In 2022, Corinne Tan was announced as the American Girl Doll of the Year and heavily promoted as a way of raising awareness about anti-Asian racism during COVID. But what message did her story send?

When Corinne Tan debuted, AsAms were offended by the synopsis and how it centered a white man in what's supposed to be a COVID racism story. Once I heard the book had been fast tracked for two live-action specials on HBO Max and Cartoon Network, I knew more harm was coming. In the rare instances Western media talks about anti-Asian racism, it's downplayed. Instead, narratives are used to reinforce the 1) Model Minority Myth, 2) Asian gender divide, and 3) "correct" levels of assimilation. Unsurprisingly, Corinne Tan’s story does all of these.

There's a place for stories about divorce and blended families, but this story isn't it. COVID racism is specifically about the threat of AAPI being verbally or physically assaulted by non-AAPI. The author's choice to emphasize conflict within an Asian family is inappropriate.

Instead of empathizing with David Tan's inability to work during the pandemic—a real problem that has devastated many AAPI families and businesses—it's the reason Judy divorces him. The story not only erases racism as a reason for AAPI pandemic joblessness, but victim-blames. It implies her parents have an antagonistic relationship because her dad isn't white and rich, and that makes him an inferior romantic partner. Despite referencing a slur meant for Asian men, the story never acknowledges that her dad experiences racism too.

Another appalling aspect is how Corinne, an 11-year-old girl, is responsible for teaching a grown white man to empathize with her experiences of racism—because her mom won't. Not only does Judy never talk to Arne about racism, she lets him gaslight Corinne in front of her. Judy seems fixated on wealth and achievement over her daughters' emotional safety. When the family lived with David, the walls were decorated with the daughters' artwork. In Arne's house, Judy is concerned with protecting the aesthetic chosen by Arne's professional decorator.

This is why the Eileen Gu poster becomes such a sticking point. While David encourages his daughters to embrace Chinese culture in everything, Judy seems to apply it only to her restaurant. Is it because Arne tells her he hoped marrying a chef would mean never buying takeout?

Meanwhile, Arne, a rich white businessman—who calls himself Goldilocks and whose behavior the author describes as "clueless" racism—gets sympathetic treatment. His fear of heights and dogs is equated to Corinne's fear of racists, as if it's a phobia to overcome via willpower.

Recall that the purpose of Corinne Tan's story is to educate about AAPI experiences with racism during COVID. Mattel, owner of American Girl, hired a panel of AsAm academics and consultants to tell her story with "authenticity and accuracy." So how did it turn out so harmful?

It's because the AsAm consultants for this project and many similar projects—like Dr. Jennifer Ho—are out-of-touch with our community. Insulated by wealth and/or whiteness they've chosen, they think they've acknowledged their privilege, but their work shows they're still reinforcing it.

The broader problem is that racist and misogynist white men control media. Regardless of gender, sexuality, or marital status, AAPI are given media power only when they internalize and repeat white men’s messaging. This isn't limited to fiction—it affects real-life activism too.

A picture says a thousand words, and it speaks volumes that Stop AAPI Hate chose to literally center white men in the photo accompanying their hate crime data report summarizing the past two years. Of those "thousands of voices," it isn't hard to guess who's prioritized. Stop AAPI Hate pushes the same message as Corinne Tan's story: racist white men deserve more humanity and sympathy than actual AAPI male victims. Hating and erasing AAPI men is required to show that you're a "safe" Asian deserving of resources and support. (see my data thread about how hate crime data is manipulated to erase AAPI men as victims)

It's bad enough that an entire gender is being cut out from resources and empathy, but what Corinne Tan’s story reveals is another disturbing trend: AAPI youth are being groomed into normalizing having racist white men in their lives, specifically in their families and homes.

Corinne Tan is a middle grade story (ages 8-12). For its consulting, Mattel partnered with AAPI Youth Rising, a non-profit led by AAPI middle schoolers. At the time, Dr. Ho was president of the Association for Asian American Studies, which helps shape AsAm studies in schools. It's not a stretch to think Corinne's mom Judy, who puts Corinne in harm's way by refusing to address her white husband’s "clueless” racism, is reflective of the behavior of AAPI adults involved in Stop AAPI Hate and other AsAm orgs—they gave the story their stamp of approval.

