The 5 most fascinating Asian male TV characters right now (Part 2 of 2) at Racialicious

The 5 most fascinating Asian male TV characters right now (Part 2 of 2)

by Carmen Van Kerckhove

If you missed it, check out part 1 of this post from yesterday, which includes numbers 4 and 5, as well as my honorable mentions.

3. Vince Masuka on Dexter

Played by: C.S. Lee
You can watch it: Sunday nights on Showtime. The season just wrapped up but I’m sure they’re doing reruns now.

If you haven’t been watching Dexter, you’re missing one the best shows on TV right now. It’s smart, creepy, complex, moving - and you never know what’s coming next.

One of my favorite characters on the show is Vince Masuka. He’s one of the forensics on Dexter’s squad. For much of the show, he’s been sort of an Asian-American (with no accent!) version of Quagmire on Family Guy: a total perv who’s constantly talking about sex and making gross jokes. Oh, and he actually gets laid!

But Masuka’s character has evolved a bit over the season. In the episode when Angel Batista gets injured, we see another side of him: he passes up the perfect opening for a pervy joke because he’s too distraught over his friend’s injuries. I’m really looking forward to see how this character develops over time.

2. Hiro Nakamura on Heroes

Played by: Masi Oka
You can watch it: Mondays on NBC but much to my dismay, they’re on hiatus right now until January sometime.

Hiro is one of the most lovable characters on Heroes. Masi Oka has somehow managed to portray this time-travelling, geeky computer programmer without ever straying into buffoonery territory. For that alone, he deserves a Golden Globe.

The episode where he travels back in time to try and save Charlie from Sylar was so good. It was great to see how Charlie developed feelings for Hiro, and even though I would usually complain about the fact that they didn’t get to consummate their kiss, I actually thought it made the story that much more poignant.

I can’t wait to see what’s in store for us with Hiro. What’s up with that sword? Is he really going to fight dinosaurs? Or will that turn out to be a trip to the museum of natural history?

1. Agent Bill Kim on Prison Break

Played by: Reggie Lee
You can watch it: Mondays on Fox but the season just finished

Bill Kim might just be the scariest mothashutyourmouth on TV right now. It seemed like he came out of nowhere and turned everything upside down. He seems to know everyone and everything. Agent Paul Kellerman now has to report to Kim instead of directly to President Reynolds as in the past. But judging from the plot twist right at the end of the last season, things will change.

Kim’s ruthless efficiency is what makes him so menacing. And the fact that he always has a half smile when he talks just makes it that much creepier. I can’t get enough of Bill Kim, and I hope they keep him on as a regular character. He’s a badass!

Trackbacks & Pings

In case you missed it… at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture on 05 Jan 2007 at 12:51 pm

[…] The 5 most fascinating Asian male TV characters right now: It’s actually been a great year for Asian men on TV. And it goes way beyond Yul winning Survivor — there have been some really terrific characters on TV shows played by Asian men. […]
Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » 2007 The Year in Race, Ethnicity, and Racism: The Top 10 List of the Most Fashionable Racial Trends on 10 Jan 2008 at 3:17 pm

[…] Asian Male TV Characters– Late in 2006, Racialicious had a series of posts on the 5 (Part 1; Part 2) most fascinating Asian Male TV characters. There was a time not long ago when there weren’t […]
AllyWork » 2007 The Year in Race, Ethnicity, and Racism: The Top 10 List of the Most Fashionable Racial Trends on 10 Jan 2008 at 3:24 pm

[…] Asian Male TV Characters– Late in 2006, Racialicious had a series of posts on the 5 (Part 1; Part 2) most fascinating Asian Male TV characters. There was a time not long ago when there weren’t […]

Comments

a reader wrote:

I’m just wondering… this is the first time I’ve come over from the other site, and the majority of posts on this front page are about asians… is the focus now going to be redirected toward Asians and Asian mixes? That’s too bad because I liked the inclusive of all mixes format of the other site. Don’t get me wrong, I love Hiro on Heroes - I really do, I actually have a mini crush on him - but I miss the discussions about other mixes too!

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 12:27 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:

A Reader:

That’s because the last 2 posts are about the top 5 Asian Americans on TV (a minority group that has been as badly charicatured or invisible as any other).

Scan through back posts, and there are tons of other posts featuring other minority groups. Really, looking at the first page of a blog isn’t the best way to assess the site.

