Twenty years after being a struggling young actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo is now the one giving big chances to young Asian actors. All he had to do was go to Hong Kong to do it.
The Chinese-Canadian has only been the creative director of one of the island city’s largest TV broadcasting companies for a few years, but he’s already creating original English-language content to reach viewers around the world.
“It was kind of coming full circle for me,” Lo told the Associated Press. “You see more Asians but you still see the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities on a bigger scale, not just in front of the camera. It’s also behind the camera.
It’s very different working as an Asian actor in North American centers – Toronto, Los Angeles, New York – than in Asian centers – like Hong Kong or Taipei. Asian actors don’t often have to audition for stereotypical characters, be the only Asian on set, or be tokenized. Historically, many Asian American and Canadian actors have even left the West and moved to Asian countries to find better opportunities in the entertainment field.
Some film and television producers on both sides of the Pacific, however, are seeking to disrupt this dynamic by crisscrossing their show biz ecosystems. The hope is a win-win, with young talents from the Asian diaspora gaining global exposure and Asia-based productions reaching a wider audience. For example, the Hulu series “Shogun,” which won 18 Emmy Awards, demonstrated successful collaboration between Japanese and Western cast and crew, which included Japanese Americans.
As head of Hong Kong’s Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), Lo led his first collaboration with an American company: on an original television series with scenes in English and Cantonese. Two crews on two different continents filmed “Cross My Mind,” a series about an aspiring Chinese-American music producer in Los Angeles (Nathan Ing) who connects telepathically with a Hong Kong advertising executive (Cantopop singer Jocelyn Chan).
Chan, 30, was born in Hong Kong but lived between the ages of 3 and 11 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She returned to Hong Kong for her music career partly because she feared success in North America.
“A lot of people probably had the same feelings as me, that it’s more possible if we came back to this house,” Chan said of his success in Asia’s entertainment industry. “We all feel like we have two homes. »
Her role in “Cross My Mind” is powerful, assertive and far from Western stereotypes of Asian women being soft.
The partnership between Los Angeles-based Wong Fu Productions and TVB began with one side sliding into each other’s DMs on Instagram.
“It would be cool if we could kind of tap into their audience from what they’ve built, because that’s who we’re trying to talk to,” Lo said, about reaching America’s viewers of Asian origin.
Wong Fu, which started in 2003, is now a thriving YouTube channel featuring sketches and other content centered around Asian Americans. Simu Liu was among its then-emerging actors.
“Now we have actors who want to work with us for free and say, ‘Put us in anything,’ knowing that it’s a way to connect with Asian Americans first and foremost,” said Wesley Chan, co-founder and creative director of Wong Fu. “So this can also be a way to propel them.”
Wesley Chan, who is not related to Jocelyn, was intrigued by the challenge of directing a story that incorporated Asian and Asian American protagonists. He and his team wrote six episodes of “Cross My Mind” in six months to film in 2022.
“We knew they wanted to do a story that could sort of show the cultural differences between an American and a Hong Konger,” he said. “I thought it was really cool because knowing that there’s a difference – or sharing that there’s a difference – I think that’s a nuance that you don’t see very often.”
The meshing of work styles was not an easy task. Wesley Chan noticed that teams in Los Angeles and Hong Kong – where there are no unions – worked differently. In some ways, this fit with the bicultural nature of the show itself.
The show premiered in April 2023 on myTV Super, TVB’s streaming platform which has 9 million subscribers. It debuted the following December in the United States on two new streaming platforms that have since merged to form GoldenTV, which focuses on English-language content aimed at Asian American viewers.
“There are two different audiences on two sides of the world, but it’s still content that I think has eyes,” said Takashi Cheng, founder of GoldenTV. “The fact that they need English-language programming tells you that American or English content is not dead. It’s actually very attractive overseas.”
GoldenTV has gained thousands of subscribers since its launch nearly two years ago, Cheng said. The platform plans to expand with unscripted shows. In September, he created the entertainment news show “The Takeaway,” hosted by influencer Michelle Park. Actor Daniel Wu (“American Born Chinese”) is developing a documentary series about his love of auto racing.
Wu, 50, rose to fame after moving to Hong Kong. Someone like Wu — who was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, became a Hong Kong film star then turned to Hollywood — is a “rarity,” Lo said. Before digital audiences, it was difficult to alternate between Asian and American screens, he continues.
“I think we were a breath of fresh air for these actors, these talents and these artists, when we said we were going to produce content in English,” Lo said. “There is an untapped audience here. »
Wesley Chan said Wong Fu did not rule out being “a conduit” for more crossover collaborations.
Jocelyn Chan is still continuing her singing career with hit singles and a solo concert in Hong Kong this year. But she says the success of “Cross My Mind” gave her the courage to think about taking action beyond Hong Kong. She is now looking for an agent in Canada.
“It kind of pushed me not to wait,” said Chan, who is also a healer and sound practitioner. She also thinks there is more room for talent who grew up in a bicultural culture. “It’s almost like even more specialized representation within the broader Asian representation.”
washingtontimes
