Translator: Riaki Poništ Reviewer: Denise RQ
My mother came here in 1968
during U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
My father came here in 1977 after the fall of Saigon
and after having spent two years in a Cambodian refugee camp.
Obviously, they had me.
We're American, or specifically, we're Vietnamese American.
Now, somewhere along the way, their first generation son
started experimenting with the real gateway drug: art.
(Laughter)
I started taking theater classes in high school
and performing in musicals and plays.
I loved it.
I met people who have and will continue to influence me for the rest of my life.
I got hooked on the rush of stepping on stage
in front of a room full of strangers,
and I haven't stopped since.
I majored in it in college.
I went on to train at a professional actor training program based in Houston
and earned my MFA.
I got to work on beautiful stories written by great writers
like Tennessee Williams, Henrik Ibsen, and Shakespeare
with some very talented and open-hearted collaborators.
Then, I graduated, and it was time to move and start building a career.
I moved to New Orleans in 2014
because of all the opportunities in film and television.
I did everything an actor moving to a new market needs to do.
I got new headshots, I connected with a good agent,
and I started going on auditions.
During one of my first on-camera auditions,
I did all my work beforehand.
I was off-book, I had an understanding of the scene,
I was focused, but I was still flexible and playing the scene.
And the casting director said, "Good, that's great!
Would you mind doing that in a more Chinesey accent?"
Yeah.
(Laughter)
That's when I realized that this industry has me in a box.
There's a certain way I'm expected to sound,
a certain way I'm expected to behave, and certain roles I'm expected to play.
The majority of my on-camera auditions
seemed to call for a voice that just wasn't my own:
broken English was expected to be my calling card.
I would vent to some of my peers, and some of them would say,
"What? But your English is so good!"
to which I say, "Thanks, yours too."
(Laughter)
Others would make a more earnest attempt to connect and try to understand,
but often, many of them didn't have the experience
of having their skin speak for them before anything else.
Then, I left.
I traveled for some time and then moved to New York City.
There, I met a milestone.
Not only did I meet people who understood
I met people who had been through the exact same things I had, if not worse.
There was a national call for Asian-Americans
to share their experiences through #myyellowfacestory.
From that, we got messages like,
"That time on a TV show, a writer said, 'We hired you because you are Asian.
Be Asian!'"
What does that even mean?
"That time I was called in to play a Thai hooker
and asked to translate my lines into whatever Asian language I spoke."
(Laughter)
Because we're all interchangeable, right?
(Laughter)
"That time an audience member wrote in,
'There were no Blacks or Asians in Shakespeare's time.'"
Inaccurate.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
Thank you.
"That time the sound designer for my first play asked,
'So what are we gonna use? Chinky music?'"
Yeah.
"In grad school, I was told
that if I was uncomfortable with white actors in Asian roles,
I shouldn't have written Asian roles."
Not only do we have trouble finding roles that we can play,
we meet obstacles when we try to create them for ourselves.
These messages were shared
shortly after casting announcements for the "Ghost in the Shell" movie.
For those of you who aren't familiar,
"Ghost in the Shell" was originally a Japanese anime
centered around a character named Motoko Kusanagi.
She's a law enforcement officer in a futuristic Tokyo.
In the live action film adaptation,
she is played by Scarlett Johansson in a black bob.
Let's look at another movie that made splashes because of its casting.
In the original story of "Dr. Strange,"
the Ancient One was born 500 years ago
deep in the Himalayan Mountains in an area we now know as Tibet.
He devoted his life to studying the mystical arts
to defend Earth against black magic.
This is one depiction from the comics.
In the live action film, he is played by Tilda Swinton.
(Laughter)
Tilda Swinton, who seems to be wearing robes inspired by Buddhist monks.
It's difficult in this industry because there are a few roles
written with an Asian setting or Asian characters in mind.
The few Asian roles that exist are being played by Caucasian actors
resulting in 'Hollywood whitewashing.'
It's the practice of a white actor playing non-white roles.
It takes the foundation of our identity
- like our culture, our traditions, our origins, and our religion -
and treats it like a costume.
A step beyond that is 'yellowface.'
It's the practice of using make-up and prosthetics
to make a non-Asian performer look East-Asian.
It dehumanizes us, and it feeds this idea
that we're outsiders, that we just don't belong.
You can see it here in the 1961 movie, "Breakfast At Tiffany's":
Mickey Rooney playing Mr. Yunioshi.
Again, in 2014, "How I Met Your Mother."
And again, in 2016, "Absolutely Fabulous."
On the left is Huki Muki, a male Japanese fashion designer.
He is played by Janette Touch, a Caucasian actress.
At some point, when there's a deliberate lack of inclusion, it becomes exclusion.
The trend in mainstream media seems to be that we don't belong
or that we only belong in very small roles.
There seems to be this refusal to view Asian-Americans
as fully fleshed-out humans with our own passions, desires, and lives.
We're more than aromantic nerds, ninja assassins, or sexy school girls.
But if that's all a society is being shown by the media it consumes,
it can crosses over into our day-to-day lives
by our subconscious biases and perceptions.
At the University of California, Santa Barbara,
Dr. Dana Mastro published a study
that said the average American spends
more than five hours a day in front of a television.
That's not including devices like computers or cellphones.
Seventy percent of infants spend
more than two hours a day in front of a TV.
It goes on to say that because of this, audience members may not even realize
this kind of media exposure affecting their perceptions of reality.
So, the media we are shown can affect society
by affecting the way we view diverse groups.
So the media being produced takes on a whole new importance.
So, what do we do?
Well, by being here and giving me your time and understanding;
that's huge.
I think a large part of this is because we don't understand
what's been the norm for a very a long time.
By being aware and calling it out when you see it,
it's a huge gesture towards more diverse and equitable representation.
Call out whitewashing. Call out yellowface.
See shows with leads of other ethnic backgrounds,
with plots that revolve around their lives and experiences.
Experience all the flavor and variety
that make our country so unique and diverse.
Before we end,
I'd like to share an experience from one of my favorite plays.
I was cast as one of the leads
in an adaptation of George Farquhar's "The Beaux' Stratagem."
In it, I played an English aristocratic playboy.
He swashbuckled and swindled his way into his love's heart.
Afterwards, a student found me.
She stopped me and made a point to look into my eyes and say,
"I've never seen anyone who looks like me doing what you're doing.
Thank you so much."
That's what it's all about, y'all.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Thank you very much.
(Applause)