Asian Excellence Awards
Olympic Champion Figure Skater Kristi Yamaguchi was presented with an honorary Inspiration Award at this year’s JCPenny Asian Excellence Awards on April 23, 2008.
The athlete, artist, wife, mother, philanthropist lives by her motto of “Always Dream.” In 1996, she founded the Always Dream Foundation, which raises funds for the support of children’s charities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Olympic Champion Figure Skater Kristi Yamaguchi was presented with an honorary Inspiration Award at this year’s JCPenny Asian Excellence Awards on April 23, 2008.
The athlete, artist, wife, mother, philanthropist lives by her motto of “Always Dream.” In 1996, she founded the Always Dream Foundation, which raises funds for the support of children’s charities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Yamaguchi’s, whose own accomplishments prove that dreams do come true through hard work and commitment, is a fourth generation Japanese American and was the first Asian American figure skater to win an Olympic Gold medal at the 1992 Winter Olympics. She currently stars in the sixth season of ABC network’s Dancing with the Stars and is paired with Mark Ballas.
“I wouldn’t be here with today without the support of my family,” said Yamaguchi upon receiving her award. “They’ve definitely been there every jump of the way for me. They’ve always encouraged me to dream big and go after the dream and to believe that ‘Hey, once in a while it can become a reality.'”
Capturing the Outstanding Film award at this year’s show was director Ang Lee’s film “Lust, Caution”. The film’s star Tony Leung also took the Outstanding Film Actor award.
“Mr. Yee was not an easy role to play, especially since I had to act in a language other than my own mother tongue,” said Leung via taped acceptance speech. “But with a great director and a wonderful team, I think creating Mr. Yee was an amazing experience.”
The 2008 JCPenney Asian Excellence Awards was held at UCLA’s Royce Hall, attracting some of the hottest stars in film and television. Hosted by Carrie Ann Inaba (Dancing with the Stars) and Bobby Lee (MADtv), Hollywood players came out in force to honor Asian and Asian Americans’ accomplishments in the arts and entertainment, sports and business. The 2008 JCPenney Asian Excellence Awards will air on E! Entertainment Television on May 1 at 6 p.m. ET/PT, 5 p.m. CT and will be available on Comcast on Demand, beginning May 7.
“You see us all over the place now, whereas 10-years-ago you never saw us [much on TV]” said comic Bobby Lee from MADtv. “So it’s a new time. It’s wonderful time.”
Here’s a look at all the winners of the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards:
OUTSTANDING FILM – Lust, Caution – Director, Ang Lee
OUTSTANDING FILM ACTOR – Tony Leung, Lust, Caution
OUTSTANDING FILM ACTRESS – Sharon Leal, This Christmas
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION ACTOR – B.D. Wong, Law & Order, SVU (NBC)
OUTSTANDING TELEVISION ACTRESS – Lindsay Price, Lipstick Jungle (NBC)
SUPPORTING TELEVISION ACTRESS – Sonja Sohn, The Wire (HBO)
SUPPORTING TELEVISION ACTOR – Rex Lee, Entourage (HBO)
FAVORITE TV PERSONALITY – Cheryl Burke, Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
FAVORITE REALITY STAR – JabbaWockeeZ, America’s Best Dance Crew (MTV)
“This is amazing. I’m very grateful and thankful for all the people that voted for me,” said B.D. Wong during his acceptance speech for Outstanding Television Actor on NBC’s Law & Order, SVU. “But really most importantly, I want to thank Teddy Zee and Welly Yang, who have done an amazing job. This is an incredible event… it touches very specifically the deep relationship with our own American popular culture. We are excellent. We are just spending all of our days showing how excellent we are and that we have such a passionate need to be accepted and to be loved and to be shared with the nation at large, and this event helps us to just really feel cool about ourselves. We cannot be Asian and excellent without talking about our families and I carted my mom out here from New York. She was visiting me from San Francisco and we actually took a side trip from New York to come here — and she’s been the best date ever.”
