Remember when 22 AAPI Hollywood celebrities joined in a GOTV PSA for the first time?

WITH THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS just days away, you might be interested in this oldie-but-goodie effort to motivate Asian American and Pacific Islander voters.

This Get-Out-The-Vote public service announcement (PSA), “Voice Your Vote,” first aired on television nationwide during the fall of 1996. The PSA was a historic merger between the APA community and the 22 APA Hollywood celebrities

Dean Cain, Rosalind Chao, Keiu Chinh, Margaret Cho, Stan Egi, Amy Hill, Shishir Kurup, Jason Scott Lee, Mako, Dustin Nguyen, Steve Park, Nia Peeples, Jenny Shimizu, Elizabeth Sung, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita, Denise Uyehara, Garrett Wang, Ming-Na Wen, B.D. Wong and Russell Wong. Oh, they looked so young!
The NAPAVRC was the first ever national effort to organize APAs all across the United States to register to vote and to go out to vote. Until the inception of the National Asian Pacific American Voter Registration Campaign, APA voter registration campaigns have been conducted at the local and state levels. Nineteen national APA organizations were members of this historic coalition. The PSA was created for the NAPAVRC by actor Tamlyn Tomita and Vida Benavides of Ace High Consulting, and produced by Jusak Yang Bernhard and Paul G. Bens, Jr. of I Can Make It Myself Productions. Funding for the PSA was provided by the AFL-CIO and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

The PSA was aimed at 18-35 year olds, the group least likely to vote. This November, most of the PSAs are targeting the Millennial generation, those born between 1981-1996 who are reached adulthood in the first two decades of the 21st century. They have the most at stake in this election but thus far, their voting record has been abysmal.

Twenty-four years later, AAPI voters still have a hard time getting to the polls even though immigration  and health care are a couple of the biggest issues of this election. Only 49% of the AAPI voters actually voted in the 2016 elections. 

Here's an example of a new PSA laced with stereotype-busting humor:

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'The Good Doctor' will have two Asian/American doctors

WELL, look at this: A hospital-based TV show that will feature at least two doctors of Asian descent!

Irene Keng

In the upcoming series, The Good Doctor, Tamlyn Tomita will play Dr. Allegra Aoki and Irene Keng will portray Dr. Sarah Chen. (Interestingly, Keng's character was initially named Dr. Elle McLean. The name change more accurately reflects the character's ethnicity.)

There isn't a whole lot of information on their characters or how big a role their characters will play in the plotlines. The trailer accompanying this article is of no help.

One of my pet peeves has been medical shows based in big cities without any Asian staff, much less have a role with dialog. Yes, I'm talking about Grey's Anatomy that is supposed to be based in Seattle. Since Sandra Oh left with her character, Dr. Cristina Yang, the hospital has had a conspicuous absence of Asian staff.

Tamlyn Tomit

Because of the shortage of medical personnel in the U.S., hospitals began encouraging foreign-traned medical workers to immigrate to this country. Coupled with the fact that Asian parents still think that a career in the medical field is highly prized and still encourage their kids to go into one of the health care professions. As a result, it's hard to walk down a hospital corridor without running into an Asian/American in most urban hospitals in the U.S.  Very few of the medical shows reflect this reality.

Tomita has had a long career with a host of roles. Perhaps she is best known for her roles in Karate Kid 2  an in The Joy Luck Club.

Compared to Tomita, Keng is a relative newcomer. She had a role in Grey's Anatomy playing an intern in Season 11.

Having not one, but two Asian/American doctors is a rarity in U.S. TV. It might have helped having an Asian/American, Daniel Dae Kim, in a decisiono-making role as executive producer. He fell in love with the original Korean series and helped bring the concept to the U.S. 

He left his role with Hawaii Five-0 over a pay dispute that sparked an examinatopm of CBS efforts to diversify its programming.

"All good things come to an end. I close that chapter on Hawaii Five-0 and I begin this new chapter on The Good Doctor," said Kim. 

Kim told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour Sunday that he is content serving as an exec producer on The Good Doctor but has had talks with producers about a potential onscreen role as well. "I'm really content being behind the scenes on this show," Kim said. 

“It’s in good hands of David (Shaw) and the cast… I’m constantly impressed by the performances. It’s been fascinating for me to watch their work as a producer, said Kim ... "At some point I’d love to play with them.”

Despite Tomita's lengthy resume, the lead actor is Freddie Highmore, who starred in TV's just concluded Bates Motel.

Yep! A white guy. How did this happen? Korean source material. Check. Korean/American executive producer. Check. Some things take a little longer to change.

The Good Doctor premieres on Sept. 25 on ABC.

