Not All Our Art Is #AsianExcellence. I Can Say That and Still Be an Ally.
“One day we will have a chance to create and critique freely and think only of art, and not of dying.”
It’s been a hard year for Asian Americans. U.S.-China trade tension and racist scapegoating over the Covid pandemic has led to a sharp spike in anti-Asian sentiments in this country. In addition to the microaggressions we have always lived with, there are now more hostile confrontations and violent attacks. Asian elders or even those mistaken for Asian are being attacked in broad daylight. Agroup of Asian massage workers were gunned down in cold blood. Our awareness of the vulnerability of our minority status is more heightened than ever.
At the same time, this past year has been rather triumphant in terms of growing Asian representation in popular media. Asian directors won the Oscar for best picture for two years running, Marvel is casting Asians as superheroes, Asian writers are publishing more beautiful stories than ever, the list goes on. I’ve been seeing more Asian faces where there were once almost none, and I see more works being produced by Asian creators than ever before. The token works that once staggered under the weight of representation now stand among more and more stories unique upon themselves.
