We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story

Product Information

On stage, Liu was nominated for a Dora Mavor Moore Award in the Outstanding Ensemble category alongside his castmates in the 2016 Factory Theatre remount of the play Banana Boys. [60]

The cultural gap between Liu and his parents is huge. Whereas his teenage years were spent worrying about girls and whether he would ever be in an ‘NSync-style boy band, his parents had grown up during China’s Cultural Revolution. His mother, as the eldest child, had been a brilliant student but was sent away to work in rural camps for two years along with millions of other “intellectual” urban teenagers. When the universities reopened, Liu’s parents both took the entrance exams – his father cramming for a few weeks, his mother studying by torchlight after a day working in the fields – and against huge competition, both passed. They met at university in Beijing, where they both studied engineering. As for “Strays” — the CBC’s upcoming “Kim’s Convenience” spinoff centering on Jung’s work supervisor — Liu expressed resentment toward “all of the circumstances that led to the one non-Asian character getting her own show,” adding that he would “adamantly refuse” to reprise his role in the show, “not that they would ever ask.” Simu Liu, Luciano Casimiri, Leonard Chan, Julie Kim and Kristeen Von Hagen, Juno Awards of 2022 (as writer)Simu Liu Unveils New Single 'Don't', Inspired by 'The Hard Times in My Life' ". 7 April 2023. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023. Lee, Traci G. (31 August 2018). " 'Kim's Convenience' actor Simu Liu on being an accountant, his big break, and 'Crazy Rich Asians' momentum". NBC News . Retrieved 23 August 2021. He’d had success in Canada, and had landed a role in Kim’s Convenience, about a Korean-Canadian family, but when he went to LA to try to audition for bigger parts he found the attitudes were different. One influential agent turned him down, saying she already represented an Asian-American actor, implying there wasn’t room for two. “I guarantee you it happens still to this day,” he says with a grim smile.

It has “affected me on a subconscious level to this day”, he says. “I generally think it’s better to bring these moments into the light and talk about them. It wasn’t to make my parents look bad but it was to say: ‘We were an imperfect family and this is what happened to us. And we’re telling our story in the hope that other families will not make the same mistakes.’” Later in 2015, Liu was cast in his first main role as Jung Kim in the CBC Television sitcom Kim's Convenience, [18] a TV adaptation of the play of the same name. It remains his most notable television success to date, with the series being nominated for and winning multiple awards internationally, including Best Comedy Series at the 2018 Canadian Screen Awards and "Most Popular Foreign Drama" at the 2019 Seoul International Drama Awards. Liu starred in the series until its conclusion in 2021.In 2022, Liu authored the memoir We Were Dreamers, [5] and was named one of Time 's 100 most influential people in the world, in the section " Artists." [6] Early life [ edit ] Del Rosario, Alexandra (12 December 2021). " Shang-Chi 's Simu Liu Talks "Super Power" Of Being "Unapologetically Asian" At Unforgettable Gala; Sandra Oh, John Cho & More Receive Honors". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021 . Retrieved 6 September 2022.

A 'Shang-Chi' sequel is officially in the works". NBC News. 7 December 2021 . Retrieved 23 February 2022. Eventually, they would both become successful aerospace engineers in Canada, but it took huge sacrifices and risks. In his early years, Liu was brought up by his grandparents in Harbin, a city in north-east China; his mother worked in Beijing, and his father had already gone first to the US, then to Canada to do a PhD. His mother would soon join him, supplementing their scholarship money with dish-washing jobs.Pride in the individual, pride in one’s culture and heritage, and pride in one’s community. I am proud of everything accomplished during our run and cannot wait to see how the legacy of the show and others like it impact future generations in finding their voice and telling their own stories.”

In September 2021, it was revealed that Liu will lead the English-language voice cast of Bright: Samurai Soul, a Netflix anime film which premiered on 12 October. [32] In February 2022, Liu joined the cast of Greta Gerwig's Barbie film for Warner Bros. [33] and thriller film Hello Stranger directed by April Mullen. [34] Kit, Borys; Galuppo, Mia (11 February 2022). "Simu Liu Joins Margot Robbie in Warner Bros.'s Barbie (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 11 February 2022. The book is also a reconciliation story to an extent: Liu’s parents left him in the care of his grandparents in China as a toddler, while they went to Canada to set up a better future for the family. By the time Liu reunited with his family in Toronto, he was four years old and, as the publisher notes explain, “emotionally distant and difficult to relate to… separated by culture, language and values.”Films offered an escape as well as a place to escape to: going to the cinema would get him out of the house, which didn’t feel like a safe place. He loved Star Wars and Harry Potter films where there was “always a kid who didn’t come from the best family environment, but was told he was meant for great things and had to embrace his destiny”. As Liu notes in a press release, “This is the story I want to tell—a story about our little family of three that crossed the ocean from China to North America in the relentless pursuit of a better life. A story about the obstacles that nearly tore us apart, whether it was a clash of cultures, a gap of generations or simply our own stubbornness. A story about an imperfect family that made mistakes, often hurt one another and nearly imploded on many occasions, but held on, survived and even thrived.” Witty, honest, inspiring and relatable, We Were Dreamers weaves together the narratives of two generations in a Chinese immigrant family who are inextricably tied to one another even as they are torn apart by deep cultural misunderstanding. Let's just say, it's really hard to be seen as cool amongst your peers when your parents assign you hours of extra homework every night. And it's similarly hard to admit to those parents, years later, not only that you've lost your respectable accounting job — the one they invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in to prepare you for — but also that you kinda want to be an actor. In his memoir, We Were Dreamers, he wrote of the deprivation and trauma his parents had experienced growing up in China's Cultural Revolution, [7] and their subsequent " tiger parenting" style, saying he felt they "wanted to rid [his] life of joy or happiness", and recalling "the weight of what he describes as impossible expectations, 'to be the star child, the studious academic, the obedient son'", being "belittled and physically punished" for perceived failings. [10] Liu's parents "hothoused him in maths at the age of five and set 'homework' that included reading biographies of scientists and studying algebra". [7] He attended University of Toronto Schools and studied business administration at the Ivey Business School at the University of Western Ontario. [11]