Tina Cohen-Chang is a major character on Glee. Tina was a series regular up until Season Six, where she became a recurring character. She is an alumna of William McKinley High School, where she actively participated in the school's Glee Club and was one of the New Directions' original members. She currently attends Brown University, and is best friends with Blaine Anderson, Sam Evans, and Artie Abrams. At the beginning of Season One, she pretended to have a stutter, which she claims to have started when she was younger, to push people away due to her shyness. Now, she appears to get along with most of the other members in the Glee Club. Since Season Two onwards, her character seems to become more confident and outgoing. In Season Four, she develops a feisty, sassy personality, that continued in Season Five and Six. She is also the winner of 'Diva Week' in Diva. She won Prom Queen in Tina in the Sky with Diamonds. Tina dated fellow glee club member, Artie Abrams, but she started seeing Mike Chang before breaking up with Artie (whom she later dumped in the lunch line at school), as they had fallen in love at Asian Camp during the summer. The relationship between Tina and Mike has been the longest-lasting relationship of any to appear on the show to date, lasting two entire seasons, without any break-ups. However, by the start of Season Four, Tina has broken up with Mike, choosing not to commit to a long-distance relationship. She also said that she is still in love with Mike and they remain close friends after the school's production of Grease after they agreed to talk. She develops a crush on Blaine Anderson later on in the season, which then develops into a close friendship.
She graduated in the 2013 McKinley High School Class in New Directions, along with Blaine, Sam, Brittany, Artie, Becky and the rest of the seniors. She was accepted to Brown University.
She returns in the last season of the series to help Rachel and Kurt recruit new members for the rebooted glee club. Later, she helps Becky (alongside Quinn) in her relationship with her boyfriend (Darrell), and then she returns for Brittany's, Santana's, Kurt's and Blaine's double wedding, while, at the same time, she proposes to Mike, who declines her offer, much to her dismay. In Dreams Come True, it is revealed that in 2020, she stars in Artie's film, which got into a film festival, also she and Artie are getting back together.
She is portrayed by actress, singer, and author Jenna Ushkowitz.
Tina and Artie sign up together. It is notable that Tina has a conspicuous stutter and even stutters when she is writing. She auditions for the Glee Club with the song I Kissed a Girl by Katy Perry, in which she finishes the performance with a thigh slap. She makes it into the club. The first song the Glee Club sings together is Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat, which they are all frustrated by as they feel their talents aren't being put to good use. Later on Tina, along with everyone else who auditioned moves on to watch Vocal Adrenaline perform a show-stopping rendition of Rehab, which leaves the club speechless. After Mr. Schuester attempts to quit Glee, because his wife Terri told him she was pregnant, Tina performs alongside her fellow Glee Club members in Don't Stop Believin' which convinces him to stay.
Tina first appears practicing runs with Mercedes and Artie in the parking lot. She later rehearses Le Freak with the Glee Club and performs Push It with the Glee club in front of the whole school at their assembly. At the end of episode, Tina can be seeing doing back-up vocals for Take a Bow along with Mercedes.
When Will is too busy with the Acafellas and has no time for the Glee club, Tina and the girls go in search of Dakota Stanley, the choreographer of Vocal Adrenaline. She and Rachel tell Mercedes not to pursue a romantic relationship with Kurt because he is gay and Mercedes will very likely be disappointed, but Mercedes rejects their advice.
Preggers
In the beginning of the episode Tina dances to Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) with Kurt and Brittany in his basement, but his dad catches them. Kurt attempts to hide his sexuality by saying that Tina is his "girlfriend" and he told him that he auditioned for the Football Team and got in, he also told his dad that their dresses are actually the costumes for the football team. Burt Hummel, Kurt's father, tells Kurt to get him tickets for his first football game. Later in the episode, Mr. Schue awards Tina her first solo, Tonight, from West Side Story, because she hasn't had a solo yet. Rachel is incredibly angry at Mr. Schue, and threatens to quit if he has Tina sing Tonight instead of her. Later in the auditorium, when she performs the song, she is too sharp on the last high note and insists that she is bad and that the solo has to be given to Rachel. Mr. Schuester points out that her stutter is getting better from her boosted confidence. In the end, Mr. Schuester sticks with Tina, causing Rachel to leave the club to do the musical with Sandy.
Mercedes and Tina telling Will that April can stay.
April Rhodes,trying to win the trust of the club, teaches Tina and Mercedes how to shoplift, and the rest of the Glee club through a handful of methods. After April has Tina and Mercedes' trust, they tell Mr. Schue that she can stay. Tina worries that Quinn doesn't like them (referring to her sickness), but Puck instead reveals she is pregnant. Tina sings Last Nameand Somebody to Love with the club.
