Your sleeveless friend: Long Vo

Dear Ke Huy Quan

Heroes have a special place for me. As a kid I didn’t do well in school, all the intergenerational trauma affected my reading comprehension. So comics were a way for me to escape real life, to see characters like Spider-Man navigate their trauma into their power. It showed me why to choose good, even when the world can be so cruel. My parents were upset with me that I wasn’t good at school, so comics made me feel less stupid.

When I read the first headline about me and our TV show, my cast members were “social Media Savvy,” “beauty queen,” “fitness expert,” and “towering model/athlete.” I was “perpetually polarizing.” Everyone keeps telling me It’s better to be infamous rather than anonymous– being the villain is fun. But my whole life I have been both: from people not wanting to learn my Non-American name at work to having the campus police stopping me from entering my dorm room thinking I wasn’t a student. It was all the same pain. There were days I wished that I was so invisible, that I’d disappear from everyone. Maybe that’s what the real world wanted, I thought.

“American Born Chinese” was an essential comic for me. It was the first time I read an all asian-American story in comic form. I even got to meet Gene Luen Yang, who shared some words of wisdom to me, encouraging me to write stories. I understand your hesitation to not take the role in “American Born Chinese” in the beginning. Believe me, Long Duck Dong made my life excruciating. But your performance, especially your 3 minute monologue you gave, empathize with a life that I can’t find anyone to understand. We just want to become characters, to have people follow our journey. To cheer us on with our wins, and to pick us up when we fall. When you gave your monologue, your eyes told me you understood everything I’ve gone through. 

Thank you for being a hero to many. People have texted me your photo when you won the oscar. In another lifetime, this would have been an insult because “All Asians look the same.” But this time, they were so happy for you, and thought of me when you won. I only hope to become 1/16 of a hero you are to the world.