The pride and power of representation in film

The Silicon Valley and the internet
gave me superpowers.

Tools to go to battle with,

a suit to take bullets with

and a giant signal in the sky
that told me when it was time to fight.

Now, I can't actually prove any of this.

I am not "scientist,"

I don't have "facts."

In fact, my Rotten Tomato score
is running around 50 percent right now,

so I'm not sure why they let me in.

(Laughter)

But if we're talking about
colliding with a power

that's bigger than us,

then I'm in the right place,

because this last year,

I had an interesting year with a movie
called "Crazy Rich Asians" that I did --

(Applause and cheers)

Thank you.

And if we're talking about connection
specifically today,

then I know my story is only possible

because of a collection of connections
that happened throughout my life,

so hopefully by telling
a little bit of my story,

it will help someone else find their path
a little sooner than I did.

My story begins when I opened
the holy book for the first time ...

the holy book of gadgets, of course,

"Sharper Image."

(Laughter)

Yes, those who know.

It was a magical magazine of dreams

and had things in there that you knew
could not possibly exist,

but it was right there --

you could order it --

come in the mail.

And some things that probably
should have never existed,

like "Gregory," a lifelike,
portable mannequin

who deters crime by his strong,
masculine appearance.

(Laughter)

This is a real thing, by the way.

But my eyes were set
on the Video Edit Sima II.

It was so cool at the age of 10.

You could connect
all your VHS players together

and cut something together,

so I called my parents
and convinced them to buy this for me.

But before I get into that,

let me give you a little rundown
about my parents.

They came to the United States
when they were young,

they're from Taiwan in China

and they settled
in Los Altos, California --

the Silicon Valley
before the Silicon Valley --

and they started a restaurant
called Chef Chu's.

50 years later, today, they still
work at the restaurant,

they're still there,

and I grew up there.

And it was great.

Talk about connection --

this place was a hub of connection.

People coming there to celebrate
birthdays, anniversaries, business deals,

eating, drinking --

connection,

and I got to grow up in that environment.

And my parents always said, "America
is the greatest place in the world."

If you love anything, you can work hard
and accomplish anything you want.

So, they raised five all-American kids.

I am the youngest --

you can see I'm the one
with the eyes closed there --

and they named actually my sister and I,
Jennifer and Jonathan,

after Jennifer and Jonathan Hart
from that TV show "Hart to Hart."

(Laughter)

So that's how much
they loved America, apparently.

And they thought
that we were The Kennedys --

my mom specifically --

so she dressed us up
all the time like each other

and she put us in etiquette classes,

ballroom dance classes,

made sure that we had
the right dental plan --

(Laughter)

This is a real picture of me.

That is not fake.

Thank God for that one.

And I was in charge of the video camera
every time we went on vacations,

so I would collect all these videos
and nothing to do with it.

Thus, the Sima Video Edit 2.

So I convinced them to get it for me,

and I spent all night trying to wrangle

all the VCRs from my brother's
and sister's room,

tangled in wires,

and now I had something to show them.

So I brought them
into the living room one night,

it was probably 1991,

somewhere around there,

and I sit them down in the living room,

my heart was pounding,

my breaths were deep --

sort of like right now --

and I pressed play

and something extraordinary
happened actually.

They cried.

And cried.

They cried not because it was
the most amazing home video edit ever,

although it was pretty good,

but because they saw our family
as a normal family that fit in

and belonged on the screen
in front of them,

just like the movies that they worshipped
and the TV shows that they named us after.

And I remember as the youngest
of these five kids

feeling heard for the first time.

There was this place where
all these things in my head

could go into the great, electric
somewhere-out-there

and exist in escape,

and I knew from this moment on,

I wanted to do this
for the rest of my life,

whether I was going
to get paid for it or not.

And so I had this passion
and now I needed some tools,

and my dad went to work.

He continued to brag
about my home video editing skills

to the customers at Chef Chu's,

and luckily this is the Silicon Valley,

so they're working on stuff,

hardware and software --

these are all engineers --

and they offered to give me things
for digital video editing.

This is like the mid-'90s, early '90's,

where this stuff didn't exist
for kids like me.

So I'd get these beta software
and hardware from places like HP and Sun

and Russel Brown at Adobe.

And I had no manual,

so I'd figure it out and I fell in love
with it even more.

I went to USC School of Cinematic Arts
and started to go there,

and my mom and dad would always
call me randomly and remind me

that I've got to do movies about
my Chinese heritage.

That China was going to be a huge
market for movies one day --

I was like, "Yeah right, guys" --

(Laughter)

Always listen to your parents.

(Laughter)

I wanted to be Zemeckis,
Lucas and Spielberg.

The last thing I wanted to talk about
was my own cultural identity,

my ethnicity.

And honestly, I had
no one else to talk --

there was no one at school
that I could really open up to,

and even if I did, like,
what would I say?

So I ignored it
and I moved on with my life.

Cut to 15 years later,

I made it in Hollywood.

I got discovered by Spielberg,

I worked with the Rock and Bruce Willis,

Justin Bieber --

I even came to the TED stage to present
my dance company LXD,

and it was great.

And then a couple years ago,

I felt a little bit lost, creatively.

The engine was going down a little bit

and I got a sign --

I heard from voices from the sky --

or more it was like, birds.

OK, fine, it was Twitter.

And Twitter --

(Laughter)

It was Constance Wu on Twitter,

it was Daniel Dae Kim,

it was Jenny Yang, who's here today,

it was Alan Yang --

all of these people who were writing
their frustrations

with representation in Hollywood.

And it really it me.

I thought these things
but never really registered --

I was really focused on --

and I felt lucky to be working,

and then I realized --

Yeah, what is wrong with Hollywood?

Why aren't they doing this?

And then I looked at myself in the mirror
and realized I am Hollywood.

I literally --

I popped my collar before I came out here,

that's how Hollywood I am.

(Laughter)

Is it still up? Still up?

(Applause)

And for all these years I felt
like I had been given so much,

and what was I giving back to the film
business that I loved?

And I felt lucky to be here,

but at this moment, I realized
that I was not just lucky to be here,

I had the right to be here.

No, I earned the right to be here.

All those sleepless nights,

all those parties I missed on Fridays,

every friend and girlfriend I lost
because I was editing --

I earned the right to be here not just
to have a voice but to say something,

and say something important,

and I had, actually, the power --

the superpower to change things
if I really, really wanted to.

All those --

you know, when you try
to tell stories about yourself

and people who look like you
and look like your familiy,

it can be scary,

and all those feelings
of being alone came back.

But the internet is what told me --

sent the sign that there was going
to be a whole army waiting for me

to support me and to love me for it.

And so I found Kevin Kwan's amazing
novel, "Crazy Rich Asians"