Thanks Nathan! Definitely agree that there’s a lot to celebrate, because the film did deserve every award it received (and more). And personally I don’t think it overshadows the celebration of the artists getting these much-deserved accolades to also draw attention to the misses. This one felt pretty glaring and symbolic to me, and I think in a lot of facets of society we are really quick to celebrate progress (which makes sense and is much needed) but have a hard time holding the duality of how much left there is to painstakingly change. Which is to say, maybe I do sound negative here, but I think it’s good to have a balance of the voices that are rightfully talking about the major wins for Asian artists the other night (I think most of the public is doing this, aside from the racists who are still trying to delegitimize the whole film) with other voices that are still highlighting what is yet to be done. And I am hoping that this article can kind of do both.

I’ll be very interested to see how the film/TV landscape changes over time. I definitely feel a little cynical about it, I’ll admit, but I still have hope that moments like this will encourage better representation and the kinds of innovative, unique, dynamic and personal storytelling that fall outside of the familiar paradigms of white Hollywood.

Thanks for reading and commenting!