‘Excellence’ Airs Memorial Day
May 25, 2007
LOS ANGELES — The AZN Asian Excellence Awards, honoring Asian and APA achievements in arts and entertainment, rolled out the red carpet in front of UCLA’s Royce Hall this month to celebrities such as Rex Lee, Jason Scott Lee and Michelle Krusiec.
San Francisco’s comic sweetheart Margaret Cho looked around the sea of Asian faces and said, “I never see all the Asian actors because they usually have just one per show.”
Stars from reality television to the Hollywood big screen turned heads and got young girls squealing but nobody got more praise than Chow Yun-Fat, who picked up the lifetime achievement award and gushed over a standing ovation.
Director Quentin Tarantino, who fashioned a black trench coat in homage to Chow, presented the award along with Geoffrey Rush and Antoine Fuqua.
Rush, who starred with Chow in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, praised Chow for his humble demeanor and said the Hong Kong-born actor was known on the Pirates set as the one who brought everyone fruit, moved film equipment and gave actresses foot rubs.
“I feel happy and joyful everyday that I can make people laugh and bring people to tears,” said Chow about his career.
Two other honorary awards went to Vivienne Tam and Nobuyuki Matsuhisa.
Tam picked up the visibility award for her much-lauded East meets West fashion designs.
“Chinese culture has always been my inspiration,” said Tam, who was born in Canton. “It has helped me climb a little higher.”
Sushi chef Matsuhisa, popularly known as “Nobu,” won the Pioneer award. He was lauded for being the “sensei of sushi” by his good friend Kenny G, who, in one of the evening’s more peculiar moments, presented the award with a rendition of Chinese pop star Teresa Teng’s “The Moon Represents My Heart.”
Hosted by Grace Park of Battlestar Galactica and Daniel Dae Kim of Lost, the night was punctuated by biting gibes and typical awards show one-liners. This one, however, had more jokes about Asians’ math and driving skills.
Park said APAs have not only made great strides in Hollywood, but have made sports headlines as well with athletes like Apolo Anton Ohno and Ichiro Suzuki.
“We’ve come so far,” said Park.
“We can even say we’re no longer lost,” quipped Kim.
The night’s top winners include Letters From Iwo Jima for outstanding film, Parminder Nagra for outstanding television actress in ER and Masi Oka for outstanding television actor in Heroes.
Oka gave his acceptance speech via video.
“I’m just a Japanese immigrant living the American dream and living vicariously through Heroes,” he said.
Cho, one of the comic performers for the show, also took home the award for outstanding comedy performance.
“It’s like finally we’re the ones laughing and not being laughed at,” said Cho. “All the Asian kids out there, you don’t have to be a doctor, you can play a doctor on television.”
The Asian Excellence Awards started in 2001 as a benefit concert for the theater company Second Generation in New York. Last year, the show moved to Los Angeles with the support of AZN Television.
The awards will be aired on AZN Television on May 28 at 8 p.m.
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