Anti-Asian hate crimes against AAPI should've brought the community closer together. Instead, we've been segregated further, and the AAPI who hurt the community the most have hoarded the empathy, media attention, and resources for themselves. How can any of us heal like this?

(Please don’t repost or edit my art. Reblogs are always appreciated.)

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something something representation matters, asians seen as desirable and leading characters in romance genre, john cho in selfie, simone ashley in bridgerton, henry golding and constance wu in crazy rich asians, lana condor in to all the boys I've loved before, joel kim booster, conrad ricamora, bowen yang in fire island. just asians having desires, falling in love too

The thing is, for the longest time, Western media has told Asian Americans that we don't belong. The difference now is that they're getting Asian Americans voices to say we feel don't belong - over and over, through diaspora stories that always talk about non-belonging and estrangement. They're giving us a seat at the table but only to keep repeating their message so that it feel progressive because look, it's an Asian American voice saying it now!

Extraordiary in the Ordinary: "American Born Chinese" Season 1 Review

Image: trailer screengrab Loosely based on the graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang, American Born Chinese tells the story of two songs fighting for their own identity. Jin Wang (Ben Wang) wants to just be “normal” – hang out with his friends, make the soccer team, be part of the crowd. Sun Wei-Chen (Jim Liu), the son of the legendary Monkey King, is seeking the mythical Fourth Scroll, hoping to put…

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Jae-Ha Kim: Many Asian American artists have told me they moved to Asia for their careers because they didn’t see themselves represented in the United States. What was it like for you?

Van Ness Wu: It was truly exactly that. Racism and stereotypes were too often seen and experienced growing up back then in Los Angeles and Orange County. I actually applied for an inter-district transfer to go to school in Irvine rather than Newport because it was pretty bad at the time with faculty and everything. I got into the (music) business at the beginning of 2000. Back then there was zero to no proper representation of Asians in entertainment in the States. Who did we really have back then? For me growing up, one was Ke Huy Quan from “The Goonies” and “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.” But even after he played those roles, they didn’t give him any other roles that represented us well. [Editor’s note: Quan’s performance in 2022’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once” was critically acclaimed.] So right after my 22nd birthday, I packed my bags and left with about $1,200 bucks in one pocket and the other full of dreams. You may read the full interview here.

Happy Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

Representation matters. #StarringJohnCho posters by William Yu started in 2016. This began a discussion about Asian Americans in leading roles in Hollywood, which inspired others to create their own stories and will continue to inspire future generations.

Jon M. Chu: #StarringJohnCho Movement Pushed Me To Make 'Crazy Rich Asians'

‘Everything Everywhere’ Star Ke Huy Quan on How ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Gave Him FOMO and Inspired His Return to Movies

Oscar Wins By Film: ‘EEAAO’ Leads With 7 Statues (11 Oscar nominations)

[x]

Shout-out to “Crazy Rich Asians” for giving us the year of Ke Huy Quan. If it weren’t for the success of that movie, Ke Huy Quan wouldn’t have been inspired to return to acting. So, because he was inspired by CRA, he returns to acting and:

1) wins a Golden Globe for his role in “Everything, Everywhere, All at Once”

2) joins the MCU in “Loki” season 2

3) gets a role in “American Born Chinese”

4) gets another big movie role in the Russo Bros’ next film, which also stars Millie Bobby Brown and Chris Pratt

That is one hell of a butterfly effect.

