Asian Airhead



"Student #1: She's cute, but why is she staring into space?

Student #2: That is what you call a dumb beauty."

- Overheard conversation regarding Tohru Honda of Fruits Basket

A stereotype used in various media, mainly within the last few decades. More or less, the Asian equivalent of a Dumb Blonde. The idea is this: you have Alice, who is of some East Asian ethnic group or another, usually the princess of an affluent immigrant business (or crime) family. (many of the examples are rather specifically Chinese, with a distinctly Chinese last name) Alice is beautiful, photogenic, popular... but she's also vain and petty and dumber than a box of hair. Used as the de facto villain or the Alpha Bitch most of the time or if not as the dim witted sidekick for a major character, she is almost always contrasted by other characters who are demonstrably smarter, more capable, and less easily manipulated. Never the main character and rarely a sympathetic one, Alice will at best be reduced to a running gag, and at worst portrayed as a villain.

The stereotype occurs in two types:


 * 1) Type One: "The Tipton", with the character from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody being the most prominent example. This is the combination of the Alpha Bitch with this stereotype: A pretty, popular, usually rich Asian girl fawned after by boys but presented as being vain and petty at the same time. Often played by Brenda Song.
 * 2) Type Two: "The Cutie", a more benign, less in-your-face version of this with the Alpha Bitch qualities largely or totally removed. This leaves only the looks, money and popularity, and the stupidity which is made more excessive. The character in this case is neither unattractive nor unpopular, nor is she socially inept, so to make her bad qualities obvious she is made functionally retarded, easily manipulated and largely incapable of handling herself without assistance (usually from a Caucasian male main character).

Note: male examples of this are tremendously rare. It is almost Always Female.

Compare Valley Girl. Often the preferred type of Asian girls of fictional White guys.

Contrast with the usual "nerdy" portrayal of Asians in media, which this trope subverts, and Dragon Lady. Also contrast The Ojou, who generally tends to be smart and rich (and usually pleasant in personality.) Compare to Brainless Beauty (Type Twos), the Alpha Bitch and Rich Bitch (Type Ones).

Comics

 * Ultimate Wasp from The Ultimates, re-imagined as a Chinese-American woman, came off like this sometimes. While she was a brilliant scientist, her life and relationship choices were often ill-advised... to put it charitably. Ultimates 3 saw her devolve into a superpowered high-school queen bitch, minus the high-school.
 * Although somewhere along the line everyone (or at least the artist) forgot she wasn't Caucasian, reversing her initial Race Lift without explanation.

Film

 * One of the cheerleaders in the original Bring It On

Literature

 * A borderline example is Jennifer Chen in the Spy High series by A.J. Butcher, who isn't too concerned with popularity (as her school is a training ground for professional spies) but is portrayed as vain and self-obsessed, more so than So Beautiful It's a Curse Lori.
 * Taylor from the Gone series. Her name is generic, but the first thing that the main characters notice about her is that she is Asian. She is rich enough for her parents to have sent her to Coates Academy, an exclusive boarding school for problem kids. She doesn't play a big part in the first two books, and seems to be a generic, slightly annoying, and airheaded girl. In book 3, she often acts rude to the other characters, considers that her powers would make her an excellent thief, and schemes about how to win Sam's affection while he's fighting with Astrid. Penny, the new Dark Action Girl from Lies, could also count. She also has a generic first name with no surname, but she is specified as being Chinese. She also went to Coates, and is therefore from a wealthy family, plots to steal the Caine's affection from Diana, and seems to be cruel but not very smart.
 * In The Heroes of Olympus, resident Camp Halfblood-Alpha Bitch Drew plays this trope very straight.
 * To give Drew some credit, she's not totally stupid, she's just a bitch.

