The Burden of Modeling Their Minority: The Tension between Authorial and Autobiographic Intent and Pixar’s Diversity Initiative in Bao, Elemental, and Turning Red
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This essay examines the dialectical relationship between institutional progress and persistent structural constraints in Pixar’s diversity initiatives, particularly manifested through the creative works of second-generation Asian immigrant auteurs Domee Shi and Peter Sohn. Through textual analysis of Bao (2018), Turning Red (2022), and Elemental (2023), the study illuminates how these narratives, despite their foundations in authentic lived experience, undergo transformation into institutional commodities that paradoxically reinforce the model minority paradigm. Employing theoretical frameworks from Asian American cultural studies—notably Tina Chen’s conceptualization of “double agency” and Peter Feng’s critique of representational burden—the analysis elucidates the complex negotiations undertaken by second- (or 1.5) generation creators at the intersection of personal narrative, institutional parameters, and cultural authenticity. While these works constitute significant contributions to the expansion of Asian American representation in mainstream media, they simultaneously crystallize the paradoxical imperative imposed upon creators of Asian descent to exemplify both cultural authenticity and successful assimilation. Through this analytical lens, the study demonstrates how institutional diversity initiatives, despite their ostensibly progressive objectives, may inadvertently circumscribe creative expression through the very mechanisms designed to facilitate it.
Abstract
This essay examines the dialectical relationship between institutional progress and persistent structural constraints in Pixar’s diversity initiatives, particularly manifested through the creative works of second-generation Asian immigrant auteurs Domee Shi and Peter Sohn. Through textual analysis of Bao (2018), Turning Red (2022), and Elemental (2023), the study illuminates how these narratives, despite their foundations in authentic lived experience, undergo transformation into institutional commodities that paradoxically reinforce the model minority paradigm. Employing theoretical frameworks from Asian American cultural studies—notably Tina Chen’s conceptualization of “double agency” and Peter Feng’s critique of representational burden—the analysis elucidates the complex negotiations undertaken by second- (or 1.5) generation creators at the intersection of personal narrative, institutional parameters, and cultural authenticity. While these works constitute significant contributions to the expansion of Asian American representation in mainstream media, they simultaneously crystallize the paradoxical imperative imposed upon creators of Asian descent to exemplify both cultural authenticity and successful assimilation. Through this analytical lens, the study demonstrates how institutional diversity initiatives, despite their ostensibly progressive objectives, may inadvertently circumscribe creative expression through the very mechanisms designed to facilitate it.
참고문헌 (43)
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