Why Representation Has Requirements: Screw You Uncle Roger

    Rapid improvement in international and global communication has led to all manner of improvements in understanding between people, places, and cultures otherwise far apart and dissimilar. However, the rapid spread of information and ideas also brings its inevitable baggage along: misinformation, stereotype, and caricature. 

    Which brings us to my memetic headache of the moment: Uncle Roger. His comedic gimmick is pretty simple- leaning into the middle aged Asian Uncle who behaves like a FOB despite being far from 'home' for many years. Take this, turn the accent up to 11, add gratuitous overreactions to a variety of situations, including many video clips of Asian cooking by non-Asians, and you pretty much have it down.

    The enterprise is not wholly without merit. Some of the examples used in his videos are legitimately appalling, and the reactions would be the same from just about anyone, irrespective of their background.  (Making 'fried rice' with raw, uncooked rice? Yikes.)

    When he turns the clowning on professionals though, it gets rather more bothersome. His targets sometimes seem cherry-picked. Influential, largely wealthy veterans of the food media world occasionally publicize things far outside their area of expertise. 

    The former part of that is Uncle's armor- any angry response would come across as ego driven and 'punching down', so the latter part's often valid criticism has time to sink in. There are occasional counter-reactions from those targeted by the dramatic 'Aiyah!', but it feels like there's a lot of smiling done with clenched jaws and gritted teeth.

    That in itself isn't even so bad, but what's underneath is a more subtle kind of damage that bothers me very much indeed. 

Consider: 

I am the Whitest Dude You Probably Know- I look like a mix of Daniel Radcliffe and Peter Parker. I'd probably be a prime target for a Fried Rice Reaction Video if my media presence were larger. 

But you know what? 

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I'm a chef that specializes in the food culture of Asia and Southeast Asia. I know everything Uncle Roger talks about when it comes to food- what's true, what's exaggerated, and what's outright nonsense. I've spent years living and working alongside both the people he mimics and the ones he griefs.

    

    The stereotype shorthand used by Uncle Roger to influence believability and legitimacy takes away from those who have the expertise, but not the look. Seen most commonly in 'ethnic' restaurants here in the West, hiring practices are geared to give customers what they expect to see. While far fewer than in years past, plenty of people still want to see their very own Uncle Roger when they go out for Chinese- and that's simply not a good thing. 

    Well-meaning as the entertainment might be, it inadvertently causes backsliding of the gains made in Asian media representation, and it undermines the more universal effort to move past stereotypes and preconceptions of knowledge or experience. 

    The days of Short Round and Yan Can Cook are decades gone by, and the Asian communities around the world are better for it. Why draw from a manufactured subculture proven to be harmful, and that's in the process of being deliberately phased out? Uncle Roger feels firmly in the territory of "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.".

    The goal should be to judge the content of the craftsmanship, not the color of the culinarian.

-Awoo.