ABSTRACT
My topic is ‘the looking, aging, Asian eye’ as represented in the portrayals of the famous Hollywood Asian voyeurs, Charlie Chan, Mr Wong and Mr Moto.1 These larger-than-life characters enact the cultural stereotype of the wise, aging Asian patriarch (Lau, 1991). American popular culture has historically associated age with wisdom, youth with irresponsibility, and childhood with innocence (see Fiedler, 1966:271). The aging voyeur (for example, Charlie Chan, Art Carney in The Late Show, James Bond’s superior, Le Carré’s George Smiley, Ruth Gordon’s Maude in Harold and Maude) is inevitably attached to, or obliged to work with a youthful voyeur who requires the age and wisdom of his (or her) superior to carry out the assignment in question. Thus are spaces constantly created in popular culture for the aging-looking eye able to disclose truths about life that youthful vision cannot reveal.
