My dad, of course, like a lot of Asian parents, wanted me to be an engineer or doctor and never could understand why I would want to be a lawyer. And then, when I first said I wanted to run for office, he thought that was absolutely insane.
I really dislike the fact that Asian males are constantly emasculated, whether it’s American TV or films. You see it all the time, and it’s so weird that they don’t see sexuality in Asian men.
The Chinese Student Association at Cornell put together their own play. It was all Asian people in the cast except for me, because they wanted to do a couple of scenes about an interracial relationship. I was the only non-Asian person on stage; the entire audience was Asian apart from my 10 friends that showed up.
In Harlem, I got all my black friends. But when I go downtown, I got black, white, Asian, Indian friends. There’s no borders, no barriers.
There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.
Something I love about ‘Teen Wolf’ is that my character is written in as just a normal girl. She could have been any ethnicity; she doesn’t have to be Asian.
Maybe all teenagers feel like they don’t fit in. I never felt like a cool kid. I remember being bullied for being Asian.
We have scaled the heights of Mount Everest, dominated the Southeast Asian games, we have won international beauty titles, and of course punched our way to triumph in the boxing world. Our people compete and win every day in every imaginable job throughout the world.
I have no intention of ever writing beauty tips on how to make an African-American nose look slimmer or Asian eyes look bigger. That’s degrading. Asian eyes are what’s beautiful about you and what makes you different.
Almost anyone can give me the willies. Man or woman, Asian, black or white, young or old.
The first set I ended up on was Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Pacific Rim’ that was shooting in Toronto and they needed a bunch of Asian extras, and for some reason they put their ad on Craigslist.
I’m extremely proud I’m an Asian female and I’m on television, because there aren’t many of us.
America is a country formed by diverse communities from different countries. Overall, the country is very hospitable and gives opportunities to grow. Saying that, I’d also say I’m not a ‘white’ immigrant; a South Asian’s experience is different than, say, a European immigrant’s.
In elementary school, I identified more with my Asian side. I had a lot of Korean friends, and then, once middle school hit, it was a little more diverse.
When ‘Joy Luck Club’ came out, I kind of became a role model for the Asian acting community. I started to talk at colleges and emcee charity things. I’m much more connected to my sense of being Asian now.
What we had on was BBC Asian Network and Bollywood sound-tracks – they were my reference points. But of course, where I grew up, I was one of two Indian guys in my school, and I didn’t really have anyone else to share that with.
The trauma of South Asian people escapes the confines of our own times. We’re not just healing from what’s been inflicted onto us as children… it is generations of pain embedded into our souls.
The Asian male has an interesting history as far as Western appropriation. At one point, we were completely sexless Chinamen building the railroads. Then, World War II came around, and it was like, Asian guys are coming after the white women. We became a menace for a second.
Asian American success is often presented as something of a horror – robotic, unfeeling machines psychotically hellbent on excelling, products of abusive tiger parenting who care only about test scores and perfection, driven to succeed without even knowing why.
There are aspects of Asian culture in my work, but it’s really rooted in an American experience – transcendentalism, ’60s counterculture, punk rock.
We need someone who will stand up and speak up and speak out for the people who need help, for people who are being discriminated against. And it doesn’t matter whether they are black or white, Latino, Asian or Native American, whether they are straight or gay, Muslim, Christian, or Jews.
Eventually we got to a point where ‘Riverdale’ came along, and it was a character that was originally written white, and I saw this as an opportunity to take a classic American character and make them Asian.
Sometimes it’s not even a role that’s specifically written for a woman. It could be a role written for a white man or Asian man, or Latino. If it’s something that I feel I could do well, I go after it. Especially if it’s nothing that has to be gender or race specific, I’m all over it.
I’m definitely more Asian than a lot of people who have never been to Asia. But by blood and by race, they instantly say I deserve to be Asian. I’ve worked really hard to be Asian, and I think I’m Asian enough.
‘The Green Turtle’ was created in the 1940s by a cartoonist named Chu Hing, one of the first Asian Americans to work in the American comic book industry.
As an Asian-American actor, I believe it is important to never settle for the status quo. I feel a responsibility to do everything in my power to create positive perceptions of Asian Americans through my work.
My parents kept the best aspects of the Asian culture, and they Americanized the family. My mother was a great example for me. She was a working mother with a good career.
America is the NBA of culture. So to have Asian people in the biggest entertainment market in the world, in Hollywood, is cool.
There needs to be more film directors of colour. They bandy about the word ‘diversity’ a lot, but when I say ‘of colour,’ I mean Asian, black – I mean people of all colour. We need to have those voices given the opportunity, not told that their films will not be distributed or will not sell well abroad.
The March on Washington was a March for Jobs and Freedom. There are still too many people who are unemployed or underemployed in America – they’re black, white, Latino, Native American and Asian American.
I want to show people out there that there’s such a huge spectrum of people within the queer and Asian community.
I became an immigrant, civil and human rights advocate, then the first South Asian elected to the Washington State Legislature and the only woman of color in the Washington State Senate, and then was elected in 2016 to the United States Congress.
From my experience, I would say no: actors of East Asian descent don’t get the opportunities white actors do. I know that’s inherently a problem in a country that produces a lot of period drama, but I have to fight so hard to get parts that don’t have something to do with China.
Australia has a thing where apparently it’s fine for me to dress up as an Asian woman. No one has questioned that.
When I won gold medals in both the 200m and 400m events at the 1958 Asian Games, the then chief of army staff, General K.S. Thimayya, announced my promotion as a junior commissioned officer.
Asian fans chase me and shout; it is different in England.
I always tell Asian actors, especially Filipinos wanting to break into Hollywood, to study, study and study and show their best. I haven’t stopped studying. There’s an abundance of roles, and all you have to do is prove to them that you are good for the role.
I majored in Chinese. I was never really good at Chinese but I really, really benefited from having been exposed to Asian philosophy early in my life.
The Asian nation’s oil demand is expected to grow this year by 800,000 barrels per day and represents more than one-third of the total growth in global demand, according to the Energy Information Agency.
The direct investment of Japanese businesses to East Asian economies accelerates the reallocation of their production bases. Consequently, between Japan and the other East Asian countries, both exports and imports are growing substantially.
I feel like, of course, Houston has Asian fans and Japanese fans, and Asian fans live all over the place.
I was the first South Asian female to do comedy videos on YouTube. But at the same time, all races face their barriers, and I’ve learned through YouTube, if it’s not race, it will be sexism, if it’s not sexism, it will be homophobia. It will always be something, and all voices should be heard.
I do really love New York. I feel like there are more Asian restaurants. Philly has a sick food scene, I don’t want to diss it at all. But New York is so much bigger and there are more options.
I grew up a skinny Asian kid who was often ignored or picked on. It stuck with me and branded my soul. As I grew up, I tried to stick up for whoever seemed excluded or marginalized.
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month provides us all an opportunity to reflect upon this community’s many contributions and to celebrate its bright future.
I want to represent Asian women.
With more Asian players on the tennis circuit, there’s more awareness about tennis and knowledge about various tennis tournaments.
I go to castings and see several black and Asian girls, then I get to the show and look around there’s just me and maybe one other coloured face.
Growing up, my favorite movies were ‘Forrest Gump,’ ‘Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘Gladiator’ – none of them really had Asian leading men.
