Tag: Whitewashing

Interview, Television

Gavin Stenhouse Just May Surprise You on ‘Kung Fu’

Laura Sirikul

Kung Fu’s Gavin Stenhouse knows he’s pretty privileged. 

As the only non-BIPOC person in the predominantly Asian cast on The CW’s Kung Fu, Stenhouse understands the responsibility of being part of this monumental drama — the first Asian American-centered drama on primetime television. Stenhouse has been using his platform to lift up his costars and the writers of the series instead of putting his own input when it comes to the cultural nuances of the Chinese American experience.

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Martial Arts, Television

Q&A with the ‘Kung Fu’ Cast and Showrunner

The Nerds of Color

Presented by CAPE and The CW, join the cast of Kung Fu — Olivia Liang, Shannon Dang, Jon Prasida, Kheng Hua Tan, Tzi Ma, and showrunner Christina M. Kim — and The Nerds of Color Editor-in-Chief Keith Chow for a conversation on reclaiming martial arts, shattering stereotypes, and being an Asian American family on primetime TV.

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Martial Arts, Television3 Comments

Action-Filled ‘Kung Fu’ Reboot is Relatable for Asian Americans

Laura Sirikul

It has been almost 50 years since the premiere of 1972’s western martial arts series Kung Fu, which starred white actor David Carradine yellowfacing as a mixed Asian Shaolin monk. Back then, that was the norm for Asian character roles. But now, Kung Fu is getting a complete reboot/retelling of the story and righting the wrongs that were made from the original.

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Animation, Streaming, Television1 Comment

How Netflix Can Still Help Aang Save the World

Mike Le

Earlier this month, Avatar: The Last Airbender co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino publicly broke ties with the live-action Netflix adaptation of the Airbender series. The news was quickly followed by unverified rumors that Netflix is trying to “whitewash the series.”

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Art, Movies

#StarringJohnCho Comes to Life in New York City Art Show

Keith Chow

Back in April 2016, I helped launch the #whitewashedOUT hashtag alongside YA author Ellen Oh and a whole team of Asian American activists and authors. If you recall, the spring of 2016 was a rough time to be an Asian American consumer of pop culture.

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Comics, Interview, Movies3 Comments

Daniel Dae Kim on ‘Hellboy,’ Asian Superheroes, and Rom-Coms

Laura Sirikul

Daniel Dae Kim has been a busy man.

Since 2004, Kim has been a fixed entity on our television screens through ABC’s mystery series LOST and CBS’s Hawaii Five-0. Since leaving Five-0, Kim has been working nonstop on acting and being an executive producer.

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Interview, Movies, Sci Fi

‘The Meg’ Director Jon Turtletaub Says There’s No Excuse for a Non-Diverse Cast

Laura Sirikul

“Do you think many nerds of color will enjoy this film?” The Meg’s director Jon Turtletaub asked me as he was told the outlet this was for during the press junket. I told him many nerds of color appreciate good … Continue reading ‘The Meg’ Director Jon Turtletaub Says There’s No Excuse for a Non-Diverse Cast

Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies2 Comments

EW’s Shirley Li Breaks Down ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

Hard NOC Media

This weekend’s cover story in Entertainment Weekly features Constance Wu and Henry Golding from next year’s can’t-miss rom-com Crazy Rich Asians. Since Asian Americans on the cover of EW is so rare, we brought in the story’s author, Shirley Li, to talk about her behind-the-scenes look at the movie all of Asian America is pinning its hopes and dreams on (no pressure, Jon Chu!)

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Movies, Television

Hard NOC News Roundup: Starfire, Bumblebee, Ed Skrein, & Death Note

The Nerds of Color

Hard NOC Life returns with a rundown of the nerd news with Desiree Rodriguez. Later Edward Hong and Josephine Chang join to help review Netflix’s Death Note adaptation

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Guest Post, Movies, Television5 Comments

Whitewashing is White Supremacy: Why Asian American Representation Matters

Guest N.O.C.

by Kimberly Ta | Originally published at Project Ava

With the latest release from Netflix, it turns out that Asian Americans will continue to get the shaft in 2017.

In March, Netflix released their trailer for the American adaptation of Death Note, a wildly popular manga series, which debuted on the world’s leading Internet television network on August 25. Death Note is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. As of 2015, the series has over 30 million copies in circulation worldwide and has won international awards as well as numerous award nominations domestically in Japan. It is regarded as one of the top 10 manga series of all time. It also happens to be one of my favorites, so this fight on racist bullshit has just became personal.

