When I was growing up in the ’90s, whenever Keanu Reeves’ handsome face would light up a screen, my loving Chinese mother would remind me: “He’s part-Asian, just like you!” It’s a testament to how little representation there was at the time that this felt noteworthy. For much of my adolescence, Reeves was one of the only touchpoints for my “Wasian” identity — the recently popularized portmanteau used to describe people of mixed white and Asian descent, like me.
Over the years, I’ve kept a running tally of fellow Wasians in pop culture, desperate to see myself reflected. Until recently, the list could be counted on one hand. But in the past year, that list has exploded, and not only are these familiar faces, they’re the coolest kids of the moment.
Just look at singer Laufey’s new “Madwoman” music video, which stars It boy Hudson Williams of “Heated Rivalry” fame, Olympic skater Alysa Liu, “The Summer I turned Pretty” star Lola Tung and Katseye singer Megan Skiendiel, with cameos from “The Studio” actress Chase Sui Wonders and model Havana Rose Liu.
I’d never seen so many people who look like me on one screen at the same time. It was exhilarating, and it was a major talking point online, with people describing the cast as “the Wasian royal family” and “the Wasian avengers.”
When your cultural background is trending
It’s a curious sensation to see your ethnic background as a trending term. The word “Wasian” is relatively new to me and still feels clunky and foreign in my own mouth. To see it tossed around so casually in memes and pop culture writeups is both exciting and a little unnerving. Because trends by their very nature come and go.
Another recent online trend is “Chinamaxxing,” where Western social media users enthusiastically adopt Chinese habits, esthetics and products. There’s been an explosion of interest in playing mah-jong, resulting in much-criticized media profiles of white women starting “esthetic” mah-jong tile brands.
And thanks to phenomena like the Oscar-winning “KPop Demon Hunters” and mega groups Blackpink and BTS, K-pop and K-dramas are now a central part of the zeitgeist worldwide. “I think it’s made people become more used to seeing Asian faces, which feels so weird to say, because America and Canada are so full of Asian people,” said Madelyn Chung, founder of RepresentASIAN Project, a media platform centring on the Asian diaspora in North America. “But the portrayals in media have historically not been great.”
Chung feels conflicted about the surge in interest, too. “It is exciting, right? I love to see Hudson in the Peloton ad, and the Laufey music video is incredible,” she said. “But I also want to continue to think critically: We can still ask, and demand and expect more.”
The Asian heartthrob factor
For instance, the fascination with Asian culture has paved the way for a fresh crop of Asian male heartthrobs on our screens. Williams is currently leading the charge, and Charles Melton of “Beef” and Sang Heon Lee of “XO, Kitty” aren’t far behind.
“When we’re thinking about Asian men as heartthrobs, which Asian men are we thinking about?” Chung asked. “Are we thinking about East Asian men only? Are we thinking about South Asian men? Where’s Dev Patel? Where’s Riz Ahmed? Why are they not leading rom-coms right now?”
The popularity of Wasian actors like Williams and Melton has to be viewed with nuance. “I absolutely think the proximity to whiteness is part of (what makes them) diverse — but ‘safe’ and accessible,” said Aram Siu Wai Collier, artistic director of Reel Asian Film Festival. “The uncomfortable thing is when it feels like it is used for marketability.”
Collier sees the new crop of heartthrobs as an echo of film history. “We’ve seen waves like this before. You can even go back to the beginning of cinema: Sessue Hayakawa was a really early silent movie star,” he said. “And then you get to the ’80s and ’90s, there’s another batch of Asian hotties.” Brandon Lee and Russell Long were predecessors for John Cho and Daniel Dae Kim in the early 2000s, and later Simu Liu and Henry Golding in the 2010s.
One notable difference is that previously, these actors were often cast as other ethnicities. “They were Asians who were not playing Asian characters,” Collier said. My beloved Keanu Reeves spent most of his career playing white-passing characters — a stark contrast to Williams’ now-iconic “Heated Rivalry” character Shane Hollander, whose half-Asian background is handled with care.
Melton’s leap from teen heartthrob to higher profile projects like “May December” and “Beef” is a subtle, but impactful sign of progress for Asian talent. “They’re in it to be an artist, to be a performer, to do good material,” Collier said, and cultural relevance makes that possible.
A sign of progress?
While it’s tempting to see Williams’ meteoric rise and Laufey’s buzzy video as signs of an Asian representation renaissance, progress moves slowly. If anything, this cultural moment is a testament to the resilience of the Asian community and diaspora; our unwillingness to be excluded from the conversation while we continue to push it forward.
We’ve come a long way from Keanu Reeves being a ultra-rare touchpoint for Asian Canadians like me to rest our hopes and dreams on. And I’ll gladly shift my appreciation to Hudson Williams while I wait for more progress to be made.
