The Star Making an Impact

The Star Section: Entertainment Ad Value: RM 23,552 28-Jun-2021 Size : 468cm2 PR Value: RM 70,657 Making an impact By ALISON DE SOUZA CHINESE CANADIAN actor Simu Liu will play Marvel's first Asian superhero on screen in the Making an impact much-anticipated Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, which is slated to open in September and co-stars Awkwafina, Tony Leung Simu Liu on being typecast as an Asian actor and why it is important to have people Chiu Wai and Michelle Yeoh. Speaking at a media festival, the of colour in decision-making positions in Hollywood4 32-year-old China-born performer - who moved to Canada at age five If I explain what it felt like being behind the scenes on Kim^ and starred in the Canadian sitcom emasculated by the media my Convenience? Kim's Convenience (available on whole life as an Asian man, and for I was a part of a sitcom featuring Netflix) - explains why it is critical Asian women to be over-sexualised a Korean Canadian family and, that such stories are written by and fetishised, it is very difficult for from the get-go, we were getting Asians themselves. non-Asian people to understand. the same question from the press: “How important is it to have Asian Your movie is based on the 1970s There have been calls for more people on screen in 2016?” Then it Marvel comics about martial arts inclusion in entertainment, but was, “How important is it in whiz Shang-Chi, whose father is white people are often still the 2017?”, and so on. Fu Manchu, a Chinese supervil gatekeepers when it comes to That question is going to follow lain created by an English writer telling culturally diverse stories. us for our entire careers and we who is now widely seen as a rac How can this change? have to make a choice about our ist stereotype. How will the film We need more people of colour relationship with it. address that? and minorities to be in decision Growing up, I did not really have This is the danger of having non making (positions). anybody to tell me it was OK to be Asians create Asian characters. I put the onus on us to embrace proud of who I was. In the media I A case in point is those comics, that position and seize the was consuming, I saw caricatures in the way Shang-Chi speaks and moment. It is good for business of Asian people. what his father looks like, with the too. We have seen diverse and But I realised that did not have Orientalist tropes and that kung fu nuanced projects do well critically to be my accepted reality. I just guy speaking in poetic proverbs. and commercially. want to communicate that and But we reclaimed it by crafting But Hollywood is a big ship and enable people to have what I never our own story which is written there is going to be a lot of "two did. and directed by an Asian American steps forward, three steps back”. The more I see how impactful filmmaker, Destin Daniel Cretton. That is why we must continually that message is, the more I realise We start almost from scratch hammer home the importance of this is probably going to be my and build an origin story that we having people of colour in those mantra and my purpose in the wanted to see, with a level of cul Being a Marvel superhero builds a platform and affords Liu the ability to positions - even when it sounds industry for the next few years. tural authenticity for a character chase after intellectual property on his own. — Handout like I am being annoying and Being a Marvel superhero is who is not just Asian, but also hitting the same note over and such an incredible opportunity. It Asian American. ence of an Asian person, it is very were a lot of non-Asian people over. builds a platform and affords me difficult to drill into the nuances. involved in the screenwriting and the ability to chase after intellectu Why is it so important to have I have seen the “tiger parent” directing. Why has it been important for al properly on my own, and to Asians creating these charac narrative a thousand times and I was cast as one too many kung you to speak out about social develop and pitch stories I think ters? heard the word “honour" thrown fu guys or pathetic, super low- injustice, like you recently did in are worth telling. - The Straits When you lack the lived expert- around in projects where there status and scared Asian guys. calling out the lack of diversity Times/Asia News Network.

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