Live-Action TV

 * London Tipton from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody. A beautiful, rich, popular young girl... who just happens to be dense as a brick.
 * To give Disney just a little credit, they don't much care about who plays which part, beyond whoever has their name in the title. The role was not written for an Asian girl, as it's supposed to be a parody of Paris Hilton. In fact, Ashley Tisdale was originally going to play London with Brenda Song in the Maddie role, but they ended up being switched because the girls played the parts better.
 * This is referenced in the alternate dimension episode, where the girls are their original intended roles.
 * That said, Brenda Song basically plays this part in every Disney channel show she's ever worked on. She played a vaguely competent person in her own movie Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior. Key word there being vaguely. Who still ended up blowing off saving the world in favor of being crowned 'Homecoming Queen'. Although, she eventually saw the light after a very mild metaphorical slap across the face. She wasn't too stupid in Stuck in the Suburbs either. Her breakout role on Nickelodeon's One Hundred Deeds for Eddie Mcdowd had her in a more stereotypical Asian role.
 * Her character in The Social Network is basically an Asian Airhead with Cute and Psycho tendencies.
 * On the show Salute Your Shorts, the de facto queen bitch of camp, was Dina Alexander. Played by Chinese-American actress Heidi Lucas, she was in effect a mirror image of London Tipton years before the latter character was created. Dim witted, easily manipulated, vain and yet also universally considered beautiful and popular by her peers. Also a Rich Bitch, she gets some minor development on a pity date with the hoggish Butt Monkey of the show. Subverted in that she's not a total Alpha Bitch and lacks prominently Asian features or even an Asian surname.
 * Anna Maria Perez De Tagle has this in her resume when she started. A list of her characters with this trope:
 * The show Cake gives us Miracle, a young Filipino girl, gorgeous, glamorous, and of course stupid. Also the Rich Bitch (noticing a pattern?)
 * The same actress who played Miracle also played Ashley Dewitt on Hannah Montana. Basically the same character, but much stupider, with a different name.
 * Same idea, same actress with her Camp Rock role. It's a miracle there haven't been mass protests at Disney yet.
 * Cheerleader Candy Cho from Shake It Up, who makes up for her airheadedness with the ability to come out on top in everything.
 * Sui Blake from One World.
 * Piper Bauman from Married... with Children, Kelly's rival in the competition for a Allente car spokesperson.

Western Animation

 * A perfect example of this, and the most obvious example, is the character Trixie Tang from The Fairly Odd Parents. Trixie is universally considered to be beautiful in-universe (and by many fans), is wealthy and also wildly popular amongst the other characters, especially fawned after by boys. But she is also shown to be extremely vain, venal and insecure, needing constant re-assurance of her appearance, her catchphrase being "Tell me I'm pretty!" spoken in a pleading voice that sounds as if she's near tears. This is, in effect, the textbook example of the stereotype.
 * She was shown to have depth at one point. Flanderization put a stop to that.
 * Savannah Shane from All Grown Up, who is a Chinese-American Alpha Bitch and Angelica's rival.
 * American Dad has a rare male variant with Vince Chung.

Anime and Manga

 * Cute and cuddly ditz Yukino of Real Drive. While most airheady schoolgirl characters in anime would probably qualify, she's particularly stand out example of this trope as she actually looks the second part.

Comics

 * Jubilee, a Chinese valley girl and member of the X-Men who can shoot bolts of explosive energy from her fingertips. For the vast majority of her existence, she is personified as a flighty mall rat who also happens to be gorgeous.
 * Jubilee has always been described as, at best, vaguely pretty and while she isn't good with numbers (a deliberate subversion of the Asian and Nerdy trope) she's also a brilliant strategist. She's an underachiever and general trouble maker, but not stupid. Nor is she rich, being a homeless orphan who was in and out of juvie for a few years before being picked up by the X-Men.
 * It's been stated that Jubilee is first generation American, and is actually fairly representative of how the new generation tried their hardest to be nothing like their traditional parents, embracing their new country to the extreme as to not be picked on for customs others would not understand.
 * Grunge, a Chinese-American California surfer/skater/slacker dude, was presented as an extremely rare male version of this at the beginning of Gen 13. He tested well in school, however, thanks to his Photographic Memory.

Films -- Live-Action

 * At the end of Mean Girls, the members of the primary Girl Posse, the Plastics, have broken up. In the case of Gretchen, she finds herself a new Girl Posse composed of stylish Asian girls. The last scene shows Gretchen ass-kissing in Vietnamese.
 * The Asian girls who also had a Cat Fight after finding out they were all secretly sleeping with the coach. The movie also noted that "Asian nerds" and "cool Asians" were separate cliques at that school.
 * Knives Chau from Scott Pilgrim vs. the World though it is probably mostly to emphasize her youth.

Literature

 * Claudia Kishi of The Baby Sitters Club is crafty/artsy but has problems with grades. In The Movie, she has to go to summer school and is shown to be unable to remember the digestive system.
 * In most of the books, though, it's indicated that while Claudia isn't very good at school, she is, in fact, intelligent. Mostly. Spelling, one of her defining not-too-bright traits, improved for awhile, before plummeting to near elementary-school-levels in the later books, to the point that it became a fandom joke.

