Can Shang-Chi Help Bring Light to the Asian Community?

By Yoselin Reynoso

“Shang-chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” hit movie theaters on September 3rd and it can do more than just sell tickets. 

Marvel’s first movie with an almost completely full Asian cast as well as their first movie directed by an Asian filmmaker, Destin Daniel Cretton. The movie is also penned by Dave Callaham, a Chinese-American.

This movie is Marvel’s latest movie addressing racial stereotypes, following the movie “Black Panther”. 

This is progress to diversity in the media.  This is helping people understand there is more to people than what others say about them.

Realization hits that in most movies people get stereotyped due to their ethnicity.  Hanbin Yu ‘22 said, “I think the stereotypes do need to go away, but there’s no direct solution for it to go away. Everyone just needs to make a change.”

In live action Mulan it was praised for its cast but was criticized for the way the culture was represented.  Calvin See ‘23 says, “It reminded me of my parents back then of how they used to live.”

Yu ‘22 added, “It definitely caught the beauty of the culture.”

Although this new movie might catch the attention of some people we could definitely do better with helping racism.  Yu ‘22 said, “I think social media is a great source to help and spread news on racism.” 

Chemistry teacher, Lizel Bettencourt said, “The movie is definitely a step in the right direction but we could all do better as a community.”

Although there are all these stereotypes that people hear about, the movie industry is making a change. 

See ‘23 says, “It definitely means a lot to have this movie with such a movement like this.”  

Bettencourt added, “I think it’s definitely a good thing to have a role model who’s a superhero and I haven’t really seen an Asian superhero before, except Mulan, but this is definitely something good.”

Tags: diversity, redwood gigantea, redwood high school, redwood journalism, shang-chi, shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings