I exist, therefore I am visible.

[rogueslayer452]

++ Both Crazy Rich Asians and To All The Boys I Loved Before are Asian-led, with the former being an all-Asian cast, films (on the big screen and Netflix, respectively) that have gained a lot of positive reception from audiences and critics alike. Both have succeeded in charming audiences with being adorable and hilarious romantic comedies, something that we haven't had in recent years since the genre itself has dwindled significantly in light of superhero and action films dominating the box office. It also proves once again that representation absolutely matters, and that it is successful. But it's absolutely disgusting knowing that production companies still wanted to whitewash these projects. Ugh. I'm glad the creators stood their ground and didn't give in.

There isn't much Asian representation in Western media to begin with, the Asian-American experience in particular. We need more of this kind of exposure, which hopefully will get more stories out there that focus on other aspects of different Asian cultures, without erasing/whitewashing or any of that offensive nonsense.

++ Lately, I've been watching a bunch of booktube videos. Not any one person specifically, just randomly searching things. I don't quite know how it started, I think there was a video recommendation of someone reviewing a book that I watched and I just continued going down the rabbit hole. It's very fascinating since it is a different side of YouTube that I wasn't that familiar with, since I do watch a lot of YouTubers but most of them are entertainers in some form. This is just a book community on YouTube talking about, well, books. Though it's interesting, after watching a number of different booktube videos specifically reviewing or talking about YA™ I'm realizing that it's not my preferred genre. Don't get me wrong, I've read books that have been categorized as young adult throughout the years (as seen in this brief but fantastic video discussing the evolution of young adult fiction), but the recent YA™ subgenre that has exploded in the market lately is completely different and while it's not to say that I won't read it if it captures my interest since I'm definitely not dismissing the entirety of YA as a whole, it's just not something I normally gravitate towards. My personal reading preferences tend to lean more towards horror/suspense, mystery/crime thrillers, with some science fiction and gothic literature added in.

Comments

[beckytheelf.livejournal.com]

Coming out of my LJ hiatus lmao to ask if you've seen CRA yet???? It hasn't opened where I live but I want to be first in line! I've been so excited to see it.
My friend and I were trying to think of the last time there's been so much Asian-American representation in the Western media and we were coming up completely blank.
It's really sad how hard we have to think about these things and the fact that people didn't even blink to want to start whitewashing it. Like there's sooooooooooooo much representation around huh.
Also lmao, I am not a YA fan at all and I've never really fallen down the rabbit hole of booktube videos. Maybe I just haven't found the right one?

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey girl hey! :D Long time since you've been on here! I mean, I follow you on Tumblr and you're active there, but I miss talking with you via comments like this. How've you been?

And no, I haven't seen Crazy Rich Asians yet! I'm waiting for the right moment for schedules to match up so either me and my mom or sister, or all three of us, go see it together. Probably either this upcoming weekend or sometime next week. I also have the first book which I'm itching to read, as well.

You're so right, I can't really think of anything that featured so much Asian-American representation in the media at the same time either. It's depressing and heartbreaking, to be honest, because seeing and hearing how many Asian-Americans feel validated with their existence being visible on the screen when it hasn't happened in over twenty years, you can't help but get emotional about how this kind of representation means something to a marginalized group that feels erased most of the time. I'm hoping that this isn't a one-time fluke though, and that this opens the doors for more opportunities for Asian-Americans of all cultures to write/direct/produce/act in their own stories and give them the agency that they've been denied for so long in the industry.

I'm rambling, but this means so much to me that I'm getting emotional.

Re: YA, yeah, you might not have found the right one. There are some YA books that are good, but they're usually overlooked by the more overhyped not-so-good popular ones that gain more attention. I also think that there's a huge difference between young adult fiction and YA™, the latter which just regurgitating the same tired tropes that we're all sick of, but do so because there's unfortunately a market for that kind of shit. Again, I try not to generalize YA as a whole because I know that there's a wide range to it, like any other genre, but YA has gone through cycles of producing, well, crappy stuff that gains more popularity than the good stuff and I'm far too selective with my reading anyway.

As a sidenote, I also know that there's some YA written by minorities that are quite good. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, for example, which has been a recent success.

[beckytheelf.livejournal.com]

Haha, I know. I live on Tumblr now. Tis my home. So much so that I always keep forgetting to come back here!!

sis, the less said about my sad and pathetic and depressed life, the better. how are you?? i hope life has been treating you okay.

I hope we both get to see CRA soon. I AM SO EXCITED. I love Constance Wu and Gemma Chan is so stunning. When they gonna star together in my lesbian rom com????
I hear the book is kind of trashy and soapy but lmao who cares...why do Asian products have to pass some kind of stringent test and be the highest quality of anything ever or we dare not consume? Hmmm...but that's a soapbox moment for another time.

Sis, please ramble. I'm so happy you're rambling. It says a lot that we have to rack our brains to think about when and where we can be represented *says me, not the same kind of Asian lmao*

Oh wow sis you hit the nail on the head re YA fiction. Every time I say I should stop being mean and give the genre a chance, I completely blank out halfway through reading a summary. I can't take one more pretty average white girl in a love triangle with two extraordinarily pretty white boys with differing shades of dark hair. Or my other personal favorite: girl only realizes she can be something/do something when handsome boy pays attention to her/tells her she can do it. Rinse. Repeat. Yawn. She wasn't a person before clearly. She was just waiting.
And look who's rambling now hahaha.
I am really selective with my reading too. So much so that I ignore YA completely. I think the last one I read was this awful Stephanie Perkins book and it was truly the worst. BTW, are you on Goodreads?

