 Is martial arts star Donnie Yen doing just what more Asian actors should be doing? Yeah, this piece of entertainment news is going viral right now because Donnie Yen is playing opposite Keanu Reeves in John Wick 4 coming out. But he asked the directors and the producers before they started filming, Yo, can I change the name of my character? It kind of sounds stereotypical like a Shang or a Chang. And can I change my kung fu outfit with the Mandarin collar to just a chic GQ suit like everybody else? Now, this obviously goes along not just with the Asian representation movement, but the accurate, respectful Asian representation movement. So this caused a lot of reactions across the internet from supporting Donnie Yen to going against him. Yeah, so hit that like button right now and check out other episodes of the hot pop boys because we are going to be covering this guys. So let's get into it man. John Wick 4 real quick before we dive into the comments. It looks dope. I'm excited for it. I like that part in the trailer when he's like talking to Keanu, he's like, you're going to die. Well, maybe not. Dude, I'm telling you, there's so many Asian themes in it. It looks dope, but let's get into the comments section. Somebody said Donnie Yen is an icon, but he's still underrated. I put him up there with Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, but I just don't think that the rest of the world or the Western world really puts him on that level. Yeah, I think following the footsteps of Jackie Chan, it is tough because Jackie Shadow was really big. However, Donnie Yen, I do think the roles he has been in have been quite serious. And I think he actually has a lot more comedic chops. I'd love to see him paired with a comedian in like kind of a rush hour style movie. You're saying Donnie Yen plus Kevin Hart? Something like that because dude, in 1985, this mismatched couples movie, he's doing Kung Fu and acting ridiculous. I mean, it was the 80s, but he also looks like G-Dragon and it's like doing all these crazy workouts and spin. And also he's a very wholesome, classy guy, no drama, no scandals. And you know, that might actually contribute to the lack of press because in America and everywhere around the world, people like drama. Moving on, somebody said, man, Asian men always get screwed in Hollywood. Thank God for Donnie Yen, changing the character's name from Chang or Shang to Kane, making him wear a suit. There's so many dudes that would be willing to not push back on this and just get the money and continue perpetual stereotypes. Yeah, no. And honestly, like you do need the stars from Asia who have leverage, who don't need American movies to live. Their career doesn't depend on it because they're already superstars from their market and they bring that confidence over. And it kind of goes into the whole thing about like certain immigrants or certain fobs have a lot more confidence when they come to America because if you come from a really, you're like a really cool person in China, for example, and you are well off and you're very confident and you come to America, you're probably going to carry that confidence over. Well, you have a lot more security. You're not like banking your whole life on this thing. So you're not willing to like, you know, just grovel for stuff. Somebody said, you know, God, all these Boba Liberals and Boba Conservatives reading this right now are punching the air because they love selling out and being the token Asian for either side of America. It's true, the Asian stars don't need to do it as much. But at the same time, maybe we understand because situations are complicated and are tough. Somebody said, oh, Donny, you're so woke now, but how come your character in Rogue One Star Wars was pretty stereotypical and you said you even fought for that one. How come that one did and you're just a martial artist? So don't you just expect like to be stereotyped because what you're doing is so stereotypical? Dude, this is a debate that I'm willing to have that I think is very interesting. It's a valid debate. It's a very valid debate because it's kind of like, okay, we understand everybody likes martial arts, but we all think it's cool and important for even your everyday life. But how come it seems like a disproportional amount of Asian actors know martial arts and use it for roles? Now it kind of makes you think even to this day in 2023 that an Asian actor is going to have more opportunities if they know martial arts. Now you can look at it in two ways. Oh, well, they just have more talent. They have more skills to do multiple things. Or, hey, man, the martial arts is the reason why they get that role because they're still Asian. There's some speculation that that's all the Western world wants to see from an Asian face is martial arts. Somebody said, yeah, I know that Donnie Yen was mad how gently he was portrayed in the Expendables because his name was Yin Yang. But somebody else says, oh, man, I'm telling you that that wouldn't ever happen nowadays. But back then it was a different era. Yeah. Also, I do think that movie almost was like a kind of like unserious action movie. You know, so I don't know. But yeah, for sure. I mean, even Jet Lee, you know, that was towards the end of his American career. Somebody said, stop complaining, Donnie. You sound so, I like your movies, but now you sound so whiny, joining the left movement. And I'm just so woke and your last name's Yin. And then you're complaining that your character's name is Chen or Chang or whatever. It all sounds the same to me. It's pretty close. Like, what are you complaining about? But that an Asian is playing an Asian? I would say that only having people named Chang or Chang, which there are a lot of Chang and Chang names in the movie. Chang in Mulan. Yeah. Chang in Mortal Kombat. There's Chang Can, Dunk. There's a lot of Chang. No, no, no. To be fair, I guess to give one more other point, those are pretty common names, even though they're