Let Asian girls live
Hi Larry! I agree somewhat with your specific points, but it feels unfair to require the film to be a politically perfect representation of Asian Americans in the first place — especially being adapted from a YA series by Jenny Han, a Korean American woman.
To me, the beauty of the narrative is that it’s about a fairly ordinary Asian American girl without her race being the focus of the plot. In fact, Han was asked repeatedly by film studios to make Lara Jean’s character white since the story doesn’t necessitate her Asianness. Yet Han was insistent that she stay Asian precisely because it’s a privilege to exist in America as a person, and not a political statement. It’s like how books and other works by POC have difficulties being recognized as classics in their own right. They’re constantly being relegated to the “ethnic literature” shelf, which is cool, but so is being a good book.
Also, this is nitpicky but I don’t think Lara Jean is a ~docile lotus blossom~ at all. She comes off as secure, knows what she wants, and drives her own romantic choices. I mean.. the white guy basically begs for her approval. In the form of Yakult — which, to be fair, is neither Korean nor a smoothie. But at the point when even LJ is considered a stereotype, what are we supposed to do? Am I a bad Asian American if I yell at someone (because I’m reinforcing dragon lady tropes) or if you attend Harvard (because the model minority)? Are we culpable for those choices, too? Like, the shitty thing about the dragon lady / lotus blossom double-bind for Asian girls is that there’s literally no way out — at which point we gotta just say “fuck it, let us live,” because I’d rather define myself by the life I choose than waste energy playing a lose-lose game my oppressors built.
I feel like there’s an undue burden on creatives with marginalized identities to make every work Radical (TM) or holistically representative of [insert X identity] experience, a metric that white cultural productions are never judged by. Is To All The Boys a revolutionary win for Asian Americans? Not at all. But the point is, it doesn’t have to be. In a world where Hollywood reduces minorities either to our stereotypes or our struggles, I found it refreshing to see cultural representation that focuses on humanity above all else — even in the form of a corny teen rom-com.
(anyway, never thought i’d write this many words about a book i read at 14, but perhaps this gives another perspective.)
