‘This image is groundbreaking’: Hugely significant MasterChef moment

MasterChef has given us reasons to laugh, to cry and to be really, really hungry. Now it’s crossed another threshold.

Something revolutionary happened on MasterChef tonight.

For most viewers, they probably didn’t even notice. But for the 16 per cent of Australians who claimed Asian ancestry at the last Census, it’s a significant moment.

With all five cooks – Reynold Poernomo, Jess Liemantara, Poh Ling Yeow, Khanh Ong and Brendan Pang – in tonight’s immunity challenge hailing from Asian backgrounds, plus judge Melissa Leong, Asian-Australians are actually over-represented.

Yes, over-represented on Australian TV – and it’s not Border Security or a coronavirus news bulletin. What a world.

Not one of them is a background actor serving drinks or playing a menacing triad member with a cartoonish accent, they’re front and centre of the story. Not just the story, but their stories, sharing their personal histories to the million-plus Australians who tune in each night.

Judge Melissa Leong shared a picture of the contestants on her Instagram, calling it “ground breaking”.

“Not only did these tremendous humans create the five best dishes yesterday (we judge dishes, not people), but I could never conceive of witnessing a moment like this on prime time television in my lifetime. Thank you Channel Ten,” she said.

“Diversity and representation does not come at the detriment of others, it is to the inclusivity of us all.

“I am proud to be Australian. To be part of a nation whose identity is indigenous and multicultural, we are richer because of ancient and recent.

“To every person who never felt seen, this is for you, may it give you hope. To every person who is yet to feel seen, you are valued and your moment is on its way. We rise together.”

In it to win it

FIVE ASIANS IN A ROW I AM SCREAMING, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY SWAMPED THE SHOW #MasterchefAu

— Benjamin Law 羅旭能 (@mrbenjaminlaw) May 27, 2020

This season of MasterChef, a TV series that celebrates and rewards talent and achievement and not the ability to cause scandal, has already outdone itself by starting with seven contestants and one judge from a group of Australians most TV producers are too scared to put on TV, as if it’s still the White Australia era.

While ABC and SBS have featured Asian-Australians in front of the camera with presenters such as Kumi Taguchi, Jason Om and Lee Lin Chin or on shows such as The Family Law, Utopia and Dead Lucky, their commercial counterparts have stubbornly lagged behind.

Although credit to Channel 10, which has frequently been a stride ahead of its commercial competitors when it comes to diversity of faces on its programs, with Neighbours welcoming Dichen Lachman, whose mother is Tibetan, into its cast in 2005 while Sam Pang is a regular on one of Australia’s top-rated programs Have You Been Paying Attention?

RELATED: Why Crazy Rich Asians was so groundbreaking

RELATED: Benjamin Law looks at the history of Chinese-Australians

Reynold is a favourite to take out the competition

Asian-Australians are woefully under-represented elsewhere on commercial TV, across every genre including other reality TV shows – or maybe we still feel a sense of duty to not shame our hardworking immigrant parents by embarrassing ourselves on MAFS or The Bachelor. Oh boy, the aunties would talk.

Screen representation matters because TV and movies are supposed to reflect the world we live in, and when you’re not part of what’s mirrored on screen, you start to wonder about your place in it. It’s something Australians from an Anglo-Saxon background take for granted and never think about.

Why some TV producers and programmers remain so recalcitrant in opening up their casting books and finding someone from a different background remains a mystery.

It’s not as if there’s not money in it when big brands including Vodafone have featured Asian-Australians and mixed race families in their ad campaigns (and we know corporations don’t just do things because it’s the right thing to do) and when Crazy Rich Asians can make $US238 million worldwide, with a box office of $US17 million in Australia (which was double the UK).

So while tonight’s MasterChef episode is a win for representation, the fight isn’t over.