We are calling for PictureStart and Plan B to stop production of the film adaptation of Eleanor & Park. 

Eleanor & Park is a book that is written by Rainbow Rowell, a white woman, that talks about the experiences of a biracial Korean character. Throughout the novel she consistently uses language that perpetuates stereotypes of Asian men and denounces Asian characteristics to be 'lesser than'. Rainbow Rowell needs to own up to the racism her novel perpetuates. It is extremely damaging to the Asian community to have stereotypes consistently shown in Hollywood. 

EDIT: Even if the crude language is intentional to display racism in the past, we cannot continue to promote white artists writing INTERPRETATIONS of POC experiences. Park's resentment for his Korean Heritage is not the voice of an Asian-American with these internal experiences but rather a white woman's interpretations of how stereotypes and racism impact a biracial teen. White writers need to realize they are silencing the voices of POC by putting words into their mouths. Hollywood has done this for many years and must not continue to do so. 

Asians need more representation in Hollywood. But not all representation is good representation. While the film is entrusted to an Asian director, that does not excuse the source material. The director is also Japanese. How will the experiences of a biracial Korean man be presented properly? Also, the screenplay will still be written by Rainbow Rowell so the below dialogue very well may remain. 

Here are some quotes from the novel (out of context). 

"Only Park's DNA had missed the memo. Maybe the Korean genes scrambled everything. That didn't explain Josh's hugeness, though. Josh looked like the Korean genes had skipped him altogether. His eyes were brown and just barely almondy-almond-flavored. And his hair was dark, but not even close to black. Josh looked like a big German or Polish kid whose eyes kind of crinkled when he smiled." (Josh and Park are both biracial)

Park dismisses the fetishization of Asian women: "Asian girls are different. White guys think they're exotic." 

Rowell writes Park to hate his Asianess: "Are you trying to come up with a super-hot Asian guy, so you can prove me wrong? Because there aren't any. I've had my whole life to think about this."

Perpetuation of feminizing Asian men: Park: "Everything that makes Asian girls seem exotic makes Asian guys seem like girls."

Here are a couple articles detailing the racist material and excerpts are provided as well. 

https://bookstacked.com/book-to-film/eleanor-and-park-racist-movie/

http://richincolor.com/2014/03/is-eleanor-and-park-racist-and-other-questions-to-ask/