Many lazily confuse Asians ... Way. Too. Often.
And this time around, the stars of “Crazy Rich Asians” are not going to let it slide.
People Magazine royally screwed up the names of the cast members of the movie during their coverage of the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday. And Ronny Chieng, who played ultra-douchebag Eddie Cheng in the movie, shared the receipts ― first on his Instagram story and later Twitter.
The magazine initially identified Chieng and his wife, Hannah Pham, as Randall Park and Jae W. Suh, both of whom were not in “Crazy Rich Asians” at all. People also mistook Tan Kheng Hua as Michelle Yeoh, who was not in the picture.
While People seems to have since corrected the caption, Pham remains unidentified in the photo. People has not returned HuffPost’s request for comment.
Fellow “Crazy Rich Asians” cast member Remy Hii, who portrayed Alistair Cheng, tweeted a breakdown on why mixing up Asians isn’t quite an innocuous mistake. The actor noted that, though he doubts journalists frequently mix up white actors like Matt Bomer and Henry Cavill or even the Hemsworth brothers, the same can’t be said for Asian actors.
“It happens ALL the time with PoC - *particularly* Asian performers and it’s always just an ‘honest mistake’” he wrote.
The actor proceeded to call People out.
Ultimately, Hii concluded, the mixup is dehumanizing.
BOOM.
Indeed, as Hii says, it’s time to “do better.”