There is cause for celebration when an Asian Australian hits it big overseas, and this is the case for Vietnamese Australian actor Hoa Xuande (Last King of the Cross, Cowboy Bebop), who recently got his big break internationally in HBO’s The Sympathizer. Based off the novel of the same name by Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer, tells the story of the Captain, a North Vietnamese plant in the South Vietnamese army towards the end of the Vietnam war. The Captain is forced to flee to the United States with his general and while living within a community of South Vietnamese refugees, the Captain continues to secretly spy on the community and report back to the Viet Cong, struggling between his original loyalties and his new life.

Hoa stars as the main protagonist the Captain, and does so alongside a star studded Vietnamese and Asian diaspora cast. Hoa was cast in this role after a worldwide casting call was put out. Quite an awesome achievement, don’t you all agree? Starring alongside Hoa is Sandra Oh (Grey’s Anatomy, Quiz Lady, Killing Eve), who plays the character Ms. Sofia Mori, Duy Nguyen (The Elevator, Ghosts) who plays Man; Alan Trong (Alita:Battle Angel, The Tomorrow War) as Sonny; Kieu Chinh (The Joy Luck Club, City of Angels) as the Major’s mother; VyVy Nguyen (Young Sheldon, Shaky Shivers) as the Major’s wife; Ky Duyen (The Rich Woman) as Madame, the General’s wife; Scott Ly (A Tourist’s Guide to Love, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War) as Gunner Dao, Toan Le (Big Foot, Visioneers) as The General, Fred Nguyen Khan (Fatherhood, Transplant) as Bon and Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer, Iron Man series, Sherlock Holmes, Avengers: End Game), playing several antagonist roles including Claude, a CIA agent who mentors the Captain, Niko – an auteur filmmaker, Professor Hammer and a Congressman among others. There are also many Vietnamese and Asian actors cast in smaller and extra roles as well.

Considering all this, there should be more celebration over this in Australia. Yes, there have been a number of mainstream Australian articles talking about Hoa and his achievements, but many of them are written to sound like Hoa is dependent on Robert Downey Jr. for his success. For example: Robert Downey Jr’s sweet act to nervous Aussie co-star by news.com.au and The Australian actor Robert Downey Jr saw ‘become a star’ by The Australian – just to name a few. Having watched the series as a whole, it is evident that Hoa can stand on his own and has made an exceptional performance which will undoubtedly define his acting career from here out.

In an interview with AsAmNews, which Being Asian Australian editor, Erin Chew conducted, Hoa spoke about the in depth preparation he had to do to perform as Captain. He wanted to put his best foot forward and give the role all he had.

“It has been a privilege to be chosen to play the Captain, and I knew that this would be a heavy burden to take on, so I had to be prepared and execute the role to the best of my abilities,” Hoa told AsAmNews. “After reading the novel by Viet Thanh Nguyen, I started to do a lot of internet searches on the history and watched many documentaries about the Vietnam War and the trauma inflicted upon the diaspora. It brought tears to my eyes to read and see the struggles and challenges the diaspora faced and still face today and I wanted to play my role well by ensuring I put the Vietnamese community and their voices at the center of my performance.”

Hoa has been acting since 2010, where he had a small role in one episode of Australian series Sea Patrol. His more notable works include Ronny Chieng: International Student which aired a few years back on ABC TV, Hungry Ghosts on SBS, Cowboy Bebop which aired on Netflix, and more recently The Last King of the Cross. So the journey has been an interesting one for Hoa and it will just keep going after The Sympathizer fully airs.

Hoa’s rise is representative of many other Asian Australians who have international careers, (which Being Asian Australian will be posting about in a future piece)- many which are quite successful and relatively unknown in Australian mainstream society. If you are not Rebel Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman, the Hemsworth brothers etc, there is generally not a lot of buzz, because this is determined as the norm. Hoa’s rise also represents the success of South East Asian Australians, in creative spaces and this too is a cause for celebration. To get his real major break as the main character in a series which is all about his own heritage (Vietnamese) is definitely fulfilling and significant to highlight!

A bone which needs to be picked though is that where is this celebration among the Asian Australian community- where is our collective solidarity? There have been a handful of Asian Australian creatives who have shared the news around, but it is not enough. The Asian Australian creative industry has grown significantly over the years, yet there is a failure to really stand behind other Asian Australians who are achieving and those who are going through difficult times. However, the Asian Australian community is not fully to blame for this lack of – it is an Australian societal issue, where communities who are not part of the white majority gets oppressed, discriminated and made to feel like a perpetual foreigner. Moreover, the opportunities in Australia in the creative sphere are also not many and those Asian Australians who have made it domestically, as a survival mechanism will hold onto their opportunities for as long as they can, instead of looking at succession planning for others to come through.

The only way our community will feel more empowered, confident and bold is that there is an uplifting from the grassroots – only then will we see more awesome Asian Australians stand proud and tall on both the national and international stage. More needs to be done to push for this, at an en masse scale.

Anyways, if you are outside of Australia you can watch The Sympathizer on HBO and streaming via Max. In Australia, you can watch it on Binge – so check it out if you can and let’s all get behind and support Hoa, and other Asian Australians doing well in different sectors.

Images via HBO/Max