Just wanted to say I appreciate your take on the whole white man/woc imbalanced power plot issue. This is something that I had a big problem with in season 4 and others definitely seemed to pick up on the same when all the storylines were Wesley, Nolan or Tim centric, and Nyla, Angela and Lucy were seemingly left as the 'other'. However I feel like I saw the issue be forgotten in the fandom a little. It seems this show has consistently favoured highlighting the male struggle and treating female storylines as trivial and unworthy, other than that of Bailey, the then newly introduced and now main cast white female character. I thought this would change with Lucy's story now being written consistently in s6 but it's clear that Tim's potentially the more favourable storyline. Now I can't speak from a psychological standpoint on what Tim did to Lucy but from a plot pov it's definitely making the white man vs woc power issue glaringly obvious. He is the one that gets to start or end their relationship. He's the white man with issues that is allowed to feel what he wants and grow his character while the asian woman is left behind despite her own depth and trauma. Let's hope that Lucy is given the same grace of dealing with her issues and growing as Tim, and Lucy gets her power back.

Hi Anon!

Thank you for your kind and thoughtful message. And thanks for patiently waiting for my response. I agree with everything you said. I believe the post you’re referring to is this one and possibly this one too.

It’s clear that the show has favored male storylines, particularly those of Wesley, Nolan, and Tim (and Bailey a non-WOC), while sidelining WOC ones. And even though the focus here is on Lucy and Chenford, I’m equally happy and willing to talk about race through the POVs of Angela/Wopez and Nyla/Jayla too.

I don’t think the actual act of Tim breaking up with Lucy has a racial dynamic to it other than the obvious. Them being of different races is just who they are. But their overall relationship (TO/Rookie, mentor/mentee, sergeant/gofer, friends, couple, etc.) does. And Melissa, bless her heart (affectionate), codes so heavily as Chinese in her mannerisms too and this gets projected onto Lucy. But that’s not talked about very often either. I say all of this to agree with you, Anon, because the “white man vs woc power issue” as you described has existed the whole time.

Let’s look at S5b and S6. A WOC masterminded the career progressions of at least two middle aged white men. One of them derailed her career progression. The other one broke up with her. Both broke her heart in very different ways. We did get some of Lucy’s character development and growth in S6 on the front end of the season. But even within that, her storyline has been about the 5 player trade (made to benefit Tim primarily) and Tim not being comfortable with her in UC. Tim gets demoted but he has a cushion to fall on because Lucy trampolined him into the Metro clouds and now the show’s able to use what Lucy did to benefit Tim again and use that to give him room to fall back on. This is part of the whole ‘using a WOC as a plot device to further a white man’s story’ which I’ve shared about in regards to the breakup (which is different than the act of breaking up) and you've detailed out too. We’ll see what happens to her story in the next few episodes, and I too hope that Lucy is given the same grace and that she does get her power back. But no matter what happens in future episodes, that trope was used so the genie’s already out of the bottle.

You did bring up the fandom, so I am going to talk about it a little more. This next part may be hard to hear, Anon, but … I have received negativity from Chenford fans for talking about Lucy and Melissa O’Neil’s race. This shows me that this topic is so worth talking about because there are people who feel a certain way about seeing race-related discussions about Lucy (they don’t want to be anywhere near it) and I do believe it’s unhealthy for the fandom to have these beliefs about a WOC. Others in the fandom have also encountered negativity and pushback when discussing this topic. Maybe it's even happened to you. People have shared their fandom experiences with me privately, but you’re the first to do it Anonymously which is great because that means you’ve given me the opportunity to respond to you publicly. 

Challenging this negatively held belief within our fandom and embracing Lucy/Mel’s racial and cultural identity is a worthy endeavor so let’s move the dial on that. It starts with talking about these topics in the context of The Rookieverse and keeping an open mind if these topics are unfamiliar to us. I mean, Mel wants more of that too.

Thanks again, Anon!

