Good Asian Culture Representation on Media

Good:

Turning Red 2022



As Disney broadens their Asian cultural representation, they are able to create "Turning Red", a stunning work done during the difficult times of quarantine and only in a span of 3 years. It has reached the achievement for best representing Chinese audiences that live outside of China as it is not the stereotypical kung-fu fighting, mystical-dragon-filled story, it's quite the opposite. It's a slice-of-life comedy with a fantasy twist, not with flying green dragons but with fluffy, magical red pandas.

This is an important movie as there are not many big, mainstream platforms that target young Asian audiences as the main character Meilin Lee, a Chinese-Canadian, a teen undergoing puberty striving to be the perfect daughter and being an independent woman, goes through struggles that a Chinese household would have on holding onto their traditions while being a minority in their hometown. She turns into a red panda whenever she is emotional, due to hormonal changes and her environment, thus the title 'Turning Red'. This movie is also the first movie to be directed by a female writer and director and an all-women team, Domee Shi, and the first masterpiece in 13 years to have an Asian lead.

Not only that but the inclusion of the boyband, 4-Town, is a very exciting representation as it is mainly inspired by K-pop, a Korean culture of promoting the beauty of their people and its traditions by creating companies of beautiful people making music, and extraordinary dance choreographies. Now that it's more spread worldwide, more audiences relate to being obsessed with a band and fangirling/fanboying over it. 





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