Alpha Asian

Dan Tran is an aspiring Asian American screenwriter living in San Jose, California. He hopes to bring his talents and perspective to television. He wants to directly address the AA narrative problem in American media and expand it past doctor jokes and tiger parenting . The reality of what it's like to live in America as an Asian American is complex, and within this complexity are a collection of beautiful, poignant stories that add color to the immigration story. The following script is a spec (fake) episode written for HBO's Silicon Valley . The episode is titled "Vietnam Town" and follows the main characters' misadventures in a cultural Bay Area location. He has submitted this script to several TV writing fellowships, and hopes that if you enjoy the script , you can share it with others to inspire them to write their stories too. Attached is a link . Enjoy! You can contact Dan Tran via his email, ddtran408@gmail.com.

So Angry Asian Man posted that Tim Chiou will guest star as the hot Asian guy on 2 Broke Girls . It's an obvious attempt to counter balance the racist caricature Han. Tim Chiou... Tim Chiou... guy's name sounded familiar to me. Then I saw his demo reel and realized that I've seen this guy in a number of shows and movies, such as NCIS (he's killed in the first few minutes by a crazy ex) and a really crappy horror movie called Seventh Moon : He's a good actor and perfect for Alpha Asian roles. Check him out in this short film: Time's Not Up

In 2009, I interviewed TV producer Marie Yuen. She produced a television pilot called Wingmen , a sitcom about 5 Asian American men in the Chicago dating scene. A bit like "Sex and the City" with Asian dudes. Hey I'm an Asian dude, and I like "Sex and the City!" Anyway, Steve Yeun of The Walking Dead started out in this TV pilot which never got produced: AA: So tell me, how did this TV show get started? Marie: A friend of mine and I first started meeting in the spring of 2006 to brainstorm TV series to pitch to the networks. We didn't have any contacts in the industry at that time, so for us at first it was a fun diversion from our everyday lives. After thinking for some months about the shows we were (and weren't) seeing on mainstream TV, "Wingmen" came to us in the fall of 2006 -- and everyone we'd talked to about it got excited because it was nothing they'd seen before on the networks. To some it was empowering because it w...

Just to quickly follow up a thought I posted in response to the Don Lee's "Yellow" thread, I stated that it was refreshing to see Asian characters without any special emphasis on their Asian-ness. Characters that just happen to be Asian. I actually caught an episode of "House" the other week and it had James Hiroyuki Liao whose character was the long time partner of Iranian born actress Shohreh Aghdashloo who was portraying a performance artist. What struck me about this episode was that the screenplay didn't dwell whatsoever on their ethnic backgrounds. They just simply were....and we got to see their humanity. I actually feel like I want to write a letter to the screenwriter and commend him on a nice portrayal of an Asian American man and a Southwest Asian woman without falling into the lazy trap of just using stereotypes to "explain" these characters. I found that to be refreshing and I'd hope for Hollywood to continue this (but I ain't...

I'm a big fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was by far the best series of the franchise, although Deep Space Nine had some excellent seasons and episodes as well. You know you're a Trekker when you refer to classic episodes for guidance in life. Here are some notable lessons from some classic episodes: 1) Ensigns of Command- In this episode, Data must convince human colonists to evacuate their world, because the Federation has ceded it to the Sheliak. Meanwhile, Picard has to negotiate with the Sheliak for more time to evacuate the colonists, otherwise the Sheliak will "eradicate the human infestation." This episode was a classic lesson on how to negotiate, hardball. Picard tries to appeal to the Sheliaks' compassion, but discovers that the Sheliak have none. Picard eventually resorts to looking at the treaty between the 2 races: "Let's look at that treaty. They've been beating us over the head with it. Let's see if there's so...

When it comes to pinnacle events in the history of the Asian American male in the last 50 years, three come to mind: Bruce Lee, Yul Kwon and "Vanishing Son." That's right, I said it, Vanishing Son. Seriously, what other guilty cinematic pleasure has a handsome Asian dude kick ass and make love to hot chicks in between those sessions of kicking ass? Granted, I winced every time I watched the kung fu choreography on that show, but COME ON! Russell Wong was doing the Noxzema girl in one episode, and then doing Tamlyn Tomita the next episode. As far as guilty pleasure for the Asian American male, Vanishing Son is the creme de la creme of guilty pleasures, baked to perfection!