SAD ASIAN GIRLS

A pair of Rhode Island School of Design students, Esther Fan and Olivia Park created Sad Asian Girls Club, a collective sought to break misconstrued stereotypes of Asian-American women through conversations of feminism and racism. They hoped to help prove more representation for Asian girls of diverse backgrounds and types worldwide. 

The collective’s most notable project consisted of presenting statements from Asian women to complete the sentence: “All asian women are not ________.” These submissions discussed the model minority myth, the token sidekick role in major Hollywood blockbusters, and fetishization. 

In a Huffington Post Culture & Arts piece entitled “Meet The Art Collective of ‘Sad Asian Girls’ Destroying Asian-American Stereotypes,” both Park and Fan were interviewed to speak more on this project. Park described their collection of of submissions, “That project is more directed toward a non-Asian audience, so people can be aware that these micro-aggressions exist, and compiling them in a public space helps people realize how hurtful they can be when you see them from our perspective.” 

Park later added, “The only way society will progress is if these conversations are continued and encouraged to be continued, and as artists, it’s our responsibility to tackle those issues with all the resources we have.”

Sources:

Tongco, Tricia. “Meet The Art Collective Of ‘Sad Asian Girls’ Destroying Asian-American Stereotypes.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 15 Apr. 2016, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/meet-the-art-collective-of-sad-asian-girls-destroying-asian-american-stereotypes_us_570f1a96e4b03d8b7b9f7e92.