One last look at Comic-Con 2015: Asian Americans rising

BY NOW, Comic-Con 2015 has been written about, analyzed and reviewed countless times. But there was something of significance happening at Comic-Con 2015 that has received little notice by mainstream media. 

Once an innocent gathering of nerds united by comic books, science fiction and fantasy, the convention has become an important venue where all of the big studios promote their upcoming TV series and movies. 

Amidst the ridiculously long lines, scores of celebrities and hundreds of cosplaying fans, Asian Americans were quietly being assertive. How Asian.

It began with the release of the trailer for Into the Badlands, a Chinese storyline transported to the America. Not only did it combine two elements popular with geekdom: a dystopian setting and fantastic martial arts, it introduced Daniel Wu in its lead role. Wu will be the first Asian American action hero since Bruce Lee (we're not counting Kung Fu).

RELATED: We're cheering for the new Asian hero of Into the Badlands

Badlands is a genre-bending actioner with great DNA: Alfred Gough, creator of Smallville and Miles Millar; executive producers Stacey Sher and Michaeld Shamberg from Django Unchained; they are joined by executive producers Stephen Fung and its star Daniel Wu, both of whom have extensive martial arts movie experience. We're not sure how successful Badlands will become but it certainly has a lot going for it.

Asian American actresses Chloe Bennet (Wang) and Ming-Na Wen of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. were on a panel promoting their show. Wen acknowledged her appreciation for being among the Asian American actresses enjoying success in mainstream media but there's plenty of room for improvement. 

“It’s so vitality important to have Asian American representation on a regular basis as opposed to as just a token or as something of a caricature and a stereotype,” she said. “At this day and age, (television) is such a global medium that it requires to have more Asian representation because we populate quite a lot of the globe.”

Olivia Munn takes on the role of Psylocke.

In the X-Men universe, two new characters are being played by Asian Americans: Olivia Munn as katana-wielding Psylocke  and Lana Condor as Jubilee. (See Munn's fighting skills.)

During a Q&A for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a couple of young Asian Americans asked producer J.J. Abrams if there would be any Asians in the upcoming blockbuster. He responded with a joke, "Go Asians! If I had my way, the cast would be all Asians," (nervous laughter from the audience). What he said sounds a bit patronizing. But he continued: 

“I think you’ll be happy to see when you see this film, there are Asians in this film…. We wanted the movie to look the way the world looks. And I think it is important that people see themselves represented in film. I think it is not a small thing. So I completely understand and think your question is hugely important. And it was a big consideration.”

That statement was met with huge applause, considering the strong Asian American presence in the audience. Other bloggers took him at his word and pumped up the statement to mean Asian actors will have meaningful roles in the new installment in the Star Wars franchise  

How important was Abram's statement remains to be seen: Are the Asians in his movie just redshirts without any lines to say? Do they contribute to the storyline? or are they just spear carriers in the background?

Perhaps the most meaningful discussion of Asian Americans in the entertainment industry occurred in the last day the convention in a workshop entitled  "The Super Asian America Panel." 

Moderated by Racebending.com, this special panel featured actors Chloe Bennet (“Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D”), Dante Basco (“Avatar: The Last Airbender”) and Sumalee Montano (“Beware the Batman”), stunt double Ilram Choi (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) and graphic novelists Amy Chu (“Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman”), Greg Pak (co-creator of Amadeus Cho), and Keith Chow (“Secret Identities”).

As a teaser to the panel's content, one of the most interesting statements was made by actor Basco, who played Rufio in Hook, and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Dante Basco

The entire panel was asked, "How does your experience as an Asian American inform your work behind the scenes?"

Basco responded: "Totally. I mean, in the last, I’d say… ten years, it’s totally informed my work. Because what you realize, the longer you’re around in the industry, the longer you see that it’s not… equal. It’s not an equal playing ground. And it’s not to blame, I’m not the kind of person that’s complaining how the industry is.

"It’s just that we gotta keep on creating work that’s gonna be different. The great thing now is that you’re seeing a big Asian American boom happening. We’ve seen it happen before with Latino Americans in the 90s, African Americans in the 70s, and what I’ve urged people to do is to create our own genre for ourselves, for us telling our stories, and not… the crazy thing is, you come to Comic-Con and it’s like, how do you perceive things?

"So Comic-Con is the biggest con in the world celebrating the modern arts, the popular arts. And what you realize is that every artist here, every single artist is inspired so much by Asian artists. Whether it be Japan, anime, all this kind of stuff. This is the only place that I’ve been to in America, as Asians we’ve always wanted to be more white or more black, right?

"The Con world is the only place you’ll see where black, white, Latino, other people are… wanna be Asian. And it’s the… craziest… when you really see it like that, as Asian Americans, you’re like, “Oh shit.” Oops, don’t say that. You’re like, “oh my god.” So we’ve gotta kind of start seeing where we do have leverage, where we are kind of leading the pack, and Comic-Con is one of the places where I would say, you could ask every artist on the floor, and you could say who their inspirations are, half of them are gonna be Asians. Which is amazing."

For the complete transcript of the panel, go to Racebending's website. 

2015-16 is shaping up to be a watershed year for Asian Americans if Comic-Con is any barometer of the shifting demographics of our country. But the entertainment industry is highly fickle. What happens next always depends on how successful these attempts to diversify the ranks of superheroes, fantasy and science fiction. How long-lasting this trend lasts or if it goes beyond being a passing fancy and becoming embedded in America's pop culture is anybody's guess.

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