SPOILER ALERT
Emily in Paris: Asian Women I Know Aren’t Like Mindy Chen
This Asian character might as well be played by a White actress — it would make no difference.
Bored on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to check out the currently trending Netflix show “Emily in Paris” after reading mixed reviews about it. I was warned about all the stereotypes and (French) cliches by a Guardian critic, but it didn’t hit me fully until I was introduced to the character Mindy Chen.
If you haven’t seen “Emily in Paris,” it’s a story about Emily, an American woman who moves to Paris to take up a Marketing job. Not long after her arrival, she befriends Mindy, a Chinese-Korean woman who is a nanny and used to study in the States.
There are many questionable things about Emily, but I’ll leave her for the American viewers. This article will discuss Mindy Chen and other Asian characters on the show from my perspective as an Asian person who grew up in Vietnam and moved to London for study and know plenty of others who have similar backgrounds to Mindy’s.
The Mindy character has a cliche rich kid backstory: She runs away from her loaded family in Shanghai to be a nanny in Paris as she doesn’t want to live the life her parents plan out for her.
