The Antlerette October 2018 Volume 93 Issue 1
The Importance of Representation in Hollywood Esmee Teresi, Staff You’re so happy you’re Chinese.” Although Yam’s experience is not unique, it is important to understand because it’s experienced by Asian Americans all across the U.S.
There have been tons of exciting and impactful movies that’ve come out in 2018. Although more recently, the film Crazy Rich Asians has made a huge impact on the way people of color and Asian Americans are viewed in Hollywood. The film debuted late this summer and has been a great success being recognized for its significances as an American made film that has an allstar cast that’s exclusively Asian. In the midst of many controversies surrounding films not featuring enough people of all different ethnic backgrounds, Crazy Rich Asians has been exactly what all Asian Americans have deserved. Recently, a thread of tweets surfaced from Kimberly Yam, a Huffington Post Editor, explaining her story growing up as a young Asian American girl and how she was often faced with shame and embarrassment from her peers, teasing her and putting her down for her heritage. Yam went on to say, “You’re 8 years old. Your third grade class orders Chinese food and your father delivers it. You are so excited to see your pops at school…They [your classmates] laugh at him and mimic his accent. You don’t want to be Chinese anymore.” The list of experiences Yam faced goes on and on until it turns to “You’re 25 years old. You see a movie with an all-Asian cast at a screening...You’ve never seen a cast like this in Hollywood. Everyone is beautiful.
Amazon Images Taking an awards ceremony like the Academy Awards for example, they’ve been under fire these last few years due to the lack of representation for people of color. The ceremony has mainly had only white nominees, maybe one or two black nominees. However there is rarely Asian nominees being showcased and celebrated. In order for equal 1