Comedy Series Exposes All The BS That Asian Women Put Up With

How does one navigate through life in America as an Asian woman? “Quiet Tiny Asian,” a web series by comedy feminist duo SJ&Ginny, tackles that question with five very important lessons.

First on the agenda: Accept that people will see you in a very specific way. (Read: quiet, tiny, ninja-like.)

We hope that you can sense the sarcasm already.

SJ Son and her writing partner, Ginny Leise, wrote “Quiet Tiny Asians” to expose all the “bullshit” (Son’s word) that Asian women have to put up with nearly every day.

“Asian women don’t have the luxury of being just ‘Asian women,’” Son told The Huffington Post. “We are a fetish, we are exotic, we are small, we are large, we are smiley, we are deadpan, we are this and that, not because we are people but because we are Asian.”

The five-part series begins with Son teaching her niece how to juggle all the stereotyping and aggressions that are headed her way. Yes, people will make fun of her eyes and confuse her for any Asian in a 5-mile radius. And, yes, she’ll be told to “go back to your own country, you goddamned chink.” But the only solution is to deal with it.

“Yes, Ari, it is rooted in their inherent racism,” Son explains in the second episode, “but it’s up to us to grow thick skin.”

The series is based on the racism Son has faced that, she says, Asians have learned to accept.

“As Asians, we all deal with micro-aggressions on a daily basis and have ignored or accepted this kind of racism for so long that you forget it even exists,” Son told HuffPost.

She was inspired to write the series after New York Times reporter Michael Luo wrote about being told to go back to China while walking with his family in New York’s Upper East Side.

Luo’s open letter to the woman who yelled at him moved Son, but it also made her realize that Luo’s encounter with racism wasn’t anything new.

“It made me question why I wasn’t seeing more Asian people recount their racism publicly,” Son said. “Probably because it’s painful. Probably because it’s time- and heart-consuming. It makes you doubtful that anyone will care.”

“Quiet Tiny Asian” is Son’s own open letter to Asian women who, like her, have put up with racism and are not afraid to call it out.

“There is a perceived silence of Asian women that makes people think you can say whatever bullshit about us,” Son told HuffPost. But Son refuses to stay quiet about it.

“Our racism is real. It is not imaginary. It is destructive, complex, a total mind-fuck, and it deserves a seat at the discussion table.”

You can watch the entire “Quiet Tiny Asian” series in about five minutes (we’re serious) here.