Asian Visibility Quotes

Growing up, I never saw any Asian faces on TV, so it didn't feel like a viable option.

Quite honestly, I never thought it would be possible for Asians to make it in the States. But now I feel like it's totally changing. You see so many Asian celebrities now, and more and more of them are taking bigger roles in movies. I feel like everything has changed.

I always think it's really hard if you are Asian or Chinese to be really in Hollywood. There are not so many really great characters for you.

Why don't we hear more about and from Asians when it comes to race in America? Are Asians the new Invisible Man - there but not there? In some ways, yeah. Blacks and whites are always carping about the metrics of racism. And any conversation about immigration reform is immediately flipped into a referendum on Hispanics.

Usually when you're Asian and you're on set, you're the only Asian there. Either you're the token Asian or you're the Asian sidekick.

Sometimes, we want Asians in the media, but we don't want them to talk about being Asian. For me, that's interesting because I'm from Asia. If you want me to be on television but I can't be Asian, I'm not being true to myself.

I do think it's getting better, but I have noticed that Asians are not well represented in awards shows, and not a ton of Asian faces on the big screen either. Perhaps some of the young Asian actors who are on TV series now will be seen in upcoming movies in the near future - Jamie Chung, Constance Wu, Suzy Nakamura, to name a few. Fingers crossed.

It's always fun to see faces that are either familiar or resemble yours. I was fascinated by movies like 'Big Trouble in Little China' growing up because there were so many Asian people in it! The same with 'Year of the Dragon' or 'The Last Emperor'. It was just so great to see so many Asian actors working.

When I sold my first middle-grade novel in 2005, it wasn't that common to put an author photo on the back flap, but 24-year-old Korean-American me insisted. I wanted Asian girls to see my face. And more than that, I wanted them to see what is possible.

I want to see more Asians on TV. I want to see more faces like mine on TV.

I never grew up thinking, 'Why aren't there any Asians?' But then Lucy Liu came on, and I was like, 'Oh my God, she is my favorite.' I was nothing like her, but I just loved her because she was the only Asian I saw.

The reason I do what I do is that I find that Asian community gives me an endless source of humour. When I entered the filmmaking business, my whole purpose was to promote and make us visible because we were very much on the margins. So, I wanted to make us mainstream. My work has helped to mainstream-ise the Asian community.