Asian Futures Without Asians

Eric Molinsky

Imaginary Worlds sounds like what would happen if NPR went to ComicCon and decided that’s all they ever wanted to cover. Host Eric Molinsky spent over a decade working as a public radio reporter and producer, and he uses those skills to create thoughtful, sound-rich episodes about science fiction, fantasy, and other genres of speculative fiction. Every other week, he talks with comic book artists, game designers, novelists, screenwriters, filmmakers, and fans about how they craft their worlds, why we suspend our disbelief, and what happens if the spell is broken. Imaginary worlds may be set on distant planets or parallel dimensions, but they are crafted here on Earth, and they’re always about us and our lived experiences.

Conseillé par :

Bertrand

It’s a future we’re all very familiar with. The rainy streets are full of neon dragons, noodle shops, and other Asian iconography mixed up and decontextualized amid sci-fi flourishes, but something is often missing: Asian people. In her video presentation “Asian futures, without Asians,” the artist and writer Astria Suparak breaks down dozens of films and TV shows, showing that there’s a shadow genre across different sci-fi franchises which presents a future that taps into old anti-Asian stereotypes at subtle levels of designing sets, costumes and even props. I also talk with University of Utah Professor David S. Roh about his book Techno-Orientalism, which looks at the psychology behind these kinds of futures, and what they have to say about current day anxieties in America. And Jason Concepcion, host of the podcast X-Ray Vision, discusses how he tries to engage with these types of worlds as a fan and as an Asian American.

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