Update #2:
Maclean's "Too Asian" is back online. It hasn't been changed except for the article's subtitle, and copy-editing corrections. Click on this link to see a side-by-side comparison of the old and new versions:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QzfdIegkZ9yhlshSjYJ0HVGzZ82l3vEr7WcQBAp7oa8/edit?hl=en#
Or you can just read the old version here:
http://pastebin.ca/1987790
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Update #1:
"Too Asian" by Maclean's has similar undertones to "Campus Giveaway" by CTV's W5 done in 1979.
Apparently, we've regressed 31 years.
Check it out:
http://archives.cbc.ca/society/racism/topics/1433-9248/
http://www.ccnctoronto.ca/aboutUs/aboutUs-History.html
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Hi all,
I encourage you to write to Maclean's to complain about their woefully stereotypical and offensive article, "Too Asian" :
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/
I wrote a complaint letter to the editor, which I have pasted below (warning: it's full of rage and may sound arrogant, but I was really just trying to get my point across).
Please feel free to share.
Thanks,
Anita
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This article is offensive in so many ways, and is typical of Maclean's (not surprising coming from a publication that uses the word "invasion" in the headline for one of its other articles about a pending influx of Chinese tourists (
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/09/09/hoping-for-a-chinese-in...vasion/). I'm sure you're aware that this word evokes images of yellow peril, which according to Kent A. Ono and Vincent N. Pham's Asian Americans and the Media, is a stereotypical misrepresentation of Asians and particularly Asian North Americans as threatening to “take over, invade or otherwise negatively Asianize” western nations (in this particular context, Canada) and their respective cultures and societies.
This kind of discourse typically constructs an Asian/white dialectic in which Asians are perceived as powerful and threatening, while whites are threatened and vulnerable.
Yellow peril, it seems, is a theme Maclean's enjoys perpetuating in its articles, including "Too Asian" (
http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/2/) in which you portray Asian students as taking over the university spots of white students. Mind you, these Asians are just as CANADIAN as whites, not to mention other CANADIANS of ethnic origin.
You should be ashamed of Stephanie Findlay and Nicholas Köhler -- these so-called "journalists" who have written an outrageously skewed portrait of Asian students that hardly passes as real journalism. The sources they use all support one point-of-view: "That Asian students work harder is a fact born out by hard data. They tend to be strivers, high achievers and single-minded in their approach to university" and that "an 'Asian' school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun." These sweeping statements are supported by a couple of biased quotes with no representation from another point-of-view. And what "hard data" are they referring to? Ultimately, you, as editors, failed to hold Findlay and Köhler to a high journalistic standard.
If my friends (both Asian and non-Asian) and I were interviewed and quoted, this article could have provided a more nuanced portrayal of Asian students. Indeed, I -- as well as many of my fellow Asians -- do not "tend" to be an army of single-minded academic nuts who suck the fun out of our surroundings. Many of us also study subjects outside of math and science, and we are also active members of on- and off-campus life. And FYI, my parents are fully supportive of my liberal arts education and decision to become a journalist. Shocking.
Way to perpetuate stereotypes about Asians, as usual, Maclean's. You're an exemplar of shoddy journalism. If you want to learn how to write real journalism, call me up, and I can give you a lesson.
Regards,
Anita Li
P.S. To redeem the magazine, you should print an apology in your next issue, and address the issues I have listed here.
