As an Asian-American myself, I do sometimes notice that there aren't a whole lot of Asians on television. It does seem like TV doesn't really care to try and find minority cast members, even for guest spots. And when Asian characters do appear on television, there's usually an outcry about stereotyping. I mean, this isn't a hugely big issue with me...truthfully I think that there just aren't very many Asian-American actors out there in general to be making a big presence, and stereotypes can be based in fact. But anyway, I've been noticing some positive trends lately, so here's a rundown of the latest and greatest Asians on TV:
- Tyson on Beauty and the Geek 2 and Diana on Project Runway representing the Asian nerd contingent. Since these are reality shows, you can't really accuse the shows of stereotyping. I mean, it's true, there are a lot of Asian nerds out there (I'm one of them). But both seem like really sweet people who took the chance to do something different and were open to learning and change.
- Grace Park as Sharon on Battlestar Galactica. Science fiction has always made room for Asian characters, possibly because they believe that race will be less of an issue in the distant future? It's definitely a non-issue on this show, and Grace Park has one of the juiciest roles on the show...she's a Cylon and there have been two incarnations of her character so far.
- Yunjin Kim as Sun and Daniel Dae Kim as Jin on Lost. This is probably a first on television...regular cast members of a show that don't speak English. Sun and Jin spoke only Korean during the first half of the first season, and although Sun was revealed to know English, Jin continues to speak only Korean. Their relationship arc has been one of the more moving components of the show and I know there are a lot of fans out there.
- Sandra Oh as Cristina Yang on Grey's Anatomy. Even though I really don't like this show, admittedly it has the most ethnically diverse cast on TV right now.
- Lane and her mother on Gimore Girls. A really exaggerated portrayal of religious Koreans but everyone in Stars Hollow is exaggerated. Both Lane and Mrs. Kim still rock.
- Parminder Nagra on ER and Naveen Andrews on Lost, both ethnically Indian Brits. I don't watch ER but I loved Bend it Like Beckham and it's great that that paved the way for her to get a major role. Naveen plays Sayid, an Iraqi, with a great Middle Eastern accent. It's really weird hearing him talk with his natural British accent, haha.
- Rex Lee as Lloyd, Ari's assistant on Entourage. He's also pretty obviously gay, which is breaks another sterotype. Gotta love Lloyd, who's a great foil for Ari's antics. He'll be back next season!
- The Asian school principal/teacher. Has anyone else noticed that Asians tend to be cast as teachers and principals a lot? There's Dr. Kim on the OC, Ms. Kwan on Degrassi the Next Generation, I just saw one on Disney's High School Musical, Sydney's professor on Alias...and Sandra Oh played one in the Princess Diaries, but that's a movie. Hm, maybe there aren't as many examples as I thought there were.
2 comments:
The star of smallville who plays Lana Lang is Asian.
There's also BD Wong from Law and Order SVU. American Idol also has a bunch of Asians making it into the next rounds. I believe there was an Asian on Apprentice. Not that we're not underrepresented, but there seems to be a lot more Asians in commercials nowadays. Some say it's bad because Asian-Americans are seen as wallets, but I think it is good and cracks other stereotypes.
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