Friday, March 2, 2012

The conundrum of Asian-Americans in sports and entertainment

With Jeremy Lin bursting onto the scene, there is a lot of focus already on the NEXT Jeremy Lin.  For example, there is some buzz over Chris Tang, a 6'3' high school sophomore.  Tang was born in China though has lived in the US for the past three years.  He is currently playing basketball in Virginia and high on scouts radars:

Meet Chris Tang:  The Next Jeremy Lin?

It is quite unfortunate, but until Asian Americans start regularly playing in the NBA, almost every good Asian-American player will be looked as the "next Jeremy Lin".   As has been explained many times over, Jeremy Lin was overlooked.  Some may call it racism or stereotyping.  Whatever is was, the fact is that scouts / coaches had no frame of reference for an Asian-American basketball players.  Now that Jeremy Lin has shown up, there is a frame of reference and that will be (at least in the short term) what future players will be measured against.

That is definitely NOT a good thing if you look at the entertainment industries.  For example, the biggest ever Asian-American movie star today is still probably Bruce Lee.  Even thought Lee's been dead for years, he remains as the standard with which Asian / Asian-American actors are measured against.  Asian stars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li have been unfairly measured against Bruce Lee due to their martial arts backgrounds.   The fact is that Hollywood has been looking for the next Bruce Lee for years and still has not found him.   Yet they continue on the search while Asian-Americans languish in supporting roles.

It is somewhat the same in the music arena.  Before the Far East Movement broke out last year, there had been no major Asian-American music stars.  However, after having two solid songs, Far East Movement has faded somewhat into the background though their single with Justin Biebber is set to break into the Billboard Top 100 next week.

This reminds me of something I saw a few years ago.  There was an Asian American band called At Last.  They were competing on the show America's Got Talent:

At Last - American's Got Talent Semi-Final

As you can see on the video, they are pretty good.  Ultimately they didn't win the competition but had a small following and even released a few independent albums.   After the competition, I followed the band to see how they were doing.  The band kept busy with new albums and tours but otherwise were not signed by any major labels.

I remember reading something online where one of the band members stated:  "Producers told us they didn't know how to market us".  The implication was that Asians aren't seen as music stars and American audiences wouldn't support them.

That indeed is the conundrum that faces Asian-Americans wishing to pursue careers in sports, music, movies and TV.  Jeremy Lin forced the NBA (and  now the basketball world at large) to take a second look at Asian-Americans who may have been previously ignored.  Now, the entertainment industries need to do the same.

I firmly believe American audiences are not dummies.  Like the many different ethnicities that support Jeremy Lin, I believe American audiences CAN and WILL support Asian-American stars in movies, music and TV.  The problem is the entertainment industry wasn't willing to take a chance in the past.  Jeremy Lin's success may have some indirect impact. Once the door is open, it cannot be closed again.

In the meantime, Asian-Americans should continue to pursue their dreams.  It may not be the easiest or smoothest ride but as Jeremy Lin showed, your opportunity may just be around the corner.