Far East caricatures in 'Kung Fu Vagina' and Mahjong Line by White people fuel hate against Asian communities
In the wake of Derek Chauvin's momentous conviction, the African-American community can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Almost a year after the Black man was killed by ex-cop Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for over nine minutes, the jury found him guilty on all counts. But this call for celebration is happening on the sidelines of another minority in "the land of the free" being targeted for the color of their skin. Asian hate crimes have consumed the nation with massage parlor shootings, attacks on Asian senior citizens, and the latest supermarket shooting that saw members of the South Asian Sikh community dead.
Wild uproar on social media has been taken over by hashtags and yellow squares as there's an internal fight about who's the biggest ally - those that blindly post these squares or those that chastise them for doing so. But that isn't a solitary problem with racism against Asian Americans. As many have argued in the aftermath of the Asian women who were killed in the massage parlor shootings, the problem lies as much with hatred, as with problematic sexualization. And when those two evils are not at work, we have a slew of White celebrities trying to accessorize and forcibly blend Asian cultures for their own agenda.
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'Kung Fu Vagina'
Gone are the days when just Geisha looks, kimonos, chopsticks in hair, and elaborate dragons were appropriated into White culture. These days it's traditional board games and traditional martial arts that are spun into fun and frolicky lifestyle items. There's a very fine line between cultural appropriation and appreciation, and White entertainers walk all over it constantly through caricature and mockery perceivably with a disregard for the culture that tries to portray its elaborate, varied, and grand style.
Sometime in late January-early February this year, there was a social media outcry for a tasteless racist song entitled 'Kung-Fu Vagina'. Released by self-proclaimed 'vagina weight lifter', and 'Holistic Sex and Relationship Coach' Kim Anami, the song was supposed to be an empowering anthem for women that have Kung Fu level bada**ery. Featuring Anami and a bunch of other women accused of appearing in racist yellowface and clad in very inaccurate classic-stereotypical Asian clothing, the song parodies Carl Douglas’s 1974 song 'Kung Fu Fighting'. Anami's version however changes the lyrics from "fighting" to (va)"gina", and the inception of this sorcery, according to her, “starts with a jade egg from China.”
Caricature of the Asian culture
Anami takes things a notch higher on her website, where she promises to teach “ancient Taoist practices used by courtesans in the emperor’s court in China”. She wishes to sell this wisdom for just $1,197 and as if that wasn't problematic enough, the lyrics of the song simply take it too far. Let's revisit the "jade egg from China," an unsubstantiated myth about the “Chinese seductress” with “mystical sensuality” which originated during the 1800's yellow peril.
Her lyrics proclaim, "We don’t need a funky Thai vag to shoot ping-pongs with pizzazz," and if the "funky" bit doesn't sound glaringly wrong, this is also one of the many instances where Anami blindly mentions other countries as Chinese stereotypes. This audacious disregard for Asian culture comes from the Eastern-culture-obsessed sex guru who claims on her website that she borrowed the name 'Anami' from Sanskrit, as the word means the unnameable.
Anami puts the screenplay through the same, going back and forth between Chinese and Japanese traditions - trying to mix-n-match chopsticks and handfans in hair with shoji screens in the background, almost turning the vast continent and its many cultures into a drab slate. She perpetuates almost every racist stereotype and connotation possible - from the 'wonton' font to herself being pronounced "Queen Kim" thus sticking to White savior tropes.
The Mahjong Line madness
It's almost as if Anami has singlehandedly tasked herself with rebranding the culture as "fun" - something one would find in copious amounts in the inception of The Mahjong Line. Before Anami had earned outrage for this racist narrative and song, there were three White ladies who thought they needed to zhuzh up an age-old Chinese game with their lines like the "Minimal Gal", or even the "Skylight Blue Cheeky Gal."
On their official website, one of the founders, Kate LaGere, sought to give the game a "respectful refresh" because traditional tiles "did not reflect the fun" that she had playing the game. So she invited other fellow Mahjong enthusiasts to indulge in these 'quirky' sets priced at $425 and above, that also come with Spotify playlists based on their playing style, without even acknowledging the game's origins. Some called it the "gentrification" of mahjong, others couldn't believe mahjong was being "colonized" as social media outraged against this unnecessary take on the game. And all of this happened in the backdrop of racist attacks against Chinese people after then-POTUS Donald Trump christened Covid-19 the "China virus."
Of course, Anami's video was taken down, but not before the content creator had mocked those who slammed her song. The creators of The Mahjong Line apologized too, promising they would do better and be more actively involved in researching the culture they were trying to revolutionize. But the damage had already been done. Speaking about Anami, Dr Linda Fan, Director of Gynaecology at Yale University, told Cosmopolitan, “This is the sort of thing that perpetuates rape culture and allows the world to look the other way while sexual slave trade persists in Asia."
Cultural fetish
The narrative of the over-sexualization of Asian women was picked up and elaborately discussed when Aaron Long of Atlanta went on a shooting spree killing eight people at different massage parlor locations, six out of which were Asian women. The fact that the shooter considered the lives of these Asian sex workers disposable just because he was "having a bad day" and "wanted to eliminate temptation", mirrors the control White people feel entitled to over minority cultures.
It is the same audacity that allows people like Anami and the founders of The Mahjong Line an authority over cultures and traditions they are neither a part of, nor know how to honor. Their content, marketed to millions, gives people a false sense of claim over the Asian community. It's what perpetuates the idea that one could toy, mold, manipulate, and discard the community as they wish.