Olivia Liang Fights for Nuanced Representation in Hollywood

“I’ll be honest, my initial reaction to seeing an email that said ‘Audition for role of Nikki, Kung Fu,’ was like, 'Really? Haven’t we gone past this? Aren’t we done with the trope of the Asian doing martial arts?'” When Olivia first saw the audition email for the reboot of Kung Fu, the once popular 1970s TV starring David Carradine, she was not impressed. Olivia Liang is an actor and director with no interest in playing a stereotype, even going so far as to set a personal boundary for herself not to learn martial arts unless she was actively paid to do so. When she was cast as the star of Kung Fu, that's precisely what happened. After becoming more acquainted with the reboot project, she said she got “really excited” that Kung Fu was “going to celebrate…martial arts, which is so near and dear to our culture” and the Chinese Americans “get to be fully formed characters.” For Olivia Liang, this role was a fulfillment of God’s “calling.” Listen as she describes how she wants to be a light in Hollywood through story-telling and “just loving on people.”

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