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An Atria Book. Atria Books has a great book for every reader.

Look At Me Now opens on a Minneapolis childhood, during which a young James Hong faced down the challenges of immigrating as the son of a “paper son” and anti-Asian racism in the 1930s, to serving in the army during Korean War—shot through with the first awakenings of his interest in showbiz. Hong’s career, like so many other Asian American artists, would begin with studying for a stable job (civil engineering), rather than chasing his dreams.

Hong’s ongoing journey in Hollywood, during which he has amassed over seven hundred acting credits and counting, also traces the evolution of the movie business through the years. He’s seen and done everything, everywhere, and sometimes it seems, all at once, from voiceover dubs for Godzilla movies, appearing on You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx, to playing Number One Son in the Charlie Chan TV series, and getting fired due to the racist antagonism of his onscreen father and lead performer, J. Carrol Naish—a white man in yellowface.

Since then, Hong has created indelible characters onscreen and through his voice-acting work, from Lo Pan in Big Trouble in Little China, to Chi-Fu in Disney’s Mulan, and Mr. Ping in Kung Fu Panda. Over the last five years, he has finally started to get the acclaim that he’s long been due—who could forget his powerful, viral speech as he accepted the Best Ensemble Cast honors on behalf of Everything, Everywhere All at Once at the SAG Awards? And in 2022, the Asian American community came out to celebrate Hong’s well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, after a campaign led by actor Daniel Dae Kim.

Through interviews with Hong’s colleagues past and present, drawing on never-before-seen archival materials and hours of interviews with him, this is a powerful first-person journey through his life and family history: a quintessential Asian American post-immigrant story, filled with new anecdotes and wisdom drawn from an unprecedented career, threaded through with an incisive look at nearly a century of Hollywood history.