Ling Woo
Encyclopedia
Ling Woo is a fictional character
in the US
comedy-drama
Ally McBeal
, portrayed by American
actress Lucy Liu
. Ling was a cold and ferocious Chinese American
lawyer who spoke Mandarin and was knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. Unlike the 1970s depictions of docile East Asian women on TV, Ling's character was the opposite, the classic stereotype of the Dragon Lady
. At the time, she was the only significant representative of Asian women on television in the United States (besides news anchors and reporters), leaving no one else to counteract this prominent stereotype. Thus, the portrayal of Ling Woo attracted much scholarly attention.
which ran on the Fox
network from 1997 to 2002. Set in the fiction
al Boston law firm of Cage, Fish and Associates, the series explores the relationships among various lawyers working at the firm, often as they relate to gender specific issues raised in court cases. Ling Woo was a character written by Kelley specifically for actress Lucy Liu after she failed to secure the role of Nelle Porter in the show.
Woo appeared for the first time in the second season as a client suing a Howard Stern
-like talk show host named Wick. She was suing Wick because his programs contributed to sexual harassment
in her workplace. Wick claimed Ling brought suit because she had a "slutty little Asian thing going", and Ling said that she wanted to sleep with Wick because if she did, she would kill him. The character proved to be a hit, and Liu was signed on as a regular for the series.
Ling became a lawyer with the firm by pressuring Richard Fish, the firm's senior partner, to hire her services as counsel. She remained a regular on the show until 2001, when her role was reduced to four episodes in the upcoming season. Ling's employment history changes that season when the Governor of Massachusetts offers Ling a job as judge after Ling complimented her twin babies. Woo is a graduate of Cornell Law School
where she was editor of Law Review.
At the time, she was the most famous and only significant representative of Asian women on television (besides news anchors and reporters). In the 1990s, Asian women were rarely given prominent roles on television. For example, in 1994 Margaret Cho
had a brief prime-time show called All American Girl, which was not popular with audiences and did not even last a full season. When the show aired, there had not been another Asian-American-centered show or an Asian main character at the time the Ling character was created. She remains the most memorable Asian TV character of the 1990s.
. For example, Woo is portrayed as evil, McBeal as good; Woo growls, McBeal purrs. In one episode, McBeal literally floats on air due to happiness. When Woo walks into the room, McBeal is plunged from her ethereal, angelic state. Her verbal assaults presents a fantasy of authority that appeals to even McBeal. "She's my hero", says McBeal, "she's vicious, I disagree with almost everything she says, she treats me like dirt, and somehow she's my hero."
The character's main function was to inject into the show "sensuality, promise, terror, sublimity, idyllic pleasure, intense energy" - elements long associated with the Orient in Western culture, according to Orientalism
author Edward Said
. Ling brings to mind "the dragon lady, the geisha
, and the inscrutable Oriental". Describing her as "fearsome, devouring, vicious, cool," and with an "exotic sexuality", Georgia State University
professor Greg Smith sees Woo as a stereotype of Asian Women, a "Dragon Lady".
Her character was frequently used to examine matters related to gender definition and topics. Ling is the only major character in Ally Mcbeal who does not have a story for the origin of her particular neurosis
. She is exempt from the psychoanalytic focus given to others in the series, which Smith attributes simply to her Asian "mysteriousness".
in the Wizard of Oz
, although this device was dropped entirely by the end of the first season Woo appeared on the show. Unlike a melodramatic villain such as J. R. Ewing or an unrepentant buffoon like Archie Bunker
, Ling is cast as a remarkably heartless character until well into the second season she appears (Season 3 of the show), when she begins to befriend the other characters.
She harasses people with physical handicaps. When visiting a hospital, Ling accidentally collides with a man in a wheelchair, and shouts, "Watch where you are going! It's bad enough that you people get all the parking spots!" To an individual with Tourette syndrome
, she says, "I think Tourettes is so cool. It would be great to be able to annoy people like that. You get to woop and twitch
. Any other good ones?" A passing blind
man accidentally taps her with his cane, and Ling cries, "OW! They're not weapons!..I so prefer the deaf to the blind." Ling will even impersonate the blind to get her way. In one episode she puts on sunglasses, extends a telescoping white cane
, and walks across a busy street, tires squealing as she hits a couple of cars with her cane. Ling is unapologetic for these affronts. When pointed out that "there are real blind people in the world", Ling retorts, "It's not like any of them saw me."
