.................praising Shane Hollander's portrayal as addressing/combatting the "Asian model minority" is Impossible because that's a bad reading of both the show/book (which is largely "go girl, give us nothing!" about Shane's pan-East Asianness and entirely absent from "Yuna" Hollander's portrayal) AND the sociological theory of the "model minority" myth. TL;DR: think whatever you want but claiming that HR actually engages with Asian diaspora discrimination in a USEFUL manner is very misguided and you guys need to read stories by actual Asian people. please
when "model minority" is used in discourse about Asian Americans, this is understood to mean casting Asian immigrants/diaspora as having unique upwards economic mobility, educational attainment, and (most crucially and cruelly) as having more moral/respectful/civilized character in contrast to other communities of color (Black, primarily, but also/especially Latino and probably "white" ethnic groups too). Asians are said to be compliant and eager to assimilate OR having acceptable cultural traditions with Western culture--therefore finding success even though they still face racial discrimination, which is used as a cudgel against other marginalized communities (why can't you roll over like a dog and do that too?).
this racist, divisive theory has been picked to pieces from many different angles (Asian Americans are not universally successful or even universal within the "community"; anti-Blackness by comparing Asians as a "good minority"--which Asian American communities are incredibly guilty of as part of the assimilation to American culture = white supremacy, see affirmative action...). Shane Hollander's textual portrayal in Heated Rivalry does not meaningfully engage with any of the key facets of "Asian model minority" because the story does not meaningfully engage with his East Asianness.
you can't address the "model minority myth" when Shane does not convincingly read as Asian or even Wasian. but you also cannot have a critical examination of it when you do not address anti-Blackness present in the setting, which should be incredibly easy to do since your setting is hockey. but dropping a single commentary line about "strange to see Shane fight" is not actually engaging with "well-behaved/robotic" stereotypes about Asian athletes when you don't also acknowledge how that stereotype is rooted in anti-Blackness and Orientalism (Shane's abnormal but acceptable unlike--. I get it's also a narrative contrast against Ilya, and yes, the NHL was/is super xenophobic, but the show also doesn't meaningfully engage with Ilya's heritage culture so.....). because sure people might say that about Shohei Ohtani in a racist way but they also say that about Sidney Crosby (lol). if you're going to address anti-Asian discrimination in the NHL then you gotta get more specific and incisive with your microaggressions, I'm being so serious right now. can't even slip in a social media comment comparing him dating a hot white actress to Glenn from the Walking Dead? Heated Rivalry is also incapable of engaging with the NHL in a truly critical manner, so whatever.
to give a fair counterargument, I can see a reading of "Yuna's" capitalism as mirroring Asian upwards economic mobility/assimilation to dominant white culture, but this is really only engaged with as a universal athlete tropes "I just want to play the sport without all the publicity" and "I'm hiding my real (gay) self behind all these advertisements." you can't drop a "going to Wimbledon is a white people thing" line when Shane does not engage with Asian diaspora/culture/tradition otherwise and in the same breath, acknowledges that he is white-passing in white-dominated sports settings ("my western last name vs other Asian kid" -- I actually did appreciate this scene and have little issue with it, but it lacks weight when it has no structural effect on his character/the narrative).
he's Wasian. he's mixed! he's Asian, but he's also white. that isn't inherently a problem (discoursing about mixed/adherence to Eurocentric beauty standards instead full racial minority representation is another conversation I don't want to have) but this is also never acknowledged. which could be great commentary about how mixed kids are only ever seen as either but we never get meaningful interiority about Shane's view of himself wrt race because the narrative only engages with his identity as a gay man... because there is ZERO conversation about the intersectionality of race and sexuality and gender in someone's identity when they are a racial minority in a white space. East Asian men have to have different complexes about sexuality/gender presentation than white/"post-racial" men, it comes with the being East Asian!!!!!!!
this is not to say that I want to see Reid or the show writers' take on any of these issues; this is to say I need to stop seeing fans say that Shane and especially "Yuna" Hollander are meaningfully or critically written to address harmful stereotypes against East Asian diaspora, especially the "model minority myth". it's not a myth in this story.
