Filipino singer and Broadway star Lea Salonga recently took to Twitter to react to news of the murder of Christina Yuna Lee.
Salonga shared a Twitter thread by Chinese American sociologist Nancy Wang Yuen on Tuesday featuring “Asian badass women” and wrote, “Saw the news last night… my emotions haven’t figured themselves out yet.”
“The perp followed her to her apartment, stabbed her 40 times, then was found under her bed and arrested,” she added, referring to the murder of Lee in her New York City Chinatown apartment.
Yuen’s thread features GIFS of female Asian actors who have starred in action films to inspire Asian women who have grown fearful due to the recent brutal crimes against Asian women. Some of the featured actors in the GIFs include Meng’er Zhang from “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,” Olivia Liang from “Kung Fu” and Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American Hollywood movie star.
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“I don’t know how to process all of the Asian American women dying violently,” the sociologist previously tweeted. “Last March, I felt the urgency to educate, advocate, speak out. Now I just feel exhausted and helpless.”
Salonga’s recent tweet was not the first time she called out Asian hate and violence in the U.S. Last March, she shared a clip of the surveillance footage of an elderly Filipino American who was assaulted by a man while she was on her way to church.
Responding to the incident, she tweeted: “Meanwhile… this is still happening. And this is a stone’s throw away from Broadway theaters. My mom would walk to church on her own, feeling totally safe in this city, and I never had to worry about her. I guess those days are over.”
In another tweet from the same day last year, Salonga shared a statement by K-pop boy band BTS, who condemned Asian hate on social media last year. She wrote: “Perfectly and thoughtfully worded, as always. #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate.”
Featured Image via PBS
