August 2013

Heavily-illustrated model Levy Tran (featured at the old site here) recently tweeted an apology after the above music video she appeared in received a strong backlash due to the song’s lyrics.

Obviously intended to be humorous, “Asian Girlz” by the Los Angeles-based rock band Day Above Ground, is full of racially-stereotyped lyrics that many listeners have found to be extremely offensive. “I love your sticky rice,” “Ooh, your slanted eyes,” and “Your momma’s so pretty, best nails in the city” are some of the milder examples.

At their Youtube channel, where they have the video posted, Day Above Ground stated that the song “was not written with any malicious, hateful, or hurtful intent.” Tran, after geting wind of the negative publicity the video has been receiving (as well as herself, for appearing in it), tweeted:

“I sincerely apologize to all who feels that I set Asian women back 50 yrs. I know I lost respect from a lot of ppl. It wasn’t my intention”

She’s also made further apologetic comments regarding the video, that you can see at her Twitter.

Looks like Levy can now join actress Lisa Chan (who appeared last year in a political campaign ad as a Chinese girl thanking a US senator in mock broken English, for her spending) in the ”I should have had better foresight” file. Unless, of course, they subscribe to the old Hollywood publicist’s adage that any press is good press.