On the latest season of Netflix's Orange Is The New Black, we got to see a rare bit of backstory for one of the series' more elusive characters, Chang, played by Lori Tan Chinn. Apparently, she made such an impression on Rolling Stone, they confused her with the show's other Asian American actress.
The women's prison dramedy made Rolling Stone's list of the 25 Best TV Shows of 2015, sitting pretty at the respectable #13 position. But in describing a highlight from the show, the writer mixes up the two Asian American characters, Chang and Soso, played by Kimiko Glenn.
Orange Is The New Black writer/executive producer Sara Hess pointed out the mistake on Twitter:
Hey @rollingstone, thanks for the "Best Of" mention but you got your #OITNB Asians mixed up. https://t.co/weJwXl9sNj
— Sara Hess (@SaraHess) December 2, 2015Chang: played by veteran Chinese-American actress Lori Chinn. Soso: 20-something Kimiko Glenn, of mixed heritage. @rollingstone
— Sara Hess (@SaraHess) December 2, 2015Soso is the comatose one, not Chang. Not even close. @RollingStone pic.twitter.com/c9ArgYcDTc
— Sara Hess (@SaraHess) December 2, 2015.@helenzaltzman @RollingStone Ironically, in an earlier ep Soso says "one drop of ethnic blood and I might as well be Chinese like [Chang]"
— Sara Hess (@SaraHess) December 2, 2015Damn. Consider that Lori Tan Chinn is a veteran Chinese American actress in her sixties and Kimiko Glenn is a multiracial Japanese American twentysomething. And they look absolutely nothing alike.
I guess people can handle one Asian on a TV show... but if you put two, there will be confusion.