Posts by Linda
Linda Chan lives in New York City. She is interested in all issues Asian, particularly Asians in media and entertainment. She watches what some would consider an unhealthy amount of TV and blogs her sometimes snarky thoughts here: http://lindastv.blogspot.com.
Nikita Star Maggie Q a Crowd-Pleaser at CW Upfront
Yesterday, I attended the CW network upfront, which is a major annual event where the TV networks reveal their fall schedules. The CW was the last of the Big 5 networks to present and as you have probably heard by now, the network has two new shows for the fall: Hellcats, a college cheerleading drama reminiscent of Bring It On, and Nikita, a remake of the 1990 action thriller La Femme Nikita. We saw previews for both and I was [...] Continue »
Star in an Asian American Jersey Shore
I am one of the millions of Americans who has seen each and every sorry episode of Jersey Shore. I was horrified at some of the antics of Snooki, The Situation and friends, yet I couldn’t tear my eyeballs away. Now I’m reading about this ad on Craigslist from Tyrese Gibson’s production company looking for what could be a totally awesome…or truly abominable new reality series: an Asian-American version of Jersey Shore. Here’s what the [...] Continue »
George Takei’s New Sharp Commercial: Funny or Offensive?
I normally ignore 99% of electronics ads on TV, not only because I have no use for most of its products, but I can’t afford them and most of the technology goes right over my head. It’s hard to ignore the latest commercial from Sharp Electronics, which stars George Takei of Star Trek fame. He plays a Sharp engineer introducing the latest technology for television called Quattron, which adds a fourth pixel color, yellow, to [...] Continue »
Historic March for LGBTs in NYC’s Lunar New Year Parade
For the first time in the parade’s 11-year history, an LGBT group was allowed to march in the annual Lunar New Year Parade and Festival, which took place Sunday in New York City’s Chinatown. About 300 gays and their supporters joined in the festive walk, wearing rainbow bandanas and waving fish and phoenix, symbols of prosperity and renewal. “It’s a huge step forward,” said Irene Tung, one of the marchers and a spokeswoman for Q-Wave, [...] Continue »
Maggie Q for La Femme Nikita TV Reboot?
Of course, three days after I blog about the lack of Asians in lead roles on TV, a friend sent me a recent article about Maggie Q being in talks to star as the female assassin lead in the CW’s remake of La Femme Nikita. Maggie Q, a Hawaiian-born actress (whose mother is Vietnamese), is known for her roles in Mission: Impossible III and Live Free or Die Hard. If cast in the CW’s take on Nikita, [...] Continue »
Searching for Asian-American Actors On TV
It’s TV pilot season, which means the networks are loading up on new projects they’d like to pursue in hopes of finding the next hit series. Since I work in TV research, I hear pilot news on a regular basis. Every day, I hear about this actor or that actor signing on to star in this new show or that one. Guess what? Not a single lead actor is Asian or Asian American.* Yes, I [...] Continue »
Daniel Dae Kim To Star In Hawaii Five-O Remake
Lost star Daniel Dae Kim is going to star in CBS’ upcoming Hawaii Five-O remake. He will play Detective Chin Ho Kelly, in the role originated by Kam Fong. I gave up on Lost after the first season, but I am excited to hear that Kim, a terrific actor and one of the few Asian American males on network television, has found life after Lost. He is the first member of the cast to sign [...] Continue »
Extraordinary Measures: Another Case of Yellowface in Hollywood
When I first saw the movie poster for Extraordinary Measures, starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, I had no idea what it was about. I guessed Harrison Ford played some kind of heroic character, but beyond that, I had no idea. Nor did I really care — the movie poster looked “eh.” Then I read this article on racebending.com and found out that Harrison Ford’s character, a doctor who finds a cure for Pompe disease, is [...] Continue »
Juju Chang to Replace Chris Cuomo at Good Morning America
Breaking news: According to the NY Post and nymag.com, Juju Chang will replace Chris Cuomo as newsreader on ABC’s Good Morning America. Cuomo is reportedly leaving the morning news show, though no word yet on whether he will remain with ABC. Chang would join co-anchors Robin Roberts and George Stephanopoulos (who replaces Diane Sawyer as she moves to World News) and weatherman Sam Champion in the revamped GMA team. Chang is a New York-based, Emmy-winning [...] Continue »
New Study: Three-quarters of South Korean Adoptees Identify As White
For those of us who were not adopted, we can only begin to imagine what it would be like to be raised in a culture completely different from the one we were born into, but this may give us some insight: a new study by the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute finds that among first-generation adopted South Koreans, 78% of respondents considered themselves white or wanted to be white when they were children. The study [...] Continue »
Racist Confrontation Between NYC Traffic Agent and Chinese Man
It’s hard to believe that this sort of thing still happens, and yet, here it is: earlier this week in Manhattan’s Chinatown, traffic agent Twana Chapman was about to put a parking ticket on a car when the owner, Qiang Nian Zhu, tried to stop her. Zhu tried to explain that he still had a minute left on his meter, and that his wife was in the process of paying for another meter ticket. Witnesses [...] Continue »
Mandarin, not Cantonese, Becoming the Language of Manhattan’s Chinatown
I grew up in Manhattan’s Chinatown. My family speak Toisanese (or Taishanese), which is a version of the more commonly known Cantonese. As far as I knew, everyone in Chinatown spoke either Canton or Toisan, or both. But not Mandarin. Now that elusive gaw-gnui is taking over as the language of Chinatown, thanks to parents pushing their kids to learn it in order to advance in the world. With China growing in influence every day, [...] Continue »
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