Racist to write kung fu-fighting dim sum characters?

When I was giving a talk at my friend, Nick Sousanis’s wonderfully thoughtful class the other day at Teachers College, a student asked me if using Dim Sum and kung fu in Dim Sum Warriors might be regarded as stereotyping Chinese people.

It’s a good question.

My answer is no – because the Dim Sum characters that we have are fully-fledged characters with a full-range of emotions and expressions. We are in fact thwarting stereotypes as the characters are heroes, villains, parents, children, brothers and sisters. And, they speak in perfect English and perfect Mandarin!

Xiajiao, Shaomai and Roast Pork Bao are completely unlike narrowly-portrayed characters like the Communist supervillain Egg Fu, who first appeared in Wonderwoman in 1965. Now, that’s the bad egg!