How filmmakers and actors in Asia and the Asian diaspora are expanding representation

Twenty years after he was a young, struggling actor in Toronto, Thomas Lo is now the one giving young Asian actors their big breaks. He just had to go to Hong Kong to do it.

The Chinese Canadian has been the creative director of one of the island city's biggest TV broadcasting companies for only a few years, but is already making original English-language content to reach viewers around the world.

“It was a bit of a full-circle moment for me,” Lo told The Associated Press. “You see more Asians but you’re still seeing the same Asians on screen, right? We’re looking for more opportunities on a grander scale and it’s not just in front of the camera. It’s behind the camera as well.”

It's vastly different to work as an Asian actor in North American hubs — Toronto, Los Angeles, New York — than in those in Asia — such as Hong Kong or Taipei. Actors in Asia don't as often have to deal with auditioning for stereotypical characters, being the only Asian on a set or getting tokenized. Historically, many Asian American and Canadian actors have even relocated from the West to countries in Asia to find better opportunities in entertainment.

A few film and TV producers on both sides of the Pacific, however, are looking to shake up those dynamics by crisscrossing their show biz ecosystems. The hope is a win-win with fledgling talent in the Asian diaspora gaining global exposure — and Asia-based productions getting wider audiences. For example the Hulu series “Shogun,” which won 18 Emmys, demonstrated a successful collaboration between Japanese and Western cast and crew — which included Japanese Americans.

At the helm of Hong Kong's Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB), Lo led its first collaboration with an American company — on an original TV drama with scenes in both English and Cantonese. Two crews on two different continents filmed “Cross My Mind,” a series about a Chinese American aspiring music producer in Los Angeles (Nathan Ing) who becomes telepathically connected to a Hong Kong advertising executive (Cantopop singer Jocelyn Chan).

Chan, 30, was born in Hong Kong but spent ages 3-11 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She returned to Hong Kong for her music career partly because of concern about succeeding in North America.

“A lot of people probably had similar sentiments to me where it's more possible if we came back to this home,” Chan said of finding success in the entertainment industry in Asia. “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 as meek.

The partnership between Los Angeles-based Wong Fu Productions and TVB started with one side sliding into the other's DMs on Instagram.

“It’d be cool if we can kind of tap into their audience of what they built because that’s who we’re trying to speak with,” Lo said, about reaching Asian American viewers.

Wong Fu, which started in 2003, is now a thriving YouTube channel of Asian American-centered skits and other content. Simu Liu was among its then-emerging actors.

“Now we have actors that want to work with us for free and are just like ‘Put us in whatever,’ knowing that it’s a way to connect with Asian Americans first,” said Wesley Chan, Wong Fu co-founder and creative director. “Then that can also be a way to propel them.”

Wesley Chan, no relation to Jocelyn, was intrigued by the challenge of shepherding a story that incorporates 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 that they wanted to make a story that could kind of show the cultural differences between an American and someone in Hong Kong,” he said. “I thought that was really cool because to even know that there is a difference — or to share that there’s a difference — I think is a nuance that is not seen very often.”

Meshing work styles was no small feat. Wesley Chan noticed crews in Los Angeles and Hong Kong — where there are no unions — worked differently. It in some ways paralleled the bicultural nature of the show itself.

The show premiered in April 2023 on myTV Super, TVB's streaming platform that has 9 million subscribers. It debuted the following December in the U.S. on two new streaming platforms that have since merged into GoldenTV, which focuses on English language content for Asian American viewers.

“There's two different audiences on both sides of the world, but it’s still content that I think has eyeballs,” said Takashi Cheng, GoldenTV's founder. “The fact that they need English-language programming tells you that American or English content is not dead. It’s in fact very much attractive in foreign countries.”

GoldenTV has gained thousands of subscribers since launching nearly two years ago, Cheng said. The platform plans to grow with unscripted shows. In September, it premiered entertainment news show "The Takeaway,” hosted by influencer Michelle Park. Actor Daniel Wu ("American Born Chinese") is developing a docuseries on his love of 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 cinema star and then pivoted to Hollywood — is a “rarity," Lo said. Before digital audiences, it was difficult to alternate between Asian and American screens, he continued.

“I think we were a breath of fresh air for those actors and talents and artists, when we said that we’re going to be producing English content,” Lo said. “There is an audience that’s untapped here.”

Wesley Chan said Wong Fu is not ruling out being “a conduit” for more crossover collaborations.

Jocelyn Chan is still maintaining her singing career with hit singles and a solo Hong Kong concert this year. But she says the success of “Cross My Mind,” has given her the courage to think about acting beyond Hong Kong. She’s now looking for an agent in Canada.

“It kind of pushed me to not wait,” said Chan, who is also a sound healer and practitioner. She also thinks there's more space for talent who grew up bicultural. “It’s almost like an even more niche representation within the wider Asian representation.”