Mr. Schuester proposes a mash-up competition, pitting the girls against the boys, and promises that the winning group will get to choose the opening number for the upcoming Sectionals competition. It is also shown that Mercedes is giving Tina a manicure and they are both laughing at a joke that Brittany told them. When time comes for the boys to perform their mash-up performance, the girls were all shocked at the amazing performance and will be a tough performance to beat. Terri gives Tina and the other New Directions girls a pseudoephedrine, enabling them to perform a hyper version of Halo/Walking on Sunshine, like what the boys did. In the end, Mr. Schuester finds out that Terri gave them all pills and is furious with both of the teams. As a result, there is no winner since both teams cheated.
Tina is chosen by Sue to be part of her "elite" Glee Club, the Sue's Kids, along with the other 'minority' students in the New Directions: Santana, Artie, Kurt, Mike, Mercedes and Matt. Sue refers to Tina as "Asian," but is somewhat confused with Mike because they're both Asian; however, Sue then calls over "Other Asian," ending any confusion. Tina is also present in the performance Hate on Me in which she belts in and she dances with the Glee Club members. Sue and Will have an argument and when the whole club heard Sue's insults about them, Tina leaves behind Mercedes. Finally, they all return to be a single group and perform Keep Holding On for Quinn.
At the beginning of the episode Tina along with Kurt, Mercedes, and Rachel are afraid to be slushied by Karofsky, but Finn is the one who ends up being slushied. Tina, Mercedes, and Artie wore raincoats to protect them from being slushied. Tina is one of the girls who defended Kurt from Finn along with Mercedes, Rachel, and Artie. She opens the door of the girl's bathroom when Kurt slushied himself. Tina later watches, happily, as Puck sings Sweet Caroline, and is later disappointed when Finn briefly quits the club.
Tina and the rest of the Glee club are given an assignment by Mr. Schue to ride in a wheelchair for at least 2 hours a day, to be in Artie's shoes after the seemed insensitive to his condition. Tina later takes an interest in Artie and his disability, and admits to Artie after rehearsal: "I really admire you, Artie. How did it happen?" Artie then confesses to Tina that he was caught up in a car accident
when he was eight, and that was how he got in a wheelchair; Tina is probably the first student he told. He also adds "I still have full use of my penis," which causes Tina to blush out of embarrassment and leave. Eventually, she goes on a date with him in the hallways of McKinley after the school closes. They have a wheelchair race which Artie wins. She kisses him and reveals that she has been faking her stutter in order to avoid talking to people due to her shyness, starting in the sixth grade. Artie is hurt, as he finds it offensive to fake a disability, and comments that as while Tina can just go back to normal, he can't, and out of rage and shock, he leaves Tina. Tina later sings in the performance dedicated to Artie, Proud Mary, where she is given a considerably large solo, and during the performance, Tina smiles at Artie sadly.
The students draw names out of a hat to pick partners for their ballad assignment. Tina is paired with Mike Chang. However, instead of singing their ballads, they end up singing Lean on Me with the rest of the club to Finn and Quinn. In this episode, Tina reveals that she has rosacea, which is currently "acting up" in this episode during all the "baby drama," as Tina puts it.
Tina and the rest of the club watch the Jane Addams Academy girls perform. She receives lessons in "hairography" from Brittany, and then performs Hair/Crazy in Love with New Directions, and is partnered up with Mike Chang. Finally, she gets her first complete solo when she performs True Colors, with the rest of the club on back up vocals.
At the beginning of the episode Kurt is showing the whole club the Thunderclap (McKinley High's yearbook) and telling them that they better not to be in it due to all previous years' photos being defaced by the whole school, and it will also save them from hours of countless ridicule. Tina along with the rest of the club, (except for Rachel) is scared of the yearbook photo because photos of unpopular kids/groups always end up being defaced. In the end, she poses for the yearbook photos with the Glee Club, but is defaced by Karofsky. She, along with the whole club, also help with the mattress land advert, providing backup vocals and dancing with Brittany, Mike, Artie, Finn and Mercedes.
Tina and the club discover that that father of Quinn's baby father is really Puck. At Sectionals, she, along with the rest of the club, find out that the other teams have stolen their set-list. She can be seen in the background crying and Artie comforting her. Along with the rest of New Directions, she creates a new set list and performs You Can't Always Get What You Want (in which she gets a reasonably small solo) and wins the competition. Finally, the club dedicates My Life Would Suck Without You to Mr. Schue.
