Crying in Great Wall: The Simplification of the Asian-American Experience in Asian-American Media
By Sydney Alexander, written May 2023
Recently, I sat down for lunch with one of my good friends at college, and she mentioned that her mom had said to her that Everything Everywhere All at Once and Turning Red were essentially the same movie in different fonts. Both movies are about Asian Americans wrestling with their two identities, which are invariably at odds with another—being too Asian for America and too American for Asia—as well as the typical tiger-mom/rebellious-daughter conflicts, which are explored through some fantastical element, whether it be through red panda magic or Marvel-movie type action scenes. As I thought about it, I realized my friend’s mom was right.
I realized that there seems to be a reservoir of Asian caricatures that frequently emerge in popular movies. The fierce and overbearing tiger mom is mitigated by a goofy, quiet father-figure. A rebellious daughter is balanced out by the softer momma’s boy, as depicted in the short film Bao by Domee Shi. Take any combination of those caricatures; that book or movie probably exists.
I want to differentiate Asian American literature from Asian Americans writing Mainland literature. When Asian Americans write genre fiction about Asians, it frequently takes place in Mainland Asia. Asian American Literature itself—stories about Asian Americans in America, I feel, are what fall prey to caricatures and tropes.
I also realized that this pattern isn’t just limited to the movie screen; it is also pervasive in popular books. In the short story “Crying in H-Mart,” Michelle Zauer and her mother have a less strenuous relationship than the mother-daughter pairs in movies, but still the story centers around Zauner’s feelings of inadequacy and disconnectedness: she is not Asian enough, and losing her mother exacerbated those feelings. This is not to say I fully dislike these Asian-American narratives. Of course, “Crying in H-Mart” resonated with me; I’m half Chinese, but I don’t speak Mandarin. I grew up eating Chinese food but could never order it for myself. I just think that these being the only narratives about Asian Americans that seem to “make it” in mainstream media is detrimental. Yes, the dual identity is something Asian Americans face, including myself. But at the same time, I believe that the Asian American experience is much broader and richer than it is made out to be in mainstream media. I wonder, are Asian American writers and creators pigeon-holed by these depictions? If these narratives are the ones that sell, why write anything else?
One of the issues with 5th Chinese Daughter by Jade Snow Wong was how it portrayed Chinese immigrants as the “model minority,” and I see today’s caricatures as just another box into which Asian American writers may package themselves for consumption by today’s society. In the 20th century, Asian Americans leveraged their being a “model-minority” to whites in pop culture; today, Asian Americans find purchase in mainstream media by writing about the same, tried and true narrative, pulling from the same toolbox of tropes and caricatures. More broadly, there is a market now in pop culture for media about marginalized identities, but I feel like it is reductive for the same Asian American story to be told, over and over, as my friend’s mother put it, “in different fonts.”
I wanted to create a reading list and added authors writing both Mainland and Asian-American literature. It was quite difficult for me to put this together.
Crossings (1968) by Chuang Hua
The Poppy War (2019) by R.F. Kuang
How Much of these Hills is Gold (2021) by C. Pam Zhang
Minor Feelings (2021) by Cathy Park Hong
Beasts of a Little Land (2022) by Juhea Kim (juheakim.com)
Various poems, fiction, and nonfiction by Grace Shuyi Liew, see graceshuyiliew.com
C Pam Zhang succeeds the most; her novel follows two Chinese siblings grappling to survive in America’s 19th century wild west. I included a couple of writers who have a lot of material published online, which I believe speaks to the Asian-American experience without subscribing to the traditional narrative discussed above. This includes Grace Shuyi Liew and Juhea Kim. The Poppy War is fantasy that pulls from Chinese history; I would classify it as mainland lit, but I still believe it’s worth a read. RF Kuang also released a new book recently that is thematically more related to this blog, titled Yellowface (see a March 2023 Yellow Arrow blog from Natasha Saar here). Cathy Park Hong’s book is a collection of essays in which she dissects the treatment and experience of Asian-Americans further.
Sydney Alexander is a sophomore at Middlebury College in Vermont studying English and geography. She grew up in Ellicott City, Maryland, but enjoys the fact that she has lived all over the country, including North Carolina, California, and Wisconsin. Her work has been published online in Hunger Mountain Review.
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