# Any Detectives of Asian ancestry PLAYED by actors of Asian ancestry? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2015, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348 "2015-06-24T12:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/161 "2015-08-09T03:22:20Z")
I suppose the guy in Dexter has been mentioned? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/162 "2015-08-09T12:32:38Z")
Yes. But, oddly, not ZULU AS KONO from _Hawaii Five-O_, despite Gilbert Lani Kauhi putting in a triple-digit number of appearances as Detective Kalakaua. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2015, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/163 "2015-08-10T17:02:44Z")
The insanely profitable BLOODSPORT made Jean-Claude Van Damme a superstar as the AWOL Army captain looking to win the underground tournament, and gave an early role to Forest Whittaker as one of the CID officers trying to find him and bring him back to the States. And you’re maybe thinking Whittaker’s partner is an Asian-American who makes with the detective work, but, no, they’re bumbling twits. Instead, it’s Inspector Chen – played, of course, by former Hong Kong police inspector Philip _Chan_ – who competently finds the guy for the Americans. Who promptly lose him. And then Chen finds him again, and the Americans again pull their tasers on Van Damme, and again come up empty as he again gets away. Chen then helpfully offers to shoot our hero for them, but they turn him down. (Chan was so good in the part, he wound up playing the bad guy when Van Damme followed up with DOUBLE IMPACT.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2015, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/164 "2015-08-11T23:52:07Z")
Since my daughter is seven, we watched **Project MC²** when it came out this past weekend: a team of brainy girls investigate mysteries by gathering fingerprints and interrogating with a MacGyvered lie detector and so on; said team’s ace MacGyverer is played by Asian-American Ysa Penarejo, who gets past laser-beam security with her skateboard and some bubblegum plus a compact mirror – and who slapped together a police-band scanner easy as housing surveillance gear in that pen – and who made a key deduction about a mole at NASA, because, hey, she’s no one-trick pony. Anyhow, due solely to their efforts the criminal du jour is thwarted and arrested, and I’m mentioning it because her dad (_who works at NASA, you guys, so we can totally use his voiceprint to bypass the lock_) is played by Marcus Choi, who earlier this year was Detective Wong in that **Beautiful & Twisted** TV movie with Rob Lowe. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/165 "2015-08-12T15:01:39Z")
In the '80s, Dr. Haing S. Ngor of course won an Oscar for THE KILLING FIELDS, and soon after helped James Woods earn a Golden Globe nomination in a TV movie about life as a prisoner of war in Vietnam – but not _that_ soon after, because in between he found time to play Inspector Nguyn Van Trahn on MIAMI VICE. (In the '90s, you could see him on VANISHING SON, with a framed-for-murder hero who keeps a low profile while traveling around and helping folks – like that dude from THE FUGITIVE, or maybe Bill Bixby complete with sad-walking-away music; said protagonist would of course solve the occasional crime, or clear the name of someone wrongfully accused of murder, or whatever, before moving on to the next town.) (I don’t mean to imply that said protagonist was played by Ngor; that’s just crazy talk. No, if you’ve been reading my posts on this page, you’ve undoubtedly deduced by now that Jian-Wa Chang was played by _Russell Freaking Wong_: after he played a cop in NEW JACK CITY, but before he played a Homeland Security Agent on NIKITA.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2015, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/166 "2015-08-13T11:17:03Z")
Born in Texas before growing up in New York City, Tina Huang studied in Italy before acting in France before landing the role of Susie Chang – Senior Criminalist for the Boston Police Department – on RIZZOLI & ISLES in 2011 before she of course kept plugging away at it in 2012 and 2013 and 2014 and right here in 2015. (You maybe remember her as Internal Affairs Detective Karen Park, on CSI?) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2015, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/167 "2015-08-14T11:53:10Z")
China Chow had a recurring role on BURN NOTICE as Lucy Chen, head of a security consulting firm, starting back in the pilot episode – when our discredited hero is fresh out of cash, and she hands him some to go investigate a crime; she also recommends he partner up with Sam Axe, who she’s recently been working with. We never actually _see_ her working with Sam, you understand. Likewise, the next time we see her in an episode, another client has come to her for help – with a sob story about her ex leaving for parts unknown with their kid – and she doesn’t _personally_ handle it, because she can go favor-for-a-favor with Michael Westen, who’ll do the actual legwork of tracking the guy down. Not that _Lucy_ literally does the favor for Westen, of course; she has guys who work for her, and _they_ can slap together fake IDs for the guy who needs them. So I guess it would’ve played out the same if those guys and our hero had met with the client and done everything without Lucy – but Lucy stays in the CEO spot by (a) making all of that happen, as the person who’s (b) routinely