I also used my own experiences as a form of research. In attending a prominently white secondary school, I was with a group of girls who were giving me the social media of certain boys but when I asked why they were being so selective with the boys they wanted to introduce me to, they responded with the statement “Because they always go for Asian girls”. Another friend of mine expressed surprise sometimes at my personality or mannerism as she thought “Asia girls don’t act like that” saying I should behave innocently and shy, and not the way I actually was. Those statement stuck with me for a very long time, believing it myself that the only way I could ever be perceived as beautiful or desirable is through a fetish and nothing else.
Now no longer 14, I am beginning to recognise the despicable nature of these statements, the people who said those things aren’t malicious, but ignorant.
One thing that really inspired me in the visual response in this piece is a short film by the internet personality produced and directed by Eugene Lee Yang called “Comfort Girls” where he portrayed Asian women as a commodity to be consumed by white men. I believe this to be a great way to visualise this experience and this narrative, the idea of Asian women to only be seen and generalised in a certain way and breaking the narrative by depicting the actual demeaning and dangerous nature of this narrative.
(Above) Frames from the short film Comfort Girls, source – https://vimeo.com/404799546
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