Also making stage appearances were the street dance group KABA Modern, a top finalist in America’s Best Dance Crew show, and rapper Roscoe. In addition, internationally known actress and singer Tia Carrere sang two songs from her 2008 Grammy-nominated Hawaiian music album Hawaiiana.
Two honorary awards were also presented. YouTube co-founder Steve Chen was presented with the Pioneer Award and Olympic Figure-Skating Champion Kristi Yamaguchi received her special Inspiration Award. Quentin Tarrantino presented a special tongue-in-cheek “Half Asian Award” to actor/comedian Rob Schneider.
Live performances during the event included JabbaWockeeZ, an all-male dance crew that gained fame by appearing on America’s Got Talent and then went on to win the MTV hip hop dance reality series America’s Best Dance Crew earlier this year.
“Don’t be fooled by the beautiful chocolate skin,” said African-American JabbaWockeeZ crew member Kevin Brewer, “I’m down with Asians. In 2003, when we started the crew we had no idea we would inspire this many individuals and we would come into all the homes of all these American [viewers], so we really appreciate your support and all the votes — that’s what got us here, thank God for putting us in this position. We had a boy, Gary Kendell, that just passed away. He was actually mixed-Asian, as well, Black and Korean. He was was one of the “nastiest” members of our crew. “Nastiest” meaning “good.” He really taught us a lot about style, about life and really we give all the props to him as well. Thank you all very much.”
Highlighting the night’s assimilation themes was the predominance of mixed-Asian winners such as Sharon Sohn for her role on HBO’s show The Wire, Sharon Leal for her role in the film This Christmas and Lindsay Price for her role on NBC’s Lipstick Jungle, and Cheryl Burke from ABC’s Dancing with the Stars.
“This is an amazing event and the fact that I’m standing here says a lot,” said Sohn, who is a mix of Korean and African-American. “The Asian culture is recognizing diversity.”
Leal, who is a mix of Filipino and African-American, reiterated those sentiments in her acceptance speech: “Last year, I came to the awards and people were like what are you doing here Sharon? What’s going on? I felt like I had to announce that I am half-Filipino. My mother is from the Philippines…. I’m undoubtedly Asian. The best part of this award is your acknowledgment of that fact. I’m very proud to be part of these awards. I sincerely thank you. Thank you so much.”
The Asian Excellence Award also included such celebrity presenters and attendees as Steven Seagal, Quentin Tarantino, Kelly Hu, Lindsay Price, Sonja Sohn, Verne Troyer, B.D. Wong, Andre Royo, Ian Ziering, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bobby Lee, Jack Yang, Rob Schneider, Daisy Fuentes, Roger Fan, Russell Peters, Devon Aoki, Sharon Leal, Tamlyn Tomita, Bai Ling, Cheryl Burke, Cristián de la Fuente, Se7en, Daisy Fuentes, Will Yun Lee, Michelle Krusiec, Michael Yo, Brenda Song, Rex Lee, Navi Rawat, Jack Yang, Michaela Conlin, James Saito, and Teresa Cheung.
“There’s so many more opportunities and better roles and better parts now,” said veteran Asian American actor James Saito from the ABC TV show Elie Stone. “Everything has totally changed…. finally, we have Asian writers, Asian directors, and producers…. twenty-five-years ago, there were a handful of Asian actors, but they weren’t in the creative areas, so that’s really helped a lot…. we’ve got a night like tonight, so there is headway being made….”
NOTES: The Asian Excellence Awards is the only annual nationally televised event celebrating the outstanding achievements of Asians and Asian Americans in film, television, music, and the performing arts. Welly Yang is the creator and executive producer of the Asian Excellence Awards, working with Syd Vinnedge Productions. Teddy Zee and Hugh Wright are Executive Producers. Greg Sills is the Supervising Producer. Grace C. Lee, Jane Mun, Eddie Delbridge and Cindy Hwang are Producers.
Photos from Asian Photo Press