los angeles – ExpectAsian

Does Yellow Skin Burn?

February 22, 2016March 1, 2016 Helen Mun

I realized I was Asian when my family moved from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Carolina. I realized it in my third-grade classroom when my teacher conflated my culture and language with those of Kazuhide, a Japanese-American student and the only other Asian kid in the class besides for me. I’d wanted to be his friend, maybe if only for the fact that he looked like me, but after that interaction with our teacher I felt like I had to keep a distance, draw a line, remind everyone that Korean and…

Yellow Peril and the Docile Chinaman

February 6, 2016March 1, 2016 Helen Mun

It is winter 2015. Venice Beach, California. A group of street performers, an elderly Chinese man, and a crowd of eager onlookers. What could go wrong? I am relishing the sight of black and brown and yellow faces surrounding me, the comfort I feel at simply being one of many faces in a crowd rather than one of the few colored faces in a sea of white. But then the unmistakable “Kung Fu Fighting” starts blasting from the speakers. And then the performers, a group of black and Latino men, chant,…