Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
At a pivotal moment when Asian Americans are fighting for visibility and facing gross misrepresentation in mainstream media, New York City’s Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) is seeking funding for its first-ever cultural exhibition, Chow: The Making of Chinese American Cuisine, which explores the history of a cuisine 170 years in the making as…
Guest Post by ConcernedForMulan A white merchant’s business brings him to the heart of a legendary Asian conflict — he unwittingly helps save the day while winning the heart of the Asian female. Am I describing the plotline of the Netflix series Marco Polo? No. I’m describing the spec script that Disney bought for its…
The blowback to a Fox News segment this week that was chock full of Asian stereotypes has been loud and swift. Activists, Asian American organizations and journalist associations have called Jesse Watters’s man-on-the-street interviews for “The O’Reilly Factor” racist and demanded explanations. Then, on Thursday night, “The Daily Show” responded with the kind of angry critique of Fox News that was the…
This post has been updated with a statement from the Asian American Journalists Association and tweets by Watters. On the eve of the first general-election debate moderated by an Asian American journalist, the “O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News aired a segment so full of Asian stereotypes and jokes that fitting them all into five minutes was…
Alan Yang and Aziz Ansari.ABC As Jimmy Kimmel noted in his opening speech at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards, this year marks the most inclusive ceremony ever, with a wide variety of nonwhite creators and performers nominated throughout the night. Among those nominees were Master of None co-creators Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, who…
“exotic sights and sounds” at the Wangfujing Night Market Last week, I saw a New York Times article shared on my Facebook feed by several high school friends about a common sight in Beijing where we all lived at the time: Chinese men rolling up their shirts just enough to reveal their stomachs as a summertime…
But something changed in our relationship the day I switched jobs. I was working as a metro news reporter at The Chicago Tribune when I was offered a position on the paper’s food writing staff. I had zero experience, but I did have one advantage: I was Cantonese. We Cantonese have a love of eating…
Culture is conflict in Andrew Ahn’s debut feature, Spa Night. Protagonist David (Joe Seo), who, like Ahn himself, is the son of parents who emigrated from Korea, awakens sexually in the Korean spas in Los Angeles that he frequents with his family and friends. Meanwhile, his family’s expectation that he’ll settle down with a nice…
White actors cast as ethnic characters Matt Damon was put as the lead in Zhang Yimou’s English-language debut “The Great Wall,” set in ancient China. The choice drew criticism, most prominently from ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ star Constance Wu. As you’ll see from this gallery, it’s not the first time such casting has stirred controversy….
Just four months after causing outrage over a similarly offensive selfie lens, Snapchat has incurred the wrath of its users by enabling what many see as, effectively, a yellowface lens. According to Mic, users called out the social platform on Twitter yesterday, saying the lens caused people’s faces to look like racist Asian caricatures. While Snapchat has…