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Anti-Asian racism
LifestyleArts & Culture

Why Gemma Chan-backed podcast on murder of Vincent Chin was pulled, and the storm it unleashed

  • Media companies and Crazy Rich Asians actress Gemma Chan were behind the podcast, and recruited actors including Tzi Ma to narrate the story of Chin’s murder
  • Producers did not involve Chin’s family or supporters, however, a decision observers call ‘surprising’ and ‘unfathomable’

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A demonstration against the killing of Chinese-American Vincent Chin in Detroit in 1982. His was the first case in which the Civil Rights Act was used to defend the rights of an Asian-American citizen. Photo: The estate of Lily and Vincent Chin
Joseph Lam

A storm is brewing in the United States over a podcast based on the brutal murder of a Chinese-American almost 40 years ago.

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Hold Still, Vincent, announced in April, aimed to highlight the importance of a brutal hate crime that left 27-year-old draughtsman Vincent Chin unconscious outside Detroit’s Highland Park McDonalds, his brains spilling out onto the street, on his stag night. 
The six-episode series features Crazy Rich Asians co-star Gemma Chan, and many eagerly awaited its launch, including Chin’s cousin Annie Tan and Helen Zia, the executor of the estate of Vincent and Lily Chin.
Vincent Chin was fatally wounded in an attack by two auto workers on his stag night. They mistook the Chinese-American for Japanese, at a time when Japan’s advanced car factories were putting pressure on their US counterparts in Detroit. Photo: The estate of Lily and Vincent Chin
Vincent Chin was fatally wounded in an attack by two auto workers on his stag night. They mistook the Chinese-American for Japanese, at a time when Japan’s advanced car factories were putting pressure on their US counterparts in Detroit. Photo: The estate of Lily and Vincent Chin

A-Major Media, M88 and Chan recruited a number of well-known actors, including Remy Hii and Hollywood’s go-to Asian dad, Tzi Ma, to narrate the story.

What it didn’t include, however, was input from those who fought for Chin. As a result, Hold Still, Vincent was pulled from all platforms on May 30, three days after it was released.

The incident has raised questions over stories like Chin’s, how they’re retold and who has the right to tell them, says University of California Law and Race Professor Gabriel Chin.

People don’t necessarily have a strong education on Asian-American history and I think that some of the producers … may have been coming across the story for the first time
Jenn Fang, founder of reappropriate.com

“While I was surprised that they didn‘t contact these family members, on the other hand, I will say I wasn’t offended by it,” he says of A-Major Media’s failure to contact the estate of Vincent and Lily Chin. He adds that anyone who has studied race law would be familiar with the case.

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