By David Ho
AsAmNews Contributor
You probably heard about this movie based on a book that features Asians in all leading roles. Identity politics? Cashing in on diversity while it’s hot? Both of those could be true, but we don’t give a flying f*ck. I took a look at the reviews on IMDB (7.7/10 currently) and Rotten Tomatoes (92%) for Crazy Rich Asians and let out a giant sigh of relief. I’m not particularly into romantic comedies and usually wouldn’t spend money to watch one in theaters, but this one mattered. For those who aren’t Asian immigrants, this is more than just supporting your own race. This is about inspiring a whole generation of Asians who never had role models to look up to in pop culture.
It was always doctor or bust for us. Even entertainers in Asia are heavily packaged and trained to appeal to the general public, as if old men in suits understood what people are into nowadays. If we strayed off the “correct” path like I did, we were destined for failure. Ever wonder why a lot of Asian Americans gravitate towards hip-hop? Our representation were Kung-Fu masters or nerds who never got laid on screen. The only minority group who were considered “cool” and “in” were Black people. Hip-hop spoke to us, we could relate to many aspects of Black culture. But it still wasn’t ours. We were still outsiders window shopping. Seeing a film that’s actually popular and creating buzz even among non-Asians is a milestone. Sure, romantic comedies and coolness aren’t exactly synonymous, but the hype surrounding the movie and how well it’s being received solidifies our status, at least for the time being.
So if anyone wants to tell us we should support movies based only on quality and disregard the race of the actors and actresses (trust me, this notion is all over social media), please shut the f*ck up. We’ve waited our whole lives for this. Fresh Off The Boat was the first step (although I’m not a fan but that’s another story), K-Pop is on the rise in Western society, and Crazy Rich Asians just took another leap forward. You can try and take Ivy League admissions from us, you can laugh at us for trying to make it in hip-hop, you can keep calling Jeremy Lin an average athlete despite recording one of the fastest first steps in the League, but you can’t take this away. This one is f*cking ours.
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