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An upcoming Hallmark movie, All’s Fair in Love and Mahjong, became the subject of criticism for what some see as a disregard for the Chinese cultural elements around which its story is based.
The movie, as described on Hallmark Channel’s website, follows a school nurse who finds “unexpected hope through teaching Mahjong … that helps her build community and open her heart again.”
Mahjong is a Chinese skill-based game for four using domino-like tiles, likely invented in the 1800s. It was soon exported to the United States, where it exploded in popularity in the 1920s and then found another swell of post-WWII attention with the help of Jewish players and communities. The game is once again experiencing a wave of popularity, with designer boards and trendy social clubs attracting younger players.
The Hallmark movie features Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, a Canadian actor born to a Chinese father who spent a significant part of her childhood in Hong Kong. Her character is part of a Mahjong club with another woman (lead actor Fiona Gubelmann) who “brings community after community together through the game she loves.”
But outside of Lowe — who hasn’t publicly responded to the online backlash — none of the rest of the advertised cast is Asian. That has raised concerns about a lack of representation in a film ostensibly about an element of Chinese culture.
The movie was officially announced weeks ago. But when Hallmark Channel shared a poster on Instagram last week — featuring Lowe and Gubelmann alongside Tamera Mowry-Housley, Paul Campbell and Melissa Peterman — some voiced their displeasure online.
“What in the appropri-Asian,” wrote Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism author Nancy Wang Yuen.
“Collective ancestral sigh,” added Wong Fu Productions co-founder Philip Wang.
“It’s pretty disgraceful that you release something so tone-deaf, on the cusp of Asian Heritage Month,” wrote Deborah Lau-Yu, founder of Chinese culture platform Fête Chinoise. (May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the U.S. and Asian Heritage Month in Canada.)
“[It] is utterly disrespectful to the Chinese community globally.”
The film, directed by Canadian Jessica Harmon, is scheduled to release May 9. Its actual subject matter — and the treatment of Chinese culture and the game at its core — is not yet wholly known. But in a statement shared with CBC News, a Hallmark spokesperson said it is treated with respect, and its importance as a cultural totem is recognized in the plot.
“All’s Fair in Love & Mahjong is a love story with connection at its core, highlighting family, friendship, and motherhood with warmth and humour,” they said. “The movie honours the heritage of Mahjong by recognizing the game’s Chinese origin and its unique ability to connect cultures, generations and communities.”
Asian representation in media
All’s Fair in Love and Mahjong is far from the first title to raise discussions around what some call a dearth of Asian representation in media.
Broadway’s Maybe Happy Ending, a South Korean musical about a robot retirement home in a futuristic Seoul, won six Tony Awards last year. When producers announced their decision to replace departing half-Filipino actor Darren Criss with white actor Andrew Barth Feldman, performers and industry members similarly spoke of endemic whitewashing in a business that they believe fails to represent Asian stories and performers.
“Though we have long been expected to view white stories populated by only white actors as ‘universal,’ stories about people who look like us that are populated by people who look like us are rarely considered universal enough,” wrote the Asian American Performers Action Coalition in a statement.
Later last year, Canadian actor Simu Liu posted on Threads that Asian actors are “fighting a deeply prejudiced system.” Referencing another post that pointed to the relative success of recent projects starring Asian actors — including Minari, Everything Everywhere All at Once and Crazy Rich Asians — he argued that studios still hesitate to cast Asian leads as they find them too “risky.”
“Put some Asians in literally anything right now,” he wrote. “The amount of backslide in our representation onscreen is f–king appalling.”
Pointing to the “huge cultural significance” and widespread popularity of Mahjong — along with this year’s viral and partially ironic “Chinamaxxing” trend of engaging with and celebrating Chinese culture — RepresentAsian Project founder Madelyn Chung told CBC News the value of Asian artistic output is obvious. But she said films’ use of Asian culture, without substantially including Asian people, is still a widespread issue.
“Projects like these send the message that it’s OK to pick and choose elements of one’s culture that feel appealing and appropriate them to be more ‘elevated’ or palatable to others,” Chung said. “This Hallmark movie didn’t just miss the mark, it’s a blatant disregard for the Asian community as a whole.”
