On Friday, I went to a reception for the Boston Premiere of Justin Lin’s new Film, Better Luck Tomorrow. At the reception, one of its main actors, Roger Fan, described being at a meeting with the execs at Paramount and MTV films. They brought out a pie chart, that had a large wedge for the “white demographic,” a fairly large slice for African Americans (according to the actor, African Americans are 13% of the population, but 26% of the entertainment $$ in the country), and finally, there was a tiny sliver for Latino Americans. Of course, the actors asked, “Where’s our piece of the pie?”
The exec answered, “We know that Asian Americans have the highest education per capita in the US, and we know you have the highest income per capita in the US, but Asian Americans spend their money like white people, so we group you in with them.” The actor’s follow up question, was “How do we get our own piece of the pie?”
And the response was, “If you make a film, and can get 10% of the Asian American community to come out the opening two weekends, then you’ll get your piece of the pie.”
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And to amend yesterday’s post, my sister Michelle is this year’s Miss Teen Charity. She did not win the larger title of Miss Teen Chinatown, but her fundraising efforts brought in the other title, and a scholarship. Congrats, Michelle! I know you worked very hard for this, and you are the “pretty sister” too!
Asians can’t be lumped with the caucasians. If they want to separate from the AA and the Latinos, then asians should be separated from the caucasians.