TV: Do you think Nelly moved on from what Gossip Girl and Blair did to her across these seasons? The SAT & Yale sabotage was… really screwed up.
YC: I do feel she internalized the bullying and expressed them in ways she learned and adapted from Blair and her crew throughout season two of CW’s Gossip Girl, then started moving on as her career progressed and stood strong with her moral compass in season 6, and has completely moved on now in the new class of HBO Max’s Gossip Girl where she’s proven to herself she can succeed in this world by staying true to herself.
TV: Did you ever think that Nelly was Gossip Girl?
YC: A part of me wondered!
TV: Ultimately, what do you want Nelly’s legacy to be? And what do you hope for the future of how Asian characters will be portrayed both on the reboot and in teen dramas more generally? Do you get a sense that progress is being made?
YC: We are being represented more diversely now than we were over ten years ago at a time when I don’t remember seeing anyone representing anything close to my experiences, but there is still major work to be done in having Asian American women front and center on-screen in multi-dimensional roles. No human is perfect and that truth needs to be accessible for all individuals. We need to exist on-screen fleshed out with the distinct characteristics of what makes us all deeply, fully human, flaws and all.
I know, from keeping a close pulse on the storytellers in the 88 Cups of Tea community, from both emerging and published storytellers alike, that there are different kinds of stories being written. I applaud the Asian American women writing these stories and I encourage and urge more aspiring Asian American women writers (and all WOC) to take that leap and write the stories that put us at the forefront. The more we explore ourselves and connect with our voices, writing what we know, writing what we’re curious about, the more specific and different our stories will be. These variations will help to shift our portrayal away from “the other” on-screen. The shepherding of these stories out into the world especially takes the influence and power of gatekeepers at the network and production level to actively make space and invest in them so they can be told on a larger scale in ways that empower us to believe that we are the heroes of our own stories.
The audience also has an incredible amount of power to shift this paradigm by demanding our stories, especially now with social media providing access directly to those who have decision-making power. If ever the character is problematic or harmful, viewers can use their voice to constructively let showrunners and network know WHY and how so they are aware and have the opportunity to correct the course, while being supportive still of the actor who, more than likely, is viewed as expendable by decision makers. My wish is that this collective effort becomes a movement to normalcy so that it’s not such a big deal to see an Asian American on screen, and instead is just a natural and expected part of what we experience through entertainment. And my hope for Nelly Yuki’s legacy is for all those who resonate with her or see themselves as underdogs to never dim their own light for others to take advantage of or take for granted.
TV: You’ve accomplished so much since the show ended, starting 88 Cups of Tea as this really cool storytelling community. What made you passionate about starting that platform? What kinds of stories weren’t being told that you wanted to see?
YC: 88 Cups of Tea was formed because, from my own experiences as an actor, I was exhausted by the lack of nuanced representation of BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ individuals. I wanted to build a space that incubated an ongoing mindset and perspective of normalcy for storytellers to write themselves as the main characters, we all have the right to lead our own stories whether inspired by our life experiences or by pure imagination. It was a huge frustration as an Asian American when I first began working as an actor in 2005, rarely seeing narrative content with our history, our perspectives, our faces.
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What started off as a way to connect with various different storytellers, recording conversations about their life and career choices and lots of how-to’s as a space for fellow storytellers to learn along with me, 88 Cups of Tea has now grown into something deeper, into an uplifting space where writers feel less alone and in community with each other, boosting their morale and motivating them to continue chipping away at their stories until they reach the finish line. I’m so proud and moved that over the years 88 Cups of Tea podcast listeners have written to me about landing literary agents, publishing their books, landing on the New York Times bestseller list, and even landing book-to-film adaptation deals with the stories I’d been craving before launching 88 Cups of Tea. We need to tell stories that showcase our experiences and 88 Cups of Tea is a gateway into a space that nurtures our community to create work that’s truthful to them.
TV: How did you develop Heart of Dinner — in tandem with your partner Moonlynn Tsai — into what it is now, this initiative that supports homebound elderly people affected by COVID-19, and also supports Asian Americans in a time of historic anti-Asian violence? What challenges did you face as you grew larger, and how did you tackle them?
YC: Heart of Dinner began in 2015 as a social supper club where we would host 14-seater dinners around a communal table. The mission of our dinners was to provide a space for belonging over soulful food and heartfelt conversations with portions of our donation-based dinners directed towards non-profit organizations that counter food insecurity.
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August 12, 2021 at 03:29AM
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“Gossip Girl” Star Yin Chang on Nelly Yuki & “Reductive” Representation - Teen Vogue
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