After winning Sectionals, Tina and the club set their sights on Regionals. When Rachel sings Gives You Hell, Tina sings with the club providing background vocals for Rachel. She later threatens Rachel alongside Kurt, Artie, and Mercedes for the risk she is taking dating Jesse St. James. Tina later sings in Hello, Goodbye
Tina and the other Glee girls discuss their boy problems, and she tells them about her troubles with Artie, in which Artie states he forgives Tina for faking her stutter, but wants her to wear tighter/seductive clothes if she wants him to be her boyfriend, which angers her. Later in a Glee rehearsal, when Will talks about the Glee Club boys not treating the girls nicely, she looks pointedly at Artie. She and other glee girls perform Express Yourself, and she attends the rehearsal in which Jesse joins the club. Artie's misogynistic attitude leads her to confront him angrily, but Artie later apologizes and the two mend their relationship after Artie admits he'd propose to her if he could and Tina then kisses him.
Home
Tina and Artie, concerned for Mercedes' health after she begins to starve herself under pressure from Coach Sue to lose weight, express their unwanted concerns. In a hungry haze, Mercedes imagines Tina as a cupcake. When kicked out of the auditorium, Tina and the club practice at April Rhodes new roller rink. She also watches and harmonizes during Mercedes' performance of Beautiful. Later, Tina and the rest of the club sing backup to April during the song home. Bad Reputation When Mr. Schuester later interrogates Tina over a "Glist" she insists Puck posted it. She also attempts to gain a bad reputation by singing U Can't Touch This in the library with Kurt, Brittany, and Artie, and she blushes looks embarrassed when the librarian claims their performance is "cute". Laryngitis Tina is mostly seen in the background throughout the entire episode. She also performs backup vocals in one.
Dream On Bryan Ryan visits the club and tells them that their dreams will never come true, greatly upsetting Tina, who cries because performing is the career she wants to pursue. She is also present during the fantasty performance of Safety Dance that took place in the mall while Tina went to get ice-cream for Artie, although she does not provide vocals, she does back-up dance. She later confronts Artie on his dream to dance and attempts to make a dance routine with him. She tries to tap dance with him, and Artie feels more confident, leading him to try and walk using a pair of crutches. However, he stumbles and falls in front of Tina, causing him to shout tearfully "Go away!", which upsets Tina, but she leaves. The next day she apologizes, and tells him she's been doing research on cure's for broken spines. She says she believes one day their will a cure for his condition, saying "If you can dream it, it's real." She then kisses him again and goes with him to purchase tap shoes. After Artie realizes his dream won't come true for a long time, he asks Tina to dances lead with Mike during Dream a Little Dream of Me instead of him. Theatricality
Principal Figgins orders Tina to lose her goth look or be suspended, as he believes her style of dress encourages vampires. Tina goes into a slump, not knowing how to dress. She comes into school the next day dressed plainly, which causes concern for Mr. Schuester, and for the rest of ND to stare at her. The Glee Club then suggest different styles for her to wear, none of which she approves of. She becomes inspired by Lady Gaga and, along with the other Glee girls and Kurt, sings Bad Romance, in which she gets a considerable solo to sing by herself. She is wearing Lady Gaga's bubble dress for the performance and for the rest of the day. She is also picked on by two bullies, but is defended by Kurt. Despite this, she still gets pushed up against the lockers, and it is heavily implied Karofsky and Azimio beat up her and Kurt. Sick of the Gaga look, Tina pretends to be a vampire and scares Figgins into letting her dress the way she wants. She claims that her father is a vampire, and that Asian vampires are the worst. She is then able to wear the clothes she likes again. She announces this in Glee Club, and the whole club cheers for her as she takes a bow. She also confronts Karofsky and Azimio with the rest of the Glee Club when they harass Kurt. Funk
Tina then goes into yet another slump when Jesse leaves the club and returns to Vocal Adrenaline, but soon gets over it and performs Give up the Funk to scare her competitors. While performing she pauses and looks at Artie. She says that when Vocal Adrenaline toilet-papered the choir room that "It feels like someone invaded our home." Journey
Just before Regionals, the club learns that Sue will be a judge and is planning on destroying them, which causes Tina to cry. She tells the club that before joining, she had two Facebook friends—just her parents—and expresses her belief that being a part of the Glee Club made her special. She sings the medley of Faithfully, Any Way You Want It/Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin' and Don't Stop Believin' with the rest of the club and is confident of their upcoming success. Tina accompanies Quinn to the hospital and waits for her to give birth before returning to Regionals and discovering that they have lost. On returning to school, Tina and the New Directions tearfully sing to To Sir, With Love to Mr Schue (In which Artie harmonizes for her while she sings her solo part), fearing that because they didn't place at Regionals the club will be disbanded. She also confesses that before Glee Club "I had a stutter." Artie stares at Tina as he admits that before Glee Club he never kissed a girl before. However, Sue allows the club an extra year and Tina happily holds hands with Artie and listens as Mr. Schue, overjoyed, sings Over The Rainbow to them.
