Simu Liu Is Right (And I Hate It)

To Shang Chi with Love

Having a celebrity talk to you on social media is always a strange experience. I say always, but it’s literally only happened to me once. This month, actually.

In November, I saw a post by Variety giving a quote from actor Simu Liu, the star of Marvel’s Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings:

“Put some Asians in literally anything right now. The amount of backslide in our representation onscreen is f---ing appalling. Studios think we’re risky.”

My immediate reaction was an eye-roll.

I don’t like race-first advocacy. “We need more BLACK stories. We need more ASIAN stories!” Should I, a child of Oklahoma, demand more dustbowl redneck representation? If I did demand such a thing, you might rightly ask why those stories, specifically, must be told in greater numbers. Shouldn’t stories just be good, in all the variety that comes with quality?

I also just don’t like Simu Liu. Which is why I felt moved to make a bitchy tweet about him.

When I saw his complaint, I quote-tweeted Variety: “All I’m saying is Russell Wong in his prime was hotter, more charming, with greater range, and a more impressive resume than Simu Liu could ever hope for. If we’re putting ‘Asians in literally anything,’ let [it] be silver fox Russell Wong. Both the crew and the audience will thank you.”

And, hell, why wouldn’t I? He wasn’t gonna see it. My followers don’t even see most of my tweets.

Twitter is fun that way.

Imagine my absolute shock when, nearly a month later, the man himself responded—graciously.

“Don’t know where he is now but I’ll find something for him,” he wrote. “Loved him in Joy Luck and Romeo Must Die. No idea what the other stuff is about, but he and so many actors who came up in that era fought against insane racism and prejudice. Thx for reminding me of him!”

Oh…

Well, that response didn’t match the person I thought I knew. He had the good sense not to “punch down” at some internet rando. I appreciate it.

But the niceness of his response got me thinking. Was it possible, however unlikely, that he wasn’t completely full of shit?