By Nicole Ki
AsAmNews Intern
Two Asian American women who launched a popular art collective tackling Asian American issues are now saying an emotional farewell to their fans.
Creators Esther Fan and Olivia Park are the founders of Sad Asian Girls which in two years generated 8,200 likes on Facebook.
Under the name “Sad Asian Girls Club,” Fan and Park took on projects tackling Asian issues including a Youtube series on the model minority myth that featured several Asian perspectives. They also created clothing merchandise containing Asian social activism captions and a series of Instagram posts of encouraging words submitted “by femmes for other femmes.”
In a joint statement, the women said:
SAG has been one of the most memorable moments in our creative careers. As multi-disciplinary graphic designers, we hope to continue making our work about our lives and share it with the public.
LATEST STORIES
Unfortunately due to graduation, relocation and difference in goals/interests, we will no longer be working together under the name Sad Asian Girls, and will be pursuing are individual career paths.
Fan and Park, who describe themselves as Asian femme creatives, reflected on the success of SAG. It first started in 2015 with a class video project they collaborated on titled “Have You Eaten?”
The video gained more than 75,000 views and explained Fan and Park’s struggles in their relationships with their East-Asian mothers, Fan told Zine.
“We need Asians of all shades, sizes, genders, sexualities, and personalities in media,” Fan said.
Although they created a lot of content while they were discovering Asian social issues, Fan said it was hard not to center it around East Asians.
“To be honest, when I look back at our work, I don’t know how much we’ve REALLY contributed to the conversation besides maybe adding to the numbers of a quickly growing Asian American activist community that often is still East-Asian centered and also often inspired (or in some cases, blatantly copied) by black/brown movements,” Fan said.
Although there have been some obstacles, SAG created an online community for all sad “femmes” and Asians to talk about Asian issues. SAD & ASIAN, changed from “SAD ASIAN GIRLS” to be more inclusive, is a Facebook group of more than 5,000 self-identifying Asian Americans networking and engaging in constructive dialogue on race, gender, sexuality, and AAPI activism.
Park believes that SAG has uncovered the need for Asian Americans to have their own space and community. Although the art collective and Facebook group was originally intended to talk about the lack of diverse representation of Asian art, it has become a safe space for many Asians.
“It’s brought into light how many femmes around the world needed a collective or platform to talk about things related to the “Sad + Asian” conversation,” Park said. “Much of the reason why we continued to make work under the SAG name was so that other like-minded East Asian femmes wouldn’t feel alone.”
When the Huffington Post asked about why they chose “sad” in their name, Park said it was “important and intentional.”
“Being sad is a taboo, as if it should be something you hide and deal with yourself, but we should be able to present ourselves in a very obvious way in order to strike any meaningful conversation. So we embrace being the sad, oppressed group in order to empower people and make them pay attention,” said Park.
Many fans are thankful but sad that Park and Fan will not continue SAG.
Park and Fan will still advocate and pursue artistic opportunities. Fan will continue to moderate and be invested in the Facebook group.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. You can show your support by liking our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/asamnews, following us on Twitter, sharing our stories, interning or joining our staff.
