Representin’ Asian/Oriental people on both sides of the Atlantic…

[almostwitty]

Over here in the UK, the most famous British-Chinese people on TV seem to be centered around fashion, with the likes of Alexa Chung and Gok Wan. My work colleagues kindly gave me a copy of his autobiography, and unsurprisingly there are a fair few things in common – although I plainly have no idea about fashion.

In Canada, there’s been three seasons of a reality TV show set in a Chinese restaurant, called Family Restaurant, which recently started airing in the UK too.

In America? They’re making an Asian-American version of that infamous reality TV show Jersey Shore, but set in Los Angeles’s KoreaTown instead. Given that one of the chief protagonists states on her Facebook profile that she “loves SEX and partying”, and that her email address is fookmi2000@hotmail.com, I think we can see where this is going.

There’s nothing wrong with sexy Asian/Oriental folk on our TV screens – it’d make a nice change – but it’d be nice to think there are other ways to get a show on TV…

Mirrored from almost witty.

Comments

[charlycrash.livejournal.com]

Hush, Oriental! Clearly you must be one of the following:

- A Kung Fu master.
- A restauranteur.
- An obsessive socially-retarded pervo with a thing for panties.
- A sexy chick in a cheongsam that later Pokevolves into a Dragon Lady
- A quiet, demure wife and/or mail-order bride.

You're not allowed to be anything else. Clearly you missed that memo.

[almostwitty]

Must have been my circular comedy glasses with milk bottlestop tops for lenses.

[charlycrash.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[http://users.livejournal.com/rinny_/]

My daughter loves gok for the shear fact that he is Chinese
The really needs to be more asian people on tv me thinks

[sioneva.livejournal.com]

I feel guilty for never realizing how FEW there were on TV. I do very much appreciate being educated on that fact!!

[almostwitty]

Why do you think I work for the BBC ?! :) As a kid I kinda figured that if I wanted to see more Chinese people on TV, I needed to work for the BBC.

Needless to say, the BBC has not recognised my greatness yet. And it is alas unlikely to!

[anivair.livejournal.com]

To be fair, they're also airing family Restaurant here as you said and working on that Chinese crime drama. There were the Kims on Lost (that was not a show ABOUT asians, but they were pretty sweet all the same). Granted, the percentages could be higher but really Asians make up about 5% of the population here. I'd say they come close to hitting 5% on television, though sadly it's generally in a supporting role. I wonder at times, though, if we have really come any distance from the absurdity of Charlie Chan. You'd think so, but then go watch Lethal Weapon 4 and check out their portrayal of Uncle Benny. Not much better. Arguably worse.

[theta-g.livejournal.com]

At the moment Gok Wan is the only man capable of opening a runway at Heathrow.