How Grey’s Anatomy Character Cristina Yang was the On-Screen Representation I Missed Out On All My Life
On redefining Eurocentric beauty and mental health
Disclaimer: This post contains major spoilers for Grey’s Anatomy.
I’m Asian. As someone who has always watched TV shows across several languages and cultures, there were specific places where I saw different aspects of myself.
In North American TV shows, I saw the narrative of my childhood as someone who grew up in Canada.
In Hong Kong and Korean dramas, I saw aspects of my Asian heritage represented. I learned the customs, rules, body language, slang of my culture so that if I ever visited Hong Kong, I could fit in with the rest of my cousins.
I thought I had all the representation I needed, when in reality, my identity was being split into two. These sources of stories split my beliefs into two.
In English, the stories and beliefs from North American TV shows came most quickly, without translation. If I had to communicate something in Cantonese, lessons and characters in Hong Kong dramas (and Korean dramas, dubbed in Cantonese) came most quickly to me.
In English, I could talk for days about the importance of loving my body. In…
