#chinese representation

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I know I already posted about Presence (2024) but I just can't get over... How refreshing it was to see English-speaking Chinese main characters. I mean, I saw Crazy Rich Asians (and despised it), I watched Fresh Off the Boat and it was alright, I appreciated Ling Yi in 1899... I always thought seeing white characters was enough representation for me, but everything about Presence just struck this chord in me, looking around the house at the decor, the way Lucy Liu was dismissive and always had her phone or laptop open, the preference for the son, there was just this familiar taste, this familiar flavor that I'd never experienced in other films that drew me in. I didn't think I ever needed representation but that film just like punched me in the gut, I felt like I'd been watching films about aliens all this time and finally just now saw a film about something I really really relate to, breathing air I didn't realize I hadn't breathed in in years.

I didn't realize how much Chinese representation would hit me like this. I didn't realize. I had no idea. I had no idea I'd been craving seeing Chinese main characters in an English speaking modern setting, a Chinese family with a daughter... Like there was an episode of Fresh Off the Boat where the dad said he wanted a girl and I laughed and laughed and said no way in hell would a Chinese person want a daughter, I don't think that episode was written by a Chinese person at all.

I sobbed really hard at the end of Presence.

The whole thing hit too close to home.

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Video-sharing of the day! Today, a dual edition.

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Anyway now that the hype has long passed I do want to note (as I'm sure this has been noted in many other places) that Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was a double-edged sword in terms of Chinese American representation.

On one hand, it had a good story, some of the best choreography in the MCU, beautifully designed costumes and fantastical worlds, Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, and truly did portray Chinese American & Chinese characters as fleshed-out complex characters. There were quite a few elements of it that made me feel seen, quite frankly, for the first time ever in the Western superhero genre without leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The team did a good job with discarding the extremely racist comic book origins to come up with a new background and storyline that made the movie pretty enjoyable overall and left me feeling quite satisfied once I left the theatre.

That being said-

It was deeply, deeply sanitized for a (mass) white audience. It still falls into many stereotypes and tropes. Shang-Chi is a secret kung fun master with ties to a secret mystical Chinese crime organization. Katy has an H. B. from UBerkley and is a prodigy at archery. Xialing is ALSO a kung fu master. The entire storyline revolves around the return to China trope, and while it does take the characters back to America at the end, the overall storyline seems to hover around this premise: that China is where all the action must happen for characters of Chinese ancestry, that all Chinese people are secretly kung-fu masters or smart prodigies, that the East has this *woo secret mystical oriental flavour with dragons (because what Chinese media isn't complete without dragons haha amirite)!!* that can't be found in the West. As much as I did appreciate the film (and still do somewhat), it's undeniable that this is watered down so that a Western audience could consume it.

There's a reason mainland Chinese audiences didn't like it. The action sequences are like every other Jackie Chan or wuxia sequence you've ever seen in Chinese film. Given how these sequences are almost always extremely high quality, there's a reason this looks amazing compared to the MCU but pretty standard compared to what the usual Chinese moviegoer would see. The worldbuilding in Ta Lo is minimal and clearly written from a Western perspective, especially when compared to much of Chinese fantasy or xianxia media. Every time someone tells me that this film was made for mainland China, I laugh - this movie couldn't be more clearly targeted to a Western audience. Overall, while Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings certainly has its merits and is indeed a step forward in bringing Chinese American superheroes to mainstream media, it's also a continued step on the wrong path of stereotypes and overused tropes.

Anyway if you want a good film with Chinese American representation PLEASE go see Everything Everywhere All At Once that movie is better in literally every single way

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Don't even know how to articulate this properly but:

Everything Everywhere All At Once, beyond being a movie that is undeniably one of the best ever made, also serves as one of the best examples of Chinese diaspora representation I've seen. Unlike many of the recent Chinese diaspora films which have come out, which provide a Hollywood-sanitized version of Chinese Americans for its audience to consume, EEAAO is so deeply and unapologetically Westernized Chinese in every single way.

