You want to take the challenge? Without googling it, see how many Asian-American actors you can name that aren't action stars. All I could come up with was Harold from Harold & Kumar, but that doesn't even count because I don't know his name. Our guest artist, Gwendolyn Vines, was able to come up with a few, but she's clearly exceptional. She's about to start her Ph.D. work at MIT where she's studying to be a... wait for it... I kid you not... rocket scientist. Yet somehow she finds time to do guest art for us and keep her own webcomic going, November Shift--a character driven sci-fi story, which is as pretty as it is awesome.
But let's talk about The Karate Kid, 'cause I got a bone to pick. I actually liked the movie. I was totally entertained by the thing, but I am kind of tired of the fish out of water story in which an American (usually--though not in this case--white), learns in a matter of a few musical montages what the locals learn over the course of a lifetime and then teaches them all the true meaning of something or another. I'm talking about Avatar, The Last Samurai, and that 1997 classic For Richer and For Poorer, in which Tim Allen and Kristie Alley teach the Amish to loosen up a little bit. It's a weird paradox indeed when these movies taut the values of a culture while sublimating them to our own modern egotism.
