Asia Downunder - Shortland Street

As a child I had been hassled a lot at school about being Chinese and had wanted to be as European New Zealand as possible so for me...that would be like taking a step back...so I had a mental block about it. But then I had to do it and once I started doing it, it was OK, but I still do feel funny about it, more funny than say if I had to do an American accent.

– Chinese Kiwi actor Li Ming Hu on having to put on a Chinese accent for her role as a medical student in soap Shortland Street

You walk around the world feeling like you’re a human being, but when you play these parts where you just go on and say a few lines in an accent, you’re just like, well, I guess this is how the mainstream media sees me.

– Chinese Kiwi actor Ally Xue on the roles offered to Chinese Kiwi performers, The Spinoff, May 2021

I have a lot of fun playing Li Mei. She's quite rude which is fun because in real life you never have the opportunity to behave like that — it's really liberating and very funny. But Li Mei also has a softer, more complicated side.

– Li-Ming Hu on her role in Shortland Street, The Dominion Post, March 2003

I guess it's frustrating like out of all the auditions I've had only three of them have been dramatic parts and all the rest have been ads for overseas ... but at the same time the pool of actresses is smaller, so in that way I guess I'm luckier so I think it kind of evens out. It's kind of sad, I've always felt this since I was a child, I've been brought up with this history of Western literature, I love reading and I love movies and there are some plays, some novels, or adaptations of novels, I'll never be able to act in because...I'm Chinese and that's sad. But people are writing new stories, so...

– Li Ming Hu on being a Chinese Kiwi actor in the casting room

My family are really nice, they've pretty much been behind me all the way. They were happy when I went to work corporate, they were happy when I went to varsity and they're still pretty happy now, doing what I'm doing and ... my folks like seeing me on TV.

– Chinese Kiwi actor Dan Sing on his parents' attitude to his acting career