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‘Turning Red’: The power of representation
Sandra Oh, Rosalie
Chiang discuss
Asian-led coming-
of-age Disney and
Pixar film
By Peter Sblendorio
New York Daily News
T
he stars of “Turning Red”
believe a movie about a girl
who turns into a red panda has a
chance to be transformative.
Sandra Oh and Rosalie Chiang
are thrilled to be a part of the
coming-of-age Disney and Pixar
fl ick that centers on an Asian
Canadian teenager named Mei
Lee and her family.
“Hopefully this fi lm ... gives
the experience to (people) just
like Mei that you are the hero,
a 13-year-old Chinese girl is
a hero,” Oh, 50, told the Daily
News.
“For someone like myself,
and my generation, we did not
see ourselves in the center of
the story, or the hero, and the
fact that we have a lot more
Pixar
Meilin (voiced by Rosalie Chiang) in a scene from the Pixar movie “Turning
Red.” The movie is streaming on Disney+.
stories that are diverse, it just
includes more people and it also
makes storytelling just much
more interesting.”
The animated fi lm, out Friday
on Disney+, introduces Mei as a
high-achieving middle schooler
in Toronto whose ancestors had
a mystical connection with red
pandas. She suddenly starts
transforming into the animal
whenever she becomes overly
excited, presenting new chal-
lenges even as she grapples
with the complications of grow-
ing up.
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“When I was younger, I never
really saw a coming-of-age
film starring an Asian girl,” said
Chiang, 16, who voices Mei.
“When I watched coming-of-
age films, I never was able to
really relate to the character,”
she said. “However with this,
there were so many instances
where I was like, ‘That’s my life!
I literally experienced that last
week with my mom!’ My mom
and I looked at each other kind
of like, ‘This is oddly similar.’ I
think that’s the beauty.”
The film explores the com-
plex dynamic between Mei and
her mother, Ming, who has high
expectations for her daughter.
“This movie is just about her
navigating through life,” Chiang
said of Mei. “She’s trying so
hard. She’s going through all
these changes, and especially
her relationship with her
mother is changing. Before this
movie, things were so much
simpler, but then you throw in
this giant red panda.”
“Turning Red” is co-written
and directed by longtime Pixar
filmmaker Domee Shi, who
drew from her own experi-
ences growing up as a Chinese
Canadian girl in Toronto. Shi
previously directed the 2019
Oscar-winning Pixar short film
“Bao.”
Oh, who voices Ming, believes
anyone can relate to the story
told in “Turning Red.”
“It has a lot of love in it, and
it has a lot of anger in it,” Oh
said. “There’s a scene when
Mei is in the bathroom with her
friends, and Mei is starting to
say, ‘Listen, I have done this for
her, I’m perfect, I’m this,’ and it’s
just like, enough of it,” said Oh
— a Golden Globes winner for
the series “Grey’s Anatomy” and
“Killing Eve.”
“That is so perfect, because
on the other side, there’s Ming
just going, ‘Why is she talking
to me this way? Who does she
think she is? I’m her mother.’ I
just think that represents, very
realistically, this time in a young
person’s life.”
The actors say the red panda
represents many diff erent parts
of a person’s life, with Oh listing
“puberty, sexuality, doing things
wrong, depression” and anxiety
as a few.
“It’s very interesting, when we
hear from people, (to hear) every
person’s very diff erent take on
what the panda is to them,” Oh
said. “But I’d say, to maybe sum it
up, messiness and change.”
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