Jenn Tran can’t stop thinking about being the first Asian-American leading lady in the history of “The Bachelor” franchise – not that she wants to.
“I think about it every day, all the time. I think if I let that go, it would be a huge dishonor to who I am, because being Asian-American, that’s me,” the 26-year-old aspiring physician assistant told the Associated Press.
A Vietnamese-American woman reigning over Bachelor Nation marks a significant moment for the TV dating giant. Historically, fewer roses on “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” have gone to black contestants. The roses distributed often came with many thorns, including racist comments on social media.
Tran’s season only premieres on ABC on Monday, but has already received some criticism for having few suitors of Asian descent. Still, Tran – who made it to the final six in the last “Bachelor” Season Starring Joey Graziadei — is embracing her unconventional search for love as an opportunity to share her bicultural upbringing.
“My mom and I speak a lot of Vietnamese together. And I can’t wait for people to see this. This is not something people have seen before,” says Tran.
“The Bachelor” has been a mixed bag when it comes to showcasing Asian cultures. In 2019, “Bachelor” Lead Colton Underwood I went on a group date eating Singaporean street food. The mostly white contestants made choking noises and Colton, who is also white, toasted “the weird food.” The tour generated some reaction and even a Washington Post column.
Tran, whose season has already finished filming, says the show treated her Vietnamese identity with respect.
“There’s a little scene at the beginning of my intro package where I talk to my family about coming out single and there they cook a big, big Vietnamese meal,” says Tran. “I hope… I’m exposing people to something different than themselves. And that can incite change and incite acceptance in people.”
Non-white competitors and leaders, including black pioneers rachel lindsay and Matt James, have historically been met with hostility from Bachelor Nation’s mostly white audience. Longtime host Chris Harrison left the franchise in 2021, under attack because of its handling a racism controversy in an interview with Lindsay. Rachel Nance, who is Filipino and black and survived Tran on Graziadei’s season, tearfully recounted in March that she received “hundreds” of direct messages and comments using racial slurs toward both black and Asian people. (Some viewers were disappointed that host Jesse Palmer didn’t call it racism, but asked viewers to temper their “strong opinions.”)
Tran was not immune to the same treatment. She receives racist comments “every day” on Instagram and TikTok, she says. Her approach is to simply ignore it, although it’s not easy.
“Social media is like a platform for all these people to come to me at once and it’s a new feeling. It’s overwhelming. And unfortunately, that’s the world we live in now,” says Tran. “I hope people are more open-minded and really open their hearts to this.”
Tran’s star turn has definitely piqued the interest of Asian-Americans who don’t typically watch “Bachelor” programming. One of them is Vi Luong, 27, a Vietnamese-American social media influencer/content creator who only watched “The Golden Bachelor.” She was never interested in the younger incarnations.
“I would say 90 percent of my friends are Asian, and yeah, they’re in my boat where they’ve never cared until now,” says Luong, who lives in Irvine, California. “The bad rhetoric I was seeing was like, ‘Oh, she’s a diversity hire.’ Maybe, but, like, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. … Tapping into a totally different demographic — I think it’s a smart choice.”
Luong has already received invitations to attend parties happening in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Luong, whose boyfriend is white, wants to see how Tran and the show cope interracial dating and any cultural clashes. She’s also eager to know how Tran’s mom will handle meeting her boyfriend.
“This is where I think, ‘Oh, this could get really interesting,’” says Luong. “If there’s one thing you need to know about the Vietnamese people, it’s that we’re very, very frank, very direct people, especially our parents’ generation.”
The star herself says that her mother only watched Vietnamese reality shows. Tran isn’t sure how her parents will react to whatever ends up airing—but her mom wasn’t shy during filming, which Tran thinks will make for good TV.
“There are some concerns and things she mentioned because of our Vietnamese culture. So that’s something I’m excited for people to learn,” says Tran. “She was really just trying to make sense of it all.”
Only a few of the 25 men vying for her affection appear to be of Asian descent, and only one is Vietnamese-American. The dearth of Asian men in the franchise has been a constant complaint: The “Bachelor” universe, which debuted in 2002, didn’t have an Asian contestant until the 2016 season of “The Bachelorette.” Jonathan, a half-Scottish, half-Chinese technical sales rep, walked in in a kilt and was remembered mainly for a crude joke that implied his Asian side wasn’t as manly.
In response to the lack of Asian men, Asian-American production company Wong Fu Productions made two “Bachelorette” parodies in 2017 and 2018. Collectively, the YouTube videos, one of which features a pre-“Shang Chi” Simu Liu, accumulated more than 9 million views.
Philip Wang, co-founder and video director, plans to check out Tran’s journey. He called her casting “a positive move” but hopes the series avoids any stereotypical tropes.
“Ultimately, Bachelorette shows are very white/adjacent, so it’s an uphill battle to change that brand/audience…if it’s even worth it,” Wang wrote in an email.
In a wide-ranging interview last month with the Los Angeles Times, the showrunners who replaced creator Mike Fleiss Last year addressed the franchise’s troubling history with race. They acknowledged that they did not respond to concerns about few non-white leads and online bullying, and acknowledged that Tran should have had more Asian suitors.
As for whether any of these suitors put a ring on him, Tran wouldn’t confirm.
“I can say I’m happy with how things turned out,” she says with a smile.
In addition to romance, Tran also feels like she has found her voice on “The Bachelor” franchise. She was candid about wanting to break off a series of toxic relationships. She hopes viewers see an Asian-American woman unafraid to stand up for what she knows she deserves.
“Throughout this journey, I’ve really learned to stand up for myself, because if you don’t, no one else will,” says Tran. “I hope women see this and relate to it and understand that it’s okay to have a voice and in fact it makes you stronger in who you are.”
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