like probably based off different characters. Even the character of Ken Jeong in Community was named Chang. But then I'm saying like, that's a fair request for Donnie Yin to make because that's like saying, hey guys, I noticed my character's name is Smith. Do you think I could change him to like O'Connell maybe? Just something a little bit different. Somebody said, man, I'm just tired of these beta male roles. I'm tired of being portrayed as a nerd. Why can't Asian guys actually be Alpha and not some Alpha only when they're a villain that's doing like Kung Fu? Why can't we actually be cool sexual males that get the girl at the end? I'm tired of Bobby Lee. I'm tired of Ken Jeong. I'm tired of all these nerdy beta roles. You know, I think the truth is that Bobby Lee and Ken Jeong still represent a portion of Asian guys. Right. You're saying they truthfully represent maybe a caricature or an exaggerated slice of a normal distribution of our community. Yeah, but I do think we're on the right path and I think that there is more like a wider range of Asian male representation. I think we're getting there. I think people, I was like, you know what? Sometimes though, I do want to ask those commenters. I'm like, okay, what are you doing in your life? Are you masculine in your life? Are you a big bad bro in your life? Are you like a hero in your own life? Like I'm just asking. If you are, you got room to complain, but if you are not and actually representing that in person, then you are fitting a stereotype. To be fair, even though I totally understand the criticism, I think guys like Bobby Lee and Ken Jeong, they did not grow up around any sort of coastal AZN masculinity at all. I don't think they're even aware of it. Like in their spectrum of experience, but I guess you could fault them for not, once they got rich and famous, not wanting to tell those stories, knowing that it would help the group. I mean, and would you say in this game, some people get into it just to represent themselves as an individual artist, and then there's other people who are more holistic and bird's eye thinking about everybody. Yeah, I mean, I would judge actors and comedians on what they do when they get successful. Somebody said, man, sometimes you just got to get scraps. You just got to take the scraps that the game throws you to get in the door just like Long Duck Dong and all these like terrible, nerdy, you know, small, dweeby characters. But it's just a means to an end. And it just took that to get here. Is that true? Donnie Yen is not a scrub. He doesn't need the crumbs. So that's why Donnie Yen can say these types of things. I think it's completely fair. He didn't ask to change the story. He just asked to change the Mandarin caller into a suit as an homage to Bruce Lee. And he was like, yo, I just want to cooler. I just want like a more non super Chinese name. My general feeling about this is I don't like playing defense so much and criticizing the guys that are dweeby and small in their real life for playing dweeby in small roles because that's essentially some caricature of who they are. I am more mad that Asians never developed an internal self-funded system like what Tyler Perry did for Black Americans in Hollywood or that we never like did a 50 cent type thing with power where it was like a collaboration with a major studio like Showtime but like there's such star power there that they have abnormal amount of say in the creative direction. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, what are you going to be mad at Aziz Ansari for playing the characters he does? How come Aziz is not an action star like Kumal Nanjani, huh? How come? So anyway, we covered a lot of the internet comments and real quick, why don't you expand on your point because I know that you always want to talk about stars coming from Asia. They're in a completely different leverage position than born Asian Americans. Yeah, I mean immigrants in general, man, sometimes when you're an established, well-to-do confident immigrant, it doesn't change just because you come to America. Now, I think for some of our parents and this is like a larger conversation for some of our parents when they came over, maybe you didn't feel like that they, you feel like, oh, my dad wasn't as confident as he could have been. But I'll tell you this, these stars or this next generation, sometimes the immigrants are more confident than the Asian Americans because they just bring their status and they're thinking just from one place to another. Nothing really changes about them. So they have the same amount of leverage. They have the same confidence in themselves. They're secure. They know who they are and then they come here and they play the role. You're saying that they're less insecure because the East and their popularity in the East and their systems in the East give them security. Yeah, not just that. And it's not just like, oh, well, I have the market of Asia on my back. So I don't care about America. It's not only that, it's just that how I've developed in Hong Kong is unique and a experience that not many Asian, American born Asians can go through. You know what I'm saying? I just turned in Bruce Lee a little bit, but like, yeah, you know what I'm saying? Like anyways, guys, this is something that we've talked about on the channel before. Oftentimes immigrants come over here. They're more confident than we are. Yeah. Anyway, let us know in the comments section below what you think of John Wick 4. What you think of Donnie Yen's request to change his name, change his outfits and what you think about this whole movement in general. I know some people are always complaining like, man, I watched the SAG Awards. Every speech was so like this and so activisty. It was kind of annoying. But at the same time, if it's needed, sometimes the anointing is just a byproduct of a rocky transition. So anyway, let us know what you think in the comment section below. Until next time, we'd hop up boys. We out. Peace.