The Wedding Banquet's Youn Yuh-jung on channelling her past to play gay man's grandmother
In Ang Lee's 1993 film The Wedding Banquet, a bisexual man tries to hide his boyfriend from his parents by marrying a Chinese immigrant who needs a green card.
Advertisement
In Andrew Ahn's new remake of the film, which opens in cinemas in the United States on April 18, the stakes have been doubled, with two gay couples whose differing needs and goals have led them to the brink of breaking up. That is before their families get involved.
The last few years have been remarkable for Youn. In 2021, she won the
best supporting actress Oscar for Korean-American family drama
Minari , and she received much acclaim for her role in the 2022 miniseries
Pachinko
Advertisement
In The Wedding Banquet she plays a grandmother from a notoriously private and conservative wealthy family.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asia Times
2 days ago
- Asia Times
Eternal Queen of Asian Pop's last encore from beyond the grave
Several years ago, an employee at Universal Music came across a cassette tape in a Tokyo warehouse while sorting through archival materials. On it was a recording by the late Taiwanese pop star Teresa Teng that had never been released; the pop ballad, likely recorded in the mid-1980s while Teng was living and performing in Japan, was a collaboration between composer Takashi Miki and lyricist Toyohisa Araki. Now, to the delight of her millions of fans, the track titled 'Love Songs Are Best in the Foggy Night' will appear on an album set to be released on June 25, 2025. Teng died 30 years ago. Most Westerners know little about her life and her body of work. Yet the ballads of Teng, who could sing in Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese and Indonesian, continue to echo through karaoke rooms, on Spotify playlists, at tribute concerts and at family gatherings across Asia and beyond. I study how pop music has served as a tool of soft power, and I've spent the past several years researching Teng's music and its legacy. I've found that Teng's influence endures not just because of her voice, but also because her music transcends Asia's political fault lines. Born in 1953 in Yunlin, Taiwan, Teresa Teng grew up in one of the many villages that were built to house soldiers and their families who had fled mainland China in 1949 after the Communists claimed victory in the Chinese civil war. Her early exposure to traditional Chinese music and opera laid the foundation for her singing career. By age 6, she was taking voice lessons. She soon began winning local singing competitions. 'It wasn't adults who wanted me to sing,' Teng wrote in her memoir. 'I wanted to sing. As long as I could sing, I was happy.' At 14, Teng dropped out of high school to focus entirely on music, signing with the local label Yeu Jow Records. Soon thereafter, she released her first album, 'Fengyang Flower Drum.' In the 1970s, she toured and recorded across Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan and Southeast Asia, becoming one of Asia's first truly transnational pop stars. Teng's career flourished in the late 1970s and 1980s. She released some of her most iconic tracks, such as her covers of Chinese singer Zhou Xuan's 1937 hit 'When Will You Return?' and Taiwanese singer Chen Fen-lan's 'The Moon Represents My Heart,' and toured widely across Asia, sparking what came to be known as 'Teresa Teng Fever.' In the early 1990s, Teng was forced to stop performing for health reasons. She died suddenly of an asthma attack on May 8, 1995, while on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand, at the age of 42. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Teng's story is that Teng Fever peaked in China. Teng was ethnically Chinese, with ancestral roots in China's Shandong province. But the political divide between China and Taiwan following the Chinese civil war had led to decades of hostility, with each side refusing to recognize the legitimacy of the other. During the late 1970s and 1980s, however, China began to relax its political control under Deng Xiaoping's Reform and Opening Up policy. This sweeping initiative shifted China toward a market-oriented economy, encouraged foreign trade and investment and cautiously reintroduced global cultural influences after decades of isolation. Pop music from other parts of the world began trickling in, including Teng's tender ballads. Her songs could be heard in coastal provinces such as Guangdong and Shanghai, inland cities such as Beijing and Tianjin, and even in remote regions such as Tibet. Shanghai's propaganda department wrote an internal memo in 1980 noting that her music had spread to the city's public parks, restaurants, nursing homes and wedding halls. Teng's immense popularity in China was no accident; it reflected a time in the country's history when its people were particularly eager for emotionally resonant art after decades of cultural propaganda and censorship. For a society that had been awash in rote, revolutionary