The Ashcan

Just go ahead and sign me up for “K-Town”

Posted on 15. Jul, 2010 by Jef in Race, Television

There was a time in my life when if you told me there was going to be a reality show in the vein of Jersey Shore but starring a bunch of Asians, I might have flipped out and raged and maybe used the word problematic 27 times in 14 sentences. Granted, this time in my life was before Jersey Shore, but you know what I mean. I also recycled a lot more back then and read books without speech bubbles, so it wasn’t all bad.

Anyway, here we are and K-Town, the Tyrese-produced reality show about Koreans showing their abs and being full of sass and beer, is coming our way soon. I can’t wait for it, frankly. It looks AWESOME.

Part of me wants to justify this enthusiasm to my old self, and I would probably do so by pointing out that most of the problematic images of Asians in mainstream culture have had to do with the model minority stereotype. In a twisted way, 19-year-old Jef, this is progress, I’d say, ignoring the oversized cargo pants I’d be wearing. Don’t you want people to know that Asians are able to drink, are sexy in that superficial purely physical way, are irresponsible and loud and obnoxious? That we can be all that and everything else? Isn’t that what your phase of substance abuse and bro-hugs and trying to get into fights was all about?

But all that is kind of boring and only brushes shoulders with the point. Over the past decade we’ve seen a lot more Asian faces on television. This hasn’t always been good. Representations often ranged from good to bad even within the same program (ahem, LOST). But there were a lot more Asians. We’ve seen hot Asian robots with identity issues (Sharon, Battlestar Galactica), neurotic beady-eyed Asian doctors (Dr. Yang, Grey’s Anatomy), powerfully rich purse-lipped Asian capitalists (Sun, season 4 LOST), lecherous fob-stached Asian ghost whisperers (Miles, LOST), handsome emotional Asian cops with black wives and fears of dying (Demetri Noh, Flash Forward), and frightening stone-faced Asian government agents (Detective Tao, The Closer). And that just covers the shows I watch, without even touching on the browner side of things (Indians are everywhere guy).

We’ve also won Survivor (during the race-bait season to boot), dominated America’s Best Dance Crew, repped on So You Think You Can Dance (we run this dance shit) and American Idol. We’ve seen Asian dudes get laid and Asian women empowered in one way or another. We’ve seen asexual Asian males and sexualized Asian females too, sure; there’s that awesome cool dude on Glee who had one line of dialogue all year, and that painfully hot girl on the nouveau Melrose Place who is both a doctor and a hooker at the same time.

The battle isn’t over, for sure. The Last Airbender happened, and happened recently. But the more Asian faces that get shoveled through the idiot box, the better off we are, regardless of whether those representations are wholly problematic or wholesomely progressive. I’m all about the numbers lately, quantity over quality, because that’s how we end up with choices, and that’s how the racially awkward or outright offensive representations get drowned out and look stupider. That’s how our faces get normalized, and how eventually we’ll end up as lead characters in non-race-based shows and as show runners and nobody will even noticed it happened. BAM.

So yeah, K-Town, home to a gay porn star (<-NSFW), a struggling actress, a bodybuilder, a sex worker who spells women as “womyn,” and a whole lot of spikey hairdos. Can’t wait. I am all for these Korean kids humping each other’s legs indiscriminately, or deeply pontificating about life while faded and limp-legged on the sidewalk, or saying “like” before every half-formed sentence, or pounding back shots like sushi rolls on an all-you-can-eat binge, or just generally having fun and maybe forming some genuine frienships, or whatever it is that ends up happening on that show. Because I know people like this in real life, and to me they’re just people. Hot, stupid, nice, smart, annoying, cloying, try-hard, genuine, amazing, actual people.

And every single one of them is a beast at karaoke.

K-Town: it is what it is, and it’s been worse.

(via) (and)

Tags: Jersey Shore, K-town, Korean barbecue is dope, Koreans, Race, Reality TV, representation, Tyrese