We all know Simu Liu – the seemingly chronically online Chinese-Canadian actor who we’ve all been seeing everywhere in Hollywood. We all know that he broke boundaries after he played the superhero character Shang-Chi in the Marvel film ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings,’ and we love him for it.
He’s also pretty active in the ‘Subtle Asian Traits’ community, where he occasionally posts about his experiences, his achievements, and his breakthroughs, for the Asian community over there in the western side of the world.
TL;DR: basically, Simu Liu is one of the poster boys (if not the main one) for (male) Asian representation in Hollywood for the past few years.
While that’s not a bad thing, how Simu Liu deals with criticism could use some work. Most recently, Simu Liu made headlines after criticizing a HuffPost commentary which talked about how Asian Twitter reacted to Simu Liu’s casting as a version of Ken for the upcoming Barbie movie.
Ian Kumamoto, the author of the said article said, “But when a single actor appears to be getting the bulk of Asian male roles in Hollywood, it starts to feel a little less like representation and a lot more like tokenism.”
Simu Liu responded to the op-ed by commenting on the HuffPost Entertainment Facebook post by saying, “Way to attempt to out us against one another. What ‘bulk’ of roles are you referring to? Are there movies I’m in that I’m not aware of? Do you really think that there is a quota of ‘Asian male roles’ that is a zero sum game? Every thing I have taken post Shang-Chi was not written Asian. We’ve been able to reshape stories to get more representation onscreen.”
Liu had also shared the article on his Facebook page and called it “the trashest take” [sic]. He later on added, “Also I’m not a ‘thirst trap’ I’m a f*cking actor.”
NGL, Kumamoto did have some truth to his op-ed. Like what we just mentioned earlier: Simu Liu is one of the poster boys for Asian male representation in Hollywood. We see him more than Manny Jacinto, Steven Yeun, Justin H. Min, and many other Asian men who have (kind of) cemented their role in films and series.
So, of course we’re going to crave for some rotation and variety to what we see. Maybe it’s also our fault that we’re not too explorative outside of seeing mainstream movies and shows but still.
Another criticism of Liu’s that got attention was a TikTok video by user @parisbynightcore, where she said that Liu “cannot handle a single speck of criticism, the ego is more fragile than glass.”
Now here’s the thing: user @parisbynightcore did not even tag Simu Liu, nor did she use his name as a hashtag. And later on, a private account (ngoc.ph) reuploaded her TikTok and tagged Simu Liu with the caption, “@simuliu is the biggest ick walking on this planet and all u asians eat his sh*t up.”
Of course, because he was tagged, Simu Liu saw the video and reposted it on his Instagram stories and addressed @parisbynightcore’s criticisms.
He started off his IG story post by saying, “I was for some reason mentioned in this story so I figured I might as well share it.” Then continued by fixing his points from A to C which were: A) No, he’s not the face of the Asian diaspora; B) He’s definitely not homophobic or incel; and C) He respects that she [@parisbynightcore] doesn’t “rock with him” but asks her to see a specialist because of her ‘hate’ towards someone she doesn’t know in the slightest.
Online users who saw his Instagram story took to Twitter to voice out their opinions on how he had reacted. Another TL; DR: it’s as if he looks himself up on the Internet every single time, and it was disgusting (to say the least) that he had set up @parisbynightcore up for hate comments from his 3 million followers.
https://twitter.com/nuzthemonkey/status/1656151690251255809?s=20
What makes this funny is that I literally saw her original video and an hour later I see her stitch. Simu Liu is such a loser https://t.co/eWSy6UeBYk pic.twitter.com/06zwidSA8x
— oh noo i need to watch dune 2 (@JoyLuckClubbing) May 10, 2023
Simu Liu sucks. He really thinks he doesn’t need to act right as long as his words sound right, and people fall for it. https://t.co/RLZ5M8s4iu
— Trung Lê Capecchi-Nguyễn (only kind of around) (@Trungles) May 11, 2023
https://twitter.com/luvsskat/status/1656132854861148161?s=20
https://twitter.com/silkcosmos/status/1656111232938815489?s=20
since i know you search your name on here, Simu Liu you are a big fucking loser and i pray on your downfall 💞 stop pretending your reddit posts aren’t public knowledge 💞 https://t.co/bT1qJ8poqW
— gap year baddie (@lesliezye) May 10, 2023
simu liu has to be one of the most embarrassing celebrities of all time… looking up indirects?? responding to random people’s shady posts about you just hours after they’re posted??? please get a grip
— viv (@Iustwetrust) May 10, 2023
Perfectly encapsulates how self-serving Simu’s politics are that he’d go off on an Asian writer pointing out other Asian male actors exist (FYI many who DONT have homophobic Reddit histories) all whilst defending Mark Wahlberg for assaulting Asian people https://t.co/BSiuCZjSIk
— Kylie Cheung (@kylietcheung) May 8, 2023
that tiktokker shouldve been meaner to you. she said she didnt like you and you post some random person on your story for your fans to attack her oh youre just as nasty as you seem @SimuLiu
— watertok influencer (@slayyawz) May 10, 2023
I'm not going to speak up on Asian issues but I will say it's telling that out of all the Asians he goes after it's a young Asian woman. Asian men have also criticized Simu Liu just as loudly but he is pointing his fans to attack this poor woman by reposting her insta story. https://t.co/lvsEn7nHcb
— Georgina Kiersten (@ingloriousgigi) May 10, 2023
@parisbynightcore stitched her own video with a response to Simu Liu’s Instagram story and said that his whole post just proves the point she was making in her other video.
@parisbynightcore stitch with @🍪 YALL HES SO QUICK WITH IT LMAO 😭😭😭☠️☠️
Oh, and ICYDK: Simu Liu was allegedly active on Reddit in the past and has voiced out his sympathy towards pedophiles back in 2015. He had also defended Mark Wahlberg when the latter was attempting to petition for a pardon for assaulting two Vietnamese American men in his teens.
Moral of the story: not all kinds of criticisms are destructive and are personal, Simu Liu. Maybe try logging off for like a while to reflect on why they may have made those comments and to make yourself better?
Not everything is all about you, okay? Criticisms are normal and are somewhat a thing that everyone experiences. The criticisms made against you aren’t even deep. We get that you’re a renowned actor and all that, but, take a chill pill? Maybe do something to prove the criticisms false instead of proving them right?
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