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Dear #KungFuCW:
I’m SUPER excited that you have a superhero drama on your teen channel featuring an Asian American family.
But.
You aren’t doing right by our community. Yes, this is a fantasy, but YOU chose to set it in San Francisco, and there are things you need to observe.
I’m SUPER excited that you have a superhero drama on your teen channel featuring an Asian American family.
But.
You aren’t doing right by our community. Yes, this is a fantasy, but YOU chose to set it in San Francisco, and there are things you need to observe.
First, a small thing, but it’s kinda big: your aerial view of the Chens’ neighborhood has them situated in a flat area right where Pacific Heights (a huge hill) is supposed to be. You did it that way to show the GG Bridge (which = SF visually) but Asians have been pushed from ...
... their historic spaces in the more central areas of the city (directly south of there is Japantown, which is only a quarter Asian now) by white gentrifiers. And Pacific Heights--precisely BECAUSE of its view of the GG Bridge--has always been full of mansions.
A family like the Chens would have a house--bought no later than the 80s, when houses were affordable--in the Avenues: the Richmond or Sunset, which is where middle class Asian Americans live in SF. It would be half the size, painted pastel, and sit bang up next to its neighbors.
2ndly, streets & sidewalks in SF in general--not to mention in cramped Chinatown--are simply not that wide. C-town is famous for being narrow and crammed: a feature, not a bug, in your filming of fight scenes in C-town, like Steve McQueen and the ‘Stang on those hills.
3rd: there’s no “Chinese Community Center of San Francisco,” under whose one roof a clinic, herbalist, kung fu class, and library all live. Instead there’s the Chinese Culture Center (a gallery, auditorium, gift shop, and classrooms all dedicated to arts and culture;)
... at least a dozen herbalists, including 2 picturesque ones on Stockton; a handful of martial arts studios; private and public libraries, including the Chinatown branch of the public library; and The Chinese freakin’ Hospital--yes, an entire hospital just for C-town.
All of these amenities are much more “quaint” and “colorful” (with the exception of the recently renovated Culture Center) than the ginned up film studio version of a community center you filmed in. You’d get a lot more “exotic” mileage using the real thing, is what I’m sayin’.
4thly, UCSF is a medical school, not a university proper. It’s not gonna have an Asian studies library. Now, maybe Nicky studied medicine there, who knows? But tai-chi boy-toy is gonna have to go across the Bay to the UC Berkeley East Asian Library to do his research.
5thly, not all overseas and disasporic Chinese speak Mandarin. Chinatowns worldwide are traditionally and originally Cantonese (or Toisanese) speaking, with layers of more recent immigrants from other regions laid on top. Mandarin speakers have a good chance of being able to ...
... communicate with other shop owners in this enclave, but you are missing a huge opportunity to show the diversity in language, history, and uses. Having them all communicate in English is a lie, and, frankly, a racist one. You do not need to speak English to be American.
And finally (I could go on, but): a Tiger Mother? Really? Didja HAVE to put a stereotype in, and add insult to injury with a weak, passive father? I love the female protag, but your first AsAm superhero has to be a she? It’s almost like you believe the weak Asian male stereotype.
I know the CW’s hallmark is bad writing (poor characterization sacrificed at every moment for a cheap reversal; lack of emotional logic,) but you have an amazing opportunity here to be the first media property to get Asian Americans RIGHT. But that would require NUANCE. Got any?
Or you could ignore me. Looks like you might have a hit on your hands anyway. People dying for a little diversity in their action will take anything, won’t they? Oh well.
