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GOLDSEA |
ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Kristin Kreuk: Next Asian American Beauty?
t isn't a question of droolworthiness. Her looks are dazzling enough to have locked up a lead role in each of her first three auditions, including the title role in an upcoming TV movie. It's more a question of whether most of us would identify hazel-eyed Smallville heartthrob Lana Lang as a fellow Asian.
Kristin Laura Kreuk was born to a Chinese mother and a Dutch father on December 30, 1982. She grew up in Vancouver, Canada. Kreuk, 5-4, had decided to go to college to study forensic pathology until, in her senior year, her drama teacher suggested she go to an audition for a new Fox Family series called Edgement. She was promptly plucked out of the open audition to play a Chinese Canadian high scool student named Laurel Yeung. Even as she won fans in the role, she landed the Lana Lang role for WB's dramatization of Superboy's life as Clark Kent, then the role of Snow White in the ABC TV movie set for release in 2002. Kreuk's star-quality was obvious to all who tuned in for Smallville's premiere last October. Some even proclaimed her the show's main attraction.
But many Asian American viewers didn't even suspect Kreuk's Asian ancestry. Even those who learned of her mother's nationality questioned whether she can be claimed by Asian Americans. Without an Asian surname or obvious Asian facial features, they argue, Kreuk's success would do nothing for the image of Asians in the American media. Others might argue that most African American stars are, in fact, only fractionally of African descent.
Should we claim Kristin Kreuk and other hapas like her as Asian American celebrities? Or should that designation be reserved for those with a more obviously Asian identity?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 06:00:07 PM)
It's not a matter of tagging her. It is a matter of acknowledging that Kristen Kreuk's mother was Asian, therefore, she has her mother's nationality.
chino
Thursday, July 04, 2002 at 20:24:14 (PDT)
Why do we even have to put a tag on her? Why can't we just say she's a good actress. I being chinese myself am half french and people always split me of being 100% French when i'am not 100% i'm half of half and should not be tagged just like Kristin
mini
blahblah
Sunday, June 30, 2002 at 09:36:35 (PDT)
Red Red Seashell:
I later on read your other post--I apologize for the knee-jerk reaction.
By the way, your name keeps on reminding me of that old UB40 song...
Red Red Wine
you make me feel so fine
You keep me rocking
All of the time...
Bruce Lee wayne
Thursday, June 27, 2002 at 06:38:32 (PDT)
Bruce Lee Wayne,
I didn't realize that I had a typo in my post. "...should force..." should have been "...should not force ...". But if you read my post carefully, you would realize that it was a typo because I also wrote "it is up to Kristin Kreuk whether she wants to relate to the AA community or not". If you read my other posts in this and other Goldsea forums, you'll see that I am very tolerant racially.
Sorry to make you think that there was an Asian Nazi in this forum. Take care.
Red Red Seashell
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 21:56:34 (PDT)
Idealist:
"Your cultural background is not important, adaptation and consideration is the only way forward, not clinging on to dead tradition and pointless racial labels."
Yeah, aside from the fact that being bilingual and bicultural gives you the ability to communicate with twice as many people. Nice little economic edge.
"She is a human being, and that alone is reason to enough to support her in all she does that may benefit the rest of the world, be it charity, entertainment or any other endeavour."
As Edward O. Wilson said of communism, "Wonderful theory, wrong species." People are likely to support those of their own cultural, ethnic, and linguistic group more strongly than those of other groups. This is human nature and healthy when not taken to extremes of violence. You're not likely to eliminate it, absent genetic engineering. Or communist dictatorship (whatever else you may thing of the Soviet Union, it did prevent Eastern Europe from exploding into a bloodbath.)
T.H. Lien
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 14:59:12 (PDT)
Until you all learn to drop this kind of racial stereotyping and realise that it does not matter what race you are defined as you will be doomed to proliferate racial hatred and segregation.
Idealism is the way forward. Complete intolerance of these ridiculous questions is the only way we will ever break free of this childish waste of time that people dress up as debate.
Your cultural background is not important, adaptation and consideration is the only way forward, not clinging on to dead tradition and pointless racial labels.
The "people" that Miss Kreuk represents is an issue for her to debate and her alone. The idea that you should have any say in how the individual represents themselves borders on communism.
She is a human being, and that alone is reason to enough to support her in all she does that may benefit the rest of the world, be it charity, entertainment or any other endeavour.
An Idealist.
Tuesday, June 25, 2002 at 07:32:20 (PDT)
to bruce lee wayne:
i cant speak for red red seashell, but i think what she wrote is just a typo. i think red red seashell meant that u can force people to be something they're not. just look back on his'/her's previous posts.
lilywater47
Monday, June 24, 2002 at 17:33:36 (PDT)
Well, from reading these comments I can see that many people here have different beliefs and though I do not agree with all of them I thought I'd put in my two cents in the matter. Both of my parents are Chinese, they both do not speak chinese because they were born in the South. Obviously I "look" asian but I identify with north american culture better. Would this make me an "ignorant" actress because I don't speak chinese and therefor do not represent my race well. That's absurd and to pick apart kristin kreuk and "force" her to feel asian or even frown upon her would show your ignorance. What's with this "claiming" business. Why do we feel it's our business to claim asians once they become famous? Did her asian brothers and sisters help her out? If people are so concerned with having full asian's in lead roles then why are we sittin around waiting for them to magically appear. Asians should be learning the craft intensely, directing, acting, and making roles for themselves instead of blaming others and feeling sorry for themselves.
butterfly9881
Monday, June 24, 2002 at 13:59:57 (PDT)
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