Ling is concerned with petty annoyances that disrupt her pleasure or inconvenience her. When a colleague is stuck in an elevator with his feet dangling out of the doors, Ling asks, "Does this mean I'm going to have to take the stairs?" She is impatient in getting what she wants, for example snapping at a judge to "hurry up" as he read a verdict. She frequently announces that she is uninterested in proceedings that don't affect her personally. As her co-counsel questions a witness in court, Ling objects to the judge, "I'm bored! As an officer of the court, I have a duty to be open and forthright. I think the witness is tedious and I'm concerned for the jury's attention span."
Smith sees Ling's attacks as pointed and consciously vicious. She attacks because her words have consequences, clearing a path for her own selfish interests. Nelle Porter says, "I admire the way you don't let yourself be pushed around. Too many people when they think they've been wronged just walk away." Jeff Yang
, founding publisher of A Magazine
, a New York-based publication on Asian American culture, sees Ling as "a strong Asian woman who's clearly potent, clearly has control. She's not a victim, not somebody who lets anyone come even close to victimizing her."
Even though she coldly tyrannizes virtually everyone around her, she is sometimes hurt and confused over being disliked. She admits, "It's lonely on the bench. I thought I'd like a place where people can't get to you but once in a while..." A colleague completes her thought: "you need to have somebody who can get to you." During Season 2 it is seen that Ling is not completely cold, but prefers to keep her emotions hidden. In "Angels and Blimps", she maintains a facade of cold in front of Ally and Greg when their young client dies from leukemia, but is seeing sobbing as she exits the hospital (she also commmits a secret act of kindness to restore Ally's belief in God). It is not until Woo's second season (Season 3 of the show) that she begins to show attributes of friendship and vulnerability to others.
Associate Professor Tracey Patton sees Woo as the embodiment of the Asian fantasy woman, the seductive temptress expert in eroticism who is knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. In one episode, she agreed to have sex only after her partner signed a health waiver
and confidentiality agreement
to protect her sexual secrets. In another episode, Ling is hired by Richard Fish as an attorney in his firm, in exchange for sexual favors. Ling's sexual foreplay
with Richard Fish included sucking his fingers, dropping hot wax on him, and performing a "hair-tickling massage" on his bare chest. "What she offered was not too far from an Oriental massage - hair splayed across his chest, his stricken face, the whole interracial thing", said Yang. "It's clearly something that plays off so many deep-seated fantasies about Asian American women."
Ling's attitude to sex is cold and uninterested. While depicted as a sexual predator, she nonetheless "doesn't like sex; it's messy" "and overrated". She is able to keep her boyfriend interested without having to have intercourse with him because she does not like sweat. To Ling, according to Smith, sex is just another arena for her to exert control. To her, "Sex is a weapon", and "a woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick". She enjoys using the weapon, as she says "there's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them." As with the "vicious" personality, most of this hyper-sexuality is gone by Season 3 (Woo's second season on the show).
Darrell Hamamoto
, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis
, describes Ling is as "a neo-Orientalist masturbatory fantasy figure concocted by a white man whose job it is to satisfy the blocked needs of other white men who seek temporary escape from their banal and deadening lives by indulging themselves in a bit of visual cunnilingus
while relaxing on the sofa."
Her liaisons are with white men, but not only men. In a dream sequence of Ally McBeal's in which the two of them go on a date, they kiss on screen
. The kiss was shot in profile, locked lips clearly visible, rather than using the normal angle for same-sex kisses, in which the partner's head blocks the view of the actual contact. The scene was considered so racy that the episode was banned from being shown in Singapore. The episode won its time slot among young adult viewers during its showing in the November 1999 sweeps, even beating Monday Night Football
. Ling made the "damn hot kiss" even hotter because "she's the exotic, erotic experimenter of the group", according to Scott Seomin, media director at that time for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Her character is the one most often portrayed on the show using animal effects. She frequently responds with a range of animal growls
and snarl
s and breathes fire
like a literal manifestation of dragon lady
. Smith sees this as reinforcing the bestial undertone of the Asian stereotype, making her appear inhuman. Ling herself admits, "It must be hard being human. I wouldn't know. I never tried it."
In one episode, Woo literally turned into an alien
, reminiscent of a scene from the movie Alien
. Woo's transformation into an alien was a reference on her not fitting in with the other lawyers as well as a reference on her citizenship. Patton points out that the assumption is often made that a second-generation White immigrant is an American citizen, but that same assumption is not granted to non-Whites - in this case, Woo. Woo is not constructed as American (because an American is constructed as White), nor is she constructed as human. Woo, the only non-Euro-American member of the law firm, is constructed and seen as foreign or alien.
