People Magazine is being called out after horribly misidentifying Asian actors at a SAG Awards after-party.
Daily Show correspondent Ronny Chieng, who also played Eddie Cheng in “Crazy Rich Asians,” was quick to point out the error in his Instagram story and then a Twitter post.
In the photo shared by People Magazine, Chieng and his wife, Hannah Pham, were misidentified as Randall Park and his wife, Jae W. Suh, while Tan Kheng Hua was mistaken as Michelle Yeoh. Jae Suh and Michelle Yeoh weren’t even in the photo.
Fellow “Crazy Rich Asians” actor Remy Hii, who played Alistair Cheng, tweeted in support of his co-star.
He wrote, “@people I’m singling you out because not only do Ronny Chieng and Randall Park, Jae W Suh and Kheng Hua look NOTHING alike, Michelle Yeoh ISNT EVEN IN THAT PHOTO. This wasn’t even a case of mistaken identity, you straight up threw a bunch of yellow names up and hoped they’d stick.”
Hii continued, “To the journalists consistently at fault, I refuse to believe you’ve never mistaken a Bomer for a Cavill, an Adams for a Fisher, a Hemsworth for a Hemsworth and yet it happens ALL the time with PoC – particularly Asian performers and it’s always just an ‘honest mistake’.
He went on to tweet, “When you fail to recognise our faces, when you consistently misattribute our names as though any asian performer is interchangeable … you erase our humanity. You negate our achievements & talents with your ignorance. We’re not going to take it. Do better.”
The photo caption has now been changed to “The cast of Crazy Rich Asians.”
Try again, People! You were lazy with the first cutline, and even lazier with trying to fix it!
It wasn’t just People Magazine. In Vogue, a photo of Crazy Rich Asians’ Gemma Chan at the SAG Awards was labeled as “Liv Lo.” In the same gallery from Vogue, a red carpet snap of Tan Kheng Hua at the SAG Awards was incorrectly labeled as “Michelle Yeoh.”
As Hii said, it’s time to “do better.”