u/ms_jc_04

I know this is not an actual staged musical but I think it still applies to this subreddit but thoughts?

I did the math and at BEST if I do perfectly on the final I'll only be around three points shy of a B so I was wondering if Lee ever has lowered the grade cutoffs at the end

To be honest for me it would depend on the show, like if I were in a show where I KNEW the fanbase is…a lot (looking at you, Six and Heathers, as much as I love those two shows down), I’d do it only sparingly. Otherwise I’d stagedoor as much as I can if I’m feeling up for it

So I was thinking about this the other day but as I was looking back at some of the shows or films featuring AAPI characters that I have seen, heard about or actively watched over the years, I have picked up on this one thing: All these characters are shown having a very surface-level understanding of their culture (mainly not speaking their mother tongue fluently if at all) and are shown as very Americanized in the way they carry themselves.

For example, Anne Boonchuy and Molly McGee, both Thai protagonists in separate Disney Channel cartoons ("Amphibia," which I watched as a teen and "The Ghost and Molly McGee") do NOT speak Thai at all, and the Boonchuys and Sharon McGee did not make imparting their culture onto their respective daughters a priority. In Anne's case she is second gen and her parents came directly from Thailand whereas Molly is mixed and Sharon was born and raised in the U.S., making Molly third gen. However, Molly's cousin on her mother's side (Sharon's brother, David's, daughter) is shown being fluent in Thai as she is fully Thai (David married another Thai woman, from Thailand itself to boot) and just being more comfortable in Thai culture even though both Sharon and David were both born and raised in the U.S.

Another example is Devi from Never Have I Ever. At the start of NHIE, she has been shown having internalized resentment over her Indian heritage, she does not speak a lick of Tamil at all because neither Nalini nor Mohan are shown to have taught her (even Nirmala, Mohan's mother is shown to be speaking in fluent English!) even though they are both Indian born and bred and immigrated to L.A. a few years before Devi was born. Her relationship with her culture gets a little better by the end of the series but she still is shown to be very Americanized.

Finally, the Covey sisters from the "To All The Boys..." franchise (and yes I know Jenny Hahn does get some flack in here but bear with me for a sec). They do get a bit of slack because Eve had died early on and were primarily raised by their White father but even so, Kitty is the only one out of her, Lara Jean, and Margot who shows even the slightest interest in her Korean roots (and even so she initially applied to KISS to chase after Dae first, reconnect with Eve's past second), and I personally watch "XO, Kitty" for the drama, not really for the representation to be honest.

Okay that being said, as someone who is Korean-American and born and raised in the U.S. and has parents who made SURE she spoke Korean, ate Korean food, and generally just never forgot her Korean culture (and most of the Korean kids that I grew up with are of the same case)... Hollywood, more depictions of AAPI children of immigrants that are actually in tune with their culture PLEASE. I have a theory that the depictions like the ones mentioned above are why there is a bit of a school of thought among "sourceland" Asians that people from the diaspora are way too Americanized to be considered "one of us"

So I was thinking about this the other day but as I was looking back at some of the shows or films featuring AAPI characters that I have seen, heard about or actively watched, I have picked up on this one thing: All these characters are shown having a very surface-level understanding of their culture (mainly not speaking their mother tongue fluently if at all) and are shown as very Americanized in the way they carry themselves.

For example, Anne Boonchuy and Molly McGee, both Thai protagonists in separate Disney Channel cartoons ("Amphibia" and "The Ghost and Molly McGee") do NOT speak Thai at all, and the Boonchuys and Sharon McGee did not make imparting their culture onto their respective daughters a priority. In Anne's case she is second gen and her parents came directly from Thailand whereas Molly is mixed and Sharon was born and raised in the U.S., making Molly third gen. However, Molly's cousin on her mother's side (Sharon's brother, David's, daughter) is shown being fluent in Thai as she is fully Thai (David married another Thai woman, from Thailand itself to boot) and just being more comfortable in Thai culture even though both Sharon and David were both born and raised in the U.S.

Another example is Devi from Never Have I Ever. At the start of NHIE, she has been shown having internalized racism over her Indian heritage, she does not speak a lick of Tamil at all because neither Nalini nor Mohan are shown to have taught her (even Nirmala, Mohan's mother, is shown to be speaking in fluent English!) even though they are both Indian born and bred and immigrated to L.A. a few years before Devi was born. Her relationship with her culture gets a little better by the end of the series but she still is shown to be very Americanized.

Finally, the Covey sisters from the "To All The Boys..." franchise (and yes I know Jenny Han does get some flack in here but bear with me for a sec). They do get a bit of slack because Eve had died early on and were primarily raised by their White father but even so, Kitty is the only one out of her, Lara Jean, and Margot who shows even the slightest interest in her Korean roots (and even so she initially applied to KISS to chase after Dae first, reconnect with Eve's past second), and I personally watch "XO, Kitty" for the drama, not really for the representation to be honest.

Okay that being said, as someone who is Korean-American and born and raised in the U.S. and has parents who made SURE I spoke Korean, ate Korean food, and generally just never forgot my Korean culture (and most of the Korean kids that I grew up with are of the same case)... Hollywood, more depictions of AAPI children of immigrants that are actually in tune with their culture PLEASE. I have a theory that the depictions like the ones mentioned above are why there is a bit of a school of thought among "sourceland" Asians that people from the diaspora are way too Americanized to be considered "one of us"