Dear World: Please stop treating the American market as the golden standard

Dear world,

Please stop treating the American market as the gold standard. If a singer or actor makes it in western markets after starting out in asian ones that is a show of their international popularity which is great. It is great that people like Jackie Chan and Kpop singers are starting to get recognition internationally their craft. But the goal seems to be warped.

Take Lee Joong Ki acting in Resident Evil. I mean cmon. He has the acting chops and looks, and he has done very well in the korean market. But once he acts in a second rate, laughably bad B movie in AMMMMMERRRRICCCCA it seems like he has suddenly became oh so great. Or BTS. They have international recognition and always tops korean music charts. But oh they ranked in Billboard. Makes them one level higher.

This feeds the asian inferiority syndrome. We should be happy that artists can conquer many markets, not that they can conquer the western one. Why does it mean more to be loved in US than in China? Or France over say Phillipines or Thailand? They are not more important than us.

Oh but this provides representation in western media. Yes. That is great. But what was representation for? If we wanted to show Asians we were equals with westerners than sticking them in a b rated movie as a generic sidekick is not gonna help that at all. We are better off with our own representation in movies from the chinese market or Bollywood or even movies like The Raid from Indonesia. If the point was to show westerners that we are talented too, again associating asians with sidekicks who know kung fu in a dumb action movie is not going to help.

The way we solve this is to be popular. Be good. Be creative. Take Wong Fu Productions. Or Ang Lee. Or Fresh Off The Boat. They don’t settle for less. And when they succeed they don’t celebrate cause they made it in america, they celebrate cause they made it period.

So stop inviting nobody western singers that nine of your fanbase knows, giving your national boy and girl groups only 1 or 2 songs  but have a slew of western singers NONE of your fanbase was there to see. (I’m looking at you MAMA)

Cheers,

Darren Does Hollywood