Asian American Characters I Want To See More Of

Hello friends, I hope you’re having a wonderful day 💕 And Happy May!! Can you believe we’re almost halfway through the year?!

As you may know (no pun intended), May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and so I have some posts lined up this month that fit this theme.

To start the month off, I wanted to talk a bit about Asian American characters in particular I want to see more of—in books, movies, TV shows, you name it. As negative stereotypes of Asian Americans have been around for a long time, it’s extremely important we work hard to dismantle them and introduce portraits of Asian Americans that are true reflections of their experiences and personalities.

Of course, this is not the most comprehensive list, and there are many more I can include, but these are just a few to get us thinking more about accurate representation. This is a very important topic to me, and I hope it shows!

I created all these characters with the Poicon Picrew Maker, so I hope you like them 🙂

I’d love to see more Asian American families represented, and not necessarily talking about education all the time.

The Asian Americans who enjoy school but also are into movies and fandoms—like me!!

High achieving Asian Americans being celebrated for it, not demeaned as a “nerd” or a “try hard”. I feel like this is something many Asian Americans wish for, myself included.

Badass Asian Americans with confidence and courage!!

The Asian Americans who may be sweet and soft but won’t let anyone take advantage of what they perceive to be their “weakness”.

Asian Americans in leadership roles who are acing it and are respected for that.

Asian Americans who love art being encouraged to pursue their passions and reflect their culture in their work.

Asian Americans who are fascinated by their culture’s more traditional values and try to apply it to their life.

I also wanted to note that many of the books I’ve read with Asian characters feature parents who are endlessly pressuring their children and demanding more than they can give. They are portrayed without much emotion or personality. This frustrates me, because not all Asian parents are that strict, and not all strict parents are Asian. Besides, considering how many Asian cultures highly prioritize family, I really want to see more of that love, especially because so many Asian parents do care for their children and demonstrate it in both the big and small ways, like any other non-Asian parent.

Also a disclaimer that obviously this all applies to Asian Americans regardless of gender. It just turned out that I used girls for all because it was easier for me to do with the Picrew maker!

I’ve talked about Asian American representation before here on my blog, and I hope I can continue discussing this topic. I felt that using the Picrews and captions was a great way to get this particular message across too. I’ve always wanted to see myself in literature, being the bibliophile I am, but I’m still on the lookout for characters I can intrinsically relate to. I have seen other bloggers talk about books with characters who they feel represent them so well, and I’m always happy to hear that! So I hope more of us can feel that way 🤞 diversity is an important topic and I love how we discuss it in the blogosphere.

Today’s post was on the shorter end, but I’m hoping to put out more posts this month!!

I hope you have a wonderful day, and definitely feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below!!

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