Critical Essay
Assignment Description: Complete the critical analysis (or close reading) paper to address the prompt to demonstrate your own critical thought and analysis related to theoretical frameworks and themes of racial stereotypes, whitewashing/yellow facing, subverting the dominant na
ative, identity conflicts and kick-ass Asian Americans. These papers should incorporate topics assigned readings, and your personal reflections on themes of your choice as you respond to the prompt.
Formatting: Cite your sources and any evidence provided from the texts in a consistent format (MLA, APA, Chicago).
Prompt:
· How has the mainstream come to portray and define "Asian American," and how might this portrayal/definition be different from the way in which Asian Americans have sought to frame their own experiences through artistic expression?
· What examples can you provide using course materials (American Born Chinese, Better Luck Tomo
ow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings, other assigned articles), outside sources, or reflections of your own personal experience?
Follow-up and guiding questions :
· What are the common thematic elements from the cultural texts/productions we've covered so far that contribute to an "Asian American" identity? How are these differentiated from or similar to understandings of that which is "Asian" or "American"?
· How is the trope of the "American Dream" addressed in the cultural texts/productions that you're analyzing?
· What examples from the cultural texts/productions can you provide of examples of a dominant or mainstream understanding of who/what "Asian Americans" are, and how these paradigms are subverted or reclaimed by the autho
directo
actors/etc?
· If applicable, how are the na
atives comparable to your own lived experiences?
Sources
· Read: The Complicated Relationship Between Hollywood, Asian Representation, and Marvel's 'Shang-Chi' https:
www.vice.com/en/article/5db88k/the-complicated-relationship-between-hollywood-asian-representation-and-marvel-movie-shang-chi-legend-ten-rings
· Read: Why Asian Superhero Shang-Chi could Truly Change the World https:
www.
c.com/culture/article/ XXXXXXXXXXwhy-asian-superhero-shang-chi-could-truly-change-the-world
· Read: Asian Americans Are Finally Getting the Heroes We Deserve by Jeff Yang
· Better Luck Tomo
ow has lost none of its power https:
www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-co
espondents
etter-luck-tomo
ow-has-lost-none-of-its-powe
· The Oral History of 'Better Luck Tomo
ow' https:
www.gq.com/story
etter-luck-tomo
ow-oral-history
· How Better Luck Tomo
ow Argued for Its Existence, 15 years ago https:
www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/how-better-luck-tomo
ow-argued-for-its-existence-15-years-ago/568045
· Read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
· Watch Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings; Better Luck Tomo
ow
Sources
· Read: The Complicated Relationship Between Hollywood, Asian Representation, and Marvel's 'Shang-Chi' https:
www.vice.com/en/article/5db88k/the-complicated-relationship-between-hollywood-asian-representation-and-marvel-movie-shang-chi-legend-ten-rings
· Read: Why Asian Superhero Shang-Chi could Truly Change the World https:
www.
c.com/culture/article/ XXXXXXXXXXwhy-asian-superhero-shang-chi-could-truly-change-the-world
· Read: Asian Americans Are Finally Getting the Heroes We Deserve by Jeff Yang
· Better Luck Tomo
ow has lost none of its power https:
www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-co
espondents
etter-luck-tomo
ow-has-lost-none-of-its-powe
· The Oral History of 'Better Luck Tomo
ow' https:
www.gq.com/story
etter-luck-tomo
ow-oral-history
· How Better Luck Tomo
ow Argued for Its Existence, 15 years ago https:
www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/how-better-luck-tomo
ow-argued-for-its-existence-15-years-ago/568045
· Read American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
· Watch Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings; Better Luck Tomo
ow
Full page photo
Opinion _ Why Shang-Chi, Our First Asia...uperhero, Matters - The New York Times.pdf
https:
www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/opinion/asian-americans-superheroes-shang-chi.html
GUEST ESSAY
Asian Americans Are Finally Getting the Heroes We Deserve
Sept. 2, 2021
By Jeff Yang
Mr. Yang edited the Asian American superhero anthologies “Secret Identities” and “Shattered,” and is a co-author of the forthcoming book “Rise: A Pop History of Asian America From the
Nineties to Now.”
When I and many of my Asian American peers were growing up, we were so hungry to see ourselves represented that we’d scream
and call the family to join us in the living room when an Asian guest star wandered into a scene on TV or a commercial came on
featuring an Asian family. We’d scour cele
ities’ biographies to surface “undercover Asians,” those with trace evidence of Asian
heritage. Phoebe Cates, yes! Joseph Gordon-Levitt, no.
Now here we are, on the cusp of the release of Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” the first big-budget American
lockbuster to center on an honest-to-goodness Asian superhero. The film stars Simu Liu, who whirls into action with all the unique
splendor promised by a movie that fuses the eye-popping spectacle of Chinese martial arts with Hollywood’s unparalleled storytelling
technology.
When we’re first introduced to our titular protagonist — going by the westernized name “Shaun” — he’s depicted as a good-natured,
smiling parking valet who nods and stammers when condescended to. He begs his over-the-top BFF Katy (Nora “Awkwafina” Lum)
not to make noise or trouble.
He’s living as many of our Asian parents counseled us: “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down,” they said. They encouraged us
to blend in, to adopt cultural camouflage, to avoid standing out in ways that might make us vulnerable to the racial targeting that they
may have experienced themselves.
