In this reported op-ed, writer Eunica Escalante highlights the importance of Shang-Chi and The Legend of Ten Rings: An Album and talks to some of the artists included in the project.
“I think I just wanted to get at the Asian diasporic experience,” NIKI explains over Zoom. “What it would look like for two first-generation Asian Americans, going to college and falling in love—that was the inspiration.” After all, the Asian diaspora, though historically pigeonholed under a single homogenous label, contains a multitude of cultures, ethnicities, and experiences. But while the album isn’t exactly a dissection of race in America, it still serves as an apt musical representation of the Asian-American experience.
It’s a noteworthy milestone, especially when confronted by the severe lack of representation in the American music industry. Until recently, only a handful of Asian-American musicians have found mainstream success in the West, like Bruno Mars and Nicole Scherzinger, who are of Filipino descent; Jhené Aiko, who is half Japanese; and Sri Lankan artist M.I.A.