getting reports from her FBI buddies, in exchange for which she tells them what Michael Westen is up to. Which, again, is _investigating crimes for her_ – sure as she later tells yet _other_ investigators in her employ where to go and what to do when hunting a killer. So she’s a weird case: she’s the functional equivalent of a private detective, in that folks with money in hand come to her with a crime that needs solving, whereupon said crime promptly gets solved due to her efforts and connections – but she never really _does_ anything detective-y; it’s like asking whether Nick Fury is a superhero. Anyhow, I mention her because China Chow is the niece of Tsai Chin, who was a Bond girl back in the day (she flips Sean Connery’s bed up into the wall for the transition from kiss-kiss to bang-bang) and played Detective Lisa Ishima in CROWFOOT. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2015, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/168 "2015-08-15T11:50:38Z")
Steve Park steals FARGO as Mike Yanagita, the pivot point of the movie who makes Frances McDormand realize that, _hey, if he’s not just awkwardly amiable and kinda pathetic, but simply lying about everything – then maybe the awkwardly amiable and kinda pathetic William H. Macy is likewise simply lying about everything!_ Of course, _unlike_ William H. Macy, he soon followed up by playing everything from a Yakuza soldier to the humorless Fuyu in SNOWPIERCER; _also_ unlike Macy, he appeared in FALLING DOWN, as the plainclothes detective who gets asked by Robert Duvall to translate for the Korean shopkeeper. “What’d he say?” “You know, I don’t know.” [beat] “He’s Korean. I’m Japanese, in case you never bothered to notice.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/169 "2015-08-17T00:57:45Z")
Incidentally, that Korean shopkeeper was played by Michael Paul Chan – who got mentioned upthread by **doreen** (for his ten-years-and-counting role as Mike Tao, on both MAJOR CRIMES and THE CLOSER) and by **Horatio Hellpop** (for his time as Detective Ron Lu, on ROBBERY HOMICIDE DIVISION, before that). Not yet mentioned: how he played Inspector Wu in THE GHOST before that; and how he played Detective Chan on BROOKLYN SOUTH before that. (Also not yet mentioned: his turn on BONES as Professor Shi Jon Chen, the respected anthropologist who translates stuff for Brennan and offers quick and accurate deductions about her suspect du jour before shooting down her hypothesis of the crime easy as coming up with a way for her to analyze a piece of _maybe-it-is-and-maybe-it-isn’t_ evidence; that role of course doesn’t count, but it sure emphasizes that, _dang, even when this guy’s not playing a detective, he’s missing it as close as possible._) ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/170 "2015-08-17T02:54:06Z")
If you’re okay for indie films try [Chan Is Missing (1982)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chan_Is_Missing); [Wayne Wang](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0911061/)’s first film. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/171 "2015-08-17T10:39:09Z")
On that note, THE GIRL FROM THE NAKED EYE was written and produced by Jason Yee, and – here, I’ll just quote Roger Ebert: > [@](#): > > “The Girl From the Naked Eye” opens with a lurid cover from an old pulp detective magazine, and that’s the look it achieves. Here’s a film noir crossed with a martial-arts movie … narrated in a hard-boiled voiceover by the hero, Jake (Jason Yee), who drives call girls for an escort agency and vows vengeance when his favorite girl, Sandy (Samantha Streets), is gruesomely murdered. His search for the killer leads him into one dangerous situation after another, especially since he seems to have stumbled into a situation where powerful men are not especially thrilled about finding the killer. Dunno if that counts. But I _do_ know that Yee did it after playing Detective Leo Choy in a TV movie, and before playing Detective William Chi in another TV movie, and I see he has another TV movie in post-production, so, y’know, fingers crossed. ---
**Author:** ![MegaNazz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/858c86/32.png) [@MegaNazz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MegaNazz)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2015, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/172 "2015-08-17T17:05:09Z")
BD Wong also played Detective Glen Chao in an episode of **The X-Files** called “Hell Money.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/173 "2015-08-18T10:59:01Z")
> [@MegaNazz](#): > > BD Wong also played Detective Glen Chao in an episode of **The X-Files** called “Hell Money.” To further expand on earlier answers, the aforementioned Jackie Chan was top-billed as Inspector Eddie Yang in THE MEDALLION, on the trail of that smarmy Anglo who pulled a crime in Hong Kong before high-tailing it to Dublin. (I haven’t seen it, but the Big Bad is played by Julian Sands, so let’s not pretend he _wasn’t_ a smarmy Anglo.) ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2015, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/174 "2015-08-18T18:38:30Z")
Forgive me if this is a hijack: If someone played Fu Manchu nowadays, is the character too rooted in “Yellow Peril” racism to play it straight now? ---
