Asians Coming Together (ACT)

A blog for all experiences relating to Asian identities. Loosely Affiliated with the ACT affinity group at St. Stephens and St. Agnes School. The title is ironic as you want it to be. Share your story with us!

[themarysue]

A List of All the Asians in The Force Awakens, and Why Representation Matters

This might seem very self-inserting and awkward, but... I felt like I was watching what could be myself up there on the screen. And that was magic.

[npr]

Diversity In Space: Tracking The First Asian Pilot In The Star Wars Movies

The Asian characters in the original Star Wars films are few, fleeting and often forgotten. But the manager of the "Holocron" database at Lucasfilm helps uncover their back stories.

[micdotcom]

Watch: George Takei has a vital message for those misusing and misremembering Japanese internment.

[weneeddiversebooks]

Wonderful TED talk with the amazing Linda Sue Park - Can A Children’s Book Change the World?

[weneeddiversebooks]

Teacher: A student told me I ‘couldn’t understand because I was a white lady.’ Here’s what I did then.

But things changed for me the day when, during a classroom discussion, one of my kids bluntly told me I “couldn’t understand because I was a white lady.” I had to agree with him. I sat there and tried to speak openly about how I could never fully understand and went home and cried, because my children knew about white privilege before I did. The closest I could ever come was empathy.

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

[thefederalistfreestyle]

Asian Actors Onstage: Lea Salonga, Phillipa Soo Sound Off on Broadway Representation, Cultural Perceptions (The Hollywood Reporter):

Phillipa, you’re of Asian descent and playing a character that isn’t written as Asian, or any race at all.

SALONGA: But it’s awesome and with all of these colorful people!

SOO: Yeah! So I’m half-Chinese and half white, and it wasn’t until being part of this show — even though I’ve been in other mixed race casts — that I have been considered an actor of color. Up until now, I haven’t been talking about being an Asian-American woman! I don’t know why, but clearly it has something to do with the statement that we’re making in our show, and that you’re seeing so many different colors that you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, what is everybody?” I was in Natasha Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, a Russian story based on Tolstoy and with a mixed race cast. But it wasn’t a mixed race cast playing Russian people; it was just us telling the story. Because of who I was playing opposite, I think people assumed I was white. It depends on the frame that highlights different things.

Also, it hasn’t been until now that I received this beautiful letter from this young woman who thanked me for representing Chinese-American people in the theater. That’s never happened to me before! But it’s beautiful because I feel like as amazing as it is to acknowledge, it’s also amazing on the other side that people don’t even think twice about it [in Hamilton].

despite THR falling into the “colorblind casting” trap, an otherwise lovely interview with these two lovely ladies!

[asianscomingtogether]

Two things, the first on “colorblind casting”

When I’ve been reading reports on Hamilton, they keep on calling the casting “colorblind,” which is really the opposite of what they tried to do: the people in Hamilton purposefully casted people of color, they weren’t just randomly selecting people, pretending like they don’t see race. 

It’s okay to see people’s race! And purposefully cast asian actors! Even the beloved J.J. Abrahams explained how he cast people of color by using “colorblind casting,” but couldn’t explain how there were no prominent Asian people in his new movie (see previous post). It’s frustrating.

ANYWAY, it’s fantastic to see an truly Asian story presented a Broadway musical, and also big props to Hamilton for championing the underrepresented in history- from women of the revolution, to unsung abolitionists, to the key figures not in history textbooks.

On a personal note, it’s extremely liberating to see a fellow Wasian (white-asian) playing one of the biggest roles in probably the hottest ticket on Broadway right now. Besides Big Hero 6, which was released just last year, I always felt as if the part-Asian biracial narrative didn’t really exist, but now I know it does. So thanks, Phillipa Soo, for (strangely) representing me. I always felt erased from the narrative, but I’m glad that you get to tell my story.

[inkingideas]

2015: The Year Asian-Americans Finally Got a Shot on TV

From Fresh Off the Boat to Master of None.

In fact, what’s most remarkable about Dr. Ken is that it’s wholly unremarkable. Even though critics almost universally panned the show, it was one of the first freshman shows that ABC picked up for a full season, because it had solid ratings. And yet, it’s almost impossible not to play a “What if” scenario. What if Dr. Ken had premiered before Fresh Off the Boat? It might have collapsed under pressure like All-American Girl. But in this case, it flew under the radar. It didn’t have to be perfect, or present a good face, or rep Asian America hard. It could just be fine — mediocre, even — and we don’t have to agonize over whether the show was worth defending because it was “the only one.” It could simply be left alone, and that, in some ways, might be the biggest gain of all.

[lovefortv]

[asianscomingtogether]

Yup. People don't look at "Friends" and say it's a white show. But people have to view "Fresh off the Boat" as an Asian show, rather than just a family comedy show with an Asian family. All movies/tv shows with many people of color are perceived to have "racial agendas."

Check out Aziz Anzari's new tv show, "Master of None" on Netflix!

[cheonsomi-deactivated20201113]

[asianscomingtogether]

I know this probably relates to mixed race people that identify as Asian, but this also addresses a lot of issues related to “being too Asian” or “not being Asian enough.” Do you think this comedy is effective?

[mitski-miyawakis]

story time.

[theoldreclaimingasia]

Button Poetry | Alex Dang - “What Kind of Asian Are You?”

I thought that the mods would enjoy this poem~

[the-perks-of-being-black]

[be-blackstar]

I like how she doesn’t play. Same when they asked her to “do the accent” and she was like, “No. It’s not a party trick.”

[aljazeeraamerica-blog]

Being ‘hafu’ in Japan: Mixed-race people face ridicule, rejection

Hafu account for a small portion of Japan’s population. According to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, approximately 36,000 children with a non-Japanese parent are born every year in the country, accounting for about 3 percent of births.

[huffpost]

[asianscomingtogether]

Emma Stone understands your frustration that she is not part-Asian

Cameron Crowe has weathered quite a bit of criticism for Aloha, his most recent film about men being the best men they can be when women drop everything to help them do so. However, most of the attention revolved around Crowe’s casting of Emma Stone as Allison Ng, a character of Hawaiian and Asian h

More casting choice frustration.... Emma Stone is definitely a capable actress, but having her play a part Asian character is definitely a stretch.

What do you think of white actors being cast as POC characters? This first was brought to my attention when Jane Krakowski played an affluent New York City mom who is revealed to be Native American. How could Tina Fey, a shining beacon of comedic genius, approve this?

It’s played off as self-referential, in true 30 Rock-style satire, and Krakowski actually was just nominated for an Emmy for her performance.

However, I think we need to seriously reconsider the whitewashing that happens. I don’t think it’s that insane to get Asian people to play Asian characters.