Although most Northwestern students know Ming-Na from her roles as Jing-Mei on NBC’s drama “ER,” as June in the screen adaptation of Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club” or as the voice of Disney’s Mulan, the actress spoke about the difficulties of being an Asian American to an audience of more than 90 students at McCormick Auditorium Monday night.
“I’m certainly living proof of the American dream,” said Ming-Na, who doesn’t go by her full name, Ming-Na Wen.
This dream did not come easily to the Macau-born actress, who moved to America at the age of 5 and did not speak a word of English. She said she had to fight feelings of inadequacy and isolation in a country that makes Asian Americans feel like they are foreigners who did not contribute to building the nation’s history.
The Asian Pacific American Coalition selected Ming-Na as their Spring Quarter speaker hoping to inspire students.
“We wanted to bring someone who was a role model for Asian-American students,” said APAC Vice President Rosa Nguyen, who is a Weinberg junior. Nguyen said Ming-Na is a role model not only because she has achieved success in Hollywood, but because she is an activist who works to benefit and bring awareness to the Asian-American community.
Ming-Na said her feelings of inadequacy made her want to push aside her Asian roots. “I was assimilating like crazy,” said Ming-Na. “I only dated white guys … and wore the Farrah Fawcett hairdo. I even tried English names like Doris or Maggie.”
This changed when, as a theater student at Carnegie Mellon University, Ming-Na said she felt she was being denied opportunities simply because of her ethnicity. She made an appointment with the head of the theater department to demand change. Eventually, she earned bigger acting roles.
“I felt I was rewarded for standing up for myself,” she said.
Ming-Na said her college experience taught her “not to be limited by my ethnicity and not to use it as an excuse for not getting what I wanted.”
She also spoke of her struggles in acting.
“I was the first fictional Asian in white suburbia,” Ming-Na said of her big break in the daytime soap “As The World Turns.”
Ming-Na said she had to fight to win her most widely-known role as June in “The Joy Luck Club.” She convinced the director by saying she had faced the same daily conflicts of being an Asian American as the character, so she was able to win the role.
Ming-Na urged Asian-American students to be proud of their heritage and to demand equality.
“Being proud is not showing off,” she said. “Asking for equality is not trouble-making, it’s what we deserve.”
Although there were not many Asian role models when she was young, Ming-Na said the emergence of many successful Asians changed that. She praised Asian role models Jimmy Choo and Michelle Kwan.
“We have to look to our people for role models,” she said. “Become one yourself.”
“It’s good to see a strong Asian role model,” said Communication senior Chrysandra Halstead. “Assimilating is a common problem among Asians, and one that I faced myself growing up.”
Howard Lien, Weinberg ’04, also praised Ming-Na.
“I felt that she had a very powerful personal story to tell,” he said. “It was good to hear such a strong advocate for Asian-American empowerment and awareness.”
Reach Yndira Marin at [email protected].
