Did you know most of the artwork featured in the sets of Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is artwork by contemporary Asian American artists?

I have some reservations about “identity politics”in its current 2023 iteration and my thinking on that complex term has definitely evolved a lot in the last few years. 

Shout out to the book Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics (And Everything Else) by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò.

I’m also impatient for American culture to move beyond simply the gestures of surface level “representation” without more depth and redistribution of actual power and material benefits…

BUT

• as someone who did grow up in an American media landscape (I started watching TV and movies in the 1980’s) pretty much devoid of any representation of Asian Americans (much less interesting, complex, and honest ones)

• and working in a profession that does not actually have that much diversity within it (96%* of set decorators are white women).

It IS actually meaningful to me in a significant way to work on a show like “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” that depicts a working-class Chinese American family and a diversity of Asian Americans in a funny and layered way. 

*that was not a scientifically derived percentage but I’m sure the actual number is very close!

Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is one of the few TV shows airing (and of all time) featuring an all Asian American starring cast and telling the story of a specific Asian American family (in this case mostly Chinese-American).

The other shows that fit this definition that come to mind are: All American Girl (Margaret Cho’s show in the 90’s) and Fresh Off the Boat (which concluded a few years ago). 

And it isn’t just the cast, it was truly special in how not just the cast but the behind-the-camera crew was also full of Asian American creative talent too.

This was my first time working in a creative atmosphere where so many of my coworkers including the leadership at the top had so much cultural affinity to my own background.

We were all working together to tell jokes that made fun of ideas and and situations borne from cultural similarities in many of our upbringings. 

Since it was such a special opportunity for me as a 4th generation Chinese American to work on a project like Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, my instinct was to fling open the barn doors and invite as many more people, for whom the opportunity to be involved might be meaningful, to also join. 

I thought what if we extended this feeling of community and unique opportunity to the Asian American artist community by focusing on showcasing the artwork of Asian Americans in our sets?

…which is how the season 3 set decoration team ended up essentially running a mini Asian-American art gallery and small-batch producer Asian American specialty grocer in our offices in service of the sets.

To be clear, I don’t think the characters of Nora in the show (stoner, slacker, often making bad decisions) or Edmund (self-centered, full of himself, delusional) necessarily care a ton about only buying and hanging Asian American art in their spaces.

It was a choice I made for them. Additionally it wasn’t enough for an artist to simply be Asian American, their artwork had to match the style, feeling, and tones of each character’s set. 

So we got to work creating a little database of Asian American artists and examples of their work. At a certain point it almost felt like Ashley and I (with a big assist from Kevin Cabello our Art Dept coordinator who is all about Asian American community building) were curating a mini Asian American artist gallery with all the research and cataloging we were doing. 

Once we gathered all our research we started reaching out to artists asking them if they would be interested in working with us and printing examples of their work so we could look over all the artwork, discuss with Laura our production designer, and decide which pieces of art might work with which sets in our season. 

NORA’S BEDROOM

we did a bit of a refresh for Nora’s bedroom this season adding new set dressing as well as new artwork that we could imagine Nora vibing with.

EDMUND’S TRAILER

In episode 303, we see Edmund’s trailer on the set of “Love and Order” and in addition to the crazy self-centered collages we adorned all over his trailer that had photos of himself, hot guys he is lusting over, and tails; we added artwork.

NORA FROM QUEENS BODEGA

As extensively detailed in this blog post about transforming the bodega twice for episode 307, we wanted to add in artwork the plays with the idea of food and culture in the space once Nora takes over.

We didn’t have a ton of money to offer for a rental fee but we did pay everyone something (this is a very small low budget comedy show!) but we were hoping it would be something fun for artists to participate in. 

Seeing the reaction of artists we worked with seeing their work on screen, and their own community in congratulating and being excited for them has been really gratifying. 

Featuring almost exclusively artwork by Asian American artists in Season 3 of Awkwafina is Nora from Queens is one of my proudest accomplishments from the season. 

You can read more behind-the-scenes putting together the sets and everything related to Awkwafina is Nora from Queens Season 3 here.