If you have been following the latest season of The Amazing Race, you’ve noticed the Asian American brother-sister team, Tammy & Victor Jih. The last time I recall The Amazing Race having an Asian American team was when father-daughter team Ronald & Christina made it to the finale, but ultimately didn’t win in the end, coming in second. This past Sunday in the second episode, Tammy & Victor came in first in the latest leg of The Amazing Race. In a sneak peak, the third episode shows some sibling rivalry and friction between Tammy & Victor.
But when reality television shows cast Asian Americans, are they now trying to typecast and perpetuate the “Model Minority” myth? The previous season of The Amazing Race had Christina going to Duke and Princeton and working for the State Department. Survivor’s Yul Kwon went to Stanford and Yale Law and had worked at McKinsey & Google prior to going on the show. And now, Tammy & Victor, they both went to Stanford undergrad and Harvard Law School (a decade apart – HLS ‘06 and HLS’96 respectively). Victor is a 35-year-old partner at the Los Angeles-based law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Tammy is an associate at the law firm Quinn Emanuel.
Is this better than how typically Asian Americans are portrayed in television and film, like Long Duk Dong in Sixteen Candles?
I do think that it is great that Yul Kwon and Victor Jih have come across as totally down-to-earth and photogenic, giving Asian Amerian males a much needed image boost to the steroetypical “geek” image that has been portrayed in the past. And yes, I *totally* have a crush on Tammy; she’s super cute and maybe I’ll be lucky and get to meet her in person one of these days like I have with Yul.
What next?
Other posts you may be interested in:
Recent Comments
- Daul Kim: One Sassy ‘n Smart Bitch
- KFC vs. KGC: WTF???
- alienation: This is a great thread! I grew up eating Kentucky Fried Chicken. My family would make an effort to get it in East L.A., over by the King Cole Pizza. It was way better than the Kentucky Fried over in MPK and up in SG. I...
- Proof that Russell of Disney/Pixar’s Up is Asian: The Color Scripts
- Mending Broken Glass: Khmer Rouge History Now to be Taught in Cambodia
- kbok: it may seem shocking to other people that kids don’t believe their elders when hearing about khmer rouge atrocities, but if your mother told you that soldiers shot at her, pushing her off a mountain and into landmine paths...
- Chinese Adoptees: Stolen or Abandoned?
- Dan: CSLI, I think my previous comment stated that I “hope” not “should”. It was not meant to belittle anyone and yes I can imagine just like most people, adopted or not. Though the effect will not be the same as...
- Obama Bows to Emperor Akihito
- JC: @ Eric: Not only that, he’s half brother lives in China and is married to a Chinese woman. There’s a lot of Asian in his family
Recent Events
- [Nov 3] NORTHERN CA: Intro to Movietelling (Neo-Benshi) with Dennis Somera
- [Nov 14] SOUTHERN CA: Grace Kim & the Spiders From Mars
- [Nov 20] NORTHERN CA: CATS 9th Annual Asian Comedy Night starring 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors
- [Nov 21] SOUTHERN CA: BANANA: Where Infamous Asian-American Bloggers Unite to Chop It Up
- [Nov 22] TORONTO: S.M. Global Audition
14 Comments to “Model Minorities in Reality TV: The Amazing Race’s Tammy & Victor Jih”
guest wrote:
my gaydar just went off
Posted on 26-Feb-09 at 12:08 am | Permalink
jee wrote:
Superficially: I appreciate bookish yet quite attractive Asian-Americans being represented on TV. I like that they are both engaging, easy on the eyes, and well spoken.
Not so superficially: You have a point about the typecasting into “Model Minority” myth. Generally, we’re portrayed as being responsible, bookish, smart, goal-oriented. Even in their interviews, both mention how their lives are all about work, studying, work etc and they needed the push to do something other than work.
As much as it would be more ideal to not typecast Asian-Americans into a certain category, I’m glad for any exposure and portrayal of us in the media that isn’t anywhere linked to the representation we had in “Sixteen Candles” and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
Posted on 26-Feb-09 at 9:37 am | Permalink
Linda wrote:
Does anyone know what their ethnicity is (Chinese?)?
Posted on 26-Feb-09 at 1:35 pm | Permalink
ryan wrote:
Did anyone else catch victor refer to the Continent of Africa as a country twice?