Meet Kavi Sharma, the 2023 Girl of the Year and first ever South Asian Girl of the Year.

i'm currently thinking about how, for so long, you couldn't be an asian on the screen unless you were a side character that was pretty much built on stereotypes. and there are standout asian actors, but i'm a teenager so legends who made a name for themselves are kinda before my time. but both michelle yeoh and ke huy quan are the embodiment of not giving up on your dreams. even if it takes a while, you're time will come, and in a way that honors yourself. every time i see another post or edit of their oscar wins, i tear up.

i didn't grow up watching asians on tv. my only likeness as a child used to be mulan, but people at school used to tell me i couldn't just pick her as my favorite disney movie because she's asian (which, kids are dumb and that reasoning is stupid and besides the fact the she was the only representation kid-me had, mulan had a great storyline and message and characters and soundtrack and it was and still is a really great movie). i remember seeing characters like mike chang from glee on tv, but he was a character always pushed to the side, and those shows always had a way of just mocking and reaffirming stereotypes.

i think about how sometimes the only space for asian women was so that they could be sexualized, or how there was even less room for asian men on the screen unless they fit a certain look. how asians had to become an image to get their space.

and in recent years, the representation for asians has increased, and i'm so thankful. i wish i had that when i was younger, but i'm glad to have it now. with movies like shang chi or crazy rich asians, we get to see how respecting and celebrating culture is significant, but it's also not an asian's entire identity. how we are still people with stories that deserve to have main characters.

i'm so happy that eeaao gave michelle yeoh and ke huy quan their space. how this door opened for them and asians to be seen and respected. how they inspire people to dream big. how it feels possible for big dreams to really and truly happen.

when i was a little girl, i was obsessed with superheroes, which led me to my obsession with the tv show agents of shield. and i adored melinda may, played by ming na wen, who was a bad*ss character. and her character revolved not around her culture (although culture was not ignored) but how even without it she is still a character with a complex history and development and personality.

it's nice to be living and experiencing an era where asians are getting their recognition. representation is so important because it reaches so many people and lets them know that somewhere out there, achieving the dream, even for someone who looks like us, is within our reach.

we finally get to exist in the mainstream. and for that, my inner child is so grateful.

I mean it is nice to see more East Asian rep coming out now, but a lot of the ones coming out through mainstream venues (e.g. Disney+) are still leaning into stereotypes so that it's palatable to a white audience. The difference is that they've slapped a progressive lens onto it

"Fake Dates and Mooncakes" Is Full of Fluff But Not Really My Jam

All Dylan Tang wants is to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake baking competition in order to honor his late mother and get some publicity for the family takeout. But then the charming and wealthy Theo Somers asks that Dylan accompany him as his plus one to his cousin’s wedding out in the Hamptons and pretend to be his boyfriend. In Fake Dates and Mooncakes, the dates are fake but the feelings are…

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“As a community, especially Asian women, we’re expected to be submissive and not rock the boat. I make it a point to be the loudest person in the room because I don’t want anyone to think I’m timid.”

—Sherry Cola

For Robin Lam, crashing at Grandma's was meant to be a break from their responsibilities. But relaxing might prove hard when the Spirit World is real, its entrance is in their basement, and they're its newest guardian. Blast evil spirits and save your hometown from gentrification in this rogue-like dungeon crawler about Asian diaspora culture – Midautumn!

✧ Fight through the Spirit World! ✧

Experience roguelike dungeon crawling gameplay with engaging and unique combat mechanics! Fight a range of different enemies and boss battles! Plus, accessibility options to ensure you can play how you'd like!

✧ Explore the town of Nambo Quay! ✧

Enjoy multiple story arcs and narrative branches and uncover the mysteries of this fictional Californian coastal town! Shop for boba power-ups, clothes, music and more! Visit locales and events, such as the anime con, SakuraFest!

✧ Meet the Characters ✧

Meet and chat with a whole cast of diverse characters complete with beautiful art and voice acting! Get to know townsfolk and Ancestral Spirits, who offer you their Gifts to help you along the way!

✧ Engage with Asian cultures ✧

Explore diverse Asian diaspora cultural experiences and perspectives created by an all-Asian diaspora team! Featuring a distinct lofi pixel art style, a bumping soundtrack, compelling dialogue and story and previously funded on KIckstarter!

✧ AVAILABLE NOW ON STEAM EARLY ACCESS ✧

BUY, WISHLIST OR TRY THE DEMO TODAY!

Peace

Reach Out to your local body of Gods and Earths in City/State or even country.