Yes, That CCTV Gala Sketch Was Racist

Like most families in China, we always spend part of our Chinese New Year’s Eve watching the CCTV Gala, one of the most watched annual events in all of television with an annual viewership of about 400 million people. (By contrast, the Superbowl is watched by about 100 million people). This year, though, we had Read More

Rachel Dolezal's Appropriation of Adoption Language

If you haven’t heard of Rachel Dolezal, then you are one lucky duck. Dolezal made international headlines last week when it was revealed that she, a White woman, had spent the better part of a decade masquerading as a Black person and was even the chapter president of the Spokane, Washington branch of the NAACP. What Read More

Book Discussion – Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men

Mara Hvistendhal’s book Unnatural Selection – Choosing Boys over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men was quite eye opening for me. Several months ago, American-based websites and blogs that write about feminist and AAPI issues were livid over lawmakers trying to pass legislation against sex-selective abortions in America. Most decried the laws as Read More

Penny Dreadful is Pretty Dreadful – Part 2

(It was after I started writing this that I realised just how long this post was, so I decided to break it up into two parts. Yesterday’s post focused on women in the show Penny Dreadful;  today’s post focuses on people of color, specifically Chinese characters, in the show.) People of Color To begin with, Read More