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There is little to no Asian representation in the mainstream media, especially in The Netherlands, and this causes problems. People have certain prejudices because of it, people would make inappropriate comments and “jokes” towards Asians. Unlike America, The Netherlands is not really moving forward towards inclusivity. Asians are often forgotten in inclusivity, anti racism and discrimination debates because it’s normalized.
With an approachable, simple and easy game Rui Jun Luong wants to create more awareness about this problem. With the “Guess Who: Asian Edition”, she wants to show that Asians can be beautiful, they are people and not always the stereotypes the media portrays.
The new generation is so much more different and diverse, but the (Dutch) media is only showing that Chinese/Asian people are “weird” and they only show the stereotypes. So people still have this view on Asians because of the media. Rui Jun thinks it’s important to change people views in the Dutch Media, so the stereotyping will stop and people will see that the Asians are not the stereotypes. They are also people. There are still a lot of taboo’s going on in the Asian culture and people are unaware about certain subjects. Such as: religion, beliefs, culture, but also sexuality, gender and more.
To make the series inclusive and diverse, she tried to photograph all kinds of different people with Asian roots. She tried to photograph: mixed, adopted, and different generations. Not everyone feels like they are Asian, even if they have Asian roots.