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Ronny Chieng’s joke about Asian identity inspired a compelling debate about labels

"The Daily Show" correspondent's comments were about Rishi Sunak's appointment as U.K. prime minister.

ronny chieng, rishi sunak, asia
via The Daily Show/Twitter

Ronny Chieng on "The Daily Show."

Rishi Sunak made history on Tuesday, October 25 by becoming the first Asian and Hindu prime minister in the history of the United Kingdom. His appointment is seen by many in the U.K. as an important step toward representation in a country that is 7.5% Asian.

Sunak’s grandparents migrated to the U.K. in the 1960s from India and his maternal grandmother was born in Africa.

However, this issue is a little more complicated from an American perspective where people of Indian descent are rarely referred to as Asian. We reserve the label for people of the Far East such as Japan, China, Vietnam and Korea.

To complicate things further, if you go by what the U.S. government has to say, Asian refers to people “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.”

Things get a little vaguer when you consider the different ways people divide one another by race and ethnicity throughout the world. For example, even the term “American” is up for debate worldwide. We consider ourselves American in the United States, but in Latin America, an American is someone from Latin America.

Comedian Ronny Chieng had some fun with the nuanced topic of racial classifications on “The Daily Show” in a bit called “Don’t call Rishi Sunak the U.K.’s first Asian PM in front of Ronny Chieng.” Chieng was born in Malaysia.

In the bit, he made fun of how the term Asian means something different throughout the world. “Indians are not Asians. I love how Indians try to have it both ways, like being Indian and Asian. Pick a lane, OK,” Chieng joked.

The bit was funny because Chieng’s mock rage pokes fun at how we can be adamant about our identities even though, in many ways, they’re rather arbitrary. It’s all just lines on a map. Further, the concept of Asia wasn’t even created by Asians themselves, it was foisted on them by the Greeks.

Some folks thought Chieng’s jokes were spot-on.

But not everyone agreed on whether the joke was accurate or funny and the piece received a lot of serious responses. Such is the way of Twitter, if you make a joke, you get serious responses. If you say something serious, you get jokes.

Also, it was a joke, meaning, he wasn't being serious.

In the end, what’s important is that the U.K. government and its people have progressed to the point where it has appointed the first person of color to represent their entire country. That’s a big step toward the ultimate goal of living in a world where people are judged by their abilities rather than the color of their skin.

This point got a bit lost in the discussion surrounding Chieng’s joke, where he made fun of the fact that people are so keen to define one another by race, they lose sight of what matters.

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KFC tackles food insecurity this holiday season with its Sharemobile food truck

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The last thing children should have to worry about is where their next meal will come from. But the unfortunate reality is food insecurity is all too common in this country.

In an effort to help combat this pressing issue, KFC is teaming up with Blessings in a Backpack to provide nearly 70,000 meals to families in need and spread holiday cheer along the way.

The KFC Sharemobile, a holiday-edition charitable food truck, will be making stops at schools in Chicago, Orlando, and Houston in December to share KFC family meals and special gifts for a few select families to address specific needs identified by their respective schools.

These cities were chosen based on the high level of food insecurity present in their communities and hardships they’ve faced, such as a devastating hurricane season in Florida and an unprecedented winter storm in Houston. In 2021, five million children across the US lived in food-insecure households, according to the USDA.

“Sharing a meal with family or friends is a special part of the holidays,” said Nick Chavez, CMO of KFC U.S. “Alongside our franchisees, we wanted to make that possible for even more families this holiday season.”

KFC will also be making a donation to Blessings in a Backpack, a nonprofit that works to provide weekend meals to school-aged children across America who might otherwise go hungry.

“The generous donations from KFC could not have come at a better time, as these communities have been particularly hard-hit this year with rising food costs, inflation and various natural disasters,” Erin Kerr, the CEO of Blessings in a Backpack, told Upworthy. “Because of KFC’s support, we’re able to spread holiday cheer by donating meals for hunger-free weekends and meet each community’s needs,” Kerr said.

This isn’t the first time KFC has worked with Blessings in a Backpack. The fried chicken chain has partnered with the nonprofit for the last six years, donating nearly $1 million dollars. KFC employees also volunteer weekly to package and provide meals to students in Louisville, Kentucky who need food over the weekend.

KFC franchisees are also bringing the Sharemobile concept to life in markets across the country through local food donations and other holiday giveback moments. Ampex Brands, a KFC franchisee based in Dallas, recently held its annual Day of Giving event and donated 11,000 meals to school children in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods.

If you’d like to get involved, you can make a donation to help feed students in need at kfc.com/kfcsharemobile. Every bit helps, but a donation of $150 helps feed a student on the weekends for an entire 38-week school year, and a donation as low as $4 will feed a child for a whole weekend.

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