Rating Redheads #3: Meilin Lee

 Meilin Lee of Turning Red is such an interesting case because she's a rare instance (in film) of the magic of a redhead being tied to their character identity and arc. But how does it fare for representation?

(No spoilers except what's in the trailers.)

Meilin (or Mei) is a Chinese-Canadian 13-year-old girl in 2002. She is in a close but domineering relationship with her mother, Ming, and as she enters puberty she begins to rankle under her mother's helicopter parenting.
Their relationship comes to a head when the family gift/curse falls on Mei, turning her into a red panda whenever she gets emotional. This transformation permanently turns her black hair red.

As stated, Mei's hair color is an odd case, but does that mean she's a "bad" ginger?

1) Accuracy to the redhead experience: 2/5
Not to diminish the existence of red-headed Asians-- redheads of every race are valid and valuable-- but the way Turning Red goes about showing it is, obviously, unrealistic.
In real life, red hair is a recessive gene that can lay dormant for generations: in the film, Mei comes from a long line of Chinese ancestors, and the red hair comes from a magical gift.
As far as Mei's daily life, she has the unique experience of waking up one day to be surprised with red hair, which would be wild (to wake up with an unwitting color change of any kind).
Mei's friends are 100% on board with the new hair, and no one makes fun of her for it. A common experience for many redheads is being bullied, and since Mei has her own bully in the movie, it's weird he doesn't comment on it.
I have nothing against the film for its many different representations, but for the purpose of this rating, having magic red hair isn't realistic.

2) How Mei's gingerness is used: 5/5
This whole film is about Mei being a redhead in some respect, whether in human form or panda.
But why a red panda? Well, according to Embracing the Panda, the documentary about the film, the director Domee Shi liked the look of red pandas and went from there. But of course, there's a lot more to it than that.First, and the age-old staple on this blog: Mei is an outsider, and red hair is the telltale sign of the Other. Though, unlike other characters, Mei doesn't start out an outsider. She has a friend group, she's active in school, connected with her family. But the red hair, when it arrives, separates her from all that. When the panda appears, Mei hides from her friends, keeps secrets from her parents, and doesn't attend school for a while. Mei's red hair is a catalyst for change in her life.
Red hair is also a symbol of puberty in the film: to be specific, female puberty. Pads and symptoms of the menstrual cycle are referenced throughout the film. Mei's initial horror and embarrassment of the panda and her red hair mirror how female puberty has been made taboo by society.
But puberty/the panda isn't the first time red is associated with Mei's character. Like many films, the characters are color-coded, and you can tell their personality or relationship to other characters by their color.
Mei's color is red from the beginning, with some blue thrown in, possibly to connect her to her mother, who contrasts Mei's red tones with cool greens and blues.
Finally, red the color has cultural significance. Not only is the red panda native to China, but red is considered a lucky color, and is prominent in their architecture, celebrations, and fashion.
I really enjoyed how much thought went into the themes of this film, and how the panda/ gingerness factored into that.

3) Stereotypes used:0
(Mild spoilers)
One could make the argument for the "Special" stereotype, but I'm not including it because Mei isn't the only redhead in the film with panda powers.
This film could have easily made Mei a Special, or a Nerd, but instead they made her a normal, weird girl, which works best for a film normalizing being weird.

Final score: 7/10

Though Meilin isn't a "realistic" redhead, the director used her red hair in innovative and respectful ways, which I think will positively impact real redheads.