Ling is not above using her ethnicity as a means of gaining advantage. In one episode, as she delivers her closing arguments to a jury, she says "There's a very old expression in China," and then begins to speak in Chinese. In the subtitles we see her saying, "It really doesn't matter what I say here, because none of you speak Chinese. But you can see from my sad face I'm sympathetic. You hear from my tone it's appropriate to feel sorry for me. As I drop to a faint whisper (which she does), you'll feel the sorrow yourself. I'm going to finish now, pretend to cry", which she does as she walks off.
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
in the US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
comedy-drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal
Ally McBeal is an American legal comedy-drama series which aired on the Fox network from 1997 to 2002. The series was created by David E. Kelley, who also served as the executive producer, along with Bill D'Elia...
, portrayed by American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actress Lucy Liu
Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress and film producer. She became known for playing the role of the vicious and ill-mannered Ling Woo in the television series Ally McBeal , and has also appeared in several Hollywood films including Charlie's Angels, Chicago, Kill Bill, and Kung Fu Panda.-Early...
. Ling was a cold and ferocious Chinese American
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
lawyer who spoke Mandarin and was knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. Unlike the 1970s depictions of docile East Asian women on TV, Ling's character was the opposite, the classic stereotype of the Dragon Lady
Dragon Lady (stereotype)
A Dragon Lady is a stereotype of East Asian women as strong, deceitful, domineering or mysterious. The term's origin and usage is Western, not Chinese. Inspired by the characters played by actress Anna May Wong, the term was coined from the villain in the comic strip Terry and the Pirates...
. At the time, she was the only significant representative of Asian women on television in the United States (besides news anchors and reporters), leaving no one else to counteract this prominent stereotype. Thus, the portrayal of Ling Woo attracted much scholarly attention.
Background
Ally McBeal is an American television series created by David E. KelleyDavid E. Kelley
David Edward Kelley is an American television writer and producer, known as the creator of Picket Fences, Chicago Hope, The Practice, Ally McBeal, Boston Public, Boston Legal and Harry's Law, as well as several films. Kelley is one of the only screenwriters to have had a show created by him run on...
which ran on the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
network from 1997 to 2002. Set in the fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
al Boston law firm of Cage, Fish and Associates, the series explores the relationships among various lawyers working at the firm, often as they relate to gender specific issues raised in court cases. Ling Woo was a character written by Kelley specifically for actress Lucy Liu after she failed to secure the role of Nelle Porter in the show.
Woo appeared for the first time in the second season as a client suing a Howard Stern
Howard Stern
Howard Allan Stern is an American radio personality, television host, author, and actor best known for his radio show, which was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2005. He gained wide recognition in the 1990s where he was labeled a "shock jock" for his outspoken and sometimes controversial style...
-like talk show host named Wick. She was suing Wick because his programs contributed to sexual harassment
Sexual harassment
Sexual harassment, is intimidation, bullying or coercion of a sexual nature, or the unwelcome or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. In some contexts or circumstances, sexual harassment is illegal. It includes a range of behavior from seemingly mild transgressions and...
in her workplace. Wick claimed Ling brought suit because she had a "slutty little Asian thing going", and Ling said that she wanted to sleep with Wick because if she did, she would kill him. The character proved to be a hit, and Liu was signed on as a regular for the series.
Ling became a lawyer with the firm by pressuring Richard Fish, the firm's senior partner, to hire her services as counsel. She remained a regular on the show until 2001, when her role was reduced to four episodes in the upcoming season. Ling's employment history changes that season when the Governor of Massachusetts offers Ling a job as judge after Ling complimented her twin babies. Woo is a graduate of Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School
Cornell Law School, located in Ithaca, New York, is a graduate school of Cornell University and one of the five Ivy League law schools. The school confers three law degrees...
where she was editor of Law Review.
At the time, she was the most famous and only significant representative of Asian women on television (besides news anchors and reporters). In the 1990s, Asian women were rarely given prominent roles on television. For example, in 1994 Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho
Margaret Cho is an American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, and recording artist. Cho is best known for her stand-up routines, through which she critiques social and political problems, especially those pertaining to race and sexuality. She has also directed and appeared in music...
had a brief prime-time show called All American Girl, which was not popular with audiences and did not even last a full season. When the show aired, there had not been another Asian-American-centered show or an Asian main character at the time the Ling character was created. She remains the most memorable Asian TV character of the 1990s.
