This past week was a big week for Asian-Americans in media. “Crazy Rich Asians” topped the box office last weekend. Another film with an Asian-American lead, the Netflix original “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” has also been garnering a lot of online attention, and for good reason.
When I watched “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” it was the first time in my life that I have ever seen a young woman who looked like me play the lead role in an English-speaking movie that takes place in contemporary America. She wasn’t a sidekick. She wasn’t an extra.