For far too long, Asian Americans have been invisible in Hollywood. Asian American stories have been whitewashed, and various actors have put on yellowface in an effort to keep Asians off-screen.
According to the LA Times, only 44 of the 1,300 top-grossing movies from 2007 to 2019 featured an API (Asian/Pacific Islander) lead. Out of those 44 films, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (half Samoan) played the lead in 14 of the films. In short, there was hardly any API representation outside of The Rock in top-grossing films between 2007 to 2019.
Luckily, there’s been a noticeable increase in Asian American representation over the past few years, coming off the heels of the mainstream success of films like “Crazy Rich Asians” and shows like “Fresh Off the Boat.”
Check out this list featuring some of the most recent notable TV shows and films with Asian American representation as well as some of the most important moments in Asian American film history.
“Kung Fu”
This new show on The CW is a reimagining of the 1972 show starring David Carradine. The 1972 version of Kung Fu was a prime example of yellowface and whitewashing, which makes this reimagining on The CW even more meaningful to Asian Americans. Olivia Liang and Shannon Dang star as crimefighting sisters (both coincidently happen to be University of California alumnae), and their dad is played by Asian American legend Tzi Ma. This show is Awkwafina being Awkwafina (which is Nora Lum’s stage name), and it’s hilarious. It’s great to see Asian Americans being themselves on a Comedy Central show and not falling into any tropes. “Better Luck Tomorrow” was extremely controversial in the Asian American community when it was released in 2003. This film was loosely based on the Honor Roll Murder in Buena Park, California in 1992. It was the first major film that really pushed against the narrative of Asian Americans as a model minority. Asian Americans are not a monolith, and that was clearly on display in this unforgettable film. Raya was the first-ever Southeast Asian Disney princess. This watershed moment meant so much for Southeast Asian kids (and adults). The cast is a veritable who’s who of Asian American actresses and actors, including Kelley Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, and Dumbfoundead. This movie was a true catalyst for Asian American representation in Hollywood. “Crazy Rich Asians” showed that an Asian cast (with Asian leads) could rake in money at the box office despite decades of Hollywood executives thinking it was impossible. When “Fresh Off the Boat” premiered in 2015, it became the first Asian American sitcom to air in more than 20 years. This landmark sitcom, based on celebrity chef Eddie Huang‘s childhood, served as a launchpad to Hollywood stardom for Randall Park and Constance Wu. This movie completely changed the game for rom-coms on Netflix. It was awesome to see a rom-com featuring Asian American leads, the chemistry between Ali Wong and Park was palpable, and they were both hilarious throughout the movie’s runtime. We need a lot more rom-coms like “Always Be My Maybe.” “Pachinko” is one of the all-time best English language books featuring Asian characters. Korean American author Min Jin Lee created an epic historical novel that features characters from Korea who move to Japan and follows the family for generations. The novel is being adapted as a TV series on Apple+. Korean American filmmakers Kogonada and Justin Chon are executive producers, and they are each directing four episodes of the series. The content featured on https://www.directv.com/binge/ is editorial content brought to you by DIRECTV. While some of the programming discussed may now or in the future be available affiliates distribution services, the companies and persons discussed and depicted, and the authors and publishers of licensed content, are not necessarily associated with and do not necessarily endorse DIRECTV. When you click on ads on this site you may be taken to DIRECTV marketing pages that display advertising content. Content sponsored or co-created by programmers is identified as "Sponsored Content" or "Promoted Content."“Awkwafina is Nora from Queens“
“Better Luck Tomorrow“
“Raya and the Last Dragon“
“Crazy Rich Asians“
“Fresh Off the Boat”
“Always Be My Maybe”
“The Debut“
“Lumpia With a Vengeance“
“Pachinko”