Study finds Asian-American characters "tokens" on TV

LOS ANGELES (AP) — TV's Asian-American characters are so frequently slighted that even programs set in the biggest, most diverse cities leave them out of the picture, a new study found.

For "Tokens on the Small Screen," professors and scholars at six California universities looked at 242 broadcast, cable and digital platform shows that aired during the 2015-16 season and tallied the numbers, screen time and portrayals of characters of Asian or Pacific Islander descent among 2,000 TV characters.

The report released today, a follow-up to broadcast TV studies done in 2005 and 2006, found increasing opportunities for Asian-American actors but concluded they are still underrepresented and "their characters remain marginalized and tokenized on screen."

There was a sense of optimism with the emergence of ABC's "Fresh Off the Boat" and "Dr. Ken" and Netflix's "Master of None," all starring and focused on Asian-Americans, said Nancy Wong Yuen, a Biola University associate professor and one of the study's authors.

"It felt like, 'Oh, we're finally making it,'" Yuen said in an interview. "But even ["Dr. Ken" star] Ken Jeong said, "Of this many shows, we only have three?'"

The cancellations of Jeong's sitcom and the Netflix historical drama "Marco Polo," which featured a hefty number of Asian characters, showed how tenuous the hold on representation is, the study said.

A third (34.5 percent) of all Asian or Asian-American characters were found to be on just 11 shows – with the 14 characters on "Marco Polo" alone making up 10 percent of the total – which sets up a "risk of greater decimation when networks decide to cancel even one show," according to the report.