The Issue of Representation in To All the Boys I've Loved Before

I was thrilled when I finally got to see To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. It was about a Korean American girl written by Korean American author Jenny Han: what else could a Korean American girl like me want in terms of representation? But then I learned that Lana Condor, the actress who played the main character Lara Jean Covey, wasn’t even Korean. I mean I was still excited as an Asian American for Condor’s success, but as a Korean American I couldn’t help but feel cheated. 
The fact that the movie had an Asian American lead, showcased aspects of Korean culture, and came out the same week as Crazy Rich Asians perpetuated the notion that society is post racial through these counter hegemonic narratives of the Asian experience. But just because we have Asian representation with actual Asian people without the exotic stereotypes (which is truly the bare minimum), does not mean we are past the racialized attitudes and discrimination that Asian Americans have been subjected to for centuries. A review from Cosmopolitan said, “the film makes no blatant attempt to explain the makeup of the family. It doesn’t have to. It’s 2018.” But it’s 2018 and we should pay attention to the implications of how Asian Americans are portrayed and be proud to make our heritage known. I would argue that the film does make a blatant attempt to explain the makeup of the Covey family, and it’s in a way that commodifies Korean culture and limits the representation around actual Korean people. In my eyes, Korean culture in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is limited to objects--like food-- and prevents meaningful representation of Korean people because it is this actually catered to an imagined audience that isn’t Korean, or even Asian American.
Lara Jean’s Koreanness had to be conveyed somehow, and producers chose to do that mostly with tangible objects rather than Korean experiences. A scene early on shows the father attempting to make bossam (a boiled Korean pork dish), probably to keep the girls in touch with Korean half, a truly admirable act. Later, the Covey family is sitting around the dinner table with the father’s attempt at bossam. I must say I found it refreshing to see something that my family would eat on the table, but knowing that none of the actors are really Korean, and that the representation of Korean food would be limited to what their white father could make, I was disappointed. Korean food wasn't getting the proper attention it deserves and was only being used to make us believe that the Covey sisters were really half Korean.

The Covey Sisters

  For a brief moment later in the movie, Lara Jean is seen asking her friend if he wants to do a Korean face mask with her, a nod to K-Beauty. But other than that, there is nothing in her character that conveys her Koreanness. Of course, not every story about Asian Americans has to deal with identity and the struggles surrounding it, but Korean culture here is limited to things. The scene that really showed this was the one where Yakult makes a cameo. Kitty--Lara Jean’s little sister-- lets Peter have a sip of her “Korean yogurt smoothie” for driving them to school. He then replies by asking “What do I have to do to get you to bring me one of these every day?”

Yes, Peter. It is. 

There’s just a lot about this scene that irks me. For one, Yakult is not traditionally Korean. Although it has widespread popularity across Korea and recognition across most of Asia, it is originally Japanese. It also isn’t really a smoothie. On every Yakult bottle it says in its iconic red font that it is a probiotic yogurt drink. Although these details aren’t particularly harmful in the grand scheme of Asian representation, I don’t see the good it does to misinform people who may not have even ever seen or heard about Yakult. It also just seems like another attempt to make Lara Jean’s Koreanness more obvious by qualifying it with “Korean.” 

My second qualm about this is that the discourse--linguistic accounts that encourage a particular way of understanding-- around Yakult seems to be skewed for a white audience. Kitty calling it a “Korean yogurt smoothie drink” sounds more appealing than Yakult, especially to an audience who may not have exposure to Asian languages. She Americanizes it. Furthermore, Peter’s approval for the drink is what made it popular and overall acceptable. He says “Oh, wow, this is really good,” effectively giving a famous person testimonial and a green light for people who may have been apprehensive about trying foods from other cultures. I know first hand how unappetizing a probiotic yogurt drink called Yakult can sound because I’ve been through the experience of trying to share this amazing bottle of joy with my friends only to be met with apprehensive looks. I think the scene glosses over the very common issue that many Asian Americans face when trying to share their cultural foods with white people by skewing the discourse to make it seem more appealing overall. By glossing over this issue, it furthers the notion that society is post-racial: that we live in a society that is willing to accept parts of Asian culture with little to no issue.

This unintentional product placement of Yakult in the scene and the famous person testimonial had real life economic effects. Bloomberg reported that shares of the stock “climbed about 2.6 percent since the movie was released on Aug. 17. The stock closed 1.7 percent higher Monday, the highest since July 31.” I don’t think that this would have happened without the testimonial given by the heartthrob of the movie. Peter’s endorsement, along with Kitty’s description of it as a smoothie rather than probiotic drink made Yakult seem more “normal.” In other words, it made it more palatable for an audience that isn’t familiar with this aspect of Korean culture. With the lack of representation of Korean people, commodified objects like Yakult--which again is not even inherently Korean-- are getting more attention. 

This shows that the movie--although maybe not in accordance with what Jenny Han wanted-- was catered to an imagined audience that I see as white teenage girls. Even in the early stages of the movie’s genesis, Jenny Han said that Hollywood executives wanted Lara Jean to be white proving that Hollywood still struggles imagining an Asian American audience. This is further exemplified through Noah Centineo’s rise to fame as Peter Kavinsky. The week after the movie was released Twitter was filled with Tweets about Noah Centineo and Peter Kavinsky and consequently leaving Lana Condor to be forgotten. Netflix itself decided to get in on the Peter Kavinsky promotion by changing their Twitter bio to “this is now a Peter Kavinsky stan account” even though the movie was supposed to be centered around Lara Jean. Centineo was also getting more opportunities post-To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before than Condor.

Netflix's Twitter bio the week To All the Boys I've Loved Before was released.

There should have been a lot more attention around Lara Jean and the groundbreaking role she played--even if she wasn’t Korean-- rather than Peter and his stereotypical high school jock charm that we’ve seen time and time again. I would even argue that a possible reason as to why there was no Asian male love interest is because Asian men have been desexualized through years of degradation in the media. Perhaps producers, or maybe even Jenny Han did not think that it would be believable that an Asian male love interest would be appealing to the female base, especially for the white female base. I am not particularly surprised by this considering that the director was Susan Johnson, a white woman. When telling people of color stories, having a director that is also a person of color is just as important as having the actors and actresses be people of color. 

While I do appreciate that aspects of Korean culture are finally being normalized and that Asian American actresses are getting bigger roles, it is still through a white perspective and leaves actual Korean people behind. Lana Condor, Janel Parrish, and Anna Cathcart--the actresses who play the Covey sisters-- aren’t even Korean. If you're not going to include Korean actors, and just have images of Korean culture, are you not just appropriating Korean culture? I mean just imagine if it was a white actress using a “Korean yogurt smoothie” to make an audience believe she was Korean. While this one counter hegemonic narrative cannot address every single issue of Asian American representation, I am disappointed that in this instance, Korean people are rendered invisible. Yes a part of our culture was showcased, and sure having a Vietnamese American is better than a white person portraying a Korean American, but there was nothing that sparked a conversation around Korean representation because it was a feat that there was an Asian American lead at all. But I, as I’m sure many other Asian Americans are, am tired of having to settle especially when our feats are still overshadowed by white narratives like Peter Kavinsky’s. 

So yes, we are moving in the right direction, but we are nowhere near post racial. We need more movies and TV shows with accurately portray diverse Asian American stories because we are more than just the objects of our culture. All of our cultures are different and hold struggles that may be as subtle as the lunch box moment or as obvious as a blatant act of racism. We deserve to have our stories told with accuracy and specificity.