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Actress Tamlyn Tomita blasts 'Nihau' script and whitewashing

WWII hero Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele, left, and actor Zach McGowan.

I DON'T KNOW actress Tamlyn Tomita personally, but my admiration for her has grown a few notches after she delivered her scathing assessment about Hollywood's latest act of whitewashing.

Tomita (The Karate Kid II, Joy Luck Club) responded by email that was originally sent to the producers of a movie project. It was shared by fellow Japanese American actress Keiko Agena (Gilmomre Girls). 

I'm not sure what spurred the producers of Ni'ihau to go ahead with this movie project that is atrocious in so many ways, as Tomita, who is half-Japanese and half-Filipino, so bluntly describes in her own words.
  
The story centers around a true incident in Hawaii right after the attack on Pearl Harbor -- in which two Japanese Americans did assist a downed Japanese pilot -- that apologists have sometimes used as the rationalization for incarcerating 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent.

In actuality, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover did not write up the report on the Ni'Ihau incident until two months after Executive Order 9066 was signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

To add insult to injury, white actor Zach McGowan has been cast as Hawaiian WWII hero Benehakaka “Ben” Kanahele in the upcoming film “Ni’ihau,” in yet another case of white actors playing roles that should go to Asian/Pacific Islanders. For his heroism, Kanahele was awarded a Medal of Merit and a Purple Heart.

The past two years, the issue of "whitewashing" has become a major point of contention between Hollywood studios and the AAPI community. Three high-profile roles that should have been cast with AAPI actors were cast with white actors: Emma Stone as a hapa in Aloha, Tillda Wtinton as "The Ancient One" in Dr. Strange, and Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoku Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell.

Whitewashing is not a new practice in casting. Cinema's history is rife with movies with examples, ie. John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conquerer, Mickey Rooney as Mr. Yonioshi in Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Tamlyn Tomita

Tomita's email in response to Agena - as written - follows:

KEIKO: "I grew up in Hawaii and I am Japanese American so the latest whitewashing in the film Ni'ihau hits especially close to home. When I saw Tamlyn Tomita's post today re: this script I had to share it. I adore Tamlyn. She is such an important member of the Asian American community here in Los Angeles. Thank you Tamlyn for your bluntness. 

THE FOLLOWING IS FROM TAMLYN:
In regards to the film, "Ni'ihau" - following is an email expressing my thoughts upon reading it in february - I cannot post the script, but the references to the story are important. This continued practice of 'white-washing' characters and fictionalizing history is not only total bullshit, but further perpetuates the idea that only white people can play the heroes. 

Tamlyn Tomita
Feb 7

to Rebecca, Nancy
heyllo rebecca

i appreciate you setting this up, but this script is a piece of shit and i am not mincing words...i appreciate you setting this up, but this script is a piece of shit and i am not mincing words...

my thoughts? 
- the writer/director has absolutely done no research whatsoever in writing about native hawaiians and japanese-americans in hawaii pre-1941 - has he ever been to hawaii? has he heard how hawaiians speak? 
the dialogue is atrocious in tone, setting, and authenticity - hey! 'eastenders' guy - write what you know and stick with it
- he has the gall to name 2 minor characters after 2 of the most cherished entertainers from hawaii - you know the hawaiian rendition of 'somewhere over the rainbow' accompanied by ukulele? that's izzy ka'ano'i, the other is named ke'ali'i reichel, you think no one who appreciates hawaiian music is going to notice that?
- the absolute WTF casting Benehakaka Kanahele with Zach Mcgowan - hey! brit-twit! ever hear of 'white-washing'? 
- a fictionalized account of a true incident and he has the audacity of tagging the film with the statement that it's often cited as the reason for bringing about the japanese-american internment camps - if he had dug a little deeper, the truth is, america's concentration camps came about because of "wartime hysteria, racial prejudice, and a failure of political leadership" - how dare he be a proponent of michelle malkin's sub-par research to lend his film a fart of credibility - what? he read the daily kos article and says, hey! what an idea for a movie!

http://www.dailykos.com/…/-Niihau-Island-How-a-Lone-Shot-Do…

AND HEY! EDGAR J. HOOVER DID NOT WRITE ABOUT THE INCIDENT UNTIL AFTER EXECUTIVE ORDER 9066 WAS ISSUED -

http://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/video/1915656990/

- as to why yoshio harada and irene harada did what they did - this writer/director has no imagination as to the inner conflicts of dual heritages, identities, and allegiances and what the stakes are in making such a choice - "we're gonna be at war, so let's side with the people whom we look like!"

so, yeah, sorry, there is no way i am going in for this...

my apologies for venting, but it all just came tumbling out....

xoxo"

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