Character
"Blunt, rude, crude, and secure", Ling Woo is the antithesis of Ally McBealAlly McBeal (Character)
Allison Marie "Ally" McBeal is the central fictional character in the Fox series Ally McBeal played by Calista Flockhart.Ally is a Boston-based lawyer. She is shown as a woman who believes in love and is continually looking for her soul mate...
. For example, Woo is portrayed as evil, McBeal as good; Woo growls, McBeal purrs. In one episode, McBeal literally floats on air due to happiness. When Woo walks into the room, McBeal is plunged from her ethereal, angelic state. Her verbal assaults presents a fantasy of authority that appeals to even McBeal. "She's my hero", says McBeal, "she's vicious, I disagree with almost everything she says, she treats me like dirt, and somehow she's my hero."
The character's main function was to inject into the show "sensuality, promise, terror, sublimity, idyllic pleasure, intense energy" - elements long associated with the Orient in Western culture, according to Orientalism
Orientalism (book)
Orientalism is a book published in 1978 by Edward Said that has been highly influential and controversial in postcolonial studies and other fields. In the book, Said effectively redefined the term "Orientalism" to mean a constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward the...
author Edward Said
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
. Ling brings to mind "the dragon lady, the geisha
Geisha
, Geiko or Geigi are traditional, female Japanese entertainers whose skills include performing various Japanese arts such as classical music and dance.-Terms:...
, and the inscrutable Oriental". Describing her as "fearsome, devouring, vicious, cool," and with an "exotic sexuality", Georgia State University
Georgia State University
Georgia State University is a research university in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Founded in 1913, it serves about 30,000 students and is one of the University System of Georgia's four research universities...
professor Greg Smith sees Woo as a stereotype of Asian Women, a "Dragon Lady".
Her character was frequently used to examine matters related to gender definition and topics. Ling is the only major character in Ally Mcbeal who does not have a story for the origin of her particular neurosis
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
. She is exempt from the psychoanalytic focus given to others in the series, which Smith attributes simply to her Asian "mysteriousness".
Cold and vicious
Woo is cast as a villain, underscored by her frequent appearance to the theme music that accompanied the Wicked Witch of the WestWicked Witch of the West
The Wicked Witch of the West is a fictional character and the most significant antagonist in L. Frank Baum's children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
in the Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a children's novel written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow. Originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on May 17, 1900, it has since been reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, which is the name of...
, although this device was dropped entirely by the end of the first season Woo appeared on the show. Unlike a melodramatic villain such as J. R. Ewing or an unrepentant buffoon like Archie Bunker
Archie Bunker
Archibald "Archie" Bunker is a fictional New Yorker in the 1970s top-rated American television sitcom All in the Family and its spin-off Archie Bunker's Place, played to acclaim by Carroll O'Connor. Bunker is a veteran of World War II, reactionary, bigoted, conservative, blue-collar worker, and...
, Ling is cast as a remarkably heartless character until well into the second season she appears (Season 3 of the show), when she begins to befriend the other characters.
She harasses people with physical handicaps. When visiting a hospital, Ling accidentally collides with a man in a wheelchair, and shouts, "Watch where you are going! It's bad enough that you people get all the parking spots!" To an individual with Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome
Tourette syndrome is an inherited neuropsychiatric disorder with onset in childhood, characterized by multiple physical tics and at least one vocal tic; these tics characteristically wax and wane...
, she says, "I think Tourettes is so cool. It would be great to be able to annoy people like that. You get to woop and twitch
Tic
A tic is a sudden, repetitive, nonrhythmic, stereotyped motor movement or vocalization involving discrete muscle groups. Tics can be invisible to the observer, such as abdominal tensing or toe crunching. Common motor and phonic tics are, respectively, eye blinking and throat clearing...
. Any other good ones?" A passing blind
Blindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
man accidentally taps her with his cane, and Ling cries, "OW! They're not weapons!..I so prefer the deaf to the blind." Ling will even impersonate the blind to get her way. In one episode she puts on sunglasses, extends a telescoping white cane
White cane
A white cane is used by many people who are blind or visually impaired, both as a mobility tool and as a courtesy to others. Not all modern white canes are designed to fulfill the same primary function, however: There are at least five varieties of this tool, each serving a slightly different...
, and walks across a busy street, tires squealing as she hits a couple of cars with her cane. Ling is unapologetic for these affronts. When pointed out that "there are real blind people in the world", Ling retorts, "It's not like any of them saw me."
