Alone in a crowd

As a child, the only character of South Asian ethnicity comedian Hari Kondabolu saw regularly on TV was Apu, the irresponsible, heavily accented Kwik-E-Mart clerk on The Simpsons.

“This character—the only representation that we have—led a lot of kids who were born and raised here to feel non-American,” said Kondabolu. In his upcoming documentary The Problem with Apu, Kondabolu interviews fellow actors and comedians about their impressions of Apu and the stereotypes of Asian-Americans in the media.

Asian-Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States. Between 2000 and 2010, the Asian-American population expanded from about 11.9 million people to 17.3 million; it was just 6.9 million in 1990, according to the U.S. census.

Though Asian-Americans made up less than 5 percent of the total U.S. population at the time of the last census, some urban areas such as Los Angeles and San Francisco are 15-20 percent Asian-American.

And those numbers don’t reflect the diversity within the ethnic group. Media have begun to distinguish better between differing groups of Hispanic Americans—Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, for example, explores the cultures of both Dominican and Puerto Rican Latinos—but Asian-Americans often get lumped together in one group.

According to Pew Research, no single country of origin dominates the Asian-American population, though 24 percent have Chinese heritage. Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese are next, in order of U.S. population size. Each nation has its own language, unlike the countries of origin that comprise the Hispanic ethnic group.

That makes the likelihood of Asian-American youth seeing someone from their same background on TV or at the movies incredibly small, and gives negative stereotypes even more power, Kondabolu said.

“If you only have a handful of representations, each one counts more because that’s the only thing you get,” Kondabolu said. Actor Kal Penn, who is also of South Asian descent and appears in the documentary, suspects Hollywood can get away with mocking Asian-Americans more than other ethnic groups.

“If you had an African-American character—even a cartoon—with the types of stereotypes done for Apu, people would understandably, and very rightfully, [be angry] and the studio would say, ‘We can’t do this. This is not funny,’” Penn said.

The isolating and lonely experiences of many Asian-Americans as described in The Problem with Apu occur not just in the media, but in U.S. churches, too, according Pastor Steve S. Chang of Living Hope Community Church in Brea, Calif.

“White-majority churches often don’t recognize that many of their ‘white evangelical’ cultural attributes aren’t necessarily shared by other cultures: for example, an usher offering a hug to a newcomer, a pastor preaching in holey jeans, an attendee asking a stranger, ‘Where are you from?’” Chang wrote this week on The Gospel Coalition’s blog. “The result is many Asian-Americans faithfully attend and even serve at white-majority churches, but never feel truly at home.”

Chang recommends leaders at multicultural churches give Asian-American attendees specific invitations to get involved in church ministry, rather than waiting for them to volunteer. He also encouraged pastors of white-majority churches to build friendships with pastors that serve Asian-American congregations.

The Problem with Apu airs Sunday at 10 p.m. on truTV.

A scene from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy New Line Cinema

One show to rule them all

Soon J.R.R. Tolkien fans won’t have to visit the movie theater to take a trip to Middle Earth. Amazon announced this week plans for a Lord of the Rings TV series on its Prime Video streaming service. The series will tell stories preceding the events of the Lord of the Rings movies that came out between 2001 and 2003.

Fans of the books know Tolkien wrote volumes of appendices of Middle Earth history and alluded to numerous unexplored, ancillary plots in his novels. Some of those, like the wizard Gandalf’s imprisonment by the Necromancer, appeared in The Hobbit trilogy of movies between 2012 and 2014.

Amazon is partnering with New Line Cinema, which distributed the Rings and Hobbit movies. The series could give Amazon a much-needed boost in its quest for streaming dominance over Netflix, Hulu, HBO, and others. Amazon has had several critically acclaimed original series, including The Man in the High Castle and Transparent, but none of its series have generated as much buzz among viewers as competitors’ offerings, such as Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale or Netflix’s Stranger Things. Since, so far, some of the most popular streaming TV series have also been the most obscene, The Lord of the Rings on Amazon could offer families a needed entertainment alternative—provided it sticks to Tolkien’s original, wholesome story. —L.L.

A scene from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy New Line Cinema

Pricey antique

The only privately owned painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci sold at auction for $450 million on Wednesday in New York City. Salvator Mundi, Latin for “Savior of the World,” portrays a silky-haired Jesus dressed in Renaissance-style robes, holding a crystal orb. In the painting, Jesus looks directly at the viewer, much like in Leonardo’s better-known work Mona Lisa. Salvator Mundi has a mysterious and controversial past, and some scholars dispute whether Leonardo painted it himself. It’s one of fewer than 20 of his paintings known to exist. King Charles I of England owned the work in the mid-1600s, and the son of the Duke of Buckingham auctioned it in 1763. It disappeared and resurfaced in 1900, and it was believed to have been painted by a student of Leonardo’s rather than the master himself. In 2005, a consortium of art dealers bought the dilapidated painting for $10,000. It had been partially painted over, but the group restored it and documented its authenticity. Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev owned it most recently after buying it for $127.5 million in a private sale. The auction house Christie’s has not disclosed who bought it Wednesday. —L.L.

History in pictures

This week an internet rabbit trail led me to re.photos, a website that compiles historical photos of natural and urban settings and compares them to what they look like today. The pictures made me marvel at how much some things have changed in the past 50 to 100 years and how much others have stayed the same. Many of the photos come from Europe and tell the story of how cities rebuilt their churches, schools, and homes after World War II. —L.L.