This week's San Francisco Gate takes a look at the recent upsurge in television's hot Asian ("Hasian") male factor and asks the enduring question, "Have we come a long way, baby?"The author Jeff Yang surveys People's "Sexiest Man Alive" issue and answers in the affirmative thanks to the presence of Survivor's Yul Kwon, Lost's Daniel Dae Kim and John Cho, formerly of Kitchen Confidential. While Yang sticks to East Asia, if you throw in South Asian actors Naveen Andrews of Lost and Sendhil Ramamurthy of Heroes, you start to get more evidence that Hollywood's worst crimes of representation might be behind it.
Dissent in the ranks, however, comes from Single Asian Female comic author Ethan Lee who points out that most women, even Asian-American women, would rather date George Clooney.
Yang also hints at the monkey wrench in the positive spin when he notes that the sexiest Asian man on television to him is doughy, defiantly dorky Masi Oka of Heroes. In Hollywood, transcending ethnicity seems to be more an issue of washboard abs and pumped-up pecs than anything else. Show us the full spectrum of Asian beauty, and then you may have an argument for a true, optimistic upswing in multi-ethnic casting.
In the meantime, we'll take all the Daniel Dae Kims we can get. Speaking of which, Kim isn't fairing too well in the People Magazine online poll for "sexiest Lost cast member" or star whose hair you'd like to "run your hands through." Lend a hot Asian actor a hand, and vote.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-24-2006 @ 5:15PM
Donnie said...
If Daniel Dae Kim is one of the sexiest Asian men alive, we know why there aren't more of them on tv.
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11-24-2006 @ 8:42PM
Karen said...
Ouch, Donnie.
I dunno. He works for me. But give me John Cho any day. He's funny, which is what adds all those extra points.
Which is, of course, what puts Masi Oka on the list.
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11-24-2006 @ 9:57PM
Dom said...
Yul from Survivor, Daniel from Lost, John from Kitchen Confidential(whatever happened to his new pilot 'The Singles Table'???) are all somehow Korean Americans.
Also I believe Cho brothers from this seasons's TAR are also Korean Americans.
Not to mention Sandra Oh(yeah,I know she's Korean "Canadian", and Yunjin Kim from Lost are from Korea background.
hmm, Something smells fishy or kimchy in this case...
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11-25-2006 @ 1:23PM
Cynthia said...
Yes, now if only Native Americans could get some good screentime...
But Daniel Dae Kim? Very pretty.
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11-25-2006 @ 8:50PM
lovelain said...
*currently in love w/ masi oka* he's adorable, funny, has genius level intelligence, and works for freakin' industrial light & magic!! he's about as dreamy as they come for a nerd like me. *swoon*
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11-26-2006 @ 12:04AM
SJ said...
It's nice to see Asians get more screentime now.
Some other West-Asians in TV/movies include Mindy Kaling on The Office, Maulik Pancholy (Sanjay on 'Weeds', now on '30 Rock' as Jack's assistant), Aasif Mandvi (now a correspondent on The Daily Show, has appeared in Spiderman 2, The Sopranos, Jericho and others)
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