TCCF: ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Writer Adele Lim Talks Cross Cultural Storytelling: “We Want To Blow It Wide Open”
deadline.comAdele Lim, screenwriter of Crazy Rich Asians and writer-director of Joy Ride, talked about the realities of bringing Asian stories to mainstream global audiences in a panel, ‘Asian Rising Power in Hollywood’, on the second day of Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF).
Born in a small town in southern Malaysia, Lim explained that she studied in the U.S. and decided to work in Los Angeles after graduation as she wanted to be a writer and finally got a job as a writer’s assistant on a U.S.
TV show. “Growing up in Malaysia, I felt I was starting at a disadvantage, because I was nowhere near the cultural nexus of the world, which at that time was America and England, although that has all changed,” said Lim, who was also co-wrote Disney animation Raya And The Last Dragon. “Then going over to the States, I realized that growing up in Asia had tremendous advantages, first of all which was making me much more multicultural.” Janice Chua, Vice President of Imagine International, who is now based in LA and was moderating the session said she’d had a similar perception growing up in Singapore: “Whenever we think about film and TV we’re thinking, Hong Kong or Hollywood – we never realized we could make a living in filmmaking, screenwriting from our own countries.” Lim said she was surprised when she started her career that there were not more Asian-Americans in writers rooms, especially as Joy Luck Club had already been successful, and found that most places were still only comfortable telling white, male stories. “There was this idea in America that Asians could not be the hero of the story.” But she said that everything has started changing since films like Crazy Rich Asians, which was a worldwide success, and global
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