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Slack.com slash DHQ. You're listening to Imaginary Worlds, a show about how we create them

and why we suspend our disbelief. I'm Eric Malinsky. Part of what makes up a genre,

like science fiction or fantasy, is that certain tropes are repeated, and as a fan, it's

fun to recognize tropes when they come up and appreciate how they've been adapted.

But I recently learned about a genre within a genre that's been hiding in plain sight

or at least it was for me. I was invited to watch a presentation called Asian Futures

Without Asians by the artist Estria Superrac. Her talk looks at how science fiction often

depicts a future full of Asian iconography that's mixed up and taken out of context, but there

aren't many Asian people in these futures. And this is a talk that she's given in person

and virtually. In her presentation, it's been paired with exhibits at galleries and museums.

Now I expected her to cover obviously offensive things like flash Gordon Serials from the

1930s with Ming the Merciless. And that was there, but she really wanted to concentrate

on more recent history. And it was eye-opening for me because I had seen most of the movies

and shows that she referenced, but I was suddenly seeing them in a whole new light.

Apparently, a lot of people feel that way after seeing her presentation.

I mean, a lot of people say it's like being red-pilled in a way where suddenly the veil has

lifted and they see these tropes constantly. And people also say that people of Asian and

...