|
|
|
|
|
GOLDSEA |
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?
This interactive article is closed to new input.
Discussions posted during the past year remain available for browsing.
CONTACT US
|
ADVERTISING INFO
© 1996-2013 Asian Media Group Inc
No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced without prior written permission.
|
|
|
|
WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
Sorry, if you're born here, you're an American, regardless of your nation of ancestry. He doesn't carry a Korean passport. He doesn't vote in Korean elections. He doesn't live in Seoul or Pyongyang. Rick Yune is not Korean, he is an American. Point blank period.
Rick Yune is an AMERICAN
Wednesday, May 22, 2002 at 06:01:00 (PDT)
To "Go find your own date", hahahahhaha! That is the funniest thing I have read all morning. I agree with the first part of your posting totally. Thanks for the comic relief this early in the morning. Now I can go get some work done...
Hannybunbun
Tuesday, May 21, 2002 at 05:07:43 (PDT)
Hey Thick Skulls:
Nobody is denying that Rick Yune is an American, okay? It's a given.
We're talking about his cultural/ancestral heritage. Do you see the difference?
I have had plenty of white friends who have identified themselves as Irish, Scottish Irish, Jewish, German, Dutch, Italian, Greek, Russian, English, and so on. Many of them are 3rd or even 4th generation Americans.
I know where you're coming from tho'; we Asian Americans are relatively recent immigrants compared to other ethnic groups in this country. Thereby, many people, especially the whites, view us Asian Americans as outside foreigners rather than one of their own. This happens even to 5th, or 6th generation Chinese Americans as well. The fact that many people of Asian ancestry, especially the older generation and newly-arrived international students, do not speak good English only perpetuates the perception.
I used to get peeved a lot about that growing up in the mostly white/black South.
However, I urge you to be proud and assertive when identifying your ethnic identity.
Next time when some ignorant/curious white person asks you that annoying question like "where are you from?", ask him/her the same question. He/she might give you some quizzical stares at first, then ultimately will reply like, "ugh,hmmm...let's see... I know I'm 1/4 Hungarian, 1/4 Norwegian, 1/8 Polish, 1/8 Czech, maybe 1/8 Portuguese...I'm not sure about the rest...And I don't care. I'm an American!!!" If he/she is that intelligent/polite enough, however.
Except for Native Americans, everybody came from somewhere else...
Meanwhile, repeat after me three times,
Rick Yune is a Korean.
Rick Yune is a Korean.
Rick Yune is a Korean.
One Korean Man
Tuesday, May 21, 2002 at 01:05:44 (PDT)
Ladeeda:
Rick Yune was born in Washington DC. He is an AMERICAN by birth and by Constitutional definition.
Say it again three times:
rick yune is an american
rick yune is an american
rick yune is an american
Get it through your thick skulls: RICK YUNE IS AN AMERICAN
Monday, May 20, 2002 at 08:25:17 (PDT)
i know his cousin. he's korean.
ladeeda
Saturday, May 18, 2002 at 14:07:13 (PDT)
One Korean Man-
It wasn't Rick's parents who decided to spell his last name like that. Rick's agent and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) told him to change the spelling of his last name to "Yune" because they felt that YOON sounded too foreign. In addition, it also happened to Leonardo Dicaprio. His agent wanted him to change his name to a more American Friendly "Lenny Williams" because the agent thought his real name was too foreign. Evidently, Leo didn't want to so he got a different agent that helped choose roles to catapult him to superstardom. A Lesson Learned for Rick: He should have kept his birth given name. Now his new last name has only given him Bad guy roles that act like a white man's bitch.
In my opinion, I would stick with Chow Fun-Yat as an asian idol. he's tall and handsome and had plenty of women drooling over him in "Anna in the king". Plus he has way more charisma than Rick, Rick seems dull and boring from his interviews.
Rick Yoon Sucks
Saturday, May 18, 2002 at 13:46:47 (PDT)
One Korean Man,
According to the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) Rick Yoon's last name was originally spelled "Yun" but he changed the spelling for "Screen Actors Guild purposes." Hmmm...
aa
Friday, May 17, 2002 at 09:54:21 (PDT)
So Lisa Ling was in a commercial with five hunks -- Does one of them HAVE to be Asian for her to accept the job? Does she need to state a racial quote whenever she signs a television contract? How about if they cast as the commercial hunks one Asian guy, one black guy, one Hispanic guy, a disabled guy and a retarded guy? Is everyone happy? Do I need to throw a transexual in for good measure?
Can't she date a white guy that she likes and then an Asian guy that she likes? What if she dates a black guy? Does that cancel out the other two?
George "Dubya" Bush prominently features in his Cabinet a melting pot of sorts -- Colin Powell and Condaleeza Rice (African-Americans) and Elaine Chao (Asian-American), and some other "minorities." I still think he sucks....
Go Find Your Own Date
Friday, May 17, 2002 at 01:05:17 (PDT)
NEWEST COMMENTS |
EARLIER COMMENTS
|