Last spring, I went on a trip to North Cali to research for my book series about Chinese in the American Old West. For fun, my brother and I did a fight video with a filmmaker friend of ours iMakeDumbFilms, and here was the result. After we had our fun, I considered the Asian stereotypes that we reinforced:
- All Asians know kung fu.
- Asians wear and do Asiany things all the time.
Nevermind that my brother and I are Americans or that we aren’t at all professional martial artists. The moves we can do are just a few leftovers from past lives in some kung fu, wushu, and karate classes we took as kids, like millions of other American kids. I do love kung fu and martial arts, so I’ve come to terms with the fact that my sincere interest in martial arts will be overgeneralized by simple-minded and ignorant folk who will think that what is true for one American of Asian descent will be automatically true for all Asians period.
Comedian Dat Phan knows what I’m talking about.
