Pop Mythology, Buying and Selling: A Report from the First Asian American Comic Con

Wandering into the rest of the Con events I was lucky to catch pioneering Asian American SF/Fantasy author William F. Wu speak. Jeff Yang, Co-Chair of the AACC and Editor in Chief of Secret Identities, interviewed Wu about his Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy Award nominated work, including the short story “Wong’s Lost and Found Emporium”, which was made into an episode of the Twilight Zone in the 80′s. Wu, who was born in Missouri and raised in Kansas, described himself as a “displaced Midwestern boy.” Easygoing and a natural storyteller, he discussed not only the content of Asian American representations in SF/Fantasy genres, but their lack overall. Yang summarized this situation by saying “Robot Americans are far better represented than Asian Americans (in genre fiction, despite the fact that) demographically, the future looks pretty damn Asian”. Wu expanded on this point by saying that when Asian American men do appear they are usually either “tamed” (i.e. the submissive sidekick) or the villain , while Asian American women are often the “exotic” love interest of the white hero.

In advance of his AACC appearance Wu donated his vast collection of comic book art and comic books, all of which feature Asian and Asian American characters to the Fales Collection at New York University. Despite the fact that many of the portrayals are inaccurate and/or offensive Wu said he was compelled to seek them out, a habit learned during his racially isolated Midwestern childhood. And it is this ambivalent relationship with–too often–problematic portrayals that characterizes the interactions many PoC have with media: You are forced to choose between not seeing yourself represented at all, or only as a creature of the white imagination, with its fears and fantasies about you. Wu made the point that often the way Asians are represented in pulp media offers a more immediate reflection of political reality. For example, in the Buck Rogers newspaper strip of the 1940s, Buck’s adversaries, who had been cat-like Aliens, became “Japanese” literally the day after Pearl Harbor. (Go back and read that again and then take a minute: The. Day. After.)

Wu discussed some of the other characters who appear in his collection, which range from the ridiculous (Egg Fu, an old Wonder Woman villain/Giant Talking Egg whose evil deeds were facilitated by his prehensile Fu Manchu moustache) to the sublime (Batman Villainess/Love Interest Talia al-Ghul, daughter of the Arab Supervillain Ra’s al-Ghul–whose name means “Demon’s Head”– and a mixed Chinese, European and Arab mother, which makes her a kind of orientalist combo-platter.) Torn between killing Batman and helping him escape her evil father and given to catsuits and mixed martial arts, Talia al-Ghul is the culmination of an orientalist ideal… in other words, “not a killer, just a very, very, very, hot confused (part) Chinese girl.”

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