The Activist: Asian American Misrepresentation in Digital Spaces

FIRST ISSUE

Asian American Misrepresentation in Digital Spaces

Table of Contents The time I didn't see my community in American entertainment

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How The Entertainment Industry Represents Asian Culture (spoiler: it needs improvement)

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Asian American Stories to Consider Watching

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The one time I posted about race on social 7 media Asian Hate on Social Media and Real Life

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Online Resources to Fight Asian Hate

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Sources

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The Time I didn't see my Community in American entertainment At 11 years old, I went through my Wattpad era. I wanted to write a short novel with a white girl as my protagonist. I came up with this plot where Jessica, the most basic name anyone could give for any character, finds herself starting an exciting journey to stardom.

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I was so excited. I even published my cringeworthy first chapter on Wattpad (I deleted it after it got 20 reads). Yet that was the furthest I ever got. I found myself having difficulty continuing the second chapter because I didn’t know where to lead Jessica next in her path.

I can think of one reason why, disregarding that I was an 11-year-old with no business writing a novel. I chose to write a story about a white girl who I saw as the perfect girl to appear on the big screen. But as much as I saw white celebrities in movies, how much did I know about them, really?

Funnily enough, I never considered writing a protagonist the same race as me because I’d never seen a Vietnamese girl in an American movie or book before. I had very little understanding of my own community’s story yet wanted to rehash the story of the privileged white community. In many ways, I wanted to tell a story I had no business telling.

No wonder I couldn’t write a novel.

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How the Entertainment Industry Represents Asian Culture (spoiler: it needs improvement) Since my Wattpad era in the 2010s, the entertainment industry has come a long way in diversifying its narratives and its casts. However, when it comes to Asian American characters, Hollywood and other big movie/show companies still perpetuate harmful Asian stereotypes including: Model Minority: Nerdy, shy Asians who worry about grades and get bullied (e.g. Baljeet from Phineas and Ferb).

Martial Artist: Due to the influence of Bruce Lee, American films often depict male Asian characters as skilled in kung fu.

The Foreigner: Asian characters serve as comedic relief for their foreign ideas or manner of speech (e.g. Ravi from Jessie)

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Having Asian characters in a cast is great in theory. However, when our culture serves as the butt of jokes, this Asian representation begins to paint a shallow picture of the Asian identity for the sake of American comedy:

Jessie: Luke! That happens to be a very traditional Indian sherboobie!

Ravi: Sherwani [An Indian suit for celebrations].

Jessie: Sure... wani.

Jessie (2011), "Are You Cooler Than a 5th Grader?"

In a survey done by the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment...

90%

of respondents said that Asian representation in entertainment is poor both on the screen and behind it.

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Using shallow stereotypes does nothing to bring the Asian American community's story to the table. Too many Asian children grow up never seeing themselves in entertainment, and nonAsian children develop a caricatured image of Asian culture.

It’s not enough to have an Asian person in the cast. For the entertainment industry, representing Asians the right way and helping people become informed about each Asian culture’s needs will lead to the real diversity we want to see in our stories.

As consumers of media, we can: Advocate for the casting of lead Asian characters and side Asian characters who have nuance and personality beyond the major Asian stereotypes Celebrate films that depict our culture and community conditions (e.g. intergenerational trauma, immigration) with care!

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Asian American Stories to Consider Watching Mind The Gap (2018) Everything, Everywhere All at Once (2022) The Big Sick (2018) The Farewell (2019) Minari (2020) Lucky Grandma (2019)

It took 32 years of living in America to finally see myself onscreen.

Ada Hsieh on Cosmopolitan

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The one time I Posted about race on social media As an Asian, the first time I talked about race with my parents did not go well.

Around the time of George Floyd’s murder, I posted on Facebook with links to resources to support Black Lives Matter. I wanted to show my support as an ally.

The same night, my parents sat me down and asked me why I did it. I felt cautious; we’d never talked to each other about serious topics like this one before. Knowing that my parents are racist, I felt heavy dread settle into my heart.

