Words by Richard King Lee
My khans and queens, we have built a golden empire of American Asian media—and America is hearing us emperoar! This year alone, we’ve been blessed with some amazing representation (shout out to Everything Everywhere all at Once, which is sure to win an empress-ive amount of Oscars—okay, okay, I’ll stop). We’ve also gotten some great rep in shows like the new Hulu series Reboot, the show about the reboot of a show, whose top cast includes Krista Marie Yu as Elaine Kim. However phenomenal Yu’s work in that role is, it was actually a smaller part played by Kristian Flores that caught my attention, because it gives a face to a drastically underrepresented, necessary aspect of the Asian American experience: mediocrity.
Flores only appears in two episodes, as a production assistant named Connor. He’s just some guy: a bit of an airhead, with that laidback So-Cal energy. He pops in, drops some amazing jokes, and then is gone. Forget Asian American exceptionalism—we need more love for characters like Connor.
Kristian Flores as Connor on “Reboot,” talking about stealing Air Jordans.
Still frame from “Reboot”
Asian leads are the clothes you wear on a first date: stunning, crisp, impressive...even if you’re going for that effortless look. As a people, we’re here to stay, and that means eventually we have to break out the relationship clothes: the fraying but comfy sweater, that cozy pair of sweats that just happens to have a small hole that shows a smidge of left butt cheek. What I mean is, we need more Asian characters who are allowed to simply exist. More side characters, throwaway characters, characters whose race don’t factor into their personality. At Korean barbeque, the meat is front and center, but it’s the additions like the rice and banchan that really bring the experience home.
As a people, we’re here to stay, and that means eventually we have to break out the relationship clothes: the fraying but comfy sweater, that cozy pair of sweats that just happens to have a small hole that shows a smidge of left butt cheek.
It doesn’t matter if you make post-resident doctor money, if you choreograph the coolest dance routine to bust out at your 10-year reunion, or if you’re Steven Yeun. Our acceptance shouldn’t be conditional to what we bring to the table (or by being an objectively handsome man). If we spend all our time striving for excellence, we’ll never be fully accepted. True acceptance means giving ourselves permission to fail.
Greta Lee in “New Girl,” whose character coins the term, “Ninja Turtle sex.”
Still frame from “New Girl”
Squid Game was a hit, despite showing an uglier side of Korean society some felt embarrassed to have revealed. It connected with a lot of people because the struggle to just get by is real for too many. Also, it had a beautifully shot tug-o-war match—and really, what else could you need? There’s been a demand for authenticity in media, and that includes the ordinary bits.
I can hear my Asian mother’s blood boiling from hundreds of miles away as I write this…We’ve been conditioned to work twice as hard—if not harder. We have to succeed, it’s survival! That adrenaline when everything feels like life or death puts extra pep in your step—some would argue it’s a healthier alternative to cocaine. But surviving doesn’t equate to thriving. By always being on, we’re not showing our true selves. We’re not even giving ourselves space to be our true selves. Yes, I’m grateful that more light has been shed on some of our phenomenal actors, writers, chefs, and TikTokers, but we’re still a relatively new concept to most American consumers, and that’s easy to warp. I don’t want the Western perspective of Asians to switch from one form of fetishization to another. By normalizing ourselves in films and television, we can operate simply as people—both good and bad—and we’ll be able to bridge that gap from outsider to coworker. We can just be people, as plain as rice in their -A-Roni.
The one Asian sailor extra in “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”
Still frame from “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”
I’m not saying we jump immediately to hour-long weekly episodes of me eating potato chips and scrolling through r/AmITheAsshole on Reddit. Not immediately, anyway. Finding new and entertaining ways to represent our Asian adequacy will help bring us closer to being seen as people. And I’m sure the many talented people—and hell, maybe some not-so-talented ones—we have in the industry will do just that.
Rob Yang as Matt Ming in “Maniac.”
Still frame from “Maniac”
Published on January 4, 2023