Angry Little Asian Girl Offers Outlet For Underdogs, Asian or Otherwise

At one point or another, everyone feels like the underdog, like the whole world is against him or her, like an Angry Little Asian Girl.

The comic strip, sketched by UC Berkeley alumna Lela Lee, strikes a common chord in that underdog feeling and has met critical acclaim doing so.

The explosive comic titled "Angry Little Asian Girl and Friends" has been lauded by distinguished journalists as it, and its author, have recently risen to fame.

When she originally met with MTV productions about turning her idea into an animated cartoon, they told her there was no market for Asians.

But by including a varied group of characters, Lee shows it is not only the Asian girl who feels like an underdog.

"A lot of people, regardless of ethnicity, like (the strip) because (it) is about being an underdog," says Lee. "Not everyone is a topdog all the time."

The strip features an angry little Asian girl who experiences racism and discrimination and anything else Lee considers unjust.

For example, in one instance a teacher says to the protagonist, "Wow, your English is so good," to which she explodes, "Ugh! Not this again!"

The Angry Little Asian Girl, Kim, is accompanied in the strip by an eclectic group of friends. The friends include Wanda, "the fresh soul sistah"; Xyla, "the gloomy girl"; Pat, "the happy boy"; Deborah, "the disenchanted princess"; and Maria, "the crazy little Latina." The grade school characters have been described as a cross between "South Park" and "Hello Kitty."

But do not be fooled-they are ready to burst with rage and are not afraid to express it as each faces discrimination in different forms.

Lee's concept blossomed during her sophomore year at UC Berkeley while majoring in rhetoric.

"(Rhetoric) helped me to read behind what was being spoken, to think about what was being spoken", Lee says.

While attending "Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation Festival," she says she was offended by the male chauvinistic comic strips.

Seeing Lee's reaction, a friend suggested she write a comic strip about herself.

Lee further developed her idea as an animation while taking a video production class. But Lee ended up not showing it to anyone, afraid and unsure what others might think.

Unlike Lee's education in a white suburban high school, an experience she calls "sugar coated," UC Berkeley offered a more colorful side of education. Sheltered history book contents were replaced by eye-opening experiences and newfound knowledge.

"I received A's in high school based on regurgitating what had been taught," she says.

Lee felt her education in high school was inadequate and partly untrue, but Berkeley was different.

"Berkeley was where my brain was most fertile," Lee says. "All the classes I took at Berkeley helped me to explore everything I was interested in."

After graduating from UC Berkeley in 1996, she took her Crayola-colored comic strip drawn on typing paper out of her drawer and sent it to different animation festivals. Ironically, it was purchased by Spike and Mike Animations.

"The public responded really great to it," Lee says.

After receiving so much attention, she decided to make promotional shirts, but after receiving calls from strangers at all hours demanding the popular items, she decided to create a Web site.

"I really felt I touched upon something important," Lee says. "There was such a buzz that it gave me confidence to do it till this day."

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Lee leaves you suspecting that her feisty heroine is saying out loud what a lot of Asian Americans, young and old, male and female, are often feeling but not saying."

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