Character
Ling Woo's character has been described as the antithesis of Ally McBeal's. 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".
Read more about this topic: Ling Woo
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