Ling is concerned with petty annoyances that disrupt her pleasure or inconvenience her. When a colleague is stuck in an elevator with his feet dangling out of the doors, Ling asks, "Does this mean I'm going to have to take the stairs?" She is impatient in getting what she wants, for example snapping at a judge to "hurry up" as he read a verdict. She frequently announces that she is uninterested in proceedings that don't affect her personally. As her co-counsel questions a witness in court, Ling objects to the judge, "I'm bored! As an officer of the court, I have a duty to be open and forthright. I think the witness is tedious and I'm concerned for the jury's attention span."
Smith sees Ling's attacks as pointed and consciously vicious. She attacks because her words have consequences, clearing a path for her own selfish interests. Nelle Porter says, "I admire the way you don't let yourself be pushed around. Too many people when they think they've been wronged just walk away." Jeff Yang
Jeff Yang
Jeff Yang is an American writer and business/media consultant who writes the "Tao Jones" column for the Wall Street Journal. Previously, he was the "Asian Pop" columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle. Yang lives in New York City...
, founding publisher of A Magazine
A Magazine
A Magazine was founded in 1989 by Jeff Yang, Amy Chu, Sandi Kim and Bill Yao to cover Asian American issues and culture, and grew out of a campus magazine Yang edited while an undergraduate at Harvard University....
, a New York-based publication on Asian American culture, sees Ling as "a strong Asian woman who's clearly potent, clearly has control. She's not a victim, not somebody who lets anyone come even close to victimizing her."
Even though she coldly tyrannizes virtually everyone around her, she is sometimes hurt and confused over being disliked. She admits, "It's lonely on the bench. I thought I'd like a place where people can't get to you but once in a while..." A colleague completes her thought: "you need to have somebody who can get to you." During Season 2 it is seen that Ling is not completely cold, but prefers to keep her emotions hidden. In "Angels and Blimps", she maintains a facade of cold in front of Ally and Greg when their young client dies from leukemia, but is seeing sobbing as she exits the hospital (she also commmits a secret act of kindness to restore Ally's belief in God). It is not until Woo's second season (Season 3 of the show) that she begins to show attributes of friendship and vulnerability to others.
Hypersexual
University of WyomingUniversity of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
Associate Professor Tracey Patton sees Woo as the embodiment of the Asian fantasy woman, the seductive temptress expert in eroticism who is knowledgeable in the art of sexual pleasure unknown to the Western world. In one episode, she agreed to have sex only after her partner signed a health waiver
Waiver
A waiver is the voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some known right or privilege.While a waiver is often in writing, sometimes a person's actions can act as a waiver. An example of a written waiver is a disclaimer, which becomes a waiver when accepted...
and confidentiality agreement
Non-disclosure agreement
A non-disclosure agreement , also known as a confidentiality agreement , confidential disclosure agreement , proprietary information agreement , or secrecy agreement, is a legal contract between at least two parties that outlines confidential material, knowledge, or information that the parties...
to protect her sexual secrets. In another episode, Ling is hired by Richard Fish as an attorney in his firm, in exchange for sexual favors. Ling's sexual foreplay
Foreplay
In human sexual behavior, foreplay is a set of intimate psychological and physically intimate acts between two or more people meant to create desire for sexual activity and sexual arousal. Either or any of the sexual partners may initiate the foreplay, and they may not be the active partner during...
with Richard Fish included sucking his fingers, dropping hot wax on him, and performing a "hair-tickling massage" on his bare chest. "What she offered was not too far from an Oriental massage - hair splayed across his chest, his stricken face, the whole interracial thing", said Yang. "It's clearly something that plays off so many deep-seated fantasies about Asian American women."
Ling's attitude to sex is cold and uninterested. While depicted as a sexual predator, she nonetheless "doesn't like sex; it's messy" "and overrated". She is able to keep her boyfriend interested without having to have intercourse with him because she does not like sweat. To Ling, according to Smith, sex is just another arena for her to exert control. To her, "Sex is a weapon", and "a woman hasn't got true control of a man until her hand is on the dumb stick". She enjoys using the weapon, as she says "there's nothing I enjoy more than seeing a happy couple and coming between them." As with the "vicious" personality, most of this hyper-sexuality is gone by Season 3 (Woo's second season on the show).
Darrell Hamamoto
Darrell Hamamoto
Darrell Hamamoto is a Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis who is best known for his views on the desexualization of Asian American males in the media.- Education :Dr...
, Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis
University of California, Davis
The University of California, Davis is a public teaching and research university established in 1905 and located in Davis, California, USA. Spanning over , the campus is the largest within the University of California system and third largest by enrollment...
