Positive Asian-American male role models have been absent in Hollywood for the most part unless it was Bruce Lee from the 1970s or other martial arts figures. He is simply a child of an immigrant parent walking a line between two worlds – something that I am personally very familiar with. Jack isn’t a cook, a deliveryman, or a martial artist. It is refreshing to read about a Chinese-American protagonist who isn’t a stereotype. His fictional character, Jack Yu, is a hardened NYPD Detective torn between pursuing justice in his community during a time of blatant racism and honoring the memory of his father and their Asian roots. Author Henry Chang has been a huge influence of mine since 2006 when I first saw posters of his crime-drama novels displayed around NYC’s Chinatown: “Chinatown Beat”, “Year of The Dog”, “Red Jade”, and “Death Money”.
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