The guys over at Fallout Central recently got a red carpet press pass to the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards and do what press people do best: interview a bunch of Asian American celebrities about their upcoming projects. Guests included Kaba Modern and Jabbawockiez (as nominees for Best Reality Star, since Yul Kwon can’t win four years in a row) as well as Lucy Liu’s two-episode boyfriend from the now canceled Cashmere Mafia and Indian-Canadian comedian Russell Peters, which led to this gem of an exchange:
Albert, the interviewer: How can I get my Indian accent to be as good as yours?
Russell Peters: Uhm, you know. Just listen when people are talking. What are you, Albert?
Albert: Korean.
Russell Peters: Well, how can I get my Korean accent to be as good as your parents?
Albert: [nervous laughter]
Zing! Also, Ron Jeremy was there, although no one really knows why.
Mild snarkiness aside, former 8A columnist Min Jung and I had done something like this seven years ago, heading down to the LA Convention center to cover the AMMY awards. AMMY, like an Asian Emmy! Except it was the year 2000, which meant that hob-knobbing in the Green Room was pretty much eating snacks and taking photos with the cast of the Joy Luck Club, a pre-Grey’s Anatomy Sandra Oh, and Rufio from Peter Pan. Lucy Liu won all of the awards, where she was promptly whisked away by her publicist afterwards because she was getting mainstream, baby.
And therein lies the thing about Asian awards - because there aren’t a ton of Asians in the media, it’s not so much an awards show as it is for Asian musicians and actors to hang out in Vera Wang dresses. And the winner is essentially the most mainstream person who didn’t play a negatively stereotypical role. (WHICH MEANS YOU WILL NEVER WIN, JACKIE CHAN.) And what exactly IS “Asian Excellence,” anyway? Besides getting a perfect score on your SATs?
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smatterist wrote:
I disagree that Jackie Chan is a negative stereotype. Is it because he does martial arts? Or the roles he’s had in Rush Hour? Nothing in his work portrays Asians in a bad light. His talent has lifted his martial arts movies beyond what the genre was before. And I can’t see anything obvious in his other Hollywood roles that stereotypes Asians.
Posted on 02-May-08 at 12:13 am | Permalink
Fallout Central plays Ryan Seacrest at the Asian Awards - Smatterist wrote:
[...] to 8asians.com, we now know Fallout Central worked the red carpet. There’s a video up with all the [...]
Posted on 02-May-08 at 1:30 am | Permalink
Jason H. wrote:
I have to agree with smatterist. What is wrong with Jackie Chan?
Posted on 02-May-08 at 7:04 am | Permalink
*Required wrote:
Nominating people who are on cancelled shows…doesn’t that signify that they probably couldn’t help the show with their poor acting? And not only that..why Kenny G and Steven Segal getting more camera time? It was cheesy lame show. I saw it on E!…they edited so much out. I just feel the awards was catered to white America. I just can’t accept how mediocre it is.
Posted on 02-May-08 at 11:30 am | Permalink
Ernie wrote:
Smatterish and Jason H: OK, I stand corrected. Maybe I don’t necessarily mean “negative stereotypes” as much as I mean “stereotypes,” where the typical American moviegoers expects Asian actors to do some type of martial art.
Posted on 04-May-08 at 12:15 am | Permalink
Gil wrote:
In response to *Required — I agree that editing the show down to a one hour presentation didn’t do the event justice but I would ask you to think of ways to improve the event.
If you attended the event live you heard the producers reach out to the audience for assistance. Lend a hand and help raise the show from mediocrity or watch the show disappear. That might be better - at least you won’t have anything to complain about.
Posted on 14-May-08 at 3:56 pm | Permalink