Wall Street Journal Headline about US Open Semi-Finalist Li Na Eating Rice Fuels Debate Over Race

A headline in the Wall Street Journal about tennis pro Li Na is sparking a heated discussion about race and stereotypes.

The headline read “Fueled with Rice, Li Na Marches into US Open Quarterfinals.”

Na is the first Chinese player to ever advance that far at the Open. In fact she’s scheduled to play Serena Williams in the semi-finals later tomorrow.

It was inevitable that her nationality would come up.

Not-So-Ignorant Asian American Reader reader commented:

It’s just another thoughtless piece of subliminal racism in our white-dominated mass media. The problem isn’t whether or not Tan assumed Li Na ate rice; the problem is that she’s linking a Chinese woman with a racialized moniker to create comedy for a white audience. That’s just wrong. End of discussion.

But Anon countered:

Chink in the armor or not its obvious Asians could use some armor or at least thicker skin.

I rarely fall on the “thicker skin” side of things. But this time I would have to agree.

The headline stems from Li’s answer to a question about what she ate for breakfast.

“Normally I eat a lot of pasta, [but] today I said I miss Chinese food so my husband brought it to the [hotel] room. I said, okay, now I have energy,” she said with a smile.

Journal columnist and prominent Asian American blogger Jeff Yang summarized it this way in a Facebook post.

Headline is a little dorky but 1. it’s a sloppy take on what Li Na basically said (she didn’t specifically mention rice, just “Chinese food”) and 2. Just about everyone involved in this is Asian–the subject, the writer and you, the reader. (There’s like a 50% chance the editor was as well.)

Bottom line: This isn’t an attempt to mock or stereotype Asians, it’s an Asian journalist badly shorthanding a statement made by an Asian athlete about Asian food. I think we can save the outrage for more substantive targets.

What’s your take on this? Leave your thoughts below.