With the massive popularity of Squid Game, I have been feeling a lot of different ways...

I am THRILLED that people are appreciating foreign, Asian content because, yes, it is absolutely incredible and language should not be a barrier or a factor to immediately dismiss something. But it all makes me wonder why everyone started watching it. Everyone watched it because it’s “trending”. Because a friend of a friend watched it and loved it. Because a ton of white people started to watch it and it subsequently became a “trend”.

After hearing the white folks around me talking about Squid Game, I was starting to feel some type of way. I messaged some of my Asian friends and said this:

“Ok idk if this is me being weird or it’s probably my years and years of internalized racism but all the white ppl around me now being like “OH MY GOD SQUID GAME” has me feeling some type of sorta weird way. idk. Anyway GO OFF KOREA CONTENT BECOMING MAINSTREAM IN THE WEST! ASIANS WE OUT HEREEE”

To which my friends very much felt and related to. One likened it to their experience with the rise of anime - the happiness and excitement about more people discovering it and enjoying it but also the annoyance and anger at it because they were bullied in school for liking anime. Another friend compared it to K-pop and their experience of being disrespected and looked down upon in high school and college because they listened to K-pop before it started becoming more mainstream and “cool”.

I have seen countless memes, tweets, Tik Toks and Instagram reels from Asian content creators that run in the same vein. Videos of one person depicting/“re-enacting” a scenario between a friend and them - beginning with “pre-Squid Game” era and the friend judging them for watching Kdramas and calling them a Koreaboo, then jumping to post-Squid Game era where they think it’s so cool and edgy. I have also seen posts/videos that call out the “love of Squid Game” as people enjoying watching Asian people get killed. This comment was set up in a comedic sort of way but does hit a lot of truths and a lot of thoughts surrounding racism and white supremacy that comes out when white people are the audience for a show like this. (I could go on a whole tangent about “why is the Asian media that our western society has accepted always so dark and scary? Why can’t it be joyful?” But that’s a whole bag of worms that I’m not sure how to handle just yet.)

I came across a whole Twitter thread (that was actually reposted to Instagram) about this same topic. YK Hong talks about and points out racism, white supremacy, and all the bad, underlying things related to the consumption of BIPOC media. His very first statement struck me: “The fact that white people can consume BIPOC culture, whether it’s film, movies, literature, food, music, and still hate People of Color, shows you how oppression is linked to dehumanization.” And the following statement resonates with a lot of the “weird” feelings I’ve been having: “When you consume BIPOC culture as a white person, which is all the time, remember that it was and continues to be at great cost to BIPOC life, land, and people.”

I shared this post on my Instagram story and wrote this alongside it: “Something about the mass popularity of Squid Game amongst non-Asians (spec. white folks tho) made me feel a weird way. I think this is why. So if you love Squid Game, think about Asian people as people and not just content for you to absorb when you feel like it.”

The peak of Squid Game also came around the time of Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of The Ten Rings. Another huge success and win for Asians and Asian representation in media, this one being an Asian-American/Asian-Canadian specific media type and representation in terms of actors and production. Of course we still get our more “classical” Chinese actors such as Michelle Yeoh and Tony Chiu-Wai Leung, but the story itself is mostly “American” - which in this sense, I mean that it is about someone that has mostly grown up in America, hence having a particular Asian-American experience. Additionally, the character of Katy, played by Awkwafina is very much a first or second generation Asian-American, and that’s specific and meaningful.

In hearing people discuss either Squid Game or Shang-Chi, I do get a bit nervous at what some people’s critiques are (specifically when coming from white people), and I can’t help but wonder if they would have these same criticisms of a white-centred piece of media. In both Squid Game and Shang-Chi, there are very culturally specific references or bases for each of them. Squid Game being very based on Korean culture and Korean children’s games, and Shang-Chi being based on Chinese culture and martial arts. I think that there is a lot that gets bypassed, misunderstood, or ignored when seen through a white lens, which makes it so much easier for people to ignore and dismiss the media as a whole. This, in turn, feels like people dismissing my own experience and existence. It becomes something very painful and personal to those of us that feel seen through these pieces of media.

All this to say, I am incredibly grateful that Asian-centred media is being talked about and is becoming popular here, but I am also a bit worried. Or maybe worried isn’t the correct word but I have feelings about it and they are very much centred around “if you want to enjoy and experience this media, then you need to respect us as people too”, as well as this feeling of white people wanting to claim ownership over Asian content as if they had just discovered or invented it. It’s complicated. It’s deeply rooted. It’s part of the many topics and questions that run through my mind on the daily. It's all part of my personal journey to discovering who I am culturally, as a person, and as an artist.

Funnily enough, as I was reviewing this post today, and planning on publishing it tomorrow or Thursday, news broke that Squid Game will indeed have a season 2. So I hope these thoughts stay with you for whatever the future of Squid Game brings us.