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Conventions, Fandom, Star Trek14 Comments

Representation Matters: Super Asian Americans

Nancy Wang Yuen

The superhero genre is slowly expanding its insular universe with Wonder Woman and the highly anticipated Black Panther. Though just a drop in the bucket compared to white male superheroes, such images can significantly impact audiences who have never seen themselves portrayed as (s)heroes. Recently at Comic-Con in San Diego, one Asian American girl, Ashley Keller, teared up when she met Gal Gadot (aka Wonder Woman) in a video that went viral, demonstrating the real-life impact of on-screen role models:

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Art, Music1 Comment

Getting Geeky With The Hollywood Fringe Festival

Edward Hong

For those living in the Los Angeles area, the Hollywood Fringe Festival is upon you. Perhaps you might have seen their flags flown throughout the city or perhaps you might have heard whispers of it from your actor friends yapping away about which fringe play to watch. And you go, “What the heck IS the Hollywood Fringe Festival?”

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Martial Arts, Television3 Comments

Waiting for the Into the Badlands Finale

The Nerds of Color

The second season of AMC’s Into the Badlands concludes on Sunday, so our intrepid live tweeter Laura Sirikul joins Keith to look back on one of our favorite shows! Of course, they can’t help juxtaposing Ballands and Iron Fist, but they also explain Daniel Wu’s previous comments about whitewashing and why Oliver Stark needs to be a guest on a future episode. They also share their predictions about the finale and how Keith decided to mashup Badlands and Hamilton for #IntoTheHamLands.

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Movies17 Comments

Surprise: Hollywood is Still Whitewashing POC Characters

Laura Sirikul

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Month!

Good news! The story of the Ni’ihau Incident is coming to the big screen. Bad news? Hollywood has learned nothing from the whitewashing outrage that has been in the zeitgeist for the last year.

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Fashion3 Comments

The Only Whitewashing T-shirt You’ll Ever Need to Make a Statement

Laura Sirikul

With the ever-growing list of whitewashed and white savior films and television series — including the recent release of the live-action anime film Ghost in the Shell starring Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi — it’s no wonder many people are upset. However, a comedy troupe from UCB Los Angeles called Asian AF has decided a smart way to shed light on the whitewashing problem.

They created a shirt using just four words.

Scarlett. Emma. Tilda. Matt.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Martial Arts, Television1 Comment

Journey Into the Badlands with Co-Creator Al Gough

The Nerds of Color

In the first part of a special podcast crossover with DC TV Classics, Keith chats with Into the Badlands co-creator Al Gough. They talk about Al’s start in Hollywood with his writing and producing partner Miles Millar; working with Hong Kong cinema legends like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Michelle Yeoh, and Daniel Wu; how difficult it is to accurately portray kung fu on broadcast television; and the importance of representation and why the onus is on producers and directors to find and cast diverse talent.

Subscribe to DC TV Classics or download part two of this interview here.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Podcasts1 Comment

Iron and Rage with John Brougher

The Nerds of Color

Last week, we hosted a special live-streamed edition of Hard NOC Life with filmmaker John Brougher about his new short film Iron and Rage. John talks about his inspiration for creating his own #AAIronFist and why representation of Asian American humanity on screen is so important.

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Animation, Television4 Comments

Translation or Whitewash? The Problem with Yo-Kai Watch in America

Keith Chow

The art of “translating” a media property from one cultural context to another requires more than simple language transliteration. Translating works of art has existed from the moment people from different cultures encountered one another. But at what point does translating something for an American audience necessitate whitewashing as well? Today, we’re going to look at two animated properties available on Netflix — Yo-Kai Watch from Japan and Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir from France — to determine at which point whiteness trumps cultural context when making a kids’ show more acceptable to American audiences.

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Hard N.O.C. Life, Podcasts2 Comments

An All-Star Lineup Discusses Whitewashing and Asian Erasure

The Nerds of Color

Doctor Strange. Iron Fist. Ghost in the Shell. It’s hard out there to be an Asian American actor. Or an Asian American consumer of media. Or someone who would prefer to see more Asian Americans on screen (and behind the scenes). That’s why guest host Valerie Complex (whose #IAmMajor clapback recently went viral) gathered an all-star panel to talk about being Asian in Hollywood: feminist pop culture writer Clara Mae, Geeks of Color Creative Director (and Finn Jones’ favorite person on Twitter) Asyiqin Haron, Man in the High Castle actor Lee Shorten, and (the man who should’ve been) Iron Fist’s Lewis Tan.

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