Asian and Nerdy

Pretty much any East Asian character in western media who isn't a martial artist or a gangster will be highly intelligent and/or unusually geeky. If done clearly and more on the intelligent side than geeky, this will be an exaggeration of the Brainy Brunette. The polar opposite of this, becoming more common in recent years, is the Asian Airhead — an almost Always Female character archetype centering on an Asian girl who is gorgeous, popular, and dumb as a brick. The reasoning behind this stereotype is that most Asian cultures regard education and smarts as very important things. Children are expected to study very hard to obtain good grades and get into good schools. This also means that "nerdiness" is viewed more positively in these cultures (as evidence of studying hard, rather than too hard as it is usually perceived in American popular culture). For this reason, this character is all but guaranteed to have an Education Mama. May grow up to be a Magical Asian if the character ends up being a mentor for his new students (who may also be nerdy). The possible Trope Codifier was Japanese leader Hideki Tojo, who wore glasses and had an overbite like so many stereotypical nerds, and was portrayed as very nerdy in World War II Allied propaganda. In fact, you could argue that the classic Nerd archetype is a combination of how Jewish people (supposedly) talk with how Japanese people (supposedly) look. The Other Wiki has an article on the "model minority" stereotype from which this trope is derived. Contrast All Asians Know Martial Arts, as most Asian and Nerdy characters lack the athletic ability for martial arts, though it's possible for these two tropes to overlap. For the South Asian subtrope, see Bollywood Nerd. For related tropes, see Jewish and Nerdy, and Black and Nerdy.