As a shy daughter of working class Chinese immigrants, I grew up in New York City’s Chinatown in the early 80s but yearned for a lifestyle represented in the newstands. Month after month, I pored over the pages of my favorite magazines and saw beautiful models, fabulous clothes, and an exciting world that sparked the imagination. I remember being intrigued when I saw any model who seemed like they were even partly of Asian origin but of course I still thought the blonde models—the most ubiquitous—were the prettiest because they, who were white, were chosen to represent everything that was “aspirational.” This was the norm of the times and was reflected in the choice 99% of the time in the campaign faces chosen, the cover stars shot, all the way to the larger than life designers. Even though I was American, I was resigned to the fact that there was no one in pop culture that looked like me.. After joining the industry as a model agent in the early 90’s, I loved learning about some of the highly regarded avant-garde Japanese designers but they were all based in Paris which seemed so far away. Closer to home, a few designers of Chinese origin had started to take off. What was very clear to me was that Asians were still the anomaly in not only fashion but in film and television as well.
[Vogue] Taking A Moment To Consider Asian American Representation In Fashion And Culture, While Enjoying the Premier of the CW’s Kung Fu
