Adding to Miraculous Ladybug's Chinese representation
When it comes to Miraculous, a lot of things feel Western with a Chinese aesthetic. It feels like they stick with their own culture, but slap on Chinese stuff to make it look more mystical and foreign rather than teach things people may not know. What makes this unfortunate is that there are a lot of easy ways they could've done this
Marinette's family owns a bakery, but I can't recall them ever making Chinese pastries. I grew up on baked pork buns and I will straight up devour a box of red bean buns if you're foolish enough to leave them around me unattended. That's a very real thing many immigrant families do. Many want to keep their heritage alive as much as they can in a foreign country and build a business around it. There is no rule against Tom and Sabine having French and Chinese baked goods for sale in one bakery
Another thing is the writers tend to take the most Western interpretation of Chinese folklore. In the season 4 finale, there's a comment made of cats vs. dogs with Adrien and Felix using those Miraculous. However, in Chinese folklore, there's a bigger emphasis on cat vs. rat
The cat is typically known as an unofficial 13th member of the zodiac. The reason for this is because in the various tales of how the zodiac animals were chosen, there is one thing that remains consistent. The rat sabotaged the cat to make sure they can't have one of the positions. In some cases, the rat just lied so they never showed up to a divine banquet. Some stories has the rat straight-up drown the cat in the river while they were crossing it
So if Felix used the mouse Miraculous to swarm all the heroes and snag the Miraculous off everyone, that would be a really unique way to reference that folklore in a modern setting
If we're being completely honest, I don't know why they wouldn't try to incorporate the Lunar New Year as a big day for the Kwami. If Miraculous were made in China, why not link them to an actual holiday with the implication being that the festivals began to celebrate the good created by previous wielders
The saddest missed opportunity is not making use of the Qixi festival. The Qixi festival is a holiday that celebrates a tale of two lovers who are separated because of their forbidden love, but once a year, they can cross the heavens and be together for just one night. With Miraculous's whole thing of "The power of love always so strong" why not reference a Chinese love story?
The story is called "The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl"
Weaver girl
Fashion designer
Hello? Golden opportunity dangling right here in front of everyone's faces. They could've been a pair of past ladybug and cat wielders who comment on Marinette and Adrien's budding romance and compare it to their own story. Talking about how their own duties prevented them from being together long-term and encouraging their successors to fight for the love they have
In a show that tries to emphasize the Miraculous as being Chinese in nature, there is a distinct lack of focus on bringing up Chinese culture. Marinette has two family cultures, but I don't think they handle her mother's side very well or do a good job of representing the supposed roots of the Miraculous