**Author:** ![Toy\_varen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Toy\_varen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toy_varen)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/175 "2015-08-19T03:20:16Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Forgive me if this is a hijack: If someone played Fu Manchu nowadays, is the character too rooted in “Yellow Peril” racism to play it straight now? Can’t see why it has to be, with all the reimaginings, reboots, retcons, and so forth nowadays, they can totally do it without being racist. In Big Hero 6, for example, the races of the characters have virtually no reflection on them. Of note, the actor who voiced Honey Lemon was the only one who pronounced “Hiro” correctly. To the original topic:’ TV shows seem to be virtually universal nowadays to have at least one Asian actor if in an ensemble. I browsed through the above and didn’t see Marshal Law mentioned. Movies are much more difficult, because of the language issue, asians tend to be relegated to sidekicks or supporting roles. Of those who do learn English and are big name stars in their own right, I can think of Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat (The Corruptor,) Jet Li (War) and Michelle Yeoh (Tomorrow Never Dies.) Jackie Chan has probably played an Asian detective in Hollywood films more than anyone else: Rush Hour 1, 2, 3 Shanghai Noon/Knights (as a sheriff) The Protector (In one of his rare US roles as a US citizen) Who am I? (CIA agent) The Medallion The Spy Next Door (CIA again) In a famous interview Jackie Chan gave, he said he got cut from the Letterman show when promoting “The Protector” because his English wasn’t good enough. This reflects a trend at the time of both the lack of English language skills in Asia and the refusal in Hollywood of using Asian stars because of their low language skills. Now, Asian stars routinely not only have good English abilities but will often dub themselves in US releases. So, with actors today like Daniel Day Kim, Chan, Li, Yeoh (a native English speaker by the way) and others, there’s no need to have Asian roles played by non-Asian actors as it was in the past. Interesting note, many European actors today receive training in American accent. ---
**Author:** ![Toy\_varen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Toy\_varen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toy_varen)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/176 "2015-08-19T03:23:58Z")
An interesting side effect of this is now Asian actors are put into roles that were written for Caucasian actors, such as Lucy Liu’s very western name of “Joan Watson” in the TV show Elementary. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/177 "2015-08-19T11:07:08Z")
> [@Toy\_varen](#): > > Jackie Chan has probably played an Asian detective in Hollywood films more than anyone else: > Rush Hour 1, 2, 3 > Shanghai Noon/Knights (as a sheriff) > The Protector (In one of his rare US roles as a US citizen) > Who am I? (CIA agent) > The Medallion > The Spy Next Door (CIA again) Yeah, I guess SPY NEXT DOOR counts; he works undercover, tricks a crook into revealing secret information, plants a surveillance camera and a tracking device, speculates about the existence of a mole before deducing the guy’s identity and producing the evidence to prove it – the only difference between _movie spy_ and _movie detective_ seems to be _Jackie Chan’s pen and glasses and wristwatch and cigarette lighter are useful gadgets!_ And IMDB says SKIPTRACE is in post-production for December: Renny Harlin’s the director, Jackie Chan’s the Hong Kong detective, Johnny Knoxville’s the fast-talking American gambler, you see where this is going, the thing writes itself. (Oh, and just to make sure I’m bumping this with something relevant and new, let me quickly add that Dichen Lachman was Priya “Sierra” Tsetsang on DOLLHOUSE, flashing a badge and investigating crimes and going undercover to gather evidence – and so she was, in effect, an actress of Asian ancestry playing an actress of Asian ancestry playing a detective of Asian ancestry – and so this just got _crazy_ meta.) ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/178 "2015-08-19T23:38:51Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Dean Cain is of Asian ancestry and spent years playing the world’s greatest investigative journalist, but that’s probably not where we’re going with this. Looking at his IMDB page he played an Inspector Jack Ellis on something called The Division. His resume is so big, I’d be shocked if he hasn’t had some other roles that may qualify, even if it’s mostly direct to video stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/179 "2015-08-19T23:40:08Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Looking at his IMDB page he played an Inspector Jack Ellis on something called The Division. His resume is so big, I’d be shocked if he hasn’t had some other roles that may qualify, even if it’s mostly direct to video stuff. You might not recognize Cain in the role Waldo is talking about because of his glasses. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348/180 "2015-08-19T23:41:56Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > Forgive me if this is a hijack: If someone played Fu Manchu nowadays, is the character too rooted in “Yellow Peril” racism to play it straight now? I’m guessing they’d change the character’s race, the way they did with Ming the Merciless on the version of Flash Gordon they ran on Syfy (or was it still SciFi then). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-detectives-of-asian-ancestry-played-by-actors-of-asian-ancestry/723348.md?page=10)