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One thing led to another, and I ended up breaking down in a culmination of sadness and anger. With our differing beliefs I couldn’t put my feelings into words that my parents could understand. And so, the conversation ended with a greater gap between us than before.

A few months later, another outrage surrounding the Atlanta shootings occurred and sparked the Stop Asian Hate movement to life on social media.

Sometimes, I wonder if I can be better, be braver, as an activist by keeping the Asian American story alive on my social media. Yet I can't help but remember the alienation I felt when my online efforts went dismissed.

Sometimes, as I watch from the sidelines, I can't help but wonder if Stop Asian Hate will become a forgotten social media trend, and my community’s struggles will fade into the background of people’s minds like a bad dream.

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Asian Hate on Social Media and Real Life After March 2020, Asian hate on social media increased substantially as, starting with Donald Trump's use of the phrase "Chinese virus" on Twitter, people began to "other" Asians as the supposed source of the pandemic. As though Asians themselves, and not COVID-19, were the disease to fear.

This rise in anti-Asian sentiment on social media correlated with a rise in anti-Asian hate crime reports in the media. Nationwide, antiAsian hate crimes rose by 339% percent last year.

This number has the potential to end the life of a mother who works in a salon, a child who is the first person in their family to attend higher education... it has the potential to end Asian American stories a chapter too early. It's done just that.

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339%

On March 16, 2020, 8 victims including 6 Asian women were killed by a white man in a spa in Atlanta, Georgia. While people shared their grief and started the Stop Asian Hate movement online, the media also served as a platform for critics to defend the perpetrator and fuel the fire of Asian hate.

Did you know that Asian Americans are accustomed to the lack of asking? Expected to do the adapting? Almost never afforded the luxury of being portrayed as multifaceted beings with wants, needs, desires, fears, pain, joy, and everything in between?

Chanel Miller in an Instagram post (March 18, 2020)

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REMEMBER THEIR NAMES

Soon Chung Park Hyun Jung Grant Suncha Kim Yong Yue Delaina Ashley Yaun Paul Andre Michels Xiaojie Tan Daoyou Feng

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Online Resources to Fight Asian Hate Rather than using the digital space as a platform to spread hate, let's flip to the good side of the coin: using the digital space as a platform to share resources, build community and keep the conversation alive.

Anti-Asian Violence Resources A guide to combating anti-Asian racism — from relationships to the workplace (useful tips for both Asians and allies) Asian Mental Health Collective (guides to caring for mental health accessible in multiple languages) I hope these resources are helpful for you in your journey to advocate for Asian representation both online and offline. Sending a hug from a fellow activist to you!

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Sources "In Bruce Lee's Shadow: Asians Struggle to Create New Hollywood Images" by Bryan Robinson "I Am Not a Fetish or Model Minority: Redefining What it Means to Be API in the Entertainment Industry "Are You Cooler Than a 5th Grader -Minibyte JESSIE - Disney Channel" by Disney Channel "Hollywood’s Fetishization of Asian Women Is Killing Us" by Ada Hsieh "Twitter shows splits over #StopAsianHate hashtag" by Bob Marcotte-U. Rochester "Anti-Asian hate crimes increased 339 percent nationwide last year, report says" by Kimmy Yam "Anti-Asian Hate Crime During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Reproduction of Inequality" by Angela R. Gover, Shannon B. Harper, and Lynn Langton Chanel Miller's Instagram post 13

About the Author Linda Tran is a second year English Literature major with a minor in Professional Writing at UCLA. Her work lies in the intersection between the digital space and social work.

She has published pieces ranging from selfintrospection to how-to's on College Magazine and UCLA's Bold Edit. At MindTerra, a women's mental health startup, she promotes and co-hosts monthly writing sessions for women to come together, selfreflect, and share their stories with each other. She aspires to enter the entertainment industry with her digital marketing and writing expertise to tell moving stories and uplift the voices of underrepresented communities in the digital space.

When she's not at UCLA, Linda lives in Orange County, CA. She spends her time watching anime and video game playthroughs, attempting to read for recreation and simply laying on her sofa.

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