‘Bachelor’s’ first Asian lead ready for her moment

Jenn Tran can’t stop thinking about being the first Asian American lead in the history of The Bachelor franchise - not that she wants to.

“I think about it every day, all the time. I think if I pushed it aside, that would be such a dishonour to me in who I am because being Asian American, that’s me,” the 26-year-old aspiring physician assistant told AP.

A Vietnamese American woman reigning over Bachelor Nation marks a significant moment for the reality TV dating behemoth. Historically, fewer roses on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have gone to contestants of colour. The roses that were handed out often came with plenty of thorns, including racist social media commentary.

Tran’s season doesn’t debut on ABC until Monday, but it’s already received some criticism for having few suitors of Asian descent. Still, Tran - who made it to the final six in the last Bachelor season starring Joey Graziadei - is embracing her unconventional search for love as an opportunity to share her bi-cultural upbringing.

“My mom and I speak a lot of Vietnamese together. And I can’t wait for people to see that. That’s not something that people have seen before,” Tran says.

The Bachelor has been a mixed bag when it comes to showcasing Asian cultures. In 2019, Bachelor lead Colton Underwood went on a group date over Singaporean street food. The mostly white contestants made gagging noises and Colton, who is also white, made a toast “to weird food.” The outing drew some backlash and even a Washington Post column.

Tran, whose season has already completed filming, assures that the show has handled her Vietnamese identity respectfully.

“There is a small scene in the beginning in my intro package where I talk to my family about leaving as a bachelorette and there they cooked a big, big Vietnamese meal,” Tran says. “I hope ... I’m exposing people to something that’s different than them. And so that can incite change and that can incite acceptance into people.”

Non-white contestants and leads, including black trailblazers Rachel Lindsay and Matt James, have historically been met with hostility from the majority-white Bachelor Nation audience. Longtime host Chris Harrison left the franchise in 2021, under fire over his handling of a racism controversy in an interview with Lindsay. Rachel Nance, who is Filipino and black and outlasted Tran on Graziadei’s season, tearfully recounted in March getting “hundreds” of DMs and comments using racial slurs for both black and Asian people. (Some viewers were disappointed that host Jesse Palmer did not call it racism but instead asked viewers to temper their “strong opinions.”)

Tran hasn’t been immune to the same treatment. She gets racist comments “every day” on Instagram and TikTok, she says. Her approach is to simply ignore it, though it isn’t easy.

“Social media is like this platform for all these people just come at me all at once and it’s a new feeling. It’s overwhelming. And unfortunately, that’s the world that we live in right now,” Tran says. “I hope that people are more open-minded and that they open their hearts up to this truly.”