A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING?

AZN LUV!
A few sites are making notice of the fact that Lucy Liu's character on Cashmere Mafia kissed an Asian American male character the other night.

On the lips, no less!

Some have opined that this may be the first time this has ever happened on primetime network television.

I'm intrigued by this idea and two things come to mind.

1) I think people are wrong about this. Asians have been on television - albeit rarely in roles we'd want to champion - since practically the invention of the damn thing. Insofar as that's true, there must have been some previous instance and my guess is that it would have happened in the 1970s. I'd put money on that. Seriously, there lurks some old "Love Boat" or "Fantasy Island" where AZNs lock lips. Doesn't PBS count? Or how about Pat Morita? Margaret Cho? Nobu McCarthy? [1]

2) Even if it's not the first time, the fact that no one can precisely remember the last time they saw it happen says a lot. Volumes. So regardless if it is technically the first or not, it's rare enough that it strikes us as unusual whereas practically any other ethnic group in America takes for granted that intra-racial romance is alive and well on the airwaves. Which is rather depressing.

As is the fact that "Asian American kiss" turns up 8 finds in google, almost all related to this very question.


[1]Even though they're technically not Asian American, I think it's splitting hairs to conveniently overlook Sun and Jin on Lost. Ok, sure, their characters are Korean but when I see them smooching, I'm not thinking, "oh, that's sweet. Too bad neither is Asian American." It's rare enough to just see Asians getting their kiss on primetime t.v.; if it's about reassuring ourselves that we find one another, you know, desirable/attractive, then I'll take Sun and Jin, citizenship be damned!

--O.W.