Whenever I go to the movies with my mum, she always insists on showing up early, because, for some reason, she enjoys paying to sit through the ads and trailers. Armed with a large Thai milk tea with pearls in one hand...
Hollywood
Mon Liew
Betty Ouyang directs Hollywood film for Asian actress—herself
When Greta Gerwig was nominated for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards last year, her alma mater Barnard College at Columbia University, a private women’s liberal arts college in New...
Youjin Lee
Domee Shi: First Asian Woman to Direct Pixar’s Short, Talks of Creating ‘Bao’ and Her Love for Dumplings
Chinese-Canadian-American artist Domee Shi is warm and polite, just like her forthcoming short film Bao, with its characters of a loving mom and an adorable dumpling. All headlines proclaimed Shi as the first Asian...
Marj Ostani
Miyoshi Umeki, the Oscar Winning Actress, Remains Unique After 60 Years
…The memory of all that. No, no, they can’t take that away from me… —George and Ira Gershwin, “They Can’t Take That Away from Me,” (1937) In Hollywood leading male and leading female roles were historically written...
Guest Writer
Anna May Wong: The First Real Dragon Lady Of The Screen
April Magazine presents a new bi-weekly series that highlights the badass Asian women of history. If you have a heroine in mind, tell us in the comments. You don’t need the Game of Thrones to see how cool a...
A parent and feminist guide to ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’
(Originally published on Everyday Feminism on December 21, 2016) With its second December release in two years, Disney is training nerds to associate the winter holidays with Star Wars. I know because I’m one of them...
Asian actresses ready to kick ass in Hollywood – part 2
The Good Earth, a 1937 American film about Chinese farmers in a rural Chinese village, cast only white Caucasian actors playing the main Chinese characters. Luise Rainer, a snow-white German and American actress, played...
Asian actresses ready to kick ass in Hollywood – part 1
At the 2015 Oscars, Neil Patrick Harris said, “Tonight we honor Hollywood’s best and whitest.” It’s not news that Hollywood has treated whiteness as the norm and whitewashed even non-white roles. Last year, paper-white...