Posted on 26-Feb-09 at 4:48 pm | Permalink
Roger wrote:
What about geeky Californian brothers Erwin and Godwin from season 10? They were totally responsible.
and yeah, what IS the deal with the references to Africa as a country? Didn’t some politician do that recently, too?
Posted on 27-Feb-09 at 9:21 am | Permalink
Linda wrote:
Roger: It was Sarah Palin.
Posted on 27-Feb-09 at 11:42 am | Permalink
John wrote:
@Roger – I didn’t catch Season 10 with Erwin and Godwin.
@Linda – I think the Jih’s are Chinese. I will have to investigate further…
Posted on 27-Feb-09 at 3:53 pm | Permalink
Jessica wrote:
Africa is a country. Duh.
But seriously, I’m not sure why this happens so often, I myself have been compelled to make the same mistake, I think it has something to do with the fact that we rarely hear about individual countries, they don’t make the headlines. Instead the media focuses on Africa as a whole and its communal problems like AIDS and poverty.
Posted on 09-Mar-09 at 9:46 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Popular Posts from 8Asians in the Past 30 Days wrote:
[...] Model Minorities in Reality TV: The Amazing Race’s Tammy & Victor Jih: The token Asian team on The Amazing Race this season are attractive sibling lawyers, and you’re sitting at home watching them eating a bag of potato chips. [...]
Posted on 15-Mar-09 at 4:02 pm | Permalink
Tony wrote:
I’m white, my wife is Thai, and I speak Mandarin. There, now I feel qualified to say what I’m gonna say: I feel that you (the Asian American bloggers) are just typical Americans trying to find something to complain about. And we all know what a hot-button topic that race is in America.
We all have things we can complain about, but this article about Asian Americans on reality shows is reeeeeealy stretching it.
Zaijian!
Sayunara!
La gorn klab!
Posted on 25-Mar-09 at 8:03 pm | Permalink
Linda wrote:
Tony: No, you’re not qualified to say what you said. You have a RIGHT to say it, but you’re not QUALIFIED to say it. Being married to an Asian is not the same as being Asian (or Asian American or Asian Canadian). Growing up white, you saw plenty of people of your race on television and all types of media. It was a given. When I see an Asian American team on the Amazing Race, I (and other bloggers) pay special attention because..they’re the only Asians on the team. There aren’t many of us on reality shows (or any shows for that matter). The spotlight’s on the very few we see, so of course we’re going to dissect and discuss them.
Posted on 26-Mar-09 at 7:24 am | Permalink
J wrote:
Asians are no better or worse than anyone else. We are ALL individuals, however, Blacks and Hispanics are just as educated yet the stereotype is often far worse. Asian’s are enjoying American Hype at this time and seem not to care about other minorities. Blacks and Hispanics are appreciative and happy that minorities are raising teh bar here, but are very disappointed in the stereotyping that occurs. I know an Asian friend who didn’t go to college and works at a low level job. He is a good man who has stated why is it when people meet him, they think he is college educated without even talking to him – when they meet his Mexican friend they assume he is not. He is and and works for a top company. As a good person, Aisan or not, he thinks the sterotyping that Americans seem to love is very idiotic. He supports other minorities.
Posted on 11-May-09 at 1:46 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Tammy & Victor Jih Win The Amazing Race! wrote:
[...] Last February, I had blogged about the premiere of the fourteenth season of The Amazing Race with Tammy & Victor being an Asian American older brother & young sister team. Well, Tammy & Victor are the victors, winning one million dollars and the various travel prizes they won coming in first in various legs of the race. Congratulations to them both! [...]
Posted on 11-May-09 at 7:01 am | Permalink
will 李 wrote:
中国人加油。
When I was watching the Amazing Race, I knew most of the locations in central Beijing 北京 where Tammy & Victor went to, except the the restaurant，which would be near the Forbidden City. They started in 东单，went to the Southwest entrance of the Forbidden City, 古管南门. Then to the 王付井 Food Street, and then took the taxi to the 奥林匹 Olympic Park in the Northwest section of Beijing.
I think this portion of the show was filmed in late October 2008 The portable bathrooms which the two sisters went into were there in mid to late October, but were removed by early November 2008.
Congratulations 恭喜，恭喜 to Tammy and Victor Jih 加油 for winning the Amazing Race. It’s my favourite TV show.
will 李
加州旧金山 San Francisco,
Posted on 18-May-09 at 12:36 pm | Permalink
Post a Comment