compiling a list of characters of chinese descent

[bantha_fodder]

HEY SO.

I need a list of characters who are Chinese/of Chinese descent in English language texts. So far I have:

Jubilation Lee
Cho Chang
Huang (from SVU)
Isabella (from the recent Miami Vice movie)
Whoever Michelle Yeoh played in Tomorrow Never Dies


...


I would appreciate any and all assistance with this.

Comments

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

Deadwood: Wu
ER: Dr. Chen
Fast & the Furious: the biker gang in the first one, and possibly Han in the 3rd one (although he might be Korean-American)
Romeo Must Die: again, the Chinese triad guys, but also Jet Li's character
Entourage: Loyld (unspecified Asian, so not necessarily Chinese)
Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon: Jackie Chan's characters
Colonel Yu character in the recent "The Painted Veil" film adaptation
The magician Chung Ling Soo in "The Prestige"
Buffy: Chinese slayer
The Chinese servants and other immigrants in Laurie R. King's "Locked Room"
Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher mysteries: Lin Chung

...that's all I have for now. Let me know about any you're not familiar with.

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

Er. that's meant to be "Lloyd", not "Loyld".

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also Benedict Wong's characters in Stephen Frear's "Dirty Pretty Things" (I things there's a fascinating exchange between him and Chiwetel Ejiofor's character about Chinese tea in it) and the BBC mini "State of Play".

[baggers.livejournal.com]

Harry Kim from ST:Voyager. Actually, he might be Korean. And...

Pen, I honestly have no clue if half the people I keep thinking of are Chinese or not. *fails*

That said, Sandra Oh has specifically said she thinks it's perfectly acceptable for her to play someone of any Asian ethnicity, and not just Korean. I'd actually meant to ask you for your take on that.

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

I think Harry's Korean.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Well, you can tell me, and I can guess. :o)

I actually have real issues with "insert Asian ethnicity X here" actors playing "insert Asian ethnicity Y here" characters. I think I talked about it a bit when Memoirs of a Geisha came out last year, particularly the predominance of Chinese actors playing Japanese characters. There are so many amazing Japanese actors out there, why should Chinese actors get those roles? I am aware that Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi playing those two roles added a certain (famous, well-known) element to what was supposed to be a Hollywood movie. But at the same time, the issues that I have raise other issues.

For example, Eva Green is a French actress, and she played an Englishwoman in Casino Royale. But that didn't upset me anywhere near as much as the previously mentioned Memoirs of a Geisha. I will be honest, I have never examined this discrepancy in my own responses very closely. I think it's partly because Eva played such a delightful Englishwoman, I liked her very much; and I think it's partly because I dislike so much (personally) being catagorised as 'Asian;' I'm Chinese, and sort of Malaysian, if we must go there, and I'm Australian. But being catagorised as Asian makes me part of a mass that shouldn't really be combined together, and hmm.

I am not sure if I have made sense. In answer to your question re: Sandra Oh's comment, I think my answer must be: I wish she wouldn't. But at the same time, if any actor can successfully portray a Chinese character, or a Japanese character, or a Polish character or whatever, and not be of that ethnicity, then that's kind of cool, too.

I am going to stop here before I trip over my words, and before I start to make even less sense.

[utopos.livejournal.com]

Li Chen from Oz. As mentioned elsewhere, Mr Wu in Deadwood is probably worthy of examination.

The Chinese-descent characters in Big Trouble in Little China were originally attacked by lobby groups for racial stereotyping if you want a talking point. You could also discuss the depiction of Chinese characters in Red Corner :)

[utopos.livejournal.com]

I forgot, Pai Mei in Kill Bill,

[ancarett]

Texts of all kinds, I'm assuming?

Film: Chon Wang (Jackie Chan) in "Shanghai Noon" and "Shanghai Nights" as well as his love interest in the first, Princess Pei Pei (Lucy Liu)

Television: Kato (Bruce Lee) in "The Green Hornet"

Books: June Woo in "The Joy Luck Club"

[cavalaxis]

Would Sulu in the original Trek count?

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I never watched ST TOS, but I don't think Sulu was supposed to be Chinese at all.

[medie]

Highlander had a very awesome Chinese female Immortal. I'm *NOT* sure on the spelling of her name. I think it was Mai-Ling but it's been so long since I read anything about about her.

and does Xena's Lao Ma count? *G*

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

I am completely unfamiliar with Xena (I used to watch it, but can't remember it), but TELL ME that 'Lao Ma' doesn't translate to 'old horse.'

I like the idea of the Chinese Immortal, but weren't the Immortals originally from another planet? How could she be Chinese?

[skywardprodigal.livejournal.com]

Golly, I'm drawing blanks.

You've already got Dr. Huang.

I'm coming up with Ally McBeal's "Ling Wu" as played by Lucy Liu.

"Wendy Wu" as played by Brenda Song for "Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior". I think everyone else I can think of (in film or television) is playing an alien or is playing a person of some other Asian ethnicity (Korean or Japanese).

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

(here from medie )

They're not played by Asian actors, but the Tams in "Firefly" are supposed to be of Chinese descent.

In SG-1, the system lord Yu is Chinese (well, he's a goa'uld,too, so I'm not sure that counts, but he has a chinese name). And there's a recurring character on SG-1/SGA who is supposed to be Chinese (from China even!) (played by Tamlyn Tomita). Shen -- I think -- is her name.

With the women, sometimes it's difficult to know what ethnicity they're supposed to be, because the characters have English/western names. Tamlyn Tomita was also on 24 for a while, but her character didn't have an easily peggable name, so... who knows. Similarly, on SG-1, in the ep 'prodigy' one of the students was Lt. Satterfield (played by Grace Park). The character's ethnic background wasn't specified.

But assuming your point is that there aren't many specifically identified as Chinese, this is very, very true.

[lizardbeth-j.livejournal.com]

I knew I'd come up with more if I sent the first one! *g*

Lee Chen from Jeremiah (played by Byron Lawson) The character was originally given a Japanese name, but changed in production to match with Lawson's actual background. (yes, will wonders never cease).

It was aways back, but I had a fangirl crush on Russell Wong on a short-lived series called "Vanishing Son". His character was certainly Chinese, though I couldn't come up with his name if you paid me.

Oh, also: IIRC, David Carradine's Caine character in the Kung Fu series and its follow up, is part Chinese (though I think he was later retconned into white-orphan-raised-in-china; it's been a long time since I saw any of the shows), and several supporting roles in that were also Chinese.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

From The Joy Luck Club, the eight main characters:

Suyuan Woo
An-mei Hsu
Lindo Jong
Ying-Ying St. Clair
Jing-mei "June" Woo
Rose Hsu Jordan
Waverly Jong
Lena St. Clair (half-Chinese)

I think that we can count most of Pearl Buck's works, too. (Granted, she wrote some books set in Japan and India, but most of her books featured Chinese characters.)

[hobviously.livejournal.com]

All of the main characters in The Flower Drum Song, which was once an okay, not great novel about Chinese immigrants in San Francisco Chinatown, became a deeply racist but also revolutionary (because so many Asians had never worked on one movie before) musical & movie, and then recently became a thought-provoking and beautiful musical stage production as adapted by David Henry Hwang.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

Because Chinese immigrants is my thing (hello, thesis), I wanted to read this book, average or not. But it appears not to be available in Australia, which is nice!

[eldritch-flame.livejournal.com]

The police captain from the third season of Forever Knight might have been of Chinese decent; I don't think they ever specified her ethnicity. That's the only one I can think of that hasn't already been mentioned. Oh, and I just starting watching the British Ultraviolet miniseries. Definitely awesome.

[bantha-fodder.livejournal.com]

ISN'T IT GREAT?

[cupiscent.livejournal.com]

The one that springs immediately to mind for me - because I'm weird - is in the Phryne Fisher novels (by Kerry Greenwood) there's one that pretty much takes place in Melbourne's Chinatown, and Phryne's love interest for the novel is a Chinese chap (Li, I think) and he is, frankly, that best and closest to a match love-interest the girl's ever had (and she's a flapper, so she's had a bundle *G*).

[the-grynne.livejournal.com]

Lin Chung is THE BEST.

[loligo.livejournal.com]

Josie Packard -- Joan Chen's character on Twin Peaks.

[ciaracat.livejournal.com]

I'm over here from medie's LJ too. :)

There's always Mulan, if that counts, since Disney has done a version.

There are a TON of Chinese characters in Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Years of Rice and Salt." I can't remember specific Chinese characters in his Mars books, but I'm sure there had to have been some.

I'm not remembering any others right off-hand that haven't already been mentioned. Surely there are others though! I'll brainstorm on it.

[ciaracat.livejournal.com]

There are some more here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Fictional_Chinese

You already have a lot on your list that they don't have on Wikipedia, though!

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

Mr. Wu in the first two seasons of Veronica Mars. He was never specifically said to be Chinese, but Wu is a Chinese name.

How about the Chinese humans in Noami Novik's Temeraire series?

Farther afield, I always assumed the Cetagandans in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan series were supposed to be of Chinese descent, just as the Barayarans were supposed to be of Russian descent, although that might be a little too descended for your purposes.

[havocthecat]

Perhaps it is dorky, but I have a kidlet, so--Wanda, from The Magic School Bus is of Chinese descent, I believe.

And this is debatable, but a portion of Firefly fandom will read River and Simon as half-Chinese. That's mostly a fannish interpretation, though, so I don't know if you want to include it.

There's also Cassandra from The Scorpion King. Her ancestry is never made clear, but Kelly Hu is part Chinese. (I think her X-Men 2 character, Lady Deathstrike, is Japanese, though.)

Also just about every character in The Joy Luck Club--first a book, later a movie.

[roz-mcclure.livejournal.com]

Short Round, from "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," is from Shanghai, I think.

[o-glorianna.livejournal.com]

Random suggestion: What about Snow Falling on Cedars? That novel revolves around several Japanese characters.

[ciaan]

Barry Hughart wrote a series of fantasy novels set in ancient China - Bridge of Birds, The Story of the Stone, and Eight Skilled Gentlemen.