Actor Daniel Wu took to Instagram to criticize major toy manufacturer Mattel’s depiction of Asians with their Barbie dolls.
Wu, known for his role in Into the Badlands, posted photos of two different Asian Barbies he had seen in the store: a violinist and a panda doctor.
“I am all for diversity but a ‘you can be anything’ Asian Barbie that is a violinist or a Panda doctor? That’s more like “You can be anything your Asian parents want you to be” Either someone non Asian at Barbie fucked this up with stereotyping or the person who created this is Asian and they are carrying on generational trauma,” Wu wrote on Instagram.
Many Instagram users echoed Wu’s sentiments in the comment section.
“I’m so glad you posted this, i was feeling the exact same thing when i saw this stereotype. Wish they could remake the Asian Barbie volleyball player, race car driver, or anything else,” one user wrote.
Others claimed they “didn’t see the problem.”
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I have two Asian presidential candidates, an Asian art teacher, an Asian entrepreneur, and an Asian non-panda doctor, and Anna May Wong Barbies. He is shopping on the wrong sites.
That’s still a very limited range of careers compared to White and Black Barbie dolls who can be Astronauts, Rock Stars, Gold Medal Olympic Athletes, Scientists, Archaeologists, even Police Officers and Firefighters 😕
And I don’t understand why our community should be idolizing Anna May Wong. Her film roles contributed to degrading Western stereotypes for Asian Women like exotic Geisha, Dragon Lady, sex slave, etc.