thesmithian:
“…Times are different, and I think people are now ready to accept different versions of being Asian…”
more, plus audio, here.
CHEN: You know, when I first read “Tai Pan,” I was like oh, my God. This woman is ridiculous.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
CHEN: It’s absolutely ridiculous. But I wanted to play it because they are so few leading parts. I mean, she was a submissive concubine, but she was the leading lady. And so I felt like so far from what I feel a Chinese girl would be me. It’s totally a Western version of Chinese-ness. It’s not at all authentic. I honestly didn’t know how to play it.
During my first couple of interviews, like auditions, they were frowning and just felt I wasn’t somehow Chinese. I didn’t fit in that mold of what they feel the Chinese girl should look, because I came from the communist China. The image is a little unfamiliar to what, you know, all these concubines or dragon women should appear to them. So I quickly transformed myself into that look, which the film industry in America would accept as a Chinese person. And “Tai Pan,” the character in there was one of those.
[…]
MARTIN: If you were starting today, do you think you’d have had more choices? Do you think that younger performers of Asian descent have more choices than you had, or not?
CHEN: Obviously, yes, there are more choices. Times are different, and I think people are now ready to accept different versions of being Asian. Back then, it was really one single story: You’re either an exotic flower, vulnerable, must be saved, or you’re a, you know, concubine that also must be saved - the white savior mentality. But today, you know, the Asian-Americans, as well as Asians appearing in films, are more diverse. And so today is a little better.
I mean, the fight continues. You know, we want to create as many versions. The more different versions that we present, then the less chance for stereotypes.