I’m using that as an intro for two (2) concepts/ideas:

1. Group Chat Shane is definitely different from Shane In Person, and the only thing he’d fear almost as much as being outed is the contents of the Melanated Musketeers (shut up, Bood named it) chat being leaked. He’s said Some Things. Nothing bad, mind you, but he has an image to maintain and the memes he’s sent or reacted to in that chat would ruin him (in his mind; they’re objectively not that bad).

2. The chat was called The Chocolate Factory and specific to black players until JJ realized that Shane runs when he sees black people running. There’s a unanimous vote to change the chat name to Melanated Madness (they go through several name changes over the years). When Vaughn adds Shane to the chat, he doesn’t mince words.

okay first of all i do think that it’s all SOMEWHAT different because he’s half white. but he acknowledges both sides of his ethnicity all the time, it’s not like he’s trying to pretend he’s the most asian guy ever of all time, + he is still asian regardless of what braindead people on twitter say

if you’re asian, especially east asian, you know that there’s a very specific box we all get put in, both in fictional and real life representation. there’s the very prevalent stereotype that east asian people are uptight, strict, and closed off. even in the most popular form of east asian media among white people, k-pop, it is known that the artists are being controlled by a larger entity, and that their actions are carefully chosen and performed.

hudson williams goes directly against this idea by being KNOWN for his unhinged personality. he’s partying, he’s smoking, he’s cursing. all while acknowledging and embracing his korean heritage. hosting the Gold House Lunar New Year party/dinner/show and bringing his korean mother and dancing and singing in front of her goes against what most non-asian people think about east asian families and east asian relationships with parents.

it’s not that no asian celebrity has ever done something similar before, but for hudson to have this insane rise to fame and be well-liked BECAUSE of these traits is something i think we’ve never really seen before in terms of asian representation in hollywood. seeing him receive the recognition he deserves genuinely gives me hope for the future of asian representation

twitter hates to see a poc winning #stopasianhate

Sean Kaufman on Asian representation in Hollywood and meeting Hudson Williams:

“…But when Heated Rivalry came out, I think on a personal level, it hit very differently.”

The series features the protagonist Shane Hollander, portrayed in the HBO adaptation by Hudson Williams, an actor of Korean descent.

“The main character is like a gay Asian male who is competing amongst a lot of amazing people,” Suico continued. “A lot about the show really resonated with me, and I felt very represented at that moment.

“Hudson Williams’ portrayal of the character made me feel very supported in my life, and more confident in myself and what I wanted to do.”

when "model minority" is used in discourse about Asian Americans, this is understood to mean casting Asian immigrants/diaspora as having unique upwards economic mobility, educational attainment, and (most crucially and cruelly) as having more moral/respectful/civilized character in contrast to other communities of color (Black, primarily, but also/especially Latino and probably "white" ethnic groups too). Asians are said to be compliant and eager to assimilate OR having acceptable cultural traditions with Western culture--therefore finding success even though they still face racial discrimination, which is used as a cudgel against other marginalized communities (why can't you roll over like a dog and do that too?).

this racist, divisive theory has been picked to pieces from many different angles (Asian Americans are not universally successful or even universal within the "community"; anti-Blackness by comparing Asians as a "good minority"--which Asian American communities are incredibly guilty of as part of the assimilation to American culture = white supremacy, see affirmative action...). Shane Hollander's textual portrayal in Heated Rivalry does not meaningfully engage with any of the key facets of "Asian model minority" because the story does not meaningfully engage with his East Asianness.

you can't address the "model minority myth" when Shane does not convincingly read as Asian or even Wasian. but you also cannot have a critical examination of it when you do not address anti-Blackness present in the setting, which should be incredibly easy to do since your setting is hockey. but dropping a single commentary line about "strange to see Shane fight" is not actually engaging with "well-behaved/robotic" stereotypes about Asian athletes when you don't also acknowledge how that stereotype is rooted in anti-Blackness and Orientalism (Shane's abnormal but acceptable unlike--. I get it's also a narrative contrast against Ilya, and yes, the NHL was/is super xenophobic, but the show also doesn't meaningfully engage with Ilya's heritage culture so.....). because sure people might say that about Shohei Ohtani in a racist way but they also say that about Sidney Crosby (lol). if you're going to address anti-Asian discrimination in the NHL then you gotta get more specific and incisive with your microaggressions, I'm being so serious right now. can't even slip in a social media comment comparing him dating a hot white actress to Glenn from the Walking Dead? Heated Rivalry is also incapable of engaging with the NHL in a truly critical manner, so whatever.

to give a fair counterargument, I can see a reading of "Yuna's" capitalism as mirroring Asian upwards economic mobility/assimilation to dominant white culture, but this is really only engaged with as a universal athlete tropes "I just want to play the sport without all the publicity" and "I'm hiding my real (gay) self behind all these advertisements." you can't drop a "going to Wimbledon is a white people thing" line when Shane does not engage with Asian diaspora/culture/tradition otherwise and in the same breath, acknowledges that he is white-passing in white-dominated sports settings ("my western last name vs other Asian kid" -- I actually did appreciate this scene and have little issue with it, but it lacks weight when it has no structural effect on his character/the narrative).

he's Wasian. he's mixed! he's Asian, but he's also white. that isn't inherently a problem (discoursing about mixed/adherence to Eurocentric beauty standards instead full racial minority representation is another conversation I don't want to have) but this is also never acknowledged. which could be great commentary about how mixed kids are only ever seen as either but we never get meaningful interiority about Shane's view of himself wrt race because the narrative only engages with his identity as a gay man... because there is ZERO conversation about the intersectionality of race and sexuality and gender in someone's identity when they are a racial minority in a white space. East Asian men have to have different complexes about sexuality/gender presentation than white/"post-racial" men, it comes with the being East Asian!!!!!!!

2025.11.23

Simu Liu reposted me on Threads. (Tumblr post)