[TV REVIEW] Chinese Burn

Back in November, Chinese Burn was released to the British TV viewers. The anticipation from Chinese settling in the UK, British Born Chinese and fellow East Asians born in the UK was high...so what to make of it?



From BBC's iplayer page:-

Chinese Burn follows the escapades of three ‘normal’ Chinese girls in London.

Ringleader Jackie is Beyonce to Destiny's Child. She's also a blunt, offensive force of nature who tears through life and deflects unwanted attention every 0.2 seconds. Jackie moved to London to further her reasonably successful acting career. 'Reasonably' because she's more likely to offend the director than actually land the job.

Elizabeth was destined to be a model-minority overachiever like her brain surgeon of a sister. But no amount of Latin lessons could save her from becoming a self-destructive, failure of a millennial, drawn to the wrong decision like a moth to a flame. Elizabeth moved to London to 'find herself' but found herself dressing up as a cup of Boba tea for a living and drinking on the job. As a wannabe sommelier, this is simply research.

And then there’s Fufu. If Jackie is Beyoncé then Fufu is Phoebe from Friends. An oddball Buddhist on a cultural odyssey, viewing London through the eyes of an innocent child or an alien arrival. Fufu was born into Chinese new money, which means she's not only armed with a misplaced Buddhist quote for every occasion, but also a bank balance which reads 'infinite'. With Jackie and Elizabeth as a tour guides, what could possibly go wrong?

The girls navigate life in the capital together and attempt to overcome the trials of modern life; from sex to relationships, to failing careers, paying rent, getting drunk and getting in fights, all through the experience of being a visitor from a scary superpower.

Combining this summary and the teaser video "How Not To Date a Chinese Girl" (link), I was not expecting much. Okay to be fair, do I ever expect much from anything when it supposedly tries to be edgy and take a stab at my ethnic background? Not at all. I knew it was going to be cringeworthy and be filled with stereotypes I witness in real life. Sure I also knew it wouldn't relate to me 100% because this is primarily aimed at ethnic Chinese who were born in their native homeland and came to settle in England and assimilate with the locals. Nothing about British Born Chinese. We're just as invisible methinks (that's why we have to work harder to write fiction undoubtedly).

I already sensed the early reviews would divide many people which I've seen too much from the response of certain Marvel films and their casting controversies. Chinese Burn was something I was going to watch to see how it looked for myself and honestly after finally sitting down to watch this...it's hard to stomach. I felt anger while watching. While I understood the jokes I found none of them funny (well I have no humour in my blood, unless it involves seeing karma strike a human who deserved it for their stupidity).

Analysing these rather truthful characteristics encountered in real life amongst a few power-hungry Chinese women, where do I stand? Do I relate to these three ladies? OK Elizabeth's pressure to do well you know I did that when I was a teenager yes I relate. The mention of pushy Chinese parents yes, the assumption all of us females are Oriental dolls who will do everything for men and be meek - ok this is where it gets complicated. Not all EAST ASIAN/South East Asian etc/ANY ASIAN women are like that. It is true that there are lots of confident, alpha female Asians who are smart, earn a huge salary have a magical vagina and think they are better than Asian men or just anyone. There are those who are born into wealth and know who they are, what they're good at and strut. There are also those who yes are quiet (not just because they don't want to speak too much to avoid being detained or because they can't speak English fluently. There are other reasons).

With Fufu she is the epitome of clueless, cute ditzy fresh off the plane/boat visitor. She cosplays to no end, tries to improvise what others do and has so much money that paying Jackie and Elizabeth's overdue rent is nothing more than peanuts. I can be naturally cute if I feel like doing so. Not because I'm doing it for anyone's benefit. If I had the money and skill to cosplay my favourite fictional characters well yeah I'd opt for that professionally too, albeit with costumes not too outrageous.

The biggest thing that struck me as I watched was the self-racism, the little distaste towards Black people (that screenwriter, anyone?!) sleeping around/hook up culture/one-night stands and obvious hatred of Asian men and how they have no game for any woman of ethnicity with the understandable anger of being labeled as a meek Oriental yet saying they prefer white men to shag. The entire viewing proved painful with these old jokes. D.A.G - never heard that before. And yeah , cannot forget Jackie's I don't do Chinese. The classic but annoying small penis remark...really now? Oh but it's comedy so suck it up it's the truth say the ravers. Are these reviewers for real? There was one review linked via IMDB by a White male that said the male bashing was not racist. Let's not go there.

This comedy sketch reminded me of an old editorial I wrote when I was a blogger for UnitedKpop. I had attempted in a few editorials at that time to write about my background as a fan of Hallyu (it proved not as popular as say if I were not White/Black/South Asian) but I wanted to somehow express myself more genuinely - didn't work out well however I wanted to show the stereotypes are not that simple and are actually complicated if you -as either a fellow SEA/EA or a non-Asian- care to listen and not invalidate the points made. Why Asian females act a certain way may go beyond simple black/white perspectives. That was the whole point of me writing those pieces. It's to counter-attack the traits used in Chinese Burn.


I'm supposed to be grateful this Chinese female empowerment exists...?! I'm all up for girl power from fellow sisters but it has to be done creatively and not insanely to the point of reinforcing stereotypes that the West can use for their ammo in prejudice, parodies and what not. Unless, the writers had these counter ideas in mind for the next would-be episodes to stop the outrageous stereotyping and provide a solution then maybe, MAYBE that could save the story. Maybe it might be redemption...but we'll never know since it seemingly did not get extended to a full series. Although do take a read at this open letter to the senior staff of BBC. Do you agree?

If there is anything worthy to be considered a more justifiable British Born Chinese identity portrayal as of right now it would be the novel Life Of A Banana by PP Wong which I reviewed here. I will admit, the only thing I did somewhat enjoy from Chinese Burn was understanding the Cantonese cursing and seeing Fufu cut up 油炸鬼 , possibly in preparation for a hangover dish. A short head meet table moment would certainly be Jackie's Wagwan greeting to the Black lady at the bus stop. Didn't see that coming.