Model Minority Stereotypes and Asian-American Athletes in the Media
Introduction
In international sports competitions, Asian-Americans have been making their marks. They can be seen in the recent Winter Olympics, Summer Olympics, X games, World Cups, and beyond. However, along with their success, comes immense criticism, questioning of loyalties, and anti-Asian comments, which has been heightened due to increasing naturalization of athletes. This article seeks to qualitatively analyze North American communication and coverage of Asian-American athletes, Nathan Chen, Chloe Kim, Eileen Gu, and Kanoa Igarashi, who have competed at the Olympic level along with various other international competitions. This article observes that successful Asian American athletes who compete internationally are scrutinized by mass media and public opinion because they do not fulfill the stereotypical role of the model minority and concludes that the coverage of these athletes perpetuates Asian-American stereotypes.
Body
Representation and coverage of Asian Americans within North American media consistently perpetuate the ideas that Asian Americans are smart, wealthy, hard-working, living the “American Dream,” submissive, obedient, uncomplaining, and/or spiritually enlightened. These generalizations are collectively referred to as the Model Minority; The idea that Asian-Americans exemplify positive traits of a minority group by staying in their lane, positively contributing to academics and economics, and having unwavering loyalty and gratitude to the United States.
According to Mok and Chih in their article, “The intersection of the Asian American Model Minority Myth and Sports: The ‘Linsanity’ Narrative”, “While such a stereotype is, on the surface, seemingly positive, it cloaks deeper, more pervasive views of Asians and Asian Americans as foreign, exotic, and unassimilable” (Mok, Chih). In addition, in the article, “Are Asian American Employees a Model Minority or Just a Minority?”, Cheng explains that the model minority stereotype paints a picture that Asian Americans are “too successful to be considered a disadvantaged minority” (Cheng). This becomes increasingly present observing the media coverage of Asian-Americans yet precludes claims of racism as Asian Americans are rarely viewed as minorities (Mudambi). This overgeneralization of Asian-Americans has influenced public opinions and biases that has become ever-present with the increase of Asian-American athletes at the forefront of international sporting competition.
It has become almost an expectation that people of Asian descent within the United States demonstrate the abounding opportunity and freedom of the U.S. This is clearly shown in the parallel media coverage of Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim.
Nathan Chen is a Chinese-American Figure Skater who has competed for team U.S.A. at the Winter Olympics winning the team bronze at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang and a team silver and singles gold at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. In media coverage surrounding the 2022 Winter Olympics, Nathan Chen was a highlighted athlete for team U.S.A. Much of this coverage focused on two things: Chen’s immigrant mother helping him to succeed and his academic pursuit at Yale University. Media applauded Chen’s mother, a Chinese immigrant, for coaching him, driving him thousands of miles in their “trusty little Prius,” and even sleeping in the car overnight on some occasions throughout his young career. After winning gold in Beijing, Chen was quoted saying, “Absolutely none of this would be possible without her support. Since day one, 3 years old, I stepped on the ice, and she’s been by my side ever since.” The story of parental sacrifice for their child to reach the Olympics is prevalent every Olympic cycle. Highlighting this story is not wrong. Athletes have a right to point to their support networks. However, the focus on this story in relation Chen touted ideals of hard-work and the American Dream and expressed the gratitude expected to come from Asian-American immigrants by the American public, further enforcing the Model Minority typecast.
Much of the media representation of Chen also highlighted and discussed Chen attending Yale University while simultaneously training for skating. Media outlets regularly brought up Chen’s academic pursuit, tying it into how proud his immigrant parents are. As Zhang explain in the article, “Asian Americans Beyond the Model Minority Stereotype: The Nerdy and the Left Out,” “Asians are also stereotyped as ‘all work, no play’ nerds or workaholics, who are technologically savvy, but not interested in fun and social activities, and lacking proper communication, social skills, and cultural knowledge.” In one CNN article titled, “Nathan Chen: Balancing act of Yale student and Olympic figure skating favorite,” the author wrote, “For most at school, sport is a convenient escape from studies. Yet Chen, having taken a break from Yale to focus on Olympic preparations, is already looking forward to being back in the library in August.” This representation of Chen perpetuates the idea that Asian Americans are “all work” by suggesting that school is a welcome break for Chen and promotes greater differences between Asian Americans and their peers.
