The cast and creator of 'Kung Fu' reveal how the show nails the specificity of the Asian American experience — and tease what to expect from season 2

• Christina M. Kim, the creator of The CW's "Kung Fu" reboot, wants to represent an array of Asian American experiences.
• Kim and the cast told Insider how their own personal experiences help inform the show.

When television writer and producer Christina M. Kim set out to develop The CW's gender-flipped reimagining of the 1970s drama "Kung Fu," she immediately recognized that, instead of tokenizing a single individual to represent an entire community, she would be able to create a wide array of characters who could represent different facets of the Asian American experience.

Kim told Insider that it was important for her to give viewers "a three-dimensional view of one particular family" — in this case, lead character Nicky Shen (played by Olivia Liang), her parents, and her brother and sister.

"The Shens are like all of us," Kim said. "They're hard-working, trying to do the best that they can. But they're extraordinary because they have Nicky, who is special."

"It was really fun to write for this family where you have a strong mother figure, a loving father, and these sibling dynamics that were really based off of my own family," she added.

In April 2021, "Kung Fu" — which centers on Nicky, a young Chinese American woman who, after spending three years at a remote Chinese monastery, uses her martial arts skills to protect her hometown of San Francisco — became the first network drama to feature a predominantly Asian cast.

From the beginning, Kim, who is Korean American, was adamant about making sure Asian Americans were well-represented on both sides of the camera.

In addition to enlisting the help of a Chinese American composer named Sherri Chung, Kim said she has a diverse room of writers who have not only been able to use their own experiences to capture the universality of family dynamics but also the cultural specificities of growing up in an Asian American family.

Many of the cast members who are Chinese American have had creative input about their own familial customs and traditions, which have been infused throughout the second season, starting with the Lunar New Year festivities in the two-part season premiere that aired on March 9 and March 16.

For instance, Liang told Insider, Althea (Shannon Dang) and her husband, Dennis (Tony Chung), poke fun at Althea's younger brother, Ryan (Jon Prasida), "because he's clearly sucking up so that he can get some extra hóngbāo [red envelope] money from the newlyweds, which is such a culturally specific thing that you would only understand and be able to relate to if you were Chinese."

Family and community are at the heart of 'Kung Fu'

Growing up on the West Coast, where there is a significant Asian immigrant population, Liang said that she, personally, has "never felt out of place" — which is a sentiment that is shared by the Shen family, who live in San Francisco's Chinatown. That the show can "seamlessly move through being American and Asian, and more specifically Chinese," is especially meaningful to Liang in the current TV landscape, where there is still a dearth of Asian-led projects.

"I hope that people who don't live in huge Chinese or Asian communities can watch our show and be like, 'Oh, I can be really proud of who I am and what I look like and where I come from, and there's no reason not to be,'" Liang said.

At the heart of "Kung Fu" is family, Kim said, and Asian American families, in particular, tend to be very tight-knit with a deep reverence for elders. While Nicky is a strong, independent warrior, she, like many young adults, still wants to earn her parents' respect and approval.

That is just one of the show's many remarkable depictions of love in an Asian family, which is not often expressed explicitly across generations but rather through one's quiet sacrifices and caretaking behaviors.

"I think it's a safe haven when we get to watch Althea and Dennis be in love, and Nicky and Henry (Eddie Liu) be in love, and Ryan going on dates [as a gay man], and the deep love between the parents Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) and Jin (Tzi Ma)," Liang said.

Given that much of the recent narrative surrounding the Asian community has centered on the alarming spike in racially motivated hate and violence, Liang noted that the radical depictions of Asian love on network television are really "powerful" and she hopes the show can "be a place where our community can feel a little bit at ease and breathe out a sigh of relief."

Dang, who plays Althea, added: "I love that our show covers a range of what love looks like, and we just happen to be Asian. I think love is a universal language, so I think that helps in the normalizing of seeing Asians onscreen and how we're just like everyone else."

So much of the problem with past representation of Asian Americans was that it was often superficial, meaning that depictions have historically lacked nuance and relatability, according to Liu, who plays Nicky's love interest Henry. But on "Kung Fu," Liu said, "we have three-dimensional relationships with each other where no matter who you are, there's a good chance you're going to see yourself represented in a certain kind of relationship."

Similarly, Liu acknowledged that the series has also challenged a lot of Hollywood's outdated depictions of Asian men, who have historically been characterized as "weak," "sexless," and "effeminate" beings — even if, he joked, the idea of being shirtless on camera would be enough to increase anyone's workout regimen.

"We've heard from the network and from the studio, people that we work with in marketing and publicity, and it's been clear to them that we care about the product very much" and want to subvert and challenge stereotypes that have long plagued Asian actors, he said.

The show's elevated season 2 continues to explore family dynamics — and Nicky and Henry's relationship

For both Liang and Liu, the new season of "Kung Fu" honors the recurring theme of kinship by showing the great lengths that Asian families will go to take care of one of their own — even someone whom they've never met before.

In the season premiere, Nicky crossed paths with her long-lost cousin, Mia (Vanessa Yao), who is the secret weapon in the new villain Russell Tan's (Kee Chan) plan to take over San Francisco. Having already avenged the death of her shifu (or mentor) Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai) last season, Nicky will be forced to use her teachings at the monastery and make difficult decisions in gray areas to protect her cousin, who grew up in isolation and is already wary of outsiders, Liang said. Nicky "has a very good moral compass and always wanted to do the right thing. This season, you'll see her struggle with what the right thing is."

In the process, Nicky's relationship with Henry will be tested to the point "where it's no longer about how well they can throw fists and kicks beside each other, but we see what happens when things get emotional and when we see the stakes increase," Liu said.

And while Henry has been an even-keeled, highly intelligent partner to Nicky thus far, the new mystery will force him to confront his own past and estranged family. "What I loved about season two was you get to see a lot of characters explore what it is to tow the line between keeping people out and letting them in," he said.

Last year, the cast and creative team of "Kung Fu" shouldered a huge responsibility to represent Asian Americans. But now, they just get to have a great show, in which all of the elements — including the intricate fight scenes and the attention to cultural details — have been elevated.

"With season two, we've been able to flesh out the nuances of what it is to be a Chinese American family to the point that it is no longer at the forefront of every single thing we say and do. But rather, it is the world that we exist in," Liu said.

"We can now focus on who these people are as characters and who they are to each other within their relationships, and we see that we can go past what these people look like and what language they speak, but we just see them as people," he added.

"Kung Fu" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW.