From romantic love stories to animated films, expressions of APIDA (Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi American) power in film have become far more centered around the value of the character over anything else. In the past, we have been given characters that fall within a limited scope of stereotypes.…
Hot on the heels of 2018’s “Asian August,” which showed media executives that Asian-centered stories can be profitable, HBO and Netflix have released reality shows centered on Asian families and social circles. HBO’s House of Ho centers on the Vietnamese-American Ho family in Texas, and Netflix’s Bling Empire…
Where there are women, there is the glass ceiling; where there are Asian Americans, there is the bamboo ceiling. The bamboo ceiling is a term derived from the glass ceiling theory in 2005 that recognizes the invisible barriers that stop Asian Americans in the workplace from rising above…
In the early 2010s, APIDA representation in the media was‒frankly‒non-existent. It was nearly impossible to see somebody of APIDA descent in a major Hollywood film or in other forms of mass media. This lack of representation made many in the APIDA community accustomed to a mainstream culture dominated…
Dear Hollywood, Why are Asian Americans not good enough for our own narratives? Why do you cast us aside? Or when you do finally give us a piece of the spotlight, why do you put us in a box? Mickey Rooney. Scarlett Johansson. Tilda Swinton. Emma Stone. Benedict…