Even White People Are Mad After Hollywood Tried to Whitewash ‘Crazy Rich Asians’

Even White People Are Mad After Hollywood Tried to Whitewash ‘Crazy Rich Asians’
Max Chang
January 7, 2017
It’s not secret that Hollywood whitewashing has been a hot topic in recent years.
Fortunately, it seems that Hollywood is starting to get their act together. Disney has assured that the live-action adaptation of Mulan will feature an all-Asian cast and Kevin Kwan’s film adaptation of his bestselling book “Crazy Rich Asians” will also follow suit.
However, such a pivotal move didn’t come with challenges, Kwan revealed to NextShark in an interview last August. Back when he first pitched his book for a film adaptation, a producer wanted to change a pivotal character into a white person.
“It was so absurd –This guy missed the point.” Kwan said “I had no consciousness of joining the fight. The book was about an Asian/American experiencing America. If you turned the character into Reese Witherspoon, it would defeat the whole purpose.
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Kevin Kwan
One of the most interesting fun facts about “Crazy Rich Asians” is that it was widely popular amongst non-asians when it first came out. Because of that, Kwan did a lot of book tours in Middle-America. During a tour at a book club in suburban Texas, the audience turned out to be mostly white women. When Kwan recounted his Hollywood whitewashing story to the audience, they reacted unexpectedly.
“They almost screamed when talking about changing the main character to a white woman.” Kwan said “One of them said, ‘No, why does Hollywood think we always want to see the same 5 people up on the big screen!?’
“Hollywood is still not catching on to what their audience wants. People want originality and to be transported to new worlds and new adventures.” Kwan said.
So to any big shot Hollywood executives who thinks Asians aren’t marketable, here’s your proof that even your own people are tired of your shit.
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