Long before he was famous for his role in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Simu Liu was making audiences fall in love with him on Kim’s Convenience. His real-life story of immigrating from China to Canada is part of what inspired the stories on the show. Now it seems that him sharing some of those experiences in detail years ago may have him in hot water with a Chinese nationalist group.
According to Taiwan News, the Weibo account of the Chinese nationalist organization Diba posted screenshots of an old interview Liu did with CBC for their “What’s Your Story” series. In the interview, he discussed his time in the country before immigrating at age five as living in a “third world” where people were “dying of starvation.” He said that while his parents thought immigrating to Canada was a “pipe dream” their vision of a “free life” was worth it.
The post inspired over 1600 comments, many of them from angry Chinese citizens criticizing the actor.
“So how does he get off playing a Chinese.”
“How did his parents go to Canada 27 years ago, working illegally washing dishes?”
“Just looking at his face brings you bad luck.”
Comments via Taiwan News
With Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings already being banned from the country by the Chinese Communist Party due to portraying a “stereotyped” view of Chinese people as well as the now-defunct Fu Manchu character, this only adds to many’s dislike of Simu Liu in the country. The interview has now also been removed from the website, with the last archive of it being available from 2020.