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So, for those people who are debating whether or not @NICKIMINAJ is engaging in cultural appropriation with her Chun-Li single/SNL performance, I have some thoughts. *Speaking as a Chinese American woman. [THREAD] 1/
First, Chun-Li is a video game character, conceived as the first female in a fighting game. She was a bad ass, and created by a Japanese designer with a Chinese backstory. She's one of the most recognized characters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chun-Li 2/
As anyone who has been to a Comicon will tell you, the people who dress up as Chun-Li are not limited to Asian women. People of all races & genders identify with her. I don't also believe that I should be limited to identifying only with Asian female characters. /3
Should @NICKIMINAJ be limited to only dressing as Storm? Or Nakia or Okoye?Why should race be used to limit people's identification with fictional characters? Because if that's true, honestly, at Halloween, that would have seriously limited my options. 4/
Why shouldn't @NICKIMINAJ want to portray herself as one of the best known, earliest examples of a female fighter, the kind of woman who holds her own in any street fight? The creation of the character as Asian, with all the iconography that entails, was decades ago. 5/
But @NICKIMINAJ isn't the first African American to adopt Asian characters. Are we saying that Jim Kelly was engaging in cultural appropriation appearing in Bruce Lee movies? Or that @WuTangClan shouldn't have embraced Chinese culture? (note: ) 6/
The links between African Americans and Chinese martial arts go back. https://www.theroot.com/20-essential-black-kung-fu-connections-1790868319
But it's not just the cultural ties. African Americans & Chinese Americans share a history of systemic discrimination in the US. 7/
But it's not just the cultural ties. African Americans & Chinese Americans share a history of systemic discrimination in the US. 7/
Like African Americans, Chinese were discriminated against, especially in California. In some cases they were lynched by angry mobs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_massacre_of_1871 8/
The Chinese are the only nationality to be barred from entry into this country by statute: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act
Many of the earliest civil rights cases in the US were won by Chinese American plaintiffs. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, US v. Wong Ark. 9/
Many of the earliest civil rights cases in the US were won by Chinese American plaintiffs. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, US v. Wong Ark. 9/
But views of Chinese Americans in this country changed during World War II, when China was a US ally against the Japanese. And between the Japanese and the Communists, the ruling Nationalists of China were forced out, and many came here, where they were embraced by America. 10/
Over time, Chinese Americans and Asians generally became embraced as "the model minority." And today, we do not experience nearly the same kind of discrimination that African Americans do. But we shouldn't forget that it lurks under the surface. 11/
So I do not read @NICKIMINAJ's portrayal of Chun-Li as "appropriation" but as an embrace of a strong female character, both transcendent of race, but also as a nod to the long cultural connections between the African American & Asian communities. /end.
