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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
LISA LING & RICK YUNE
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:06:46 PM)
he's the most watched Asian woman on American TV. He's the year's hottest Asian American movie hunk. She's 26. He's 29. She's 5-5. He's 6-1. She's Chinese. He's Corean. Both are unquestionably American. She's daringly bubbly. He's recklessly intense. What makes them special to many AA minds is that they defied the odds and the unwritten laws of the American media to become the lone bona fide Asian American star couple.
Rick Yune was barely one when his family left his native Seoul, Corea for Silver Springs, Maryland. His education has been enviably ivy-covered -- private schools topped off by a Wharton MBA. Then came a stint as a Wall Street stock trader and modeling for Versace and Polo. He made a memorable film debut in December 1999 as a young Japanese American husband accused of murder in Snow Falling on Cedars. Yune's character walks and gets the girl. A breathless Newsweek profile didn't hurt his career. His intense and classic Asian features add sizzle to The Fast and the Furious (2001) and will undoubtedly do the same for The Fence (2001).
Lisa Ling is a Sacramento native who got her start in TV at the age of 15 as a reporter for a syndicated teen magazine show called Scratch. Just as she was about to leave for Boston University, Channel One asked her to become one of its peripatetic on-air reporters. She attended USC while working full-time at Channel One's Hollywood studio. All her dates at USC were white, it's rumored. Soon after graduating she joined the panel of The View, ABC's popular daytime talkshow and began spending time with a Disney exec named Morgan Wandell. The fact that Disney is ABC's parent company led to resentment and innuendo. What really raised AA eyebrows was an Old Navy commercial showing Ling cavorting with a group of men and uttering the line "I like my men strong and good-looking". The beef? None of the five men are Asian.
Little wonder that many were skeptical of rumors that surfaced in early 2000 that Ling and Yune had become a couple. Some speculate that it's a sign that Asian men are ascendant. Others suspect it's just Ling's effort at rehabilitating her image with her Asian American viewership. Still others are just glad to see an Asian-Asian star couple at long last.
What do you think?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
Excuse me, but Rick and Lisa were both BORN HERE, which makes them AMERICANS by CONSTITUTIONAL DEFINITION!
One of the reasons why Asian Americans get portrayed as "perpetual foreigners" is because some of us continue to want to look at ourselves through the lenses of our countries of ancestry instead of our country of birth.
Rick Yune and Lisa Ling are AMERICANS!!!
Monday, May 13, 2002 at 07:51:06 (PDT)
i love rick yune... he is a hottie.
angela
Sunday, May 12, 2002 at 18:34:03 (PDT)
Once and for all, Rick Yune is a full-blooded Korean! 100%. His last name, Yune, is same as "YOON" which is one of common surnames of those of Korean descent. Personally I don't know why his family decided to spell the last name like they did. Then again, there are some varieties of same last name for other surnames as well, e.g. Lee, Yi, Rhee which are all same. There are others as well. He hails from Silver Spring, MD, the Washington DC area town where many of Korean American people reside including my own brother and his family.
One Korean man
Saturday, May 11, 2002 at 20:41:02 (PDT)
Oops! Sorry, Rick Yune is Korean, my sister-in-law told me he was Japanese. Sorry! No matter what his race is, it still seems as though people would have a problem if she was a Caucasian or other race person, yet since he is Asian, although from a different country and culture, that seems no problem.
Is anyone married to a different culture or race here? Korean and Chinese cultures are different. My niece is Chinese and her boyfriend is Korean. He sits at the dinner table and nods and looks lost when everyone is conversing.
What is the cute racist name you could come up with to match "white washed" for a Korean guy since she is dating ourside her culture?
Hannybunbun
Monday, April 29, 2002 at 07:00:06 (PDT)
Are people in here retarded or can't read? Rick Yune is Korean, not Japanese!!!
wtf
Friday, April 26, 2002 at 12:59:13 (PDT)
Lisa's a great person. She's sweet and very smart. Much of the info I see and hear about her is not true (hence, this article has some flaws). Alot of the judgements I read here are based on false facts. If her and Rick are happy, just let them be happy. They are a goodlooking couple and deserve props for representing the Asian community with their skills and talents.
LAjwy
Thursday, April 25, 2002 at 18:51:32 (PDT)
my sister-in-law is ABC, and speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and also different dialects of China that some of her in-laws speak. She did not study this, but merely picked it up from growing up around it. Yet, she cannot read Chinese. Does this mean she is "white-washed", or less Chinese?
What does it mean that I am white and married to an Asian man. Am I then, "Yellow washed" since I like Chinese food, am learning the language and have alot of Chinese friends and relatives now?
How come racism is only so one sided here?
If Lisa Ling is the intelligent person and serious jouranalist she is portrayed on TV, then lets take it at that, and as far as her love life...
are people here offended because her boyfriend is Japanese, and she is dating outside of her Chinese race? Or would they only be offended if she dated a white guy, which to use the racist term here again, then she would be more white washed?
If they love each other, then great. He is a pretty good actor, she is a smart, funny journalist, maybe they are just two people in love and race does not play into this?
Hannybun
Thursday, April 25, 2002 at 11:56:07 (PDT)
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