But it’s not long before Shaun rips off his metaphorical glasses and steps unabashedly into the spotlight as Shang-Chi, a larger-than-
life, pyrotechnic presence who draws every eye and fills the screen as only superheroes can.
For those of us who ultimately rebelled against our parents’ advice to shrink ourselves, Shang Chi’s heroic a
ival is a satisfying
efutation of their warnings. Don’t raise your voice. Don’t draw attention. Don’t take up space. This was well-meaning counsel, but it
had tremendous unintended consequences, leading many of us to avoid asserting our Asian heritage.
Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, who whirls into action with the eye-popping spectacle of Chinese
martial arts. Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios
In the course of conducting interviews for our forthcoming book, a history of Asian America from the 1990s to now, Phil Yu, Philip
Wang and I spoke with Asian American journalists who avoided covering their own communities for fear of being boxed into an ethnic
niche. We heard from Asian American authors who resisted writing Asian American lead characters into their novels. We talked to
Asian American performers who’d normalized the expectation that they could only be secondary players, onscreen and in life.
Sandra Oh, now leading Netflix’s hot-topic dramedy “The Chair,” told us that when she found out she was being offered a spot in the
cat-and-mouse assassin thriller “Killing Eve,” she assumed it would be for a recu
ing role or supporting character.
Awkwafina as Katy, Shang Chi’s over-the-top BFF, and Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, a good-
natured, smiling parking valet who nods and stammers when condescended to, in “Shang-
Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.” Jasin Boland/Marvel Studios
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“I looked through the script, and I couldn’t find an Asian doctor or receptionist or whatever,” she recalled. “And that’s when my agent
told me that they wanted me for the lead. For Eve. The character in the title. That’s the moment that I realized how deep the
internalized racism had been for me by that point in my career: I couldn’t even see the part I was supposed to be playing. I’d gone
from a place of tremendous possibility and confidence when I was very young, to not even being able to see myself.”
Shang-Chi isn’t the first Asian protagonist we’ve seen on a screen. But as a big-budget, big-screen Marvel superhero, he’ll be
ubiquitous. Superheroes today are on every screen, device and platform, visible to every demographic in our society. Shang-Chi will
usher in the next cinematic phase of the most successful franchise in global history. In his wake will come more Asian heroes: Gemma
Chan and Kumail Nanjiani as Sersi and Kingo in “Eternals,” Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel in “The Marvels.” Their casting ensures that a
generation of young Asian Americans will, for the first time, see themselves front and center, larger than life, on the biggest of screens.
So will the rest of the world, which is arguably even more important — when people see us as heroes, they’re forced to see us as
humans.
Sandra Oh first assumed that she was being considered for a small part, rather than the sta
ole in the show “Killing Eve.” Nick Briggs/BBC America, via Associated Press
That can mean the difference between life and death. Throughout our history in this country, Asian Americans have seen the dire
consequences of compliance and invisibility: exploitation, exclusion, internment. We’re seeing them again today in the time of Covid,
as the pandemic has underscored our country’s xenophobic hostility, and unleashed a wave of violence against the most vulnerable in
our communities.
A scene from “Shang-Chi” perfectly captures why this film is so important and timely. Ambushed by thugs on a San Francisco bus,
Shang-Chi suddenly unleashes a flu
y of eye-popping combat moves. His longtime friend Katy does a hard double take.
“Who are you?” she demands. For her, this is a
and-new Shaun. For the rest of the riders on the bus, cheering him on and snapping
selfies, this is a
and-new hero. All of them are simply seeing him as who he really is. Don’t we all deserve as much?
Jeff Yang (@originalspin) edited the Asian American superhero anthologies “Secret Identities” and “Shattered,” and is a co-author of the forthcoming book “Rise: A Pop
History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now.”
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A version of this article appears in print on , Section SR, Page 9 of the New York edition with the headline: The Kind of Superheroes We Deserve
1/25/2021 How the Model Minority Myth of Asian Americans Hurts Us All | Time
https:
time.com/5859206/anti-asian-racism-america/ 1/16
Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the
‘Model Minority’ Stereotype. And It Creates
Inequality for All
IDEAS
BY VIET THANH NGUYEN
UPDATED: JUNE 26, 2020 6:55 PM EDT | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JUNE 25, 2020 6:37 AM
EDT
A musician and a girl in Topaz Internment Camp in Utah, July 1945 Apic/Getty Images
https:
time.com/autho
viet-thanh-nguyen
1/25/2021 How the Model Minority Myth of Asian Americans Hurts Us All | Time
https:
time.com/5859206/anti-asian-racism-america/ 2/16
T
Viet Thanh Nguyen was born in Vietnam and raised in America. His novel The
Sympathizerwon the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as five other awards.
he face of Tou Thao haunts me. The Hmong-American police officer stood
with his back turned to Derek Chauvin, his partner, as Chauvin knelt on
George Floyd’s neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds and murdered him.
In the video that I saw, Tou Thao is in the foreground and Chauvin is partly
visible in the background, George Floyd’s head pressed to the ground.
Bystanders beg Tou Thao to do something, because George Floyd was not
moving, and as he himself said, he could not
eathe.
The face of Tou Thao is like mine and not like mine, although the face of George
Floyd is like mine and not like