Just - take a moment. Compare it to other films lauded for representation. Crazy Rich Asians, despite being one of the first high-profile American films to have an all-Asian cast, was completely sanitized for Hollywood; it glamourized privilege and unecessary luxuries while also simultaneously feeding into the "Return to 'true' home" and "All Asians are smart" tropes, and was completely and absolutely unrelatable for me in nearly every single way. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, despite having some excellent moments and details, fed very very much into the "All Chinese are secretly martial artists or mystics" and the "All Asians are smart" tropes AS WELL as the "Return to 'true' home" trope.

But EEAAO doesn't do any of that. The story never centers around secret Chinese magic based in Chinese culture and history; the sci-fi/fantasy aspects of it are universal and can belong anywhere. Evelyn's kung fu skills or scenes in China or even the scene where she was a scientific genius are all in separate universes, all of which were just one possibility out of billions; in every single one, the movie never falls into common Chinese American tropes. She was never a secret kung fu master or a PhD scientist in every single universe; in the main universe, she's living a reality so many of us Chinese diaspora people live in, which is one in which we don't all know kung fu, we're not secretly all geniuses, and many of us haven't gone back to Asia for who knows how long because we don't need to go back; our home is here, in the West, where we're told we're not wanted but we persevere and live here anyway. The portrayal of the Wang family as a perfectly ordinary family that is struggling to get by is the most relatable thing I have seen in all portrayals of Chinese diaspora in Western media.

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What kind of BS Chinese representation is Shang-chi????? You guys are eyeless and if you truly believe shang chi is good asian representation only means you knows 💩 about Chinese culture and you are just self righteous people

Turning red is the ACTUAL Chinese representation, the typical Chinese family drama, the fear of being not perfect, the fear of failing parents expectations, the angst and the trained urge of pleasing own parents, the taboo of talking about periods, the judgemental opinions about your friends comes from your parents, the judgments received from every family gatherings, the perfect Asian nerds’ angst, this is Chinese family trauma , not MCU’s fake Chinese family.

F U MCU F U Disney for not releasing this movie in theaters

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I'm going to try to ask this in the most respectful way possible, but I just read your Shang-Chi discourse and was wondering if you would mind doing a similar discourse on the Kung-Fu Panda movies. I've read many times that they contain very accurate renditions of Chinese culture, but nothing I've come across explains WHY they're so accurate. Would you mind either debunking their accuracy or explaining why they're right?

Hey wearerandomlyyours, sorry for not answering this earlier - the ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while now and I haven't gotten to it since I felt like I couldn't really find the time nor energy to write out a full discourse that Kung Fu Panda deserves. There's absolutely a lot that can be said about it, but I'm afraid I haven't seen the trilogy for years now.

That being said, I HAVE seen some incredibly well-written and well-produced videos from Asian creators who speak about Kung Fu Panda! Here's what I highly recommend:

Chinese Cultural and Philosophical Inspirations in Kung Fu Panda by Xiran Jay Zhao: https://youtu.be/x1eHIfUyYfs

Why China cared about Kung Fu Panda | Video Essay by Accented Cinema: https://youtu.be/tCCRuUlJ_nA

These two videos do have different takes, but I think they both make some extremely valid points. The two channels in general deserve loads of attention imo - they both have excellent analyses of films and tv and other media.

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Via @junescribbles and @judyilin

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Have you heard of Vow of the Silver Dawn? I stumbled across it on Wookieepedia and it sounds pretty interesting

I have not but I just looked it up and it looks amazing??? Oh my god??

From the Wookiepedia:

白银誓约 ("The Vow of Silver Dawn") is a canon Chinese web-novel written by an author under the pseudonym His Majesty the King.[1] A collaboration between the latter, China Literature, and Lucasfilm Ltd., the novel was announced on October 18, 2019.[4] The first three chapters were released online on December 17, 2020,[1] and the story takes place toward the end of the High Republic Era, around 82 BBY.[3]

Released in simplified Chinese on the Shanghai-based Starting Point Chinese Web of the People's Republic of China,[1] the web-novel aims to incorporate Chinese culture to tell an authentic Star Wars story that would resonate with teenagers.[5]

This looks so good. So beautiful. The posters?? Gorgeous. Amazing. Phenomenal. Thank you so much @jedi-valjean for bringing this to my attention, this is absolutely wonderful <3

Also tagging a couple mutuals because I think y'all might be interested!! @puirell @nibeul @milfcommandercody @katierosefun