By Alina Adams, Entertainment Weekly
Last week on General Hospital, Lucas and Brad’s post-coital Knot’s Landing binge-watch was interrupted by news of Maxie and Lulu’s kidnapping (as such things in soaps are wont to be). For some viewers, the big news might have been the sight of two men in bed together. Gay couples are still a rarity in daytime, and this one is, arguably, the most interesting and fun yet (feel free to disagree in the comments; I know As the World Turns’ Luke and Noah (or Luke and Reid); Days of Our Lives‘ Will and Sonny; One Life to Live‘s Kyle and Fish; All My Children‘s Bianca and Marissa; and Guiding Light‘s Olivia and Natalia have their die-hard fans).
Actor Parry Shen. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
But, for me, the even bigger news is that Brad is played by the Asian actor Parry Shen—and his storyline is, shockingly, not just about him being Asian! Brad being Asian and, for that matter, gay, are only parts of who he is, not his defining traits.
When the character was first introduced in February 2013, his sole purpose was to help schemer Britt fake a medical condition to snare a man (as such things are also wont to be in soaps). His being Asian or gay wasn’t relevant. He was merely a plot point, which, in the long run, turned out to be a good thing.
After scheming with Britt, Brad goes on to blackmail Michael and spills the beans about baby Connie’s (aka Georgie’s) true parentage. As a plot point who existed solely to move other people’s stories along, Brad managed to acquire a less-than-pristine personality before being given a story of his own, which, in turn, made him—and it—infinitely more interesting (though the show did end up ultimately connecting Brad to an “Asian quarter” storyline they’d attempted in 1985).
Soaps have never done a particularly good job of creating stories for non-white, non-Christian, non-straight characters that were about much more than their being non-white, non-Christian and non-straight. But, they’ve done particularly poorly by Asians, who hardly ever appear at all.
When, in 1994, almost a decade after the aforementioned GH debacle (whose characters included an evil mob boss who was Brad’s great-grandfather, as well as a savior called “The Ancient One” and a jive-talking granny) and hot on the heels of The Joy Luck Club’s feature film success, The Young & the Restless attempted to integrate an Asian family into their canvas. It began with Jack, a rich, white, spoiled playboy (i.e. the epitome of someone who would have pulled strings to keep from serving in Vietnam), suddenly staring off into space and hearing helicopter blades whirring. Lo and behold, it turned out that not only had he served, but he’d left the (heretofore unmentioned) love of his life behind. Meanwhile, who should be working at a local Chinese restaurant (Chinese? Vietnamese? Eh, close enough), but Luan, who was once in love with an American GI and bore him a son he never knew about!
Read the full article HERE.
