At SXSW, author tackles stereotypes of Asians

How Asians are portrayed in the US was a topic at the annual SXSW event in Austin, Texas, made more raw following the fatal shootings of six Asian American women at three spas in the Atlanta area last week.

Author Charles Yu and CNN journalist Lisa Lin discussed the portrayal of Asians in American culture and media on Friday at SXSW (South by Southwest), an annual conglomeration of film, emerging high-tech, conferences and music. It was all virtual last week due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yu's book Interior Chinatown was a New York Times best-seller and won the 2020 National Book Award for Fiction. Its antagonist, Willis Wu, is an Asian man hoping to achieve the pinnacle of Asian American actor success: become the kung fu guy in a TV show. The story touched on identity, race, and the "otherness" of the Asian American experience.

Yu took up writing full time about six years ago after practicing law for more than 10 years. He shared his experience growing up in Southern California in the 1980s and 1990s.

While his own reality consisted of many Asian friends and a vibrant Asian community, he rarely saw Asians on TV. When he did, it was usually a food delivery person or someone speaking with a fake accent.

"In the stories we tell ourselves on these big platforms, they (Asians) don't figure into the story, and when they do, it's a certain kind of story," Yu said.

"That mirrors my own experience in the sense which I am mostly feeling invisible the way Asian characters were invisible on screens, punctured by brief moments of visibility that's often accompanied by self-consciousness or even shame." Yu said.

To him, it's a weird dual reality — one with Asians and one without. "I had reality, reality and then the TV reality or cultural reality. Those two things; there was this big disconnect," Yu said.

In Interior Chinatown, there are generic characters such as "old Asian man" and "old Asian woman".

"This is for a reason," he said. "At least for me, there's always the sense that there is a line dividing others. Old Asian people seem pretty far on the other side in this country. I think it's driven by a deep perception that these are foreigners. This is a foreign face; this is a foreign body.

"So, it's really unsettling yet not totally shocking to see how elderly Asian people are the ones being victimized in the greatest numbers. I think it goes to a lack of empathy or just inability to see them as fully human the same way that other people are," Yu said.

Although the discussion was pre-recorded before the Georgia massage parlor shootings Tuesday, the dialogue on rising hate crimes against Asian Americans in the past year has resonated among many listeners who shared their thoughts on the topic during the hourlong discussion.

"Personally, it's been really challenging as an Asian American to navigate the race conversation because we've been invisibilized for so long, and there is constant perpetuation of the model minority myth despite the fact that Asians are not a monolith," participant Leslie Lai wrote in the chat room during the discussion.

"This is the first time I've heard anyone speaking about the Asian American experience, and I'm struggling with words. Invisibility is exactly what I've felt as a second gen(-eration) Korean," Lydia Schram wrote.

"My heart breaks for how many people feel fear or don't have a sense of belonging in the US. No one deserves to feel invisible. Makes me so sad and upset," Heather Kaplan wrote.

"It's devastating that white supremacy is still so ingrained in US society after hundreds of years. Hopefully we're now at a tipping point in the right direction," Natalie Clark wrote.

Yu updated his opening because of the mass shooting.

"We recorded the conversation a couple of weeks ago, and in light of events yesterday in the Atlanta area, I am in shock and still processing. My heart and thoughts go out to the victims and their loved ones. I also want to remember that those who are killed were more than just victims; they were individuals, human beings with lives and families."

In Friday's morning dispatch, SXSW issued a statement that "we wanted to take a minute to address the escalating hate speech and violence directed at the AAPI community that has culminated in the shootings in Atlanta. Racism has no place in this world, and it is no surprise that incidents are increasing after a year of inflammatory and harmful rhetoric around COVID-19."