In 2018, the all-Asian low-budget romance film "Picking Gold" won 238 million yuan at the global box office, becoming hollywood's highest-grossing romance film in the past decade. In 2019, Disney's live-action animation "Mulan" released a trailer, Marvel announced the launch of the first Chinese superhero movie "Shangqi", and Liu Yuling's "Deadly Woman" has exploded on the Internet. For a time, Chinese movies and Chinese actors became the hottest topic in Hollywood, and finally achieved the "Chinese summer" in 2019.
In fact, there have been Chinese people working hard in Hollywood for a long time, but because of the inherent racial concept, except for Bruce Lee, almost all other people are playing unnamed dragon suit roles. Asian characters in Hollywood movies in the 1980s and 1990s accounted for less than 1 percent. The important characters in the film don't think about Asians at all, and there are ridiculous restrictions that prohibit women of color from kissing white actors in the movie. Although Chinese actors have more or less changed their situation in Hollywood, it still needs a long, long way to completely break racism. Let's take stock of the Chinese actors who have been active in recent years, see their achievements and feel their efforts.
1. Ming-Na Wen Minna
Born November 20, 1963 in Macau, he is a Chinese-American actor who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University. His first big screen jump was in 1993's Hi Fu Hui, followed by Chun Li in Street Fighter. In 1998, she was selected by People magazine as one of the fifty beauties in the world. In 2000, she was nominated for the Asian American Film and Television Award for Best Television Actress for "Spring in the Emergency Room". In 2013, Wen Mingna played Agent May in Agent S.H.I.E.L.D. and was nominated for "Most Popular Drama Actress" at the 2014 People's Choice Awards. In June 2017, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences officially announced Thatkina Wen as a new member of the 2017 Oscars.
2. Lucy Alexis Liu Yuling
Born on December 2, 1968 in New York, USA, his parents are immigrants from Taiwan, and his ancestral home is Beijing and Shanghai, respectively. Liu Yuling has performed in many TV series, including "The Story of the Emergency Room", "The X-Files", "Nash Bridge" (the sister film of "Coastal Lifesaver"), "Thunderbolt Baby", "Deadly Woman" and so on. With the popularity of TV dramas, Liu Yuling began to become popular in Hollywood, with more and more films and more and more weight in the play. She has created a series of distinctive roles in television movies, especially in several major films recently, making her one of the best actresses in Hollywood and the highest paid actor among Chinese actors in Hollywood so far.
3. Archie David Kao Gao Shengyuan
Born in Washington, D.C., on December 14, 1969, he spent his childhood in Virginia, where there were few Asians, and the family moved to Los Angeles in 1993. Gao Shengyuan's mother grew up in Hubei, his grandparents were natives of Hubei, and his father was from Sichuan. Like many celebrities, Gao Shengyuan studied law during George Mason University, was the president of the school's student union, and was supposed to develop into a law major. But once he was waiting for a meal at a restaurant when he was discovered by a photographer who was advised to engage in some print advertising, and then slowly expanded to TV commercials to movies. In 1999, he rose to prominence in Hollywood with the help of the TV series "Dinosaur Squad"; in 2001, he became famous for "Crime Scene Investigation"; in 2006, he won the "People Weekly" Top 100 Sexiest Men Award in the World; in 2011, he began to contact Chinese audiences after participating in "Snowflake Secret Fan"; in 2013, he served as a regular actor in "Chicago Police Department"; in 2014, he starred in the movie "Unexpected Love Time"; and on September 19, 2014, he starred in the suspense movie "Death Party". In September, he participated in the action suspense movie "Don't Have a Motive". In 2016, he participated in the black humor comedy film "Fake Undercover". In December, he starred in the TV series "Ancient Sword Qitan Stream Moon Zhaoming". In 2017, he participated in the youth urban inspirational love TV series "It Turns Out You're Still Here". In 2021, he participated in the TV series "Deep Breathing Together" and was broadcast.
4. Gemma Chan Jama Chen Chen Jing
Born on November 29, 1982 in London, England, he is a British Chinese actor who graduated from Worcester College, Oxford University. In 2006, he participated in the movie "Caller Horror". In 2009, he participated in the science fiction drama "Doctor Who Martian Water". In 2010, she played Yao Sulin in the suspense drama "Sherlock Season 1". In 2012, he starred in the supernatural suspense drama "Ghost Hustle Season 2". In 2014, he participated in the spy action film "Hair-trigger". In 2015, she starred in the sci-fi miniseries Real Humans, for which she was nominated for Best Actress and Best Breakthrough Actor at the 42nd BBC Awards. In 2016, he participated in the fantasy adventure film "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them". In 2017, she played creator Quintasha in the sci-fi action film Transformers 5: The Last Knight. In 2018, he starred in the romantic comedy film "Picking Gold". In 2019, he joined the Marvel movie "Captain Marvel" as the villain Minerva. In 2020, he starred in the science fiction movie "Eternals". Gemma, who is of Chinese descent, often plays the sole supporting role of people of color, and she has always driven change in the film industry to achieve true cultural inclusion and gender equality.
