Long Duk Dong in 16 Candles (1985)

Long Duk Dong in 16 Candles (1985)

In this John Hughes film, Long Duk Dong doesn’t speak a single word of English and serves as the comic relief. His name, an obvious innuendo, feeds into his characterization as a sex-crazed exchange student. All though it’s hard to assess whether yellow-face representation or stereotypical caricature is worse, Long Duk Dong shows how little agency Hollywood has historically given Asian actors.