songs like 'The East is Red' and 'Union is Strength,' Teng's music offered something entirely different. It was personal, tender and deeply human. Her gentle, approachable style – often described as 'angelic' or like that of 'a girl next door' – provided solace and a sense of intimacy that had long been absent from public life. Teng's music was also admired for her ability to bridge eras. Her 1983 album 'Light Exquisite Feeling' fused classical Chinese poetry with contemporary Western pop melodies, showcasing her gift for blending the traditional and the modern. It cemented her reputation not just as a pop star but as a cultural innovator. It's no secret why audiences across China and Asia were so deeply drawn to her and her music. She was fluent in multiple languages; she was elegant but humble, polite and relatable; she was involved in various charities; and she spoke out in support of democratic values. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chinese immigrant population in the United States grew to over 1.1 million. Teng's music has also deeply embedded itself within Chinese diasporic communities across the country. In cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York, Chinese immigrants played her music at family gatherings, during holidays and at community events. Walk through any Chinatown during Lunar New Year and you're bound to hear her voice wafting through the streets. Teng visits New York City's Chinatown during her 1980 concert tour in the U.S. Wikimedia Commons For younger Chinese Americans and even non-Chinese audiences, Teng's music has become a window into Chinese culture. When I was studying in the US, I often met Asian American students who belted out her songs at karaoke nights or during cultural festivals. Many had grown up hearing her music through their parents' playlists or local community celebrations. The release of her recently discovered song is a reminder that some voices do not fade – they evolve, migrate and live on in the hearts of people scattered across the world. In an age when global politics drive different cultures apart, Teng's enduring appeal reminds us of something quieter yet more lasting: the power of voice to transmit emotion across time and space, the way a melody can build a bridge between continents and generations. I recently rewatched the YouTube video for Teng's iconic 1977 ballad 'The Moon Represents My Heart.' As I read the comments section, one perfectly encapsulated what I had discovered about Teresa Teng in my own research: 'Teng's music opened a window to a culture I never knew I needed.' Xianda Huang is a PhD student in Asian languages and cultures, University of California, Los Angeles. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- South China Morning Post
As Studio Ghibli turns 40, fans worry about its future once Hayao Miyazaki retires
Japan's Studio Ghibli turns 40 this month with two Oscars and legions of fans young and old won over by its films' complex plots and hand-drawn animation. The studio behind the Oscar-winning Spirited Away has become a cultural phenomenon since Miyazaki and the late Isao Takahata established it in 1985. Its popularity has been fuelled recently by a second Academy Award in 2024 for The Boy and the Heron, with a voice cast including Robert Pattinson, and by Netflix streaming Ghibli films around the world. Play In March, the internet was flooded with pictures in its distinctively nostalgic style after the release of OpenAI's newest image generator – raising questions over copyright.
RTHK
04-06-2025
- RTHK
Gauff, Boisson win through at French Open
Gauff, Boisson win through at French Open Coco Gauff celebrates after she beats Madison Keys in the French Open quarterfinal. Photo: Reuters Coco Gauff battled back from a set down to beat Australian Open champion Madison Keys in an error-strewn French Open quarterfinal on Wednesday. That set up a semifinal showdown with France's 361st-ranked Lois Boisson. The second seed Gauff battled past her fellow American 6-7 (6/8), 6-4, 6-1 in a tense last-eight clash littered with a whopping 14 double-faults and 101 unforced errors. "It means a lot, especially getting through this tough match today, it wasn't an easy match and I'm very happy to get through it," Gauff said. "I'm so excited to be in the semifinals back here again and have a lot more work to do. Just savour this one today and then next one tomorrow." Keys came through a tense first set in a tie-break after blowing a 4-1 lead with a double-break, but Gauff upped her level enough to fight back. The 21-year-old was the runner-up to Iga Swiatek in a one-sided showpiece match in 2022. Keys had been hoping to challenge for a second consecutive Grand Slam title, but failed to reach the semifinals in Paris for a second time. Boisson, meanwhile, continued her dream run at Roland Garros, defeating world number six Mirra Andreeva to advance to the final four. Boisson won a thrilling battle 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 against Russian Andreeva. (AFP)
