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Emily in Paris: Asian Women I Know Aren’t Like Mindy Chen
This Asian character might as well be played by a White actress — it would make no difference.
Bored on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to check out the currently trending Netflix show “Emily in Paris” after reading mixed reviews about it. I was warned about all the stereotypes and (French) cliches by a Guardian critic, but it didn’t hit me fully until I was introduced to the character Mindy Chen.
If you haven’t seen “Emily in Paris,” it’s a story about Emily, an American woman who moves to Paris to take up a Marketing job. Not long after her arrival, she befriends Mindy, a Chinese-Korean woman who is a nanny and used to study in the States.
There are many questionable things about Emily, but I’ll leave her for the American viewers. This article will discuss Mindy Chen and other Asian characters on the show from my perspective as an Asian person who grew up in Vietnam and moved to London for study and know plenty of others who have similar backgrounds to Mindy’s.
The Mindy character has a cliche rich kid backstory: She runs away from her loaded family in Shanghai to be a nanny in Paris as she doesn’t want to live the life her parents plan out for her.
To mix things up a little bit, the show creators give Mindy a musical talent — which, I guess, is because Ashley Park playing Mindy has a background in Broadway. They also make her half-Korean instead of full-on Chinese — though I’m not sure what the intention of this is as Mindy comes across as much more American-born than Asian-born, let alone specifically Korean or Chinese or a mixture of both.
She reminds me of Peik Lin from Crazy Rich Asians. Peik Lin was portrayed by Awkwafina, whose performance was criticised for being attached to Black culture and is not an accurate representation of Asian people, especially those born and grow up in Asia.
Both Peik Lin (in the movie) and Mindy Chen are the Asian best friends who come from rich families and exist…
