He also found that roles for actors with Asian heritage were limited, and some of those he was getting reinforced racist typecasting. People weren’t “having those political conversations” in the way they are now. “In the beginning, if I was a stunt guy who got beaten up by one of the white male characters, I was over the moon.” It was, he says, probably similar to what his parents felt arriving in Canada. “Survival mode. Figure out a way to get on sets, figure out a way to work, that was it.” The cultural gap between Liu and his parents is huge. Whereas his teenage years were spent worrying about girls and whether he would ever be in an ‘NSync-style boy band, his parents had grown up during China’s Cultural Revolution. His mother, as the eldest child, had been a brilliant student but was sent away to work in rural camps for two years along with millions of other “intellectual” urban teenagers. When the universities reopened, Liu’s parents both took the entrance exams – his father cramming for a few weeks, his mother studying by torchlight after a day working in the fields – and against huge competition, both passed. They met at university in Beijing, where they both studied engineering. Kollaboration SF Community Spotlight: Simu Liu. Kollaboration SF. 20 March 2019. Archived from the original on 28 September 2021 . Retrieved 21 November 2021– via YouTube. verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{

Oh, Sandra (23 May 2022). "Simu Liu Is on the 2022 TIME 100 List". Time. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022 . Retrieved 25 May 2022. Despite the opportunities “Kim’s Convenience” afforded, Liu noted in his June 2 Facebook criticism that he became “increasingly frustrated with the way” he and his character, Jung, were treated. Liu also claimed his and others’ attempts to boost the series’ authenticity with their own creative input were dismissed. According to Yoon, that resulted in “overtly racist” and “extremely culturally inaccurate” storylines.The book is also a reconciliation story to an extent: Liu’s parents left him in the care of his grandparents in China as a toddler, while they went to Canada to set up a better future for the family. By the time Liu reunited with his family in Toronto, he was four years old and, as the publisher notes explain, “emotionally distant and difficult to relate to… separated by culture, language and values.” DORA MAVOR MOORE AWARDS NOMINEES" (PDF). Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts . Retrieved 8 October 2016.

Simu Liu, new Marvel superhero & Kim's Convenience star, writing a memoir". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 20 September 2019. In 2015, Liu was cast in his first significant recurring role, appearing as a series regular in seven episodes of the Omni Television crime drama series Blood and Water (2015–2016). He would later receive his first award nominations for this role at the ACTRA Awards and Canadian Screen Awards in 2017. [17] Liu in 2016 Liu, Simu (11 March 2021). " 'Shang-Chi' Star Simu Liu: 'Anti-Asian Racism Is Very Real' (Guest Column)". Variety . Retrieved 29 November 2021. The star of Marvel’s first Asian superhero film, Shang-Chi and The Legend of the Ten Rings, tells his own origin story of being a Chinese immigrant, his battles with cultural stereotypes and his own identity, becoming a TV star, and landing the role of a lifetime.Later, he says, “when I was further on in my career, I was like, is it going to be more of that, or is there going to be an opportunity to step up? I remember feeling discouragement when I would read these breakdowns and look at who is producing, who’s writing. Even if there was an Asian character, the people making the decisions, none of them were Asian-American, Asian-Canadian.”