Discussing the dragon lady trope, Cho told Meghan: “The dragon lady really comes from this sort of fantasy of orientalism. It’s similar to the femme fatale in that the woman is beautiful and deadly because we can’t just be beautiful.

“It’s evil queen adjacent, but it’s also so pinned to this idea that Asianness is an inherent threat – that our foreignness is somehow “gonna get you”.

Cho added that this trope has “stuck” to film throughout the years but “but also to Asian American women”.

Cho, who grew up in San Francisco, says she “never saw Asian people” on screen when she was growing up, and so she “never felt seen anywhere”.

Ling agreed, saying the lack of representation for Asians, even on cable TV and news channels, drove her to pursue journalism.

“To be honest with you, the reason why I pursued broadcast journalism at all was because growing up, it’s the only path that I thought was available to me. I was someone who grew up in a broken home,” she shared.

“My parents were divorced when I was seven, and the television was always on in my home. It was like my favourite babysitter. And I used to have these fantasies of being part of it somehow, because I thought, If I can get on TV, maybe I will have a better life one day. But no one looked remotely like me on TV except for Connie Chung.”

During the podcast, the trio also discussed racism they’ve faced, with Ling sharing that she faced racist abuse after being named “hot reporter” in Rolling Stone’s Hot List while working as a broadcaster at Channel One.

“Someone at my place of work cut out that article, drew slanted eyes over the eyes and wrote ‘yeah, right’ and then put it back in my mailbox,” she said.

“It was like every kernel of excitement that I possessed just withered away. It was so devastating that someone that I would see every day in my place of work, where we’re supposed to feel comfortable, just harboured those feelings about me and had the nerve to make it racial.”

Meghan’s latest podcast episode is the fourth in her series. In previous episodes, she has spoken with guests Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, and Mindy Kaling about racism and ambition, being a single woman and the negative connotation behind the word ‘diva’.

Meghan calls out “toxic stereotyping” of East Asian women in Hollywood