People Magazine is in hot water as they fail to properly name the Asian celebrities they featured in an article. Huffington Post shared that “many lazily confuse Asians… Way. Too. Often.” And it’s safe to say that this time, we are not letting it slide. Sure, forgetting names can happen, but to throw out names of several Asian actors and hope for the best that you’re correct is just irresponsible.
The photo that was misnamed was from the SAG Awards afterparty. People initially misidentified Ronny Chieng as Randall Park and his wife, Hannah Pham, as Jae W Suh. But it doesn’t stop there. People identified Tan Kheng Hua as Michelle Yeoh.
Upon checking, People have edited the caption to “The cast of Crazy Rich Asians,” but mind you that Hannah was not part of the film and based on a prior edit, they still weren’t able to properly name her.
But you know what? People wasn’t the only one who made that mistake. Vogue happened to misname Asian celebrities during their SAG Awards coverage as well and we didn’t hear a peep. This comes just a few weeks after they misnamed activist Noor Tagouri as actress Noor Bukhari in their print edition. The publication even apologized and said, “We also understand that there is a larger issue of misidentification in media—especially among nonwhite subjects. We will try to be more thoughtful and careful in our work going forward, and we apologize for any embarrassment this has caused Tagouri and Bukhari.” But oops, it happened again.
In their gallery of red carpet looks, Vogue labeled a photo of actress Gemma Chan as Liv Lo (who BTW, is a host and is the wife of Henry Golding). Similar to People, they also misnamed Tan Kheng Hua as Michelle Yeoh.
Another Crazy Rich Asian star Remy Hii talked about how misnaming Asian performers (actually this applies to any field) actually erases their identity. And simply put, he asked them to “do better.”
At this publication, we make mistakes, yes. But we make sure we double check and exhaust all possible resources we have. Let’s all learn from this and be mindful that misnaming can cause a lasting impact.
Photo courtesy of People Magazine
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