By Sharanya Gopinathan
“Is that an Asian thing?”
Quiet Tiny Asian is a web series of tiny episodes, about a minute long each, that hilariously address the stereotypes that Asian women in the United States face. The idea is that these are mini-lessons that SJ teaches her four year old-ish daughter Ari about living as an Asian origin woman in the US.
She covers things like the weirdness of being stereotyped as a tiny, quiet woman and silent ninja simultaneously, dealing with people unable to tell the difference between two Asians (or else assuming that they’re dating), and always having to explain which distant island you’re really from. “Japan? Thai….wan?” My favourite episode is number three, Asianthing, where SJ is hilariously informed by white people that birds, a love for striped shirts and cheese must all be “Asian things”.
It’s a funny series with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments for everyone, but would resonate particularly with women who have experienced being simultaneously eroticised, exoticised and othered in countries where they form racial minorities. That being said, while the point of the series is to bust stereotypes that people subject Asian women to, its a bit guilty of perpetuating some stereotypes of its own. In episode four, for example, they show a Black man on the subway trying to get SJ’s attention and yelling “ey ey” at her with an inflection lack people on television are never ever featured without, which feels a bit unnecessary in a show about dealing with racism.
Watch the first episode of the super-addictive web series here.