By Gabi Wy
AsAmNews Intern
In comedian Kristina Wong’s new YouTube series, Asian American women are standing up to the years of being victim to sexualization.
How to Pick Up Asian Chicks explores the subgenre of self-published “pickup artists” who share tips on how to attract Asian women. The six-part series features Asian American women reacting to the materials and not holding back.
“This is a fast way to clap back to something that’s so obviously outdated with primitive ideas of what Asian women are,” Wong said.
Wong will release her series 9 a.m. P.D.T. Sept. 6 on YouTube.
The idea for the series came to her when friend Jeff Yang, father of Hudson Yang (Fresh Off The Boat), posted about a mix-up in his mailbox.
Yang had received Every Man’s Guide to Asian Sex by accident, and Wong thought it would be hilarious if she could read it out loud and comment on it. She googled the title and found an entire genre of books focusing on Asian fetishization.
“When people say they find Asian women attractive, they’re treating the person as a race and not who they are,” Wong said. “It’s not a compliment. Compliment me on being hilarious. When are we going to hear that Asian women are f*cking funny?”
In the series, Wong features personalities from Asa Akira, a porn star, to Amy Hill of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Unreal, to ten-year-old Aubrey Anderson-Emmons of Modern Family. Eighteen Asian American women in total react to the books.
“It was fun,” Wong said. “I purposely curated who I wanted to read what. I had the mothers read (Asian MILF Hunting), and all of the women of Vietnamese descent read the book specifically about Vietnamese women.”
Anderson-Emmons and her mother, Amy Anderson, reacted specifically to Asian MILF Hunting, which Wong said was a treat.
“It was so wrong in ways to see a little girl reading that this is what men think of Asian women,” Wong said. “We told Amy to say stop if she couldn’t read anymore. Hopefully (Aubrey) can look back on this and say it’s crazy. I loved that we had a “MILF” book and then a quote-in-quote “MILF” and a kid. Those two were so funny.”
Wong previously explored the pickup artist world in her play, Cat Lady. She said although she’s almost “desensitized” to the backwards way of thinking, she’s passionate about taking an active stand.
On Sept. 5, Wong will promote the hashtag #HowNOTToPickUpAsianChicks, encouraging the Internet to share their experiences with stereotyping and racism.
“Can men stop coming up to me and telling me how they went to Hong Kong once or that they’ve had an Asian girlfriend?” Wong said.
Series director Jenessa Joffe may not be Asian American, but through her friendship with Wong and work on this project, she said she is an ally and stands with the women featured.
“These women are really taking on these sleazy pickup artist books in a way that’s hilarious,” Joffe said. “It’s thrilling to see these awesome, kickass, rad women being who they are–funny and not letting someone else define them.”
Joffe said she was shocked at the content of the books in the series.
“I’m glad Kristina has the guts to take it on,” she said. “Kristina’s not just going to take it quietly. She’s going to say something about it.”
Joffe said Wong’s project is important in combating racism.
“It’s meant to entertain, but like all of Kristina’s work, it’s meant to go further than that,” Joffe said. “It shines a light on the ugly way that Asian American women are getting stereotyped and really victimized. It’s taking on those stereotypes by showing how awesome and diverse each of these women are.”
Wong hopes to spread the idea that Asian women are more than their stereotypes–maybe even “killing boners” along the way.
“We have to save ourselves,” Wong said. “You will rescue you. It certainly won’t be no white guy who read one of these books. You have to love yourself every day.”
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.
RE: Kristina Wong Series Combats Asian Stereotypes with Laughs: “Asian girls” and women, were always considered nice and sweet to the American people in the 1960’s to 1990’s. And then something happened in 2000 when the women not only wanted to be equal and fit into American culture. But to double down on their female identity. Maybe after being oppressed for years in our culture. Comming here to Taiwan, or the States must have felt so liberating. Great. But now myself and my Chinese friends feel like we have no chance to have friendship or relationships because we are to shy and don’t know what you want.