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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">https://twitter.com/jboyoungl...
Here& #39;s an example. Take the sitcom Kim& #39;s Convenience, which I adore. It& #39;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& #39;s Nayoung, the cousin from Korea.
It& #39;s Nayoung, the cousin from Korea.
Even the most exaggerated characters on Kim& #39;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& #39;s bigger than her head.
I love Kim& #39;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& #39;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">https://twitter.com/kryfke/st...
