Marvel's first Asian superhero Simu Liu: 'Now is not the time to withdraw'

Simu Liu has a unique position in Hollywood. He's played characters who are very distinctly and boldly Asian, including Shang-Chi, Marvel's (DIS) first Asian superhero, in a movie that comes out in September.

His big break was starring as gregarious Jung Kim in the popular CBC show called "Kim's Convenience," which is also available on Netflix (NFLX). The series, with a majority Asian cast, is about an immigrant Korean family living in Toronto, and recently announced the fifth season would be its last.

Ethnic minorities are often typecast, he notes. For Asian men, Liu says, it tends to be "tired stereotypes like the martial arts man or the geeky sidekick." By portraying a superhero, in some ways the ultimate embodiment of masculinity, Liu chips away at perpetuated tropes surrounding Asians.

"It has just been such an immense privilege the last few years of my life to be involved with projects like 'Kim's Convenience' and now the upcoming 'Shang-Chi: Legend of the Ten Rings.' I have never had the privilege of being able to kind of sideline my ethnicity and who I am. You know, people look at this face, they see my name and what they see is an Asian person. So I have never really had the option of not representing," Liu said in an interview with Yahoo Finance's "Time for Change" series.

Liu, 31, joined Yahoo Finance amid a surge in anti-Asian sentiment and violence across the U.S. Between March 19, 2020 and February 28, 2021, non-profit reporting center Stop AAPI Hate received 3,795 reports of verbal harassment, physical assault, civil rights violations and online harassment. In a separate investigation, the New York Times attributed over 110 incidents of hate directly to anti-Asian sentiment in the last year. Still, activists and researchers say the numbers remain vastly underreported.

The uptick began during the Trump administration, as high-profile figures and elected officials, including the president himself, repeatedly referred to the coronavirus as "Kung Flu" and "China Virus," scapegoating Asian individuals for the pandemic. Just this past weekend, former Arkansas governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said in a racist tweet that he is going to "identify" as Chinese so corporations like Coke and Delta will "like" him.

'You need to continue taking up space'

Even with such xenophobic and hateful sentiment, Liu said aspiring Asian actors shouldn't feel discouraged about pursuing their passions.

"What I would say, is that, 'Look, first of all you belong and, you know, despite everything that is happening right now, you need to stand up tall and you need to continue taking up space. Now is not the time to withdraw, to make yourself small. Now is the time to march in the street, to make your voice heard, and to vote," he said.

I want "for kids today to have somebody who they can watch on screen who is unapologetically Asian and who is proud of their Asian culture and their heritage," he added.

Liu has put his advice into his own life over the years. A tale as epic as the start of a superhero storyline, Liu tweeted about Marvel needing an "Asian American hero" in 2014. Then, in 2019, he was cast in "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings," which premieres in September. He now plans to create his own production company, so he can write, produce, and star in his own projects.

Even with a dismal backdrop, the entertainment world has made meaningful progress on diversity. The industry saw an all-time high for underrepresented actors and actresses playing the lead role in the most popular films in 2019, according to the annual USC Annenberg Diversity Report. The commercially successful 2018 film "Crazy Rich Asians" and this year's critically acclaimed "Minari" reflect the appetite for more diverse voices.

To ensure Hollywood makes even more progress on diversity, Asian-Americans need to be involved in every aspect of filmmaking, according to Liu. "We should have representation across all fields in the creative industry, not just as actors but as screenwriters, at producers, as the studio heads whose decisions it is to green light the projects," he said. "I think that's when you are going to start to see, you know, proper representation."

Melody Hahm is Yahoo Finance’s West Coast correspondent, covering entrepreneurship, technology and culture. Follow her on Twitter @melodyhahm and on LinkedIn.

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