Raya and the Last Dragon: Through the Eyes of a Southeast Asian
Kynesha Robles
MALOLOS, PHILIPPINES—When all of social media celebrated Hamilton’s migration from stage to screen, bereft countries deprived of Disney+ silently watched in envy. We missed the release of the Phineas and Ferb movie, which was a part of our childhood as much as it was for Western kids. Philippine theaters always sold out during the first month of Marvel movie releases, but we didn’t keep up with the WandaVision hype this time. It looks like it might still be the same for Raya and the Last Dragon; only this time, we thought we were the target audience.
Disney is set to release their first Southeast Asian princess, Raya— representing a part of the world that might not even get the chance to watch it.
Disney has produced animated movies since 1937, but they are just releasing their first Southeast Asian Disney princess this year. It might have been decades too late, but everyone still celebrated. There is the anticipation around a trailblazing Disney princess that many girls can finally relate to, until the cast list was released.
Most of the cast are of East Asian heritage. Kelly Marie Tran, Ross Butler, and Patti Harrison are few of the only accurate casting. The same faulty casting situation happened to the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before series, one of the only few rom-coms with an Asian lead. The Korean main lead Lara Jean is played by Lana Condor, a Vietnamese.
CNN couldn’t have said it better: “All people of Asian heritage are not the same.”
Growing up expected to relate to Mulan and lead characters of East Asian heritage, I anticipated the arrival of Raya. I was excited for my little sister and little cousins to finally see themselves in a Disney princess— one I did not have as a kid. However, what would have been a step forward to the right direction, fell short and left us rooted in the same position as before. Asian representation is rare, but Southeast Asian representation is even rarer.
Aside from casting missteps, another problem is as if Disney merged the different cultures of 11 Southeast Asian countries and referred to it as one place. One movie cannot possibly represent all of Southeast Asia; it would have been better if they chose one SEA country and fully depicted their culture.
When will Asians be seen more than a diversity stunt? When will Hollywood learn to cast Asian characters properly? The answer should be now, but if it took this long for proper representation to actually start, how many years would it take for it to be accurate?
(Here is a link to a Twitter thread of Southeast Asian journalists and their take on Raya and the Last Dragon: https://twitter.com/reyzando/status/1366434440281423872)
Citation: https://www.cnn.ph/entertainment/2021/1/28/Raya-and-the-Last-Dragon-Asian-representation-debate-Disney-.html