Letters | Rami Malek deserved his best actor Oscar, but when will we see a Chinese winner?

Hollywood should stop catering to audiences only in Europe and North America, while Chinese investors should also make films for English speakers

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Oscar award winners Rami Malek (best actor), Olivia Colman (best actress), Regina King (best supporting actress) and Mahershala Ali (best supporting actor) pose with their statuettes during the 91st Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, on February 25. The Oscar’s award line-up has grown more diverse over the years. Photo: AFP

Published: 3:28am, 9 Mar 2019Updated: 3:27am, 9 Mar 2019

While watching the televised 2019 Oscar awards show on February 25, I was elated that Rami Malek, who is of Egyptian descent, won the best actor award. In the past, that coveted Oscar has almost exclusively gone to Americans and Europeans. As an Egyptian Canadian, I was proud of Malek’s achievement.

However, I began to wonder why, despite being a populous and powerful nation, Chinese people have not won Oscars in the leading acting categories.

Haing S. Ngor, a Chinese-Cambodian actor, won the best supporting actor for his role in the movie The Killing Fields in 1984. A few people of Chinese descent have been nominated for Oscars in the main acting categories – actress Meg Tilly (1985) for Sister Agnes and her sister Jennifer (1994) for Bullets Over Broadway. Ang Lee won best director for Brokeback Mountain and L ife of Pi. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for best picture in 2000 but it didn’t win.

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Major Hollywood producers seldom cast Chinese people in the leading role and screen writers are reluctant to write scripts with Chinese as leading characters, believing that such movies will find neither funds nor markets to cover their cost. This should change.

Bearing in mind that China is the most populous nation on Earth, Hollywood should attempt to produce films with Chinese leading characters. Chinese audiences would be eager to watch their compatriots in a major Hollywood movie.

Crazy Rich Asians was the first Hollywood film to feature actors of Asian descent in all the main roles. Photo: Warner Bros Pictures

Hollywood must escape the narrow perspective that its audiences are only in North America and Europe, and cast foreigners of all nationalities, including Chinese, in leading roles.