ASIANS EMERGE FROM THE SHADOWS

FOR THE FIRST TIME, AN AD FOR AN ASIAN PERFORMANCE HOVERS OVER A PRESTIGIOUS ARTERY

(IN OCTOBER 2024)

     Seen on the avenue de l'Opéra on October 21 2024

Several years of gradual awareness of Asians' importance to Paris lie behind that: take these ads in the ordinary 13th district or the métro.

# # #

When in early 2020 a flowering of images suddenly emphasized North Africans and Blacks, the only Asian was a baby: 

Pharmacy, corner of rues de Tolbiac and Château des Rentiers

Then Asian models were timidly introduced...

Boulevard Vincent Auriol

Gourmet shop, boulevard Vincent Auriol

Bus stop, rue de Tolbiac 

...and from spring 2021 they flowered...

     Métro place d'Italie

Rue Nationale

Métro Châtelet  

Avenue d'Italie

Métro Marcadet-Poissonniers

Métro Nationale

Rue Stephenson, in the African neighborhood of La Goutte d'Or

Rue de Tolbiac, October 2023

Rue de Tolbiac, November 2023

The Italie Deux commercial center, during the 2024 Olympic games

.

..and by 2024 they might dominate:

Avenue d'Italie, December 2023

Corner in the Gobelins area, half an hour from "Chinatown," since 2021

# # #

The ads can be ambiguous,

but people of color are included...

Place d'Italie mall, January 2024

...at last. 

End of this section.

*    *    *

Next section,

II.3.2. 

Eastern Paris, where new worlds emerge