50 Shades of Yellow: Fact & Fiction

See what I did there?

Asians, Asians, Asians.. In the eyes of some, Chinese people are the only Asians that exist on the planet. I don't blame them! Why? Media's fault. Mr. Chang, Mr. Chow, Mr. Lee... We can always blame media on this, it's because we're influenced by it. But thankfully now, minds are opening up and things are slowly changing.

Ken Jeong as Mr. Chow in The Hangover

With the suggestion of checking out Thu's "Yellow Girls" video, it made me want to delve into the image of an Asian-American. What are these struggles? Who do they affect? Why is this happening?



With creating a montage of videos featuring different Asian-American YouTubers who've done videos concerning the Asian stereotype and doing one-on-one interviews, I hope to dig deeper and shed light on some of the struggles we face.

Culture clash is always a hot topic as I interview Asian-Americans around my age who are even called out by their own race because they aren't as traditional as they are. Or how they're too Asian for the American society when with people outside of their race.

The obvious problem here is that we picture skinny white, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl or boy as a THE American. In this case, may fuel the fire to an Asian-American's struggle. Wanting to be white, or Americanized.

Two YouTube vloggers (video bloggers) I subscribe to are David So and Timothy Dela Ghetto. Both Asian-Americans, one Korean and one Thai. Both of them have blogged about their personal experiences as an Asian-American and how they are poked fun at with these stereotypes. Of course, as they are labeled comedians, they do it in a humorous manner.



Living in a country where its media has taken over and influenced the lives of many, I hope the roles of Asian-Americans in films and television can change. This way it can even help Asian-Americans themselves break away from these stereotypes.

(On the side, I thank Glee and 21 and Over for shedding light on the Asian-American image with their characters Mike Chang and Jeff Chang. They are Asian-Americans playing Asian-Americans as their main characters!)

America, as we know, has this title of being the "melting pot". But it seems more like a salad. And I say this is because we don't know everything about one another, nor we bother to learn about it at times. With this project, I hope to relate to other races, not just Asians, about their struggles as being this double-identity at home and to society.