down. It's as if America is telling us that dorkiness and consequent ridicule is the recipe for success as an Asian American male. Screw that!

In the big picture, William's success is quite relative. Nevertheless it is still success. In spite of the facts that he was mocked on television and the American public, is the complete opposite of an American Idol, and that he simply can't sing, his debut album, Inspiration, has sold over 100,000 copies last year. This has led to several guest performances during the halftimes of major national sporting events, a concert tour in Asia, a Christmas album, and now in 2005, a starring role in a Cantonese movie called, Where is Mama’s Boy? Wow. And he wasn’t even the winner of American Idol!

I don’t understand this. How can this level of success qualify him to postpone his engineering degree at UC Berkeley in order to become a pseudo-pop star? He definitely has the greatest agent in the world. It boggles the mind to think there are people out there who genuinely think he is producing good enough music to sign him to a record deal. It's disturbing to know that people are supporting William, feeding him with false adulations. This only generates more momentum for the William Hung Express. And it's equally unfathomable to see that people are buying his CDs, either out of pity, curiosity, or because they actually think he can sing. Who are these people that are buying his albums and why are they buying them? He shouldn’t even garner sympathy sales.

And yet his recent transition to the big screen has proved that William’s star hasn't quite dimmed. Making the jump from music to movies puts him in the class alongside Madonna, Whitney Houston, Snoop Dogg and Tupac. Is this the beginning of next J.Lo – a superstar in both the music studio and the movie theater?

Obviously it's hard to believe that William’s extended career is the result of talent, though. The insensitive teasing in the media and by the public has to mean something to him, shouldn’t it? Doesn't he know the joke’s on him? It has to be, right? Maybe I’m wrong, though. Maybe we’re all wrong. Maybe William is the one laughing at those who are laughing at him...all the way to the bank. And maybe as an Asian American male, I should actually be proud of the fact that he is able to turn the other cheek. I admit that he has certainly taken the bad and turned it into something good.

I wonder if William is, like the title of his album, an Inspiration to me. He is, after all, following his dream. His perseverance and hard work teach me to never give up. He has millions of detractors and yet he doesn’t care what people think of him. And he literally has transformed himself into an international star. From American Idol to the American dream. He’s gone from wishful thinking to overachiever, the ultimate product of reality television. Maybe should be my Asian American male idol instead of Jackie Chan. At least he isn’t typecast as the martial arts guy or the math genius. Perhaps that’s his real talent: doing what people think he shouldn’t be doing. He certainly is living la vida loca. I should’ve hung William’s poster on my wall.

In spite of his against-all-odds, stereotype-defying success, his fame is up (or down) there with the Milli Vanillis in music history. And as far as his place in the history of Asian American males in the entertainment, he’s right alongside Long Duk Dong. In this day and age of political correctness, William Hung should not exist in American pop culture. We have come too far to have these digressions. The Asian American man is the least recognized and acknowledged person in American entertainment, and William Hung is not our savior.

While I applaud his Willpower to stay in the public eye, I simply wish it wasn’t because of negative pretenses. I wish that when people mention his name, their response wasn’t, “Oh GOD, not HIM!” And yet he has not gone away. Nobody thought that he’d last this long, though. But ultimately, as long as he continues along this path, no matter how much success he generates, it won’t be for the right reasons, ones that make the Asian American community proud. And that is the saddest part of it all.

However, if we don’t burst his bubble now, William’s infamy will open up more opportunities for Oriental jokes on television and misrepresentations in the media. If we ignore him, hopefully the focus will shift on more positive Asian American influences, ones that erase the stereotypes that depict us. It’s time for us to the pull the plug on the William Hung karaoke machine. The clock is winding down and his time is almost up. Admittedly, it was a good run. But even he should know when to quit while he’s ahead. Besides, there can’t possibly be any more opportunities out there for him. Unless he learns karate and stars alongside Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 3.

Nathaniel Jue has been writing ever since he won first place in his fourth grade essay contest. However, he has been ranting for the past 26 years.