Also, Carmen is on vacation through this weekend, so the posts you see were written before that and posted now.

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 12:32 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:

CVK - how in the hell do you find the time to watch TV??

Is it TiVo?

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 1:04 pm ¶
gatamala wrote:

…ok Agent Bill Kim is scaring me

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 1:05 pm ¶
Sewere wrote:

Where’s B.D. Wong?? That dude’s cool calculated style makes him the baddest mothershutyourmouth cop…

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 1:52 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:

B.D. Wong plays a psychologist, and he’s really in a supporting role… I like him, but maybe that’s why he didn’t make the cut?

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 2:36 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:

The thing that bugs me about B.D Wong’s character is that he’s cool and calculated to the point of being totally sexless. He played a priest on Oz and now plays a very similar wise counsellor-figure on SVU. Has he ever had any kind of love interest whatsoever on SVU? I don’t know, I’ve seen quite a few episodes of it but not a majority. He’s a great actor so I’m saying this because I don’t want to see him get typecast. Just give him a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, or a weird love triangle or an obsession or something, or anything really.

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 3:16 pm ¶
Animelee/Andrew wrote:

I agree. In real life, B.D. Wong is gay, so I would like for them to give him a boyfriend, or see him go on a date at least, in SVU. They’re starting to focus on Olivia and Elliot too much now, and not enough of Munch, Fin, Cragen, Casey, Warner, and Huang.

In the mothership, they focus on everyone equally, even Van Buren!

And on CI, they’re definitely focusing on Goren a lot now, but I like it! They’re handling it well, unlike the constant “will they, won’t they” with Olivia and Elliot on SVU.

Anyways, just had to say that in George Huang’s defense.

Also, I totally forgot about Masuka on Dexter, he kicks ass. And I was scared of Agent Kim on Prison Break, until I saw him taking orders from someone else, who apparently, could not speak. He lost his mystique and power for me at that moment.

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 7:33 pm ¶
Gandalf Mantooth wrote:

I can’t recall, was there a suggestion that Wong’s character on OZ is gay?

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 8:21 pm ¶
CScarlet wrote:

I always kind of thought most of the characters on SVU were neutered. I mean ,they have families (Stabler’s wife and kids, Fin’s son, etc) but they’re usually there to amp the drama or something, while the main focus is the cases and the interaction of the team.

Would like it if B.D. Wong’s character got a boyfriend, though. He’ll be my favorite regardless. My mom’s a social worker, and he’s consistantly her favorite as well!

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 10:10 pm ¶
kim wrote:

Wong is rather sexless on the show, and that is true to Wolfe’s original ideas of how the Law and Order franchise would work: nothing but the crime and punishment, not too much on the personal lives of the characters.

He is icily enticing, though, yes? I always get the feeling that he would like to dissect Elliot into tiny little pieces of his unexamined self, and make a meal of that mess of a man.

Beware, though. Wolfe’s practice has been to pull us into the characters’ lives just before stuffing them into car trunks, or pulling ludicrous exit stunts based on out-of-the-phreaking-blue sexual preference discrimination.

Posted 29 Dec 2006 at 11:07 pm ¶
fgs_sfdg wrote:

Do Hiro’s good attributes really outweigh the perpetual foreigner stereotype and the short, geeky, effeminate asian male stereotype he embodies?

I don’t get how the Asian community (hehe. That is, the asian community on Yellowworld, Fighting44, angryasianman, etc) can even be divided on whether Hiro is a positive or negative representation. Some compared him to Gette Wantabee (wrong spelling, I’m sure), but I see him as a modern day Charlie Chan. At least no yellowface. I guess we’re pretty desperate.

Nothing against Masi; in real life, he’s social and articulate, and seems like a good guy. ALthough I did cringe when he was on Ellen or some other show, and they pulled out an old issue of Time magazine. Cover: Those Asian American whiz Kids.

Oh yeah, be sure to catch Masi in the new film Balls of Fury. Yes, yellowface!

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 12:07 am ¶
merq wrote:

Somewhat tangentially, is it just me, or are Dick Wolf’s creations becoming more and more stereotypical?

Having been an SVU junkie for almost three years, I just discovered the magic of L&O: Original Flava (yo) in all its glory. I was surprised to find much smarter, thought-provoking style in how it dealt with various issues.

While SVU isn’t terrible, it kinda drops the ball sometimes. Anyone who saw Dr. Huang’s debut on the show knows what I mean.

