Two Changs Forward, Three Steps Back

The two Asian characters on Fox’s Glee lock lips—a major TV milestone for Asian Americana, right? But Oliver Saria argues, the show gets “the whole Asian thing” mostly wrong.

I heart Glee…maybe more than a heterosexual man in his mid-30s should admit. I confess that I enjoy the singing and dancing, but I also tune in to watch the multifaceted portrayals of the various characters unfold on the show. Usually, they start off as broad caricatures (the Jock, the Drama Queen, the Ditz, the Slut, the Gay Kid, the Sassy Black Girl, the Asian, etc.,) but eventually develop into authentic, complex personalities.

Recently, however, the Asian characters on the show seem to be backsliding while they simultaneously receive more airtime. For the most part, I commend the writers for breaking the mold when it comes to Mike Chang (portrayed by Harry Shum, Jr.) and Tina Cohen-Chang (portrayed by Jenna Ushkowitz). Neither one is a soulless, grade-grubbing automaton with rivers of resentment for his/her overbearing parents. Tina is neither a dragon lady nor a geisha, but an angst-ridden goth chick with a fake stutter and an angelic voice; Mike is a jock rather than a hapless nerd who clearly knows more dance steps than kung fu moves. (Incidentally, the blogosphere has dubbed Shum “The Situ-Asian” for his washboard abs.) He in particular is a rare breed in the realm of television comedies. In a show with no shortage of geeks and gays, Mike is one of the few Asian male comedic characters on television that is neither.

Perhaps most surprisingly, the Asian girl on the show is actually dating the Asian guy. When was the last time you saw that on American TV? Okay, Lost had South Koreans Sun and Jin, but everything on that show was strange. And sure, The Secret Life of the American Teenager has two Asian American teens, Henry and Alice, who are not only dating, but doin’ it on the regular because cable is just freakier that way. Still, it’s kind of a rarity to have two ethnic minorities at all on any given show, let alone dating one another.

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