Asian Airhead: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Jamie.jpg|frame| That sound you hear [[In One Ear, Out the Other|is the wind rushing between her ears]].]]

 

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

 

A stereotype used in various media, mainly within the last few decades. More or less, the Asian equivalent of a [[Dumb Blonde]].

{{examples}}

== Type One ==

* 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 [[Alpha Bitch|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.

* 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.

** 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 [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|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 ''[[100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd|One Hundred Deeds for Eddie Mcdowd]]'' had her [[Asian and Nerdy|in a more stereotypical Asian role]].

* On the show ''[[Salute Your Shorts]]'', the de facto [[Alpha Bitch|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 [[Defrosting Ice Queen|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 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.

* Sui Blake from ''One World.''

* Piper Bauman from ''[[Married... with Children]]'', Kelly's rival in the competition for a Allente car spokesperson.

 

 

=== Western Animation ===

** 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.

 

 

* Jubilee, a Chinese valley girl and member of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|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.

* 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 [[Unfortunate Implications|they were all secretly sleeping with the coach.]] The movie also noted that "Asian nerds" and "cool Asians" were separate cliques at that school.

 

 

* 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 ===

* 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 [[Genius Ditz|graduate student in applied physics]] (and [[Forgot Flanders Could Do That|eventually gets her PhD.]])

{{quote|'''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.

'''Amy:''' Guhh! Stop patronizing us. }}

** 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''.

* ''[[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 [[All There in the Manual|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.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:National Stereotyping Tropes]]

[[Category:Double Standard]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]

[[Category:Asian Airhead]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]