I Love Lucy: An Elementary Retrospective/Why Women Kill Teaser

Liu is only the second Asian American actress to receive a coveted star on Hollywood Blvd. Image: AP.

When people hear that I write about Asian American representation in Hollywood, I almost always get asked my opinion of Fresh off the Boat, Crazy Rich Asians, and recently, Ali Wong and/or The Farewell. Sure, these are the touchstones of Asian American representation this decade, the ones that are written, produced, and starring mostly Asian and Asian American talent. However, while these explicitly Asian American cultural productions are no doubt important, less consideration is paid to the works that feature Asian American actors in multiracial/ensemble casts. Those are often the cultural productions that interest me more, because it is in these shows that you get to see how race is constructed (i.e. race is a social construct) — how the Asian character functions in relation to the other (non-Asian) characters, and how the show treats other aspects of identity, such as gender, sexuality, class, nationality, all of which tie back to race and help make visible the scripts of racial difference.

Asian Americans on multiracial shows are often left out of discussions of “Asian American representation.” Image: TV Guide.

After all, even though they don’t receive the same amount of celebratory fanfare, these are still Asian American characters who contribute to Asian American visibility within…