SIMU LIU ON SUPERHEROES, STARDOM, & WRITING A MEMOIR - JUNE 2, 2022a4p-tiger


The Princeton Club of Chicago and the Asian American Alumni Association of Princeton (A4P) invite you to spend an evening during the Chicago Humanities Festival with Simu Liu, the star of Marvel's first ever Asian superhero movie – Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Simu will trace his path from his humble upbringing in China to the bright lights of Hollywood. Simu, who you may also know from the very bingeable Kim’s Convenience, gives fans an inside look at growing up between cultures, battling stereotypes, and landing the role of a lifetime in Shang-Chi.  Join Liu for a conversation with Joanne Molinaro (aka “The Korean Vegan”) about how we can all become heroes of our own life stories and his new memoir We Were Dreamers, which will be released May 17, 2022.  

This program is presented in partnership with and will be held at Bill Schopf 70's Music Box