I remember the first time I was ever truly personally insulted for another POC as a child. I was listening to the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill and in her hit song “That Thing”, during her verse dedicated to the 90s women of the world who needed to do better, she mentions that one of the problems of black women in modern society is we get fake nails “done by Koreans” (instead of possibly embracing our natural beauty?). I remember thinking to myself even in my childhood mind that she was a dumb bih BECAUSE nail salons were primarily owned by the Vietnamese anyway, and
maybe the Koreans she went to did such a bad job on her nails because hunty just went to the wrong Asians! I've never had a problem with my acrylics.(Shout out to my nail tech “Viet” holding it down at Cindys nails… he loyal). The point is in media Korean people, Chinese people, Japanese people, and I would mention more countries but we never see the tan Asians so why even lie… they are all put together in this one category “general Asian”. In every film I have seen starring a large majority of Asian actors, it isn’t an Asian film if they aren't fighting, nailing (as in doing nails looks it up in webster okay!), or wearing “traditional clothing” that probably isn't accurate to their actual country. The women are docile, the men, short, desexualized, not athletic UNLESS they were kicking somebody's ass with an accent. It was as if every single person from the continent was fresh off the boat. And although nothing is wrong with being a new immigrant, as someone who felt my own people were not represented in ALL the diverse ways we deserved, I felt for them.
But black people had the 90s and we had a time in TV where we had so many sitcoms we were starting to be seen everywhere! And Asian people, well they had Bruce Lee and Charlie's Angels...kind of. I wondered why I even found myself stereotyping the Korean and Filipino people who surrounded me in Los Angeles despite going to school with people of Various Asian nationalities and knowing they were complex individuals just like the rest of us. I began to wonder why the Korean boys at my high school were football players, and jocks but the ones on TV were always the math nerds who couldn't pull bishes if they tried. Hollywood needed to do better.
So when I saw that this movie called “Crazy Rich Asians” was coming out, showing that Chinese people in particular were just regular folk, acting up, spending they money, falling in love, the women strong, the men fine AS HELL. I just knew this was something I could support. And boy am I glad I did.
Now I would like to admit some parts of the movie culturally confused me and I surely had to do my googles after. For one, for a movie set in Singapore it still seemed the main geographical character was China. The faces on screen were mostly Chinese and I didn't see many other ethnic groups which confused me because Singapore is actually very multiracial and multicultural.. In addition the emphasis on tradition threw me off as well because Singapore is actually one of the least old school countries in Asia with English being so common many kids don't even speak their native languages these days. Despite these details, I relaxed knowing that truly this was not my business to critique anyway and due to knowing so many of my Chinese and Asian peers were excited for this representation I had to see it.
I cried.
Literally from the first scene I cried. Then I cried every minute until the movie ended even when nothing was happening or nothing was on the screen but a shirtless man. I was an emotional mess. The movie was SO damn relatable even for someone who is very crazy but neither rich nor Asian. Once you get past the location of the film and the occasional subtitles (literally there are barely any, if it's not your thing they won't bother you) you realize the movie is about family, love, meeting annoying hatin ass in-laws who don't know how to act and the complexities of the human experience. I went with some friends in my cohort and although none of us are Asian we all smiled and cried like we saw our own family on the screen. It wasn't as if we didn't see color but despite the race of the people on the movie screen we could still see ourselves in them...now isn't that some corny ass kumbaya shit. (I'm not gonna lie though I really went to see the fine ass main character and his friends but representation is cute too).
I am tired of Hollywood acting like only whiteness sells. This movie was a HUGE financial success and yet articles still say it “exceeded expectations” like rom coms aren't one of the most financially grossing movie categories. We have to stop underestimating people. We have to realize that representation on the screen is a blueprint for how people interact in real life.
Everyone can make it. As I continue to ride for my communities in getting our foot in the door for the big wide Hollywood world I will always support others as they do the same. It's not a competition, we all finna take over!