5. Constance Wu Tianmin
Born on March 22, 1982 in Richmond, Virginia, usa, he is a Chinese-American actor who graduated from the School of Dramatic Arts at the State University of New York at Paches. In 2006, she participated in the movie "Stephanie Daly", thus officially entering the show business circle. In 2011, he starred in the psychological thriller film "Listen to My Voice" and was released. In 2015, she starred in the comedy "First Season", for which she was nominated for the Best Performance in the Comedy Category at the 5th Television Critics Association Awards. In 2017, Wu Tianmin was selected as one of the "Top 100 Global People" by Time Magazine. In 2018, she was nominated for the Best Actress in a Comedy Award at the 24th Critics' Choice Awards and the Best Actress in a Musical and Comedy Film at the 76th Golden Globe Awards for Film and Television. On September 13, 2019, the crime comedy film "Dancing Girl Thief" starring him was released.
6. Chris Pang Wu Yugang
Born on December 29, 1984 in Melbourne, Australia, his representative works include "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of the Green Hell", 2018 "Picking Gold", 2019 "Thunderbolt Jiaowa", etc. Wu Yugang's parents opened a Wing Chun boxing gym in Melbourne in his early years, so he can be regarded as a martial arts family.
7. Awkwafina Okafina Lin Jiazhen
Born on June 2, 1988 in New York, USA, Chinese and Korean mixed Chinese descent, graduated from the State University of New York at Albany, when Okafina was very young, her mother died of cancer, and Okafina grew up with her grandmother. Lin Jiazhen is currently the most active Chinese actress in Hollywood, but she is controversial because of her appearance. In 2012, Lin Jiazhen filmed her first MV My, which received more than 4 million views on YouTube. In 2016, he participated in the movie "Neighbor Wars 2: The Rise of the Sorority". In 2017, he won the 21st Webby Award for Best Web Show Host in the Online Movie and Video category for his personal talk show "Tawk". In 2018, he won 11 nominations for Best Comedy Performance at the 23rd San Diego Film Critics Association Awards, Best Comedy Performance and Best Breakthrough Performance at the 28th MTV Film Awards, and in October, he was selected as "New York New York New York Force 2018" by Variety. In November 2019, he was selected as one of the "Top 100 Next Generation People" by Time Magazine. In January 2020, she won the 77th Golden Globe Awards for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Music/Comedy for her film "Don't Tell Her", becoming the first Asian American to win a Golden Globe Award.
8. Simu Liu Simu
Born on April 19, 1989 in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, China, he is a Chinese Canadian actor. On November 6, 2019, he was shortlisted for the Hollywood Reporter's selection of one of the 25 new generation hollywood stars of 2019. In 2021, he played the main role in Marvel's first Chinese-American superhero movie "Shangqi and the Legend of the Ten Commandments". In his early years, his representative works include the American drama "Nikita", "The Vast Sky Season 3", etc., in 2016, he became famous for starring in the American drama "Jin's Convenience Store", and in 2017, he participated in the American drama "Hurricane Rescue" adapted from the movie of the same name. Liu Simu is not only an actor, but also works as a screenwriter, producer and director.
9. Chloé Wang Wang Caning
Born April 18, 1992 in Chicago, Illinois, he is a Chinese-American actor and pop singer. His dad was a Chinese and his mom was American. In 2014, Wang Keying won a lot of popularity with the science fiction drama "Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.". In 2015, Wang Keying was nominated for the World's Best ACTRESS in a DRAMA series at the Huading Awards. In February 2016, Wang Keying was nominated for the 2016 American Children's Choice Awards Most Popular Female Star (Family Show). On September 27, 2019, the animated film "Abominable", in which he participated in the dubbing, was released. In July 2021, the live-action version of "The Flying Little Policewoman" was exposed.
10. Yoson An Yuxin
Born on June 23, 1992, his ancestral home is Macau, China. In 2015, he co-starred in the action movie "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Sword of the Green Hell" with Zhen Zidan and Yang Ziqiong. On August 10, 2018, the action science fiction adventure movie "Megalodon" in which he participated was released; In June of the same year, he was confirmed to star in the Disney live-action movie "Mulan", in which he played the male protagonist Chen Honghui, and on December 14, he participated in the science fiction film "Predator City: Deadly Engine" released in the United States.
From dragon suits to mainstream protagonists, more and more Chinese actors appear in Hollywood vision. This change in racial and cultural equality is the efforts of not only Chinese actors, but also Chinese directors and more behind-the-scenes creators. Paving the way for a younger generation of Chinese actors in the European and American film scenes.