Many opportunists took the cultural wave, which festered on social media and in film culture, as a commercial platform, seizing Asian culture and profiting heavily off of it. However, as amazing as the media revolution was, this wave also swept the toxins of cultural commercialization into America.
The cultural wave brought more Asian representation to mainstream media. With the K-Pop group BTS winning the BBMAs in 2017, the film “Crazy Rich Asians” in 2018 becoming a major hit with a fully Asian cast, and the Korean film “Parasite” receiving six Oscar nominations in 2019. My saving grace came with the rise of popularity in Korean dramas, music and overall Asian culture within the United States. If we were beautiful, we would be on TV, right? When I was told in middle school that Asians were just “not as pretty,” I assumed it was true.
#Loyal brave true chinese tv#
What made it even worse was that all top models, TV show characters and social media celebrities appeared to be white.
Though I could force myself to laugh at the “dog-eating,” “slant-eyed” jokes, they slowly wore down at the pride I previously had towards my birth country. From a young age, I was forced to bear the burden of being an Asian-American within a white district, who would be singled out in any circumstance.Īlthough I became more accustomed to the snide remarks and cruel jokes, my mind slowly began to break from the weight of the shame. These were the days where I realized that I had bigger shoes to fill than my cheap, worn-out sneakers. I was ashamed of the Korean culture in which I had grown up.
#Loyal brave true chinese full#
When their eyes narrowed at my native name, and my lunchbox full of my country’s traditional food was deemed disgusting at my lunch table, I felt something I had never felt before. Torn from a district with a large Asian student body and thrown into halls where I was one of few people of color in my class, I felt the eyes glued to me as I walked the halls of my new white, conservative elementary school in my discount size three sneakers that hung loosely off my small feet. Habin Hwang, Staff Writer | October 1, 2020
0 kommentar(er)
