What Does It Mean When Someone “Identifies as Asian”?

Whether you actually tuned in to the 95th Academy Awards this year to see if someone else got slapped, or if you just googled the ceremony’s winners sporadically throughout the night, you probably already know that Everything Everywhere All at Once took home the most awards of the night. The popular sci-fi movie starring Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan took home seven Oscars, including Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Picture.

Despite the dwindling popularity of the show itself, history was still made at the Oscars, especially when Malaysian-Chinese actress Michelle Yeoh became the first Asian woman to win Best Actress. However, this status has caused some confusion among film buffs who point to another nominee in the past. It’s because of this confusion that we have to distinguish that Michelle Yeoh is the first Asian woman who identifies as Asian to win the award.

Here’s what that means within the film industry.

The United States Census Bureau defines being Asian as “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent.” It also lists Cambodia, Japan, the Philippines, and Pakistan as just some examples of Asian territories. Non-Asian folks have been made aware of the broader expanse of Asian identities following a rise in anti–Asian American hate crimes that have taken place in the years since the initial COVID-19 lockdown.

While that addresses the blanket concept of being Asian in an American context, identifying as Asian brings up a whole new issue when it comes to Hollywood’s discriminatory history. This is to say, when one identifies as Asian, it refers to the idea that they proudly brandish their Asian heritage without compromise. The distinction is…