Educational Media Reviews Online

Stereotypes abound in our society today. All Americans are wealthy; all Parisians are rude; all Japanese are technological geniuses; all Middle Easterners are violent militants. Many times, stereotypes are focused on different racial, ethnic, or religious groups, and are most often based on fear, narrow-mindedness, and plain hatred. They are typically aimed at one group from another. Do we ever consider, however, that those racial, ethnic and religious groups have stereotypes of their own, aimed at others within their own particular community?

Hanging Out presents a somewhat comical, yet enlightening, view of stereotypes within the Chinese community in Canada. The OBC's (Overseas-Born Chinese) and the CBC's (Canadian-Born Chinese) find enough differences between them to establish stereotypes for the opposing group. What we might normally stereotype as "Chinese" varies between the OBC's and CBC's. To say that all Chinese speak Chinese is simply not true. Between the two Canadian groups of Chinese, Hanging Out demonstrates with short dramatizations that many CBC's have either not been taught Chinese at all, or simply haven't learned enough of the language to be fluent. In assuming that all Chinese can cook or eat only Chinese food, we see that cooking and eating habits depend on the specific likes and dislikes of each individual. One interesting scenario in Hanging Out focuses on two OBC's studying with a CBC friend. The CBC is stereotyped as wearing a basketball jersey and heavy chains around his neck, while the OBC's are more traditionally dressed. When the CBC leaves his studying to play basketball, the OBC's immediately talk about how CBC's are not as disciplined in their study skills as they are. To their surprise, the CBC returns to his books within minutes and continues studying his lessons. He had only left for a short study break.

Hanging Out opens with an introduction by writer, Wesley Lowe. If audiences can get past the tinny sound, poor film cuts and extremely scripted dialogue of the introduction, they will be pleased by the high quality of the rest of this video, as well as the messages conveyed and lessons learned. The narrator of Hanging Out talks about Chinese stereotypes and then leads his audience into each skit addressing a specific generalization. The dramatizations lend a good sense of the feelings of OBC's toward CBC's and vice versa. Through these scenarios, we find that the stereotypes named are generally wrong.

The main characters in this video are teenagers; an aspect that would appeal to a younger audience. The backdrops displayed behind the narrator and the manner in which he speaks seem to be geared toward children in the grades surrounding and including middle school. Despite the fact that Hanging Out addresses stereotypes within a specific ethno-cultural group, teachers/librarians will be able to relate these particular instances to the global problem of prejudice and stereotypes to their classes.