Appearance and Fashion
She has long black hair with purple, blue, light brown or shocking pink streaks, and brown eyes (except for the episode, Born This Way where she wore blue contacts). Her style is a mixture of punk, emo, goth and Lolita styles. She prefers colors such as black, blue, gray, and occasionally red, lurid yellow or purple. She is frequently clothed in chains, skulls, locks, cameos, studs, and other things with gothic nature. In Theatricality, Principal Figgins bans her from wearing goth clothing, as a result of his fear of vampires. However, she gets back at him by convincing him that her father is a vampire and will hurt him if the principal bans her fashion anymore. She occasionally wears hats and she sometimes uses vibrant eyeshadow such as a lime green or an orange.
Whilst through the first two seasons, her style is generally considered "Emo" or "Goth," her style alters slightly throughout the seasons;
In Season One, her style is considered "Punk Rocker." This would be better described as a rebellious and dark twist on tom-boy style. It mainly consists of studs, arm warmers, black, fish nets, beanies, converse, spiked shoes, rips/tears and more vibrant/neon colors in her hair (Like neon pink, red and purple). It is a quite aggressive form of goth, sometimes compared to an emo-"skater chick" look. Tina has also been shown in one episode sporting an altered silver cross on her necklace
In Season Two however, her style dramatically changes as Tina goes from casual-emo to a more feminine "Victorian goth" style. This is a lot more elegant and "lady like" look, although it is still genuinely considered part of goth fashion. This style usually involves veils, fish-nets, dresses, frills black, and more discreet colors in her hair (namely dark blue). It is not similar to real Victorian fashion, only slightly more bohemian and dark. It is also a little more modern. There are two episodes in Season Two where the above does not apply. In Comeback, Tina briefly takes a break from her typical outfits, and replaces them with "librarian chic" clothes, to follow Brittany's trend. This short style Tina used is basically a more tight and seductive version of Rachel's clothes. In the next episode, her goth-wear is reinstated without a mention of what happened to the trend she was following.
In Blame It on the Alcohol, Tina wore shorts and sleeveless tops during the song Tik Tok and in the song Blame It (On the Alcohol) were all members are wearing leather and it is her usual style but she wore shorts and sleeveless which is not her usual clothing.
Tina's look of Season Three
In Season Three, Tina appears to have abandoned the goth look in favor of retro '60s fashion, wearing bright colors and polka dots. She has also used many surprisingly optimistic accessories (e.g. ties and jumpers). She appears to have replaced her hair-highlights with curls. In Props, while Tina is dreaming, she visualizes Rachel as herself, though she is wearing her "Victorian Goth" style, similar to what she wore in Season Two. Tina keeps this look and style during Season Four; however, after the events of Shooting Star, she decides to try a new style, called "Steampunk." This style tends to synthesize modern styles influenced by the Victorian era, like vests, top hats, and so. After the events of Sweet Dreams, it seems like she has returned to her '60s fashion, style that keeps wearing during Season Five and Season Six.
Personality
In Season One, Tina is very much the awkward outsider; shy, soft spoken, and meek. Tina has spent most of her life doing her best to stay under the radar of everyone else around her, whether it be social or academic. Her fears of being noticed were so great that when she was still in elementary school, she devised a fake stutter to aid her in getting out of doing an oral presentation. Seeing how effective the stutter was on that specific occasion, Tina began to use it in order to protect herself from having to interact with anyone who she didn't feel comfortable with. As a result Tina's only friend for a long time was Artie, who felt they shared a connection through their mutual disabilities. The only time that Tina seems to allow herself to come out of her shell is when she sings. When on stage, she is bold, brash and without fear, even going so far as to sing I Kissed a Girl in a surprisingly aggressive manner at Glee auditions. Upon joining Glee, Tina has slowly started to relax her defenses, to the point where she has formed other friendships with Kurt, Mercedes, Brittany and a few other members of the Glee Club. She has even 'lost' her stutter, which was her greatest social defense. Her brief romantic relationship with Artie was the final step inover-coming her anxiety, as she admitted to him for the first time that her stutter was fake. Unfortunately, this admission resulted in an abrupt end to the relationship, which could have possible sent her back into her shell. According to Tina's Facebook profile, she enjoys listening to emo-core and speed metal music, cutting the hair off her dolls, and spending time with her speech therapist, by the name of Judy (due to the fact she admitted to Artie her stutter is a lie, this could very well be a lie as well).
