Earlier today, Twitch sent a tweet that confused and annoyed Asians everywhere, in which it asked “If you could live a new adventure by being reincarnated as one of your favorite characters, who would you choose?”, complete with the hashtag AAPI and an image of nine different characters. They are, deservedly, getting roasted, with general disbelief that this was posted by an official account. In celebrating AAPI Month, Twitch has made it ever more apparent that it is run by out-of-touch white people.
It’s a strikingly tone-deaf way to ‘celebrate’ AAPI Month - real ‘choose your fighter’ vibes here, when the month is actually meant to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander people and their contributions to society and culture. It’s weirdly tokenising, to reduce a diverse group of people to a bunch of characters and ask you to pick a favourite. And not even just a favourite, but someone to physically live as. Seriously, who made this? You’re asking me if I want to be Dr Cristina Yang from Grey’s Anatomy, Simu Liu, or ‘Waymond the Dad’? You’re asking me if I want to be Rei from Neon Genesis Evangelion?
Some specific criticisms are that Goku was included, when he’s technically not even a human and wouldn’t have a human race. He’s just presumed to be Japanese because he’s a character created by Japanese people, and apparently Japanese people aren’t capable of making non-Asian characters? Weird. People are also criticising that almost all the characters are East Asian, with the exception of Lilo from Lilo and Stitch, and Kumar from Harold and Kumar (who, by the way, are bundled in a single image). South and Southeast Asian people suffer from an even more dire lack of representation than East Asians do, and this graphic reinforces a myth that AAPI people are a monolithic culture, which they definitely are not.
Of course, the big question is: why exactly did Twitch think that asking people what Asian they’d like to be reincarnated as was a good idea? Reincarnation has long been associated with Asian people because of Buddhism, which is practiced widely across the continent and, reductively, posits that we are reincarnated when we die according to our karma. Of course, not every Asian person is Buddhist, so the implication is pretty weird and racist. Even if it was an unintentional fumble, like Twitch’s Pride Month tweet, it’s a bad tweet. It’s clearly not meant to be offensive, and yet it is. Maybe get a sensitivity consultant for your social media team, Twitch!
Asian American and Pacific Islander month matters to a lot of people. I don’t personally celebrate, as I’m an Asian who lives in Asia. But I am very cognisant of the discrimination that AAPI people face in the United States and elsewhere, where they are minorities that have historically been institutionally oppressed and colonised. Racial identity is complex, multi-faceted and can’t, unfortunately, be reduced to a bunch of anime characters, a dude in a convenience store, and a doctor. I don’t begrudge Twitch their attempt to celebrate AAPI month, and I think it’s great that they’re making an effort to platform Asian streamers as well, but this particular tweet was just… incredibly lacking in thought. Maybe next time, just say ‘happy AAPI Month’ and consistently promote Asian streamers. That would be much better than whatever the hell this is.