Bowen Yang has a message for fans who think they’re being clever by tagging him in every photo of an Asian person they see online: “No, thank you.”
The Saturday Night Live comedian recently vented his frustration on his podcast, Las Culturistas, saying he’s bombarded with notifications from people who seem to think all Asian people are interchangeable.
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“My experience of TikTok is I log on and 20 of my notifications are of someone who thinks they’re being cute, tagging me saying, ‘Oh my god, this person looks just like Bowen Yang.’ It’s an Asian person,” Yang said. “It’s a little Asian baby dancing around in, like, a little elephant costume. Trust me. I’ve seen it. You guys can stop tagging me in that. It makes me not wanna use the platform.”
Yang, who is of Chinese descent, has been a trailblazer on SNL, becoming the show’s first Chinese-American cast member. He’s also appeared in movies like Fire Island and the recent film adaptation of the musical Wicked. But his rising profile has come with a downside: an increase in online harassment from people who apparently don’t encounter many Asian people in their daily lives.
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“These people who don’t see a lot of Asian people in their everyday lives, I’m top of mind to them,” Yang explained. “So they see an Asian person on the internet, they go, ‘Oh my god, that’s Bowen Yang.'”
Yang’s comments highlight a common experience for people of color in the public eye, who are often subjected to racist and ignorant remarks online. It’s a reminder that representation matters, but it’s not enough to simply have diverse faces on screen. We also need to challenge the underlying biases that lead people to see all members of a particular group as identical.
As Yang put it, “Wow, human beings, man. Our brains are small. We are a stupid species. We are dumb. Myself included.”