In Season Two, Tina has become much more bold and open about her feelings. However, she is not without her personal insecurities, as seen when she suspects Mike of cheating on her with Brittany during Special Education. Tina feels that she is not good enough to be with Mike, a popular football player, which causes her to go so far as to dress like a cheerleader for him. Tina has always been open about being Asian and is proud of it but on many occasions she has also shown annoyance at being stereotyped as one. Her insecurities have gotten the best of her on several other occasions as well, most notably during her performance of My Funny Valentine for Mike and her performance of I Follow Rivers when she was heckled by the audience.
In the start of Season Three, we can see how Tina is completely committed to her relationship with Mike, helping him to get into a Dance School and trying to convince Mr. Chang, who didn't want Mike to go there, without telling to her boyfriend. Also, she is slowly growing up and standing up for herself, like she did in the events of Props, where is revealed she wanted more attention that what she was receiving. However, it isn't until the Season Fourpremiere that Tina seems to finally have opened completely about her feelings and thoughts. She is not afraid to say what she thinks, developing a much more sarcastic, sassy and Santana-ish personality, to the point that she is now considered one of the main Divas of the Glee Club, earning the "First Annual William McKinley High School Diva Award." During her senior year, she develops a crush on Blaine, which later leads into a very close friendship; he's the person who still can see the most of her emotional side. She also seems to be in great terms with Sam and Kitty. Her popularity also seems to be growing, as she is nominated for Prom Queen, award that she ends winning, not without being Carrie'd by Bree, Dottie, and The Cheerios
Relationships
Their relationships started at Audition, Tina started becoming attracted to Mike during the summer at Asian Camp, where both of them were counselors teaching tech-savvy Asian kids about the arts. Tina found herself attracted to Mike, due in large part to his amazingly cut abs, which he revealed during a song and dance number. It resulted in them making out in front of their own students. When they returned to school, blogger Jacob Ben Israel attempted to confirm their relationship, but they called him racist for implying that they were only dating because they were both Asian. However, as they walked away, they clasped hands, unaware that they were still being filmed, and thus confirming the relationship. In the end of the episode (Audition) they are seen dancing together in the music room.
Tina and Mike in Season One.
In Duets Mike doesn't want to sing in a duet but prefer to dance because he is really not confident with his voice. When it's time to show their duet song Tina comforts Mike because he is still scared to sing. In their duet song they sang Sing!, the result was successful and they hugged after the song. In Never Been Kissed, they are making out in the empty classroom Tina is imagining Coach Beiste and saying the name out loud, Mike is a little bit confused and Tina ran quickly ran out of the empty classroom, implying that Tina may be bisexual. In Furt they attended the wedding of Carole Hudson and Burt Hummel. They also had a short duet in the group number Marry You. In The Sue Sylvester Shuffle, Tina joined the Football Team with Mike, because the other players left. When they began to play, Tina picks up the ball and ran for the goal but is hardly tackled leaving her unconscious, Mike was so worried for Tina but after a few seconds, Tina woke up and Mike was very happy. In Silly Love Songs, Artie sings P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) while Mike is dancing to it, they dedicate it to Brittany and Tina. After the song Tina sang My Funny Valentine to Mike to show him how much she loved him. In Blame It on the Alcohol, Tina and Mike both attended Rachel's party. In A Night of Neglect, they are both
in the The Brainiacs. When Tina performs I Follow Rivers but is booed out by the The Heckling Club, Mike comforts her when she is crying because of the result of her performance. In Born This Way, Mike calls Tina a "self-hating Asian" because she's wearing blue contacts but in the end of the episode it is shown that they're kissing and Mr. Schue stops them. In Prom Queen, Mike escorted Tina to the dance and they are both caught again kissing in the song Jar of Hearts. In The First Time, she reveals that she lost her virginity to Mike over the past summer. Mike again escorted Tina to their second prom in Prom-asaurus and shared a kiss during Take My Breath Away.
In The New Rachel, Tina reveals she broke up with Mike over the summer, despite getting a tattoo before saying 'Mike Chang Forever', which she changed to 'Make Change Forever' after their break-up. Tina makes clear that she still in love with Mike, and still remain good friends. However when he returns to help out with the musical, Tina tries to avoid him altogether as it is still slight uncomfrontable. At the end of the musical, Mike and Tina re-think their break-up and consider doing some further talking.
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