The 50+ Best Asian-American Actors & Actresses In Hollywood, Ranked
With Fresh Off the Boat and Master of None on TV and the hit book Crazy Rich Asians and a live-action adaptation of Mulan heading to the big screen, is Hollywood on the verge of a breakthrough, or is this yet another blip? Entertainment Weekly looks into the state of Asian representation this week. Whitewashing controversies are nothing new. What is, however, are fans making an impact on casting choices. When more than 13, petitioners condemned the racial stereotypes that would have been portrayed on Mail Order Family , a comedy about a Filipina woman brought to the U. Fans are channeling their anger toward Hollywood — and casting directors are listening, especially to outcry over whitewashing.
Even if the industry still has a long way to go — for instance, the major issue of whitewashing or casting white actors in Asian roles — it's comforting to watch these young stars kill it on the big screen. From Fresh Off the Boat 's modern Asian family to this year's majority-Asian cast in Crazy Rich Asians , the importance of appealing to all audiences is finally starting to become a priority for producers. And it's about time. Representation matters, and it's up to more than just the creators of the hashtags like StarringJohnCho and StarringConstanceWu to make a difference. Hollywood, are you listening?
Born in Los Angeles to second-generation Toisonese Taishanese -Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea , one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks ' The Thief of Bagdad Wong became a fashion icon and had achieved international stardom in Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood , Wong left for Europe in the late s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly She spent the first half of the s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.