Asians in Hollywood

From Jacky Chan and Jet Li continuing Bruce Lee's footsteps but yet to play the real Romeo, to Lucy Liu and Jamie Chung playing the wingwomen in major works, and now Maggie Q having her own TV show; Chinese or Asians have fought hard and came quite far. But it just got started.

Earlier this year I started to watch Fresh Off The Boat, and I loved how us Chinese got to be the center of the stage, with our very own story. There are so many relateable things from that show, how you assimilate to a culture but also retain your roots in the all too stellar 90s.


Earlier this month I found out about the new TV show Into the Badlands, a production directed and starred familiar Hong Kong celebrities Daniel Wu and Stephen Fung. And as I read the transcript and videos of the interviews of the conception of the movie, I am amazed how they were able to take a Chinese traditional myth and mold it into something so relateable in the 21st century yet still highlight a lot of oriental roots. This show does have a lot of amazing martial arts scene but the beauty of the show is also the complexity of the plot and the character development; the many layers of strategic decisions made with every detail, from the setting and costume design to sound effects and music. This is a show that is really pushing Chinese in mainstream TV to a new peak.

And now here I am watching Indian and Chinese writers, Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang's creation of Master of None, a story about Asian millennials trying to survive in the 21st century New York City. Again it delights me to see Asians not only playing trivial support roles but being at the center stage. It also shows that we Asians are diverse too. We are not cookie-cut-out doctors and lawyers, nor do we only just know martial arts. Today, Asians are a variety of things, we are fun, we are funny, we are punny, we are artistic. And because we know how hard it is to break through those stereotypes, we respect diversity too.

Korean actor Ki Hong Lee is now starring in the major blockbuster The Maze Runner, and a really inspiring anecdote he shared in an interview is that he asked his mom if he can change his name to be more western for his acting career, and his mom gave the best answer. "You think Dostoevsky is an easy name to pronounce? But if you are good enough, people will want to learn how to pronounce your name. Make them learn." And that became his motivation to strive in the industry.

As of last night I heard Philip Ng is casted as Bruce Lee in an upcoming Hollywood blockbuster. Asians gaining recognition in Hollywood only just got started. Discussions just started to stir. And our role in these conversations should not only that we support them, but we also acknowledge we are all different and we should have that same support for the next Coco Lee, Amy Tan or Olivia Chow. This morning I received news from my friend Alex Chao who is a Cornell educated engineer took a leap of faith and with his friends started an acapella quartet called the Six Feet Barbershop.This is what pushes us to new heights. Taking a chance in what you believe.

However while we are different, we still celebrate similar values, such as being family-oriented, such as our beautiful language and thousands of years of history on literature, art, hell we have Confucius on our side. The goal now is to transcend our roots to be relevant in the 21st century arena. And I have a strong feeling we will be able to do this.

#notyourasiansidekick