Wonder Woman of the Week: Jamie Chung

This week's Wonder Woman is a dramatically under-appreciated Hollywood actress. From television to film, Jamie Chung has portrayed strong characters and helped overturn institutional racist ideologies around what roles are available to actors and actresses of Asian heritage. Part of a new age of the film and television industry, Chung is just one of several actors trying to open up roles on screen for Asian actors in roles not directly dependent on heritage or history- as well as female characters that can open up roles for actresses beyond stereotyped caricatures.

After staring in a miniseries leading role in Samurai Girl, Jamie Chung advanced into a major Hollywood role in 2011 with her work in Sucker Punch. The movie centers around a group of abused women in a mental health institution that retreat into alternate realities for solace. The multi-dimensional setting highlights the multi-level oppression women deal with in society, and each character represents the several personalities within women attempting to navigate that toxic society. The following year, Chung starred in a leading role in the independent film Eden- about Korean-American girl abducted into a sex trafficking ring.

In 2014, Jamie Chung joined the voice cast for the Disney animated superhero film Big Hero 6- portraying Marvel Comics character GoGo. The film earned an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and Chung reprised her role in the follow-up series on Disney XD. For generations, Asian-Americans have had to portray Asian-specific characters in television and film, but that's starting to change. With Chung's work- and several actors and actresses like her- the actors and actresses of Asian heritage can- like white actors- be seen as actors rather than as Asians; and Chung's work is helping to open up roles that for so long did not exist for Asian-Americans in Hollywood.