Asian Americans in arts and entertainment
Notable YouTubers include comedians such as Ryan Higa and Kevin Wu; entertainers such as Dan Chan and Christine Gambito; musicians such as MC Jin, Far East Movement, Sam Tsui, David Choi, and Kina Grannis; and the filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions.
[8] Her performances were recreated for the 2022 theatrical work The Chinese Lady, at the Public Theater in New York City, which was written by Lloyd Suh, directed by Ralph B. Peña, and co-produced by the Ma-Yi Theatre Company.
After years of being typecast as a villain and exotic Asian lover that white women could not have, he decided to start his own production company, where he eventually made 23 films; he produced, starred in, and directed them, and contributed to their design, writing and editing.
In the legacy of Sessue Hayakawa, James Shigeta often in his early career in the late 1950s-1960s played romantic male lead roles even interracial ones, which as an actor of Asian descent during his time was almost non-existent.
Making waves in the entertainment industry, Korean-born, US-raised actor Ki Hong Lee rose to international fame as Minho in the film adaptation of James Dashner's book series, The Maze Runner.
Wayne Wang is a pioneering director and writer of Asian American cinema, having made notable films such as Chan is Missing, Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart, Life Is Cheap...
Gregg Araki is an influential American independent filmmaker of Japanese ancestry, who is especially noted for his often playful, punk-influenced work dealing with young, often gay, members of generation X trying to define themselves in the wake of the AIDS epidemic, rampant consumerism, and childhood trauma.
[48] In 2017, Eng directed the indie summer box office fantasy-comedy Wished, which held the highest audience scores for local Chinese comedies across all 4 ticketing platforms, it was also subsequently optioned to be remade in the US as an American film.
So Yong Kim is a Korean American independent filmmaker who was awarded the Special Jury Prize at Sundance for her debut feature, In Between Days, which was shot in Toronto, but was loosely based on her own experiences growing up in Los Angeles as a newly arrived immigrant who felt alienated from the surrounding world.
A raw, largely improvised romance shot digitally with first-time actors, In Between Days received enough attention for Kim to make her next film, the childhood drama Treeless Mountain, in her birth country of South Korea.
[54] Curt Apduhan is a NATAS News/Documentary Cinematography Emmy awarded cinematographer for the Sundance Channel feature documentary Amargosa, about a dancer who performs regularly in an opera house in a California ghost town.
[57] It was directed by Wayne Wang and stars Tsai Chin, Kieu Chinh, Lisa Lu, France Nuyen, Rosalind Chao, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita, and Ming-Na Wen.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a 2021 superhero film directed by Destin Daniel Cretton starring Chinese-Canadian Simu Liu in the titular role alongside Awkwafina, Tony Leung, and Michelle Yeoh.
[65] In 1965, frustrated with the limited opportunities given to them, actors Mako, James Hong, Beulah Quo, Pat Li, and June Kim, together with Guy Lee and Yet Lock, formed East West Players (EWP), a Los Angeles-based Asian American theater company – the first of its kind.
Anna May Wong was the first actress as well as acting professional of Asian descent to be the leading star of a US television series with The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, where she played a detective and Chinese art dealer.
After its run, due to the way it was handled and the pressures that were forced on her to conform to vague mainstream expectations to try to make the series a success, Cho suffered a huge psychotic break and self-disappointment that led to her drug and alcohol addiction.
[83] Mindy Kaling, a Dartmouth graduate, has been involved from the beginning in the production of the American series of The Office, having originally been the only female writer on a staff of eight; since the show's eighth season she has been an executive producer.
Before The X-Files, Wong had worked as a writer on police dramas such as 21 Jump Street, The Commish, Booker and Wiseguy as well as on the script for the independent crime film The Boys Next Door (1984), starring Charlie Sheen in his first leading role.
This includes video bloggers/comedians such as The Fung Brothers, Kevin Wu, Anna Akana, Ryan Higa, Eugene Lee Yang of The Try Guys and the filmmaking group Wong Fu Productions.
The latter's growing influence is evident especially in Wong Fu Productions' annual concert series, International Secret Agents (ISA), which often sell out, and in which many popular Asian American guest performers appear, including Far East Movement or Poreotics.
[92] Raks Geek, founded by Chinese/Singaporean American Dawn Xiana Moon is a majority Asian-American bellydance and fire performance company best known for their bellydancing Wookiee viral video and other cosplay/nerd-themed dance work.
Women writers have been particularly prominent for their work of telling a wide range of stories of immigrant experience, changing cultures and aspects of Asian American imagination, spanning continents, eras and points of view.
Linda Sue Park, Cynthia Kadohata, Erin Entrada Kelly, and Tae Keller received the Newbery Medal for A Single Shard, Kira-Kira, Hello, Universe, and When You Trap a Tiger, respectively.
[103] Chad Hugo a Filipino-American makes up one half of the prolific music producing duo the Neptunes alongside his partner Pharrell Williams Asian Americans are increasingly enjoying success in mainstream hip hop and R&B such as MC Jin.
A few notable examples are multi-racial Amerie, Cassie, Jhené Aiko, Ne-Yo, who is one-quarter Chinese, Filipino-American Nicole Scherzinger who is of Filipino, Hawaiian, and Ukrainian descent, apl.de.ap of The Black Eyed Peas, H.E.R.
Tia Carrere is a Hawaiian singer, actress, and former model best known as Cassandra Wong in the Wayne's World movies and for her leading role on the television series Relic Hunter; her album Hawaiiana was nominated for a Grammy.[when?
Roger Shimomura is a painter and printmaker whose works combine pop culture motifs, racial stereotypes, and evocations of his childhood experiences in the Minidoka internment camp during World War II.
[152] The most recent account of historical yellowface was in Disney on Ice's 2015 Dare to Dream production, in which Li Shang, a Chinese general from Mulan, was cast as a white male who wore a black wig and painted slanted eyes.
[citation needed] Other recent films that have whitewashed traditionally Asian characters include Star Trek Into Darkness, The Martian, Doctor Strange, Ghost in the Shell, 21 and Death Note.
"[154] South Asian portrayal in cinema often involve "Kama Sutra" type analogies or imagery, an example being white actor Mike Myers and his role as Pitka in the movie The Love Guru.