While such representations of Asian Americans are not inherently corrupt, they cover deeper held beliefs and biases that Asian Americans are distant and different from other “Americans,” which can become present in the media. Despite the success Chen brought to the U.S. Olympic team and exemplifying the imposed Asian-American narrative, Chen still received criticism. In a post to Twitter and subsequent article by the New York Times, that has since been taken down, Chen was criticized that “Asians make up around 7% of the U.S. population but have become vividly overrepresented in ice rinks and competitions at every level, from coast to coast. Gradually, they have transformed a sport that, until 1990’s was almost uniformly white.” The sentiment of this post implies that Asian-Americans are not staying in their lane by taking away space from White Americans and being too dominant in the sport. Intended or not, this post perpetuates the model minority stereotype onto Chen and other U.S. figure skaters. Demonstrating how, even when delivering fame to the U.S., Asian-Americans will be met with harsh criticism by media when they defy being submissive, humble, minorities that have been placed on them.
Nathan Chen is far from the outlier in how he was represented and received in the 2018 and 2022 winter Olympics. Another Asian-American athlete, Chloe Kim, shared in much of the narrative and criticism Chen has received. Chloe Kim is a Korean-American Snowboarder who has competed for team U.S.A. at the Winter Olympics winning back-to-back gold medals for the women’s snowboard halfpipe at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang and the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Kim’s Father immigrated from South Korea to the United States in 1982 and started bringing Kim snowboarding at four years old, driving her up to six hours at times to train, and even quitting his job to support her. Similar to Nathan Chen, this story circulated much of the media coverage for Kim before, during, and after the Olympics ran, further upholding the American Dream ideals placed on Asian Americans. Kim’s father, Jong Jin Kim was even cited saying, “It’s just great ’cause it’s kind of the American dream, American dream come true. It’s the land of opportunity. Why not? … I’m the dad of an Olympic gold medalist, not many people have this kind of feeling.” This narrative, once again, enforces existing biases within the media of Asian Americans being grateful and hard-working.
Also very similar to Nathan Chen, Chloe Kim attended an Ivy League school for some time: Princeton. Interestingly, much of the media coverage surrounding this aspect of Kim’s life highlight her struggling with mental health, poor interactions with classmates, and difficulty fitting in. Not only did this continue the notion that Asian Americans are unassimilable, but also reveals some of the differences and biases in how the model minority is portrayed between Asian American men and women. In Dixon, Weeks, and Smith’s article, “Media Construction of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity,” they assert that within the model minority stereotype, depictions of Asian American men are typically associated with technology and Asian American women with submissiveness. This offers some insight into the imbalanced coverage and portrayals of college for Chloe Kim verses Nathan Chen.
This common illustration of Asian American women provides further understanding into the treatment of Chloe Kim in competition. In 2021, Kim opened up about the kinds of comments she receives from spectators and online commentators: “[people were] telling me to go back to China and to stop taking away medals aways from the white American girls on the team.” In these comments, it is clear how underlying themes of submissiveness and foreignness, perpetuated by media, inform people’s views on Asian Americans and how they can play out. Even though Kim delivers success to the United States, she is seen as selfish for winning medals and should instead be more submissive to others. Not only that, but she is also still viewed as a foreigner — and wrongfully assumed as a Chinese national — despite being born and raised in California. Current media portrayals reveal a harsh reality of Asian American identity in the U.S. however, in the Article “The Heroic White Man and the Fragile Asian Girl: Racialized and Gendered Orientalism in Olympic Figure Skating,” Chuyun Oh asserts, “Nevertheless, Asian/Asian American female athletes’ increased visibility opens a liberatory space for re-visiting Asian and Asian Americanness — Pan-Asian identity — at the global Olympic stage.” (Oh).
Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim exemplify how Asian American athletes choosing to represent the United States are chosen to be portrayed by media and treated as a result. The media gravitates towards touting these athletes for model minority ideals seen in them and concurrently criticizes them for their “missing” traits. Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim are both uplifted for their American dream, hard work stories and Chen is further praised for his academics, but when it comes to competition society scrutinizes them because they are not grateful, submissive, etc. In one way or another, these athletes do not perfectly fit the stereotype they have been assigned.
In Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim’s cases, they were able to be fashioned as these model minority stereotypes and coverage thus centered heavily around those. However, there are also some American-born, Asian athletes who have chosen not to represent the United Sates in Olympic competition, instead, competing for their parent’s home countries, revealing a juxtaposition in media coverage. Eileen Gu and Kanoa Igarashi and their media portrayal and treatment surrounding their Olympic participation further demonstrates how the model minority stereotype is perpetuated onto both sides of the spectrum.
Eileen Gu is a Chinese-American Olympic freestyle skier who participated in the 2022 Pyeongchang games. In those games, she won a silver medal in slopestyle as well as gold medals in big air and halfpipe. Despite being born and raised in San Francisco and having high chances of qualifying for the U.S. team, Gu competed for China for 2022, which sparked a multitude of headlines and commentary questioning nationality, citizenship, Olympic eligibility, and more. Like Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim, Eileen Gu is the child of a first-generation immigrant parent. Gu’s mother also made sacrifices being a single mother and raised Gu while pursuing graduate degrees. However, this was of little importance to the media. Rather than have features like Chen and Kim, highlighting the immigrant success story, news focused on Gu competing for China over the U.S, displaying the biases present within media in relation to Asian-American athletes.
Many accused Gu of being selfish and a “traitor,” believing her decision to be financially motivated. Gu, herself, explained her choice saying on Instagram, “Through skiing, I hope to unite people promote common understanding, create communication, and forge friendships between nations.” In China, Gu’s message of inclusiveness and participation in international sports aroused unexpected goodwill in China and she has now become a “poster child” in China, being the ambassador of 29 brands and owning over six million followers on Chinese social media. (Cao, Pu). However, in the U.S. this led many people to believed that Gu’s switch boosted her marketability to Chinese consumers, increasing her appeal to potential brand sponsors, bringing in more money for herself. Because of this notion, she was seen as opportunistic rather than giving what she “owes” to the United States, which goes against model minority stereotypes and informed many of the criticisms (Erba, Zhang, Liu).
Another Asian American athlete, Kanoa Igarashi faced similar critique as Gu which he competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Igarashi is a surfer who took home a silver medal in the surfing’s Olympic debut. Igarashi’s parents moved in the 1990’s from Japan to Huntington Beach where Kanoa was born and raised. Igarashi had good chances of qualifying for the U.S. team, but instead opted to represent Japan and was automatically confirmed for 2020. Rumors circulated that Igarashi was doubtful of his qualifying likelihood with team U.S.A. and, Similar to Gu, that he was trying to tap into foreign markets and sponsors by growing his appeal. Igarashi was also quick to see negative comments surrounding him due to this decision. On this, Igarashi said, “That’s one insight I have as a Japanese American athlete. Americans are more competitive and are driven to take down their competitor as they see someone’s success as an attack on their own.” The American Dream ideal that is present in model minority stereotypes represents, in many ways, American success. When this “success” is not attributed to the U.S. there is a sudden discrepancy in expectations that have been long upheld by media. Igarashi — and Gu — embody this discrepancy, breaking out of stereotypes, hence being labeled as a ungrateful and also a traitor.
As discussed earlier by Zhang, Asian Americans are stereotyped as far-off and foreign. And, it is not uncommon for members of the majority to tell Asian Americans to “go home” (Mudambi). This common sentiment towards Asian Americans creates an interesting dichotomy the moment Asian Americans athletes do elect to “go home” by representing another country and the media condemns them — as in the cases of Gu and Igarashi.
Gu and Igarashi are not the first athletes to be (what is referred to as) naturalized athletes. Rachel Miyung Joo discusses in her book, Transnational Sport, athletes nowadays are global citizens. Regularly, athletes join internationally sports leagues, become accustomed with new cultures, and elect to become citizens of that nation (Joo). The United States has transplanted numerous international athletes to come compete for the National Team, who were welcomed and celebrated. Athletes such as these are often seeking financial gain just the same as Gu and Igarashi, but, because they are joining the U.S. rather than leaving they are treated differently.
Additionally, white, American athletes who go international also avoided criticism for their decisions. Cho and Takamine discuss in their article how four hockey players who were in the NHL minor leagues were able to naturalize to Japan to play in leagues and join their national team. Each of them shared the same motivation to secure income, but experienced no to little backlash for their exit (Cho, Takamine). This is because, in comparison to African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities, Asian Americans are still limited to narrowly defined stereotypical roles (Lee, Joo). These narrowly defined roles make it increasingly difficult for Asian American athletes to break molds without facing some scrutiny.
Conclusion and discussion:
As a nation that prides itself in and boasts of its multi-cultural and ethnic diversity, there is a surprisingly evident discourse between actual identity and imposed identity for Asian Americans. The idealism of the model minority stereotype within media has largely defined the narrative and portrayal of Asian Americans as a whole. However, as Asian Americans athletes have begun to have more of an impact on the international stage of sports and the Olympics, these stereotypes have been challenged, bringing forth heavy criticism. This is apparent in the media coverage of Nathan Chen and Chloe Kim which focused on American dream archetypes, only to be met by contempt as their hard work pays off. In addition, we
It appears there is no perfect world for successful Asian American athletes. Choosing to represent the U.S., they are overrepresenting and stealing medals away from others and should leave. But, choose to represent another country and they are traitors and self-serving for not staying. This dichotomy suggests that the issue is not nationality at all, rather their success bringing a spotlight onto them, altering years of staying in the background as a model minority.
The coverage of Asian American athletes in the media has perpetuated roles of the model minority stereotypes which has informed much of the public’s expectation of these athletes. Athletes challenging and not fulfilling this role by being successful generates criticism from the media and the public rooted within these stereotypes. However, as these athletes continue to challenge this narrative, they are widening the lens through which Asian Americans are viewed.