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I go back and forth between LJ and Tumblr, checking both daily, though I admit that the fandom culture on Tumblr has become toxic as fuck which is why I feel more content expressing my thoughts here.

how are you?? i hope life has been treating you okay

It's been relatively okay. A lot happened this year in my personal life, the biggest thing is that we moved earlier in the year which was not only stressful but also anxiety-inducing for me. I've settled now though, so it's all good. And aside from that, with everything that's been happening in the world lately I've been using fandom/fictional worlds/characters as a way of distraction from the bullshit, lol.

why do Asian products have to pass some kind of stringent test and be the highest quality of anything ever or we dare not consume? Hmmm...but that's a soapbox moment for another time.

Exactly, thank you! I heard some say that this is just another cheesy romcom and I'm like...so? We barely get any kind of representation as it is, and whenever we do suddenly it has to be the most highbrow of entertainment or else it's not good enough? Isn't that just so painfully ironic? Like, yeah, this might be the same shit you've seen before, but it's the same shit with Asians telling their stories for once. We, and other POC, deserve to have a wide range of stories in different genres and not just the ones you appoint to us and say, "be higher quality that we expect of you!" while ignoring us the rest of the time. Just, no. Allow us to have that higher quality and the mindless fluffy stuff, tyvm. It's why this kind of exposure and success is so important to allow us the same playing field as everything else in media.

Sis, please ramble. I'm so happy you're rambling. It says a lot that we have to rack our brains to think about when and where we can be represented *says me, not the same kind of Asian lmao*

Thank you. :) I don't often get a chance to vent about it as much, but I just get so riled up because I'm tired of having the same argument with ignorant people who just don't get it. Plus, while I'm also not the same kind of Asian represented in something like CRA, I'm hoping that this will open the door for more opportunities for other Asians to tell their stories. This is why it's so important. Plus, allowing Asian-Americans to be appropriately cast in their stories (as in, not having a Korean play a Vietnamese character or a Chinese actor to play someone who is Japanese, etc, because we're not all the same, jfc).

I can't take one more pretty average white girl in a love triangle with two extraordinarily pretty white boys with differing shades of dark hair. Or my other personal favorite: girl only realizes she can be something/do something when handsome boy pays attention to her/tells her she can do it. Rinse. Repeat. Yawn.

Or the "I'm not like those other girls" protagonist who puts down other girls to make herself feel better and more special and never gets called out on it or grows out from this mentality. Or even the girl who considers herself plain and ugly but everyone fawns over her even from the mere sight, including two dudes who want to fight over her and she ~can't decide~ because how could someone like her attract two guys. There are so many more, but these tropes are probably the worst and it's honestly rampant throughout most YA books that, even if the plot is intriguing, these stupid tropes end up ruining it because they're so predictable and horribly written. It's like this mandatory thing with publishers who demand YA authors to include these things because they think it'll sell better.

I am really selective with my reading too. So much so that I ignore YA completely.

I wouldn't say I ignore YA completely, since whenever I look for books I tend to just read the description/synopsis to determine for myself whether it would be worth my time. Sometimes some of them will be featured in the young adult category, but not always of the YA™ variety, if you know what I mean.

And no, I'm not on Goodreads.

[beckytheelf.livejournal.com]

Sis, get a Goodreads!! The algorithm is wrong af half the time lmao but sometimes you get great reccs. It's also a good way to keep track of your reading, your to-read list and meet other people.

In my opinion, fandom culture on both LJ and Tumblr are the same level of fuckery but the difference is...everyone is on Tumblr now spouting they bullshit rather than on LJ lmao. But in general, people take things waaaaaay too seriously over there. Everyone is cancelled for existing, for breathing, no one is allowed growth, no one is allowed to learn anything, everyone must be woke 24/7 from the minute they came out they momma. It's ridiculous. I only stay because everyone is as depressed as I am lmao.

Awww bb, I'm glad you settled after your move. I hate moving.

You literally just summed up why I've written off YA hahaha. It's exhausting and my pretentious ass is gonna say that it's insulting to my intelligence. I'm doing a master's degree in CW and oh god, half of my classmates keep doing this shit...but thankfully with brown people. Or should I say not thankfully? IDK. It's still irritating though. It's like, we have moved past this. Or should have anyway.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

lol, we'll see. I have my own methods of getting recommendations and tracking my reading (which is quite easy since I'm a slow reader to begin with). Right now I have a particular goal this year which is to finish all the books I started, like, months ago. So far I'm gradually succeeding in that department.

In my opinion, fandom culture on both LJ and Tumblr are the same level of fuckery but the difference is...everyone is on Tumblr now spouting they bullshit rather than on LJ lmao.

Oh yeah, I definitely don't have rose-colored glasses concerning how fandom was on LJ, believe me. I remember all the wank and drama that occurred here on the regular over the years, and it wasn't pretty. Wherever fandom goes the wanks go with it, and Tumblr is no exception to that, despite it being in another platform which is formatted differently with how people interact with one another. It's just the same shit we've dealt with before, just dressed differently.

And you're so right about how people act over there, and it's one of my main major annoyances because everyone has to be "woke" about everything all the time, also this whole purity culture where people play morality police thinking that everything you consume in media has to be 100% progressive and pure or else it's "problematic" and if you still like said thing then you're automatically trash, and it's like? Okay, calm down children, step away from the computer and go outside for a moment. Not everything is that deep or that serious. I'm such a fandom grandma that at this point I just roll my eyes and instead focus on the things I love instead of that kind of immaturity and negative behavior.

I just wish that more YA would try to do something different, like take the same-old tired tropes and subvert/invert them, surprise the readers into going in another direction. That would make the story stand out much more than following the same bullshit time and again. And I'm sure those kinds of YA books exist, they're just lost in a sea of predictable crap.