Live-Action TV

 * Kamen Rider Double had Victim of the Week Himeka Yukimura, a pretty young woman who refers to any man who treats her nicely as her "fated prince". This is exactly why she's the Victim: the Monster of the Week has a crush on her and uses his powers to eliminate the competition. At the end of the story arc, we see she's still doing it, and still has a crowd of enchanted young men following her.
 * Cassie Chan of Power Rangers Turbo fame, whose character seemed based around fawning over the Phantom Ranger and jutting prominently. She's gorgeous, but airy and fickle, of course.
 * Jamie Chung's stint on The Real World has led her to run the gamut with this trope. She plays a type two in Samurai Girl, Princess Protection Program, and Sorority Row. Subverted in Dragon Ball: Evolution.
 * She plays a type one in an episode of Greek.
 * Her roles in Grown Ups and Sucker Punch were an exception to this trope.
 * Lulu, from True Jackson, VP, played by Filipino actress Ashley Argota, is highly intelligent and can pick stock better then most Wall St day traders... but is incredibly annoying, even more ditzy, and seems to be on a nonstop sugar high.
 * Keiko of the ABC reality show Conveyor Belt of Love.
 * The Price Is Right once had a model named Natasha Yi, who would go on to become an Internet celebrity. Something about the way she acted reeked of this trope.
 * On Gilmore Girls, where Rory's best friend Lane is Korean (very smart but not usually an issue) but considerably less nerdy than Rory.
 * On Glee with Mike Chang, who is in great shape, a football player, and an excellent dancer.
 * On The Walking Dead with Glenn, who made a living delivering pizzas before the Zombie Apocalypse.

Western Animation
"Professor Farnsworth: I'm sure I don't need to explain that all dark matter in the universe is linked in the form of a single non-local meta-particle.
 * Hay Lin from WITCH is the archetypal Type Two. A beautiful young Chinese girl, petite and adorable, sweet natured, kind, popular... and stupid. So very stupid. She spends most of the series getting led around by the pigtails, mostly by her friend Cornelia. Ironically Hay Lin is about as far from Alpha Bitch or Rich Bitch as you can get, but Cornelia defines both. Funny that she has the power of AIR. She is seen being pretty smart in the comics -- both creative, bookish smart and insightful when it comes to the people around her.
 * Amy Wong of Futurama fame. Basically the second-most archetypal example, particularly of Type Two. Literally every male character makes note of how good-looking she is, she's richer than God, and well-liked by everyone. She acts so ditzy that it's easy to forget that she was introduced as a graduate student in applied physics (and eventually gets her PhD.)

Amy: Guhh! Stop patronizing us."

"(Stacy suggests Candace should focus her attention on where the inventions go)
 * Tiffany, a member of the Fashion Club on Daria. She and Stacy were by far the least offensive and hostile of the group, and the only non-Alpha Bitches in that they weren't bitchy or anything, just stupid and lacking in confidence, respectively. She's, of course, jaw dropping gorgeous, and popular amongst her male peers for obvious reasons. She has no actual characterization: she just agrees with whatever her white friends tell her to.
 * It should be noted that most of the school agrees with whatever any of the top dogs in the Fashion Club say.
 * She was also the dumbest character of the Fashion Club; she, literally, agreed with whoever spoke last, lost her place on a piece of paper three sentences in, and just so you know, that isn't how fast she speaks, that's how fast she thinks.
 * Kuki Sanban (a.k.a. Numbuh 3) of Codename: Kids Next Door is effectively like a younger, prepubescent Hay Lin. An adorable, girly, kindhearted, rather prissy girl who is personified as being extremely scatterbrained. But she has a fair share of kick butt moments that even it out
 * Of note is that she was voiced by Lauren Tom, the same actress who provides the voice for Amy Wong in Futurama. In fact, one of the only young, popular characters she voices that doesn't fit into this trope in some manner is Kahn "Connie" Souphanousinphone, Jr. from King of the Hill.
 * That Other Wiki says the she is only acting stupid so she doesn't feel sad.
 * Ami of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is the girly, sweet, distinctly moe-moe half of a two-girl singing group. She's the fun, happy, friendly one who dresses and is a Japanese idol singer. She's supposed to be the "stupid one". (Note, however, that Yumi is also a Japanese idol singer.)
 * In American Dad, Francine's unseen adoptive sister is said to be this.
 * Much to her parents' chagrin: "I mean can you believe it? An asian girl who can't do math?!"
 * Stacy Hirano, Candace's best friend, from Phineas and Ferb.
 * Kind of; Stacy does show a keen interest in things like fashion and romance, but she's often the Straight Man to Candace's neurotic mania. She gets easily distracted when trying to bust Phineas and Ferb, but that's mainly because she realizes there's no real point to doing so; given another task and she's closer to Earth than Candace. (Also of note: Stacy's mother is a doctor, and apparently she'll grow up to be )

Candace: Stacy, you're a genius!

Stacy: Thanks. Could you call my mother and tell her that?"


 * She's at least ridiculously Book Dumb, since she thinks the pyramids are in France.
 * Code Lyoko: One-off background character Naomi Nguyen, though we aren't given any hints that she's Asian within the show (the last name is only present in show notes, and she doesn't look remotely Asian).
 * Lee Lee, one of Dee Dee's friends in Dexter's Laboratory. Though, to be fair, she just has the exact same personality as Dee Dee and all her other friends.

Webcomics

 * Sengchou in Tales of a Gay Asian is a transsexual version with a more luffy level of stupidity.