Last week, Anne Shi shared an observation about "rebellious" East Asian characters on her Twitter page.
Shi broke down the trope, saying it appears that writers use the "Asian hair streak" to differentiate between demure and "edgy" Asian women.
The "Asian hair streak" isn't a new concept — the wiki TV Tropes has a whole section on it, and there have been quite a few Tumblr posts discussing the topic.
Shi's take on the trope has been retweeted over 5,000 times. Some people noted that the hairstyle might be the result of Asian women characters being written by non-Asian women.
Others felt the thread cut *super* deep.
Some people offered examples of TV shows which subvert the trope.
Shi told BuzzFeed News she doesn't think, fundamentally, that the "purple hair" itself matters, but that what it represents does.
"The designers pigeon-hole the Asian or East Asian girl into one extreme or the other," she said. "The demure, gentle, subservient Asian housewife or the rebellious girl."
Shi said she hoped the thread would make some people think before they wrote stereotpical Asian characters.