But his (thankfully) short-lived 2005 show, Conviction, was all kinds of stereotypical! I mean, I may not be the best person to comment on it, as I refused to watch anything past the pilot… but damn, that shit was disturbing.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 2:00 am ¶
Animelee/Andrew wrote:

Conviction sucked. The only reason I watched it was because it was in the L&O universe (Arthur Branch, Alex Cabot, etc.) I think the to other women are doing a much better job as the junior detectives in CI and the mothership, honestly. Wheeler is great for Logan, and Cassady is alright for Green.

Yes, Huang’s first episode was weird, and I hope they don’t consider it canon to the L&O Universe storyline, and everyone can just forget about it.

Sadly, Huang is a supporting character, and probably will never get the attention Olivia and Elliot have been getting since the end of last season, and pretty much all of this season. At least in CI and the mothership, it’s more balanced between supporting and lead characters.

Anyways, as for Heroes, I don’t think Masi is playing a stereotype. I pretty much match Hiro in hobbies and Mohinder in career, and I can definitely say that Hiro is a true-to-life character, and not some lame cut-and-paste stereotype. As we can see from Future Hiro’s appearance, he doesn’t have an accent, and he is super badass (I’m POSITIVE the writers are fans of Dragon Ball Z — Future Hiro is too much like Future Trunks!) He has feelings, and he DID almost get the kiss from Charlie, but because of the emotion in that moment (sadness, anger, anticipation), he lost control of his powers. It wasn’t the typical “asexual Asian guy doesn’t get the girl”, it HAD to happen for us to feel even more for Hiro than usual, as well as Charlie.

Hiro is a great character to have on TV today. I bet if he was a white nerd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNtuK4CU3ko), no one would give a shit, but because he’s Japanese-American, people pay more attention to him being a nerd…

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 5:01 am ¶
fgs_sfdg wrote:

“Anyways, as for Heroes, I don’t think Masi is playing a stereotype. I pretty much match Hiro in hobbies and Mohinder in career, and I can definitely say that Hiro is a true-to-life character, and not some lame cut-and-paste stereotype. As we can see from Future Hiro’s appearance, he doesn’t have an accent, and he is super badass (I’m POSITIVE the writers are fans of Dragon Ball Z — Future Hiro is too much like Future Trunks!) He has feelings, and he DID almost get the kiss from Charlie, but because of the emotion in that moment (sadness, anger, anticipation), he lost control of his powers. It wasn’t the typical “asexual Asian guy doesn’t get the girl”, it HAD to happen for us to feel even more for Hiro than usual, as well as Charlie.”

A stereotypical character can be based on reality. Just because there are people like Hiro does not make him a non-stereotypical character. Likewise, just because he’s a fleshed out character whom we root for and identify with does not make him a non-stereotypical character.

By the way, the relationship between Hiro and Charlie felt extremely platonic. So the asexual image remains. And yes, I am basing this on Hollywood’s version of love and sexuality (where very little is left to the imagination), and not on reality.

Carmen, I don’t know if the Hiro character was discussed before at this site. If it was, then what I’ve said is probably just redundant. If it wasn’t, shouldn’t you evaluate his portrayl a little more critically?
The kiss that we never saw may have had the effect of poignancy to you and some others, but was that the intent of the people behind the show? Or were they following standard procedure when it comes to dealing with AMs?

“Hiro is a great character to have on TV today. I bet if he was a white nerd (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNtuK4CU3ko), no one would give a shit, but because he’s Japanese-American, people pay more attention to him being a nerd”

Com’on. Not to sound condescending, but do I really have to respond to this?

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 5:54 am ¶
Animelee/Andrew wrote:

That Zelda commercial was a joke, don’t worry. I’ve been playing so much Twilight Princess recently, all I can think about it Zelda.

However, I still stand by their decision to not have Hiro kiss Charlie, and instead, get “sucked” back into the regular timeline. It just added so much to the scene, after finding out Charlie was going to die regardless if she was saved from Sylar or not, and then losing Hiro all of a sudden? Not only did we feel for Hiro, but we felt even more for Charlie because she’s going to die, and she lost the guy she loved. I don’t think it had anything to do with him being a Japanese guy.

About the asexual comment, though. Charlie is portrayed as the “girl next door, Christian Republican, southern cutie”, akin to Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, in some ways. So I doubt she’d be the type to get all freaky with Hiro so soon after meeting him.

