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On the contrary, it is precisely the function of white supremacy that Asian Americans can only imagine their Asianness through a handful of memes that imitate and exaggerate Asianness. https://twitter.com/jboyounglee/status/1381412882320134144
Here's an example. Take the sitcom Kim's Convenience, which I adore. It's about Korean Canadian immigrants. Like all comedies, some characters are more real, and some are more exaggerated. Do you know who the *most* exaggerated character is?
It's Nayoung, the cousin from Korea.
It's Nayoung, the cousin from Korea.
Even the most exaggerated characters on Kim's Convenience (like Kimchee or Sharon) still verge on reality. But Nayoung is a grotesque caricature. She squeals in high pitch voice, her hair color is unreal, her phone is accessorized to a point it's bigger than her head.
I love Kim's Convenience because I turn off the part of my brain that thinks like a Korean person in Korea and focus only on my immigrant experience. But for Korean people in Korea watching this show, Nayoung is a giant turn-off, a needle-scratch moment.
Kim's Convenience is such a great example because it really shows how diaspora Koreans process what "Koreanness" is. When the show has the chance to introduce the "most Korean" character, it introduces an utterly fucked-up simulacrum of what "Koreanness" is supposed to be.
Why is that? Because the diaspora Koreans who "eat white supremacy for breakfast, lunch and dinner" (h/t Min Jin Lee) can only imagine "Koreanness" as a set of memes, rather than embodied into a real place inhabited by real people living real lives.
Which is why the Nayoung character is not even a real person, but a collection of memes about Asian women in Asia into a single actress.
100% correct. https://twitter.com/kryfke/status/1381450854113419265
