Sitemap

Member-only story

‘Don’t Look Up’ Features Every Anti-Asian Stereotype

Despite having very little Asian representation

6 min readJan 16, 2022
Source: Netflix

There will be spoilers in this article.

Lately I’ve become more audacious in my standards of ‘good representation.’ Maybe it’s because I’m viewing in a post-Crazy Rich Asians era where we actually have an Asian Marvel Superhero with his own movie, and due to several miraculous incidences mostly owing to the entertainment industry of my ancestors (South Korea), but I have started noticing the godawful horrific representation we have in American media, and have the audacity to feel bad about it.

So without further ado, let me go through the biggest movie thus far of 2022 (technically, 2021) and how it DOESN’T pass the vibe check for Asian representation: Don’t Look Up, a charming movie with a great ending that is — in all stripes and forms — the perfect example of a White Liberal movie.

The White Adjacent Asian

Source: Jordan Matter Photography

Hettienne Park is an actress of South Korean descent who portrays Dr. Calder, the head of NASA and an anesthesiologist who is a “super donor” to the fictional fascist President of the…

--

--

Julladonna Park
Julladonna Park

Written by Julladonna Park

Essayist & Academic// Oxford grad in Korean society & culture. Human stories about race, gender, and media.

Responses (6)