“Nothing says Happy AAPI Month like appropriating Asian culture,” one user commented of the film that stars Tamera Mowry-Housley, Paul Campbell, and more.

Critics slam Hallmark’s mahjong film for sparse Asian representation: ‘Embarrassing’

"Nothing says Happy AAPI Month like appropriating Asian culture," one user commented of the film that stars Tamera Mowry-Housley, Paul Campbell, and more.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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April 22, 2026 11:38 a.m. ET

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Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Melissa Peterman, Tamera Mowry, Fiona Gubelmann in 'All's Fair in Love and Mahjong'. Credit:

- Hallmark announced a new television film, *All's Fair in Love and Mahjong*, set to premiere in May during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

- The film stars Tamera Mowry-Housley, Melissa Peterman, Fiona Gubelmann, Paul Campbell, and Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe.

- "Ah yes, nothing says Happy AAPI Month like appropriating Asian culture," one person commented.

A new Hallmark TV movie centered around the popular, culturally Chinese tile-based game of mahjong has been slammed over alleged lack of onscreen Asian representation.

After Hallmark shared the poster for the upcoming *All's Fair in Love and Mahjong*, comments flooded in, criticizing the film for featuring only one primary cast member of Asian descent: Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, who is of Scottish-Chinese ancestry. Lowe stars in the film opposite Tamera Mowry-Housley, Melissa Peterman, Fiona Gubelmann, and Paul Campbell.

"Collective ancestral sigh..." wrote Wong Fu Productions creative Philip Wang, while writer Kat Lieu pointed out that the film is set to be released in May, at the start of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month.

"Ah yes, nothing says Happy AAPI Month like appropriating Asian culture," Lieu wrote.

Other comments ranged from calling the project "embarrassing" to one person questioning whether or not the characters and cast could effectively play the game at the center of the plot.

"Can anyone in the cast actually read the characters on the tiles or are they just all channeling their inner Marco Polo?" the comment read.

According to a Hallmark press release, the film was directed by Jessica Harmon, with a script by Betsy Morris and Nina Weinman. The film is a Muse Entertainment Production, with Joel S. Rice, Aren Prupas, Allen Lewis, Ronni Rice, and Charles Cooper serving in various producer roles.

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** has reached out to representatives for Hallmark, Muse, Harmon, and all members of the principal cast for comment.

According to Hallmark's official synopsis, the film follows a school nurse who "finds unexpected hope through teaching mahjong, the centuries‑old Chinese game, that helps her build community and open her heart again."

Stills from the film see the project's predominantly female cast engaging in various social activities: singing karaoke, having drinks at a bar, and posing for pictures at a park.

In a *Time* piece published in 2021, writer Cady Lang summarized the power of mahjong as an enduring staple in Chinese American culture.

Melissa Peterman, Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe, Fiona Gubelmann, Tamera Mowry in 'All's Fair in Love and Mahjong'.

"This throughline of connection is one that also spans generations and groups. As a young Chinese American girl growing up in the Bay Area, I played mah-jongg as a way to bond with my grandparents," Lang wrote at the time. "Now, after moving to Brooklyn as an adult, playing mah-jongg at a local Asian grocery store has become a weekly fixture on my social calendar, as friends who learned how to play American-style with their bubbes shuffle tiles alongside new friends from the neighborhood who are playing for the first time."

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The game also served as a prominent plot point in John M. Chu's blockbuster adaptation of Kevin Kwan's *Crazy Rich Asians*, during a key climactic scene between Constance Wu and Michelle Yeoh.

*All's Fair in Love and Mahjong *is set to premiere Saturday, May 9 on Hallmark.

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