In the last post, I handed the torch to fellow blogger Dave, along with the request to comment on the news of the Hollywood adaptation of the ‘true’ story of a group of Asian-American MIT students winning big in Vegas. The result was the recently released 21 — but now with white actors and actresses replacing the shamefully geeky geeks.

Dave replied in a typical Dave-like manner (That is, incoherently raving about nothing in particular, and supplementing his argument with hastily photoshop-ed pictures. Did he, by the way, even use Photoshop? Looks more like Microsoft Paint to me).

But he makes the point that,

Dave oh Dave. Allow me to rebut.

The status quo is changing. Minutely, perhaps. But it’s changing nonetheless.

No, you’re right. The really big Asians names in Hollywood probably only include Jackie Chan and Jet Li — and both do nothing to deter the Asian kung-fu-master stereotype (that’s assuming we’re not including the likes of Keanu Reaves who, by the way, has a minute droplet of Asian blood).

But there are certainly names that have recently inched the status quo in our favour.

Let’s start with Yul Kwon (South Korean), who graduated both from Stanford and Yale, then worked briefly for Google. However, you might know him as the winner of Survivor: Cook Islands during the infamous season when the castaways were first split into tribes according to race (I wrote about it here).

In winning, he not only blasted pretty much every single Asian stereotype out of the water, but he was also named one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men of the Year.

That’s Exhibit A, Dave.

For Exhibit B, we turn to Maggie Q who starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible III, then had a far more memorable role as the girl who kicked Bruce Willis’ ass for most of Die Hard 4 until he um…threw her down an elevator shaft.

Okay, I’m cheating a bit, here, because Maggie Q is only half Asian (a feisty product of a Polish father and a Vietnamese mother), and if we were to open that door, I suppose we could also bring in Kristen Kreuk (of Smallville fame).

But there are other examples: Michelle Yeoh, the first Asian bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies and another one of People Magazine’s Most Beautiful. And don’t forget Grace Park who plays Number Six in the hit show Battlestar Galactica, also named in the 2006 Maxim’s Online Hottest 100 List.

And this, my dear friend, brings us to the last exhibit.

I chose one that would be close to your heart.

Daniel Dae Kim plays Jin on the television series Lost. But I know what you’re thinking: large ensemble cast — the casters would have had to put in an Asian actor for political reasons, anyways.

But no, the reason why I bring him up (in addition to the fact he’s another one of People Magazine’s Sexiest Men Alive) is the fact you can often spot him comfortably cruising around on bus billboards ever since he’s teamed up with Gap.

In your blog post, Dave, you asked, “What’s the point?”.

While these are indeed exceptional and rare example, perhaps the point is that the situation is not as hopeless as you once imagined.

There’s still the possibility of change.