Growing up in a white American family in a white suburban American town, my exposure to Asian culture was pretty limited. Asian people on TV and film were often played for laughs or portrayed Asian stereotypes – meek, nerdy, silly, and in the case of Asian women – sexy, exotic, and submissive.
But the few strong Asian women in media that I did notice (Mulan, Kill Bill, fighting videogames such as Tekken), were always kickass martial arts experts!
As a result, one of the ways I connected to my Asian womanhood as a kid was by mimicking the martial arts moves of female characters in films and video games. This wasn’t the most ideal situation, maybe, as many of these martial arts icons were also pretty sexualized, but it was still a significant and early introduction to Asian culture for me.
In FORK MOUNTAIN, the only window that May has into “real” Chinese culture is through the fantastical Kung Fu movies collected by her friend’s Kung Fu obsessed older brother.
It’s maybe not the most realistic cultural representation, but it’s a window into Asianness that’s not only represented by and created by Chinese people – it’s empowering.