, describes Ling is as "a neo-Orientalist masturbatory fantasy figure concocted by a white man whose job it is to satisfy the blocked needs of other white men who seek temporary escape from their banal and deadening lives by indulging themselves in a bit of visual cunnilingus
Cunnilingus
Cunnilingus is an oral sex act performed on a female. It involves the use by a sex partner of the mouth, lips and tongue to stimulate the female's clitoris, vulva, or vagina...
while relaxing on the sofa."
Her liaisons are with white men, but not only men. In a dream sequence of Ally McBeal's in which the two of them go on a date, they kiss on screen
Lesbian kiss episode
The "lesbian kiss episode" is a sub-genre of the U.S. television media created in the 1990s. Beginning in 1991 with a kiss on L.A. Law episode "He's a Crowd" between C.J...
. The kiss was shot in profile, locked lips clearly visible, rather than using the normal angle for same-sex kisses, in which the partner's head blocks the view of the actual contact. The scene was considered so racy that the episode was banned from being shown in Singapore. The episode won its time slot among young adult viewers during its showing in the November 1999 sweeps, even beating Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football
Monday Night Football is a live broadcast of the National Football League on ESPN. From to it aired on ABC. Monday Night Football was, along with Hallmark Hall of Fame, and the Walt Disney anthology television series, one of the longest running prime time commercial network television series...
. Ling made the "damn hot kiss" even hotter because "she's the exotic, erotic experimenter of the group", according to Scott Seomin, media director at that time for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Alien
Patton sees Woo's actions, attitudes, and portrayal of the evil manipulator make her into the alien of the law firm, and as such many of the lawyers in the firm did not want her hired. Campbell, a Euro-American male at the firm stated, "With her as a lawyer, the whole thing (the dynamic make-up of the firm) will change." Not only is her non-White presence questioned but her competency too. Even though she was the law review editor in law school, the presumption was she got the job mainly because Fish could not say no to Woo and her sexual promises. Woo is seen as an unwelcome addition to the law team despite her expertise and her success in law school.Her character is the one most often portrayed on the show using animal effects. She frequently responds with a range of animal growls
Growling
Growling or growl is a low, guttural vocalization produced by predatory animals as a warning to others, as a sign of aggression, or to express anger. Low or dull rumbling noises may also be emitted by human beings when discontent with something or angry...
and snarl
Snarl
A snarl is a facial expression, where the upper lip is raised, and the nostrils widen, generally indicating hate, anger or pain. In addition to humans, other mammals including monkeys and dogs snarl, often to warn others of their potential bite. In humans, snarling uses the levator labii...
s and breathes fire
Fire breathing
Fire breathing is the act of creating a fireball by breathing a fine mist of fuel over an open flame. Proper technique and the correct fuel create the illusion of danger to enhance the novelty of fire breathing, while reducing the risk to health and safety...
like a literal manifestation of dragon lady
Dragon Lady
Dragon Lady is a phrase referring to a seductive, treacherous, domineering, and/or tyrannical woman, especially an Asian one. Women famously referred to as "Dragon Lady" include:*Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu, First Lady of South Vietnam...
. Smith sees this as reinforcing the bestial undertone of the Asian stereotype, making her appear inhuman. Ling herself admits, "It must be hard being human. I wouldn't know. I never tried it."
In one episode, Woo literally turned into an alien
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
, reminiscent of a scene from the movie Alien
Alien (film)
Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm and Yaphet Kotto. The film's title refers to its primary antagonist: a highly aggressive extraterrestrial creature which...
. Woo's transformation into an alien was a reference on her not fitting in with the other lawyers as well as a reference on her citizenship. Patton points out that the assumption is often made that a second-generation White immigrant is an American citizen, but that same assumption is not granted to non-Whites - in this case, Woo. Woo is not constructed as American (because an American is constructed as White), nor is she constructed as human. Woo, the only non-Euro-American member of the law firm, is constructed and seen as foreign or alien.
Ling is not above using her ethnicity as a means of gaining advantage. In one episode, as she delivers her closing arguments to a jury, she says "There's a very old expression in China," and then begins to speak in Chinese. In the subtitles we see her saying, "It really doesn't matter what I say here, because none of you speak Chinese. But you can see from my sad face I'm sympathetic. You hear from my tone it's appropriate to feel sorry for me. As I drop to a faint whisper (which she does), you'll feel the sorrow yourself. I'm going to finish now, pretend to cry", which she does as she walks off.