"Mixed Asian representation in American popular culture parallels how mixed Asians are often perceived by the public—as fair-skinned, ambiguous, and exotic, but whose identities are constructed through their positionality to others. In shows that are white-led, they remain not quite white, their ambiguous faces the butts of the punchline (at times self-referentially), their backgrounds barely mentioned. They serve the story as entrancing secondary characters with no evidence of their Asianness (or whiteness, for that matter), but whose likenesses cause the audience to discern whether they’re mixed Asian on and offscreen."
"In HBO/Crave’s queer hockey romance series adaptation, Shane Hollander (Korean-Dutch Hudson Williams) Japanese-Canadian background, never specified as Japanese, is mentioned three times. First, Shane’s manager congratulates his team on breaking barriers by signing him. Next, his mother (Taiwanese-Filipino/white Christina Chang) reminds Shane of the community he represents. Finally, Shane mentions to his white date he was one of two Asian boys who played hockey. Despite this. Heated Rivalry includes no gestural or cultural signs of Shane’s Asianness throughout the season. Even when Shane and his love interest Ilya Rosanov (Connor Storrie) eat dinner with Shane’s parents, spaghetti is what’s on the menu.
The lack of development in Shane’s identity is more pronounced by the pervasiveness of Ilya’s Russian background, which includes relationships with other Russians, language, an accent, and distinct customs. Ilya’s identity informs how he moves through the world, a navigation threaded throughout the season, that Shane simply isn’t allowed to experience."
I'm so glad this gets talked about how Russianness is so overwhelmingly part of the story vs Shane's mixed race is nothing more than the way he looks and there is no cultural underpinning whatsoever. I know fandom has complained about it since the dawn of time, but it's nice to see it written about. The examples the article cites are almost all things Jacob added to the script because of how in the book, Shane is fully reduced to his "exotic" face and hairless body.
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