Every year, Asian families and friends around the world come together to celebrate Lunar New Year with time-honored traditions like parties, gift-giving, prayers and red pockets as we ring in another year of prosperity and good fortune. However, with these meaningful celebrations come an onslaught of performativity, as Western-centric brands decide to “celebrate” by plastering the New Year’s corresponding zodiac animal on a product or giving their merchandise a red design and calling it a day. The commodification of this meaningful holiday continues to grow every year, often misinterpreting and minimizing these distinct cultural practices into opportunities for profit and highlighting how these brands do little to support the Asian community elsewhere.

As an Asian American, these campaigns often read as a lazy attempt at profiting off of a culture while disregarding who it came from. Recent contenders include Apple’s tiger emoji AirPod Pro cases, Nike’s Chinese character-adorned sneakers that, put together, spell out “fat” instead of sentiments expressing new year blessings, and Fenty Beauty’s red contour sticks in only two pale shades—as if changing the packaging on an old product and not acknowledging the diversity of the Asian community garners any true meaning. Kate Spade, Aritzia, Huda Beauty, Burberry—the list goes on. Consumers have seen this kind of meaningless campaigning happen with other holidays like Ramadan and the Mid-Autumn Festival as well. This has also been observed during Pride month as brands carry out empty acts of supposed solidarity on social media while privately donating to causes harmful to the LGBTQ+ community. 

At the same time, it could be argued that this acknowledgment of Asian culture is an opportunity for positive Asian representation—but is it done right? What are these companies doing for Asian communities beyond advertising a holiday collection? (For the record, empty #StopAsianHate post on social media doesn’t count.) In the larger sense, are these brands doing anything to truly uplift and tell the stories of the cultures they monetize? 

As we near the anniversary of the rise of the #StopAsianHate movement in response to a pandemic-fueled uptick in anti-Asian racism, and as Asian Americans are continually targeted in hate crimes to this day, these blatant profit grabs play out in a time where the Asian community would rather see true efforts by these brands to amplify our voices instead. Furthermore, some have pointed out these campaigns targeted toward Asian American audiences add to the harmful model minority stereotype that we are all wealthy, successful, and value materialism. 

So what is the balance between cultural appropriation and appreciation? Instead of meaningless product releases, why not hire Asian creators to direct campaigns or simply leave the celebrations to Asian-owned businesses? Luckily, consumers readily call out brands for their empty gestures online, and with time, the pressure to pay tribute to Asian cultures correctly and examine biases overall will hopefully set these large brands straight. In the meantime, however, remember to support Asian-owned businesses this Lunar New Year and think twice about a brand’s level of intention and accuracy in its Asian representation.

To view more of Chloe Sun’s work, click here.