The Outline World Dispatch · The Outline

Can we get some crazy broke Asians, too?

August 30, 2018·1 hr 5 min·5 clips

Jeremy Gordon and Wei Chu discuss how they met at a race-based drinks event for Asians.

Jeremy Gordon introduces himself as The Outline's culture editor and brings in freelance writer Wei Chu, formerly of The New Yorker, now contributing to GQ and The Outline. They retell how they met at a race-based drinks event while working at Condé Nast. They explain their shared interest in Asians in media and note that Crazy Rich Asians has brought every Asian American commentator out of the woodwork. Jeremy compares the moment to the Calvin Trillin New Yorker poem controversy. They discuss how identity-driven discourse can flatten debate when white allies lacking framework boost whoever sounds most authoritative. Wei says even Asians who disagree politically are more open to nuance in private. They swap childhood stories: Wei grew up in Appalachia where classmates envied her fried rice, Jeremy is half Chinese and half Jewish and got peanut butter sandwiches in Chicago. They talk about the model minority myth, relative Asian American privilege, and how pan-Asian solidarity is a recent invention that would have been laughable to their grandparents. Jeremy describes benefits of being biracial with a white-coded name, and Wei brings up Ali Wong's 'half jungle Asian' joke and an incident at an Asian nightclub in Times Square. They both saw Crazy Rich Asians opening weekend. Wei initially dismissed it and then sobbed through it, texting Jeremy that maybe it really is their Black Panther. Jeremy walked out yelling 'representation is a lie' and later softened. They agree the strongest scenes are the two mothers' contrasting sacrifices. Wei reads a text from her mother hoping Wei will meet a rich Asian boy like Rachel. They debate Henry Golding's casting and Jeremy's dislike of Awkwafina and Ken Jeong. Wei retells a party where she told Jeremy he wasn't like other Asian men because he's white, and later apologized. They close on Mitski's Be the Cowboy press cycle as a model of demanding freedom to be problematic rather than posed as an idol of Asianness.

As heard by us

A funny, loose conversation that turns Crazy Rich Asians into a sharper talk about Asian representation.

Jeremy Gordon and Wei Chu use Crazy Rich Asians to open up a conversation about Asian identity, family reactions, and representation, with a race-based drinks story and a text from Wei's mother giving it a personal, grounded feel.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a smart, sideways talk about Crazy Rich Asians, Asian representation, and how those conversations land at home, press play.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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