Reading Reflection 10

Jiayu Zeng

Section 02

Reading Reflection 10

In response to: “Angry Little Asian Girl”

            In these couple episodes of the comic series, the little Asian girl was angry with her mother, who is very straightforward and demanding to her daughter. When Kim asked why she did not have a friend, her mom said because Kim looked ugly, and her mom always yell at Kim to ask her to do something useful and Kim does not know how to reply her mom, although she really wants to. It reflects a stereotype that Asian mothers less often praise their children but criticize more and demand a lot from them. Therefore, children feel stressful to tell something to or ask something from their mothers. Besides, most of the time, mom is the one who talk more in a conversation with her kids, even though the kid is the one to start the conversation; as the conversation goes, mom guide the flow of the conversation. Over time, children just listen to their moms, but no longer share their opinions and true feelings. Of course, it happens in some Asian families, but not all of them. Also, when Asian moms criticize every little thing that their kids do not do well, they just want their kids can do well next time, and they do not praise their kids often because they afraid the kids will become arrogant and careless after being commended.

            Overall, I like this comic series because it shows some real stories that happen in Asian families, and reviews the perspective from the children on the issues between parents and themselves. Maybe to some moms or parents, they can have self-reflection after reading these comics, and see whether they make the same mistakes as the moms in the cartoons did.

Question: The audience of the comics and cartoons are mostly kids and teenagers, and not many of them can distinguish how much of the content is true and how much of it is entertaining. Therefore, they will intake everything they learn from the comic stories. What can we do to avoid this happen, so that the young audience will not apply these stereotypes from the comics to their real lives.