Hopefully one day, there will be a show that shows Asian-American males getting down with other women, helping to break down old stereotypes. But Heroes is a show that takes place in a supernatural universe, and we’d need a more realistic show to depend on portraying Asian-American males in a more realistic, “non-robotic” light.

Actually, Heroes could do that, because they seem to be bringing in new heroes all the time (remember that list Chandra Suresh had?) Maybe there will be another Asian-American male added to the cast who better fits the general North American male population in terms of personality, and can help break down stereotypes?

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 6:43 am ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

gatamala: hell yes, Tivo all the way!

Sewere and Lyonside: I didn’t include B.D. Wong only because I don’t regularly watch SUV. As I explained in the first post, these are characters from TV shows that I happen to watch.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 11:38 am ¶
Rob wrote:

I have to admit that there is a love/hate relationship with Hiro on, erm, Heroes. I originally went from hating it to somewhat torn.

As an Asian American guy and who’s very sensitive to how media portrays us, I don’t necessarily mind Asian men playing stereotypical roles (though they occur so often that it’s bordering on racism). What is extremely annoying is when they turn that Asian person into a walking cartoon, a caricature. The role is just so empty that it fails to portray Asians as human beings like everyone else. It’s completely dehumanizing and American media constantly perpetuates this racist image.

That’s where Hiro is different. Yes, he hits the profile of yet another Asian male geek but at least he has feelings and is show to be a human being rather than cartoon. His relationship with that girl also implies that she has romantic feelings for him. At least, from what I’ve seen.

I’ve been reading around that though they don’t essentually find Hiro to be sexy (it’s not a surprise because most women don’t find geeks of any color sexy) but they do find him to be very endearing, cute, honest, and loving that it almost makes sexy in the eyes of some women.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 3:36 pm ¶
HighJive wrote:

Carmen,

I’m surprised you didn’t give an honorable mention at least to MadTV’s Bobby Lee. Granted, he’s not performing in a drama, but he presents some of the most memorable characters on the air.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 4:11 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

Hey HighJive, good call, but MadTV is another show that I almost never watch anymore. Also, my post was more about characters than actors, though obviously they’re pretty intertwined.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 4:45 pm ¶
atlasien wrote:

I have to defend Hiro. He starts off as a stereotype, but there’s been so much development of his character that he’s way beyond that now. The flashforward to him as a warrior figure who speaks unaccented English, for example. I think proud Asian comic-book-loving nerds especially have someone to rally around in Hiro.

Rob, it would be awesome if they added another Asian-American man to the cast. That’s an almost unbroken rule on TV shows… one is OK but two is too many. That’s one thing I have to give SVU credit for. They have both B.D. Wong and the other guy (I looked the actor up and his name is Joel de la Fuente) who plays a technician.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 7:09 pm ¶
Rob wrote:

That’s actually pretty funny because it reminded me of Sinbad’s quote:

“Movies try to avoid having two black people in the cast or else it becomes a black movie for black people.”

Hence, you get the token black guy.

Posted 30 Dec 2006 at 8:47 pm ¶
Erika wrote:

Sad that you forgot about Dr. George Huang (played by BD Wong) on Law & Order: SVU!
But otherwise I think it’s a great list.

Posted 02 Jan 2007 at 12:44 pm ¶
josh wrote:

If only every women thought as openly as you do….if only…

Posted 02 Jan 2007 at 9:15 pm ¶
babybird wrote:

We all agree Asian male image portrayal is a problem. Thankfully sites like racialiscious are around.

There is also a site I dug up dedicated to showing Asian men are sexy:

http://orientalis.sentientmind.com

Posted 13 Jun 2007 at 3:52 pm ¶
Masa wrote:

I enjoy the Heroes series quite a bit and the characters of Hiro and his friend whose name escapes me. It really bothers me when the character is lauded as progressive in a way that seems to state that society as a whole has moved beyond the unfair portrayal of stereotypes, though. No, the Hiro character is not nescessarily indicative to any predilection towards unfair use of stereotypes by the show’s creators alone. But when these stereotypes are stacked atop the very large pile of negative japanese stereotypes I’ve witnessed just in the show’s first season, it’s highly unsettling to me and it’s sad to think it’s seen as a progressive give and take scenario.

Posted 07 Sep 2008 at 1:16 am ¶