Asian Americans go bonkers over Ohtani for his superhuman baseball prowess — and for shattering stereotypes

Katherine Siew, a Pasadena attorney, has never much followed baseball — until Shohei Ohtani grabbed her attention by signing with the Dodgers in a record-smashing 10-year, $700-million deal. She felt a surge of pride that the superstar athlete was Asian, representing her heritage at the highest level of excellence in a path relatively few Asian Americans tread.

“You don’t really see many Asian faces on TV across any field, let alone sports,” said Siew, 34, who is Chinese American. “I think if growing up, we had seen examples in arts or sports ... I could point to that and say: ‘Look, Mom, we can be successful in that, too. It’s not just always doctor, lawyer.’ I just hope it gives the younger generation a different chance.”

Jon Kaji, a Torrance city councilman, has been a Dodgers fan for six decades, attending games with his dad when the team still played at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The 68-year-old Japanese American was excited when Hideo Nomo joined the Dodgers in 1995 as one of the game’s Asian pioneers, but Ohtani means even more to him.

With his athletic prowess and endearing charm, Kaji said, the two-way talent is eviscerating long-held and still lingering stereotypes of Asians and Asian Americans. There is the monolithic enemy — commies from North Vietnam, sneak attackers from Imperial Japan, tech spies from China. Economic rivals who threaten American jobs. Geeky asexual math and science nerds. And, more recently, the source of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ohtani transcends all of that with a new model of Asian masculinity. He is a 6-foot-4 powerhouse who is arguably the best in the world at the quintessential American sport, hitting and pitching at the highest levels. He is a global heartthrob, with fangirls such as Korean actress Jung Yumi, who flew to New York this year to watch him play. At the same time, he comes across as respectful, generous and kind. He picks up trash on the baseball field. He gave the Dodgers a $680-million interest-free loan to build a championship team, as well as 60,000 baseball gloves to kids in Japan.

And he cuddles with his adorable dog, Decoy, dressing him in polo shirts and teaching him to high-five.

That blend of performance and personality has built legions of Ohtani fans around the world — but nowhere more powerfully than in Asia and among the Asian American community. Many were already big fans when Ohtani was with the Angels, but his move to a higher-profile team and city, with a chance to win the World Series, has taken Shohei mania to a new level.

“He is the presence we have been looking for for nearly a decade,” said Stanley Thangaraj, a Stonehill College professor who is South Asian American, leads the Center for the Study of Race, Ethnicity and Social Justice and authored “Desi Hoop Dreams: Pickup Basketball and the Making of Asian American Masculinity.”

Jeremy Lin was the last professional athlete of Asian heritage to spark a global frenzy, Thangaraj noted. The former NBA player — a Torrance-born son of Taiwanese immigrants — sparked “Linsanity” with his 2011-12 breakout season with the New York Knicks.

But such figures are few and far between, Thangaraj said, overshadowed by the stereotype of Asian and Asian American men as “not man enough … all brains but no brawn.”

The stereotype doesn’t bother all Asian Americans, of course. But most are aware of the rap — which is why the emergence of Bruce Lee and his iconic films in the 1970s electrified them. They felt proud and empowered by the dazzling martial artist, who could take on the likes of Chuck Norris and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Thangaraj was also a fan, putting up a Lee poster in his room as a middle school student in southern India. Lee, he said, represented an Asian fighter extraordinaire who inspired him and his friends to think about ways to take on bullies, India’s power structure and the long legacy of British colonialism.

But Thangaraj said that Ohtani has reached another dimension. Lee excelled in an Asian athletic art form, he said, whereas Ohtani is dominating the most American of sports. Linsanity lasted just a few months, while Ohtani’s star has shone brilliantly for years. And Ohtani is not simply a supporting player. He is now the face of the Dodgers and Major League Baseball writ large.

“Asians and Asian American men ... have been emasculated throughout world history, and to have this be breaking international news means something for the culture,” Naomi Ko, a host of the Asians in Baseball podcast, said in a program this month. Ohtani is not the founder of Nintendo, a martial arts expert or a doctor, she added, citing traditionally Asian career choices. He’s a baseball player. The baseball player.

The Shohei craze was evident this week at the Dodgers team store. Even after the Christmas rush, the aisles were packed with Asian customers riffling through racks of Ohtani jerseys and T-shirts featuring his caricature, his name stamped with Japan’s red sun symbol or the “SHO-TIME” logo. The sounds of Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Korean and English filled the air.

Shunpei Anabuki, a 24-year-old Tokyo insurance firm employee, nabbed an Ohtani jersey for himself and a baseball with the number 17 on it for his girlfriend during his visit to the store with his grandmother, parents and two brothers. The family took a vacation here primarily to visit Disneyland but could not pass up the chance to snap up official Ohtani merch, so they sprang for a $70 Uber ride to Dodger Stadium.

Anabuki said the $190 jersey was a steal compared with the going rate in Japan of 50,000 yen — about $350.

The family woke up early to watch Ohtani’s Angels games, broadcast during the morning in Japan. Anabuki said the athlete’s constant striving for excellence revved him up for the day.

“As a Japanese, I feel proud,” he said. “I want to give my all to be active like him.”

Woo Jae Lee, a visitor from Seoul who was perusing $56 blue Ohtani T-shirts, said he was drawn to the athlete not merely for his baseball prowess but also his personality. The respect he shows his teammates, fans and even opponents, Woo said, is striking at that level of professional sports.

Woo predicted that Koreans will go nuts when Ohtani and the Dodgers open their 2024 season next year in Seoul. The superstar is already improving their feelings toward Japan, whose brutal colonization of Korea in the early 20th century set off decades of historical bitterness, he added.

“Koreans don’t have a good history with the Japanese, but what he does makes Japan a lot better,” Woo said.

Marc Carranza, a Mexican American and third-generation Dodgers fan, strolled outside the team store in an Ohtani jersey — a Christmas gift from his parents along with a ticket to a behind-the-scenes tour of Dodger Stadium. His grandmother and father are die-hard fans of Fernando Valenzuela, the Dodgers pitcher from Mexico who sparked Fernandomania in the 1980s. But Carranza and his friend, Rene Lucho — who owns an Ohtani Angels jersey — said they’re Team Shohei all the way.

“I have a big respect for Valenzuela as well, but now it’s Ohtani time,” Carranza said. “He’s the new thing. He’s the now.”

Kaji is already hatching an idea for a Shohei Day in the South Bay, California’s epicenter of Japanese America, if he can get the Dodgers and Ohtani to cooperate. He also envisions a Little League exchange program with Japan and reciprocal visits to Japan for Americans to see the baseball environment that produced Ohtani and other Japanese major league stars.

“I view Ohtani as the ultimate goodwill ambassador of Japan,” Kaji said. “He’s nothing but positive vibes.”

And the travel industry is gearing up for an explosion of Japanese tourists flocking to L.A. to see Ohtani and his newly signed Japanese teammate, ace pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Akira Minamiura, whose Kintetsu Enterprises Co. of America owns the Miyako Hotels in Little Tokyo and Torrance, said tourism from Japan had waned because of the pandemic, the weak yen and safety concerns about Los Angeles.

News of Ohtani’s deal with the Dodgers “changes everything,” he said.

With all the expectations and hopes now pinned on Ohtani, helping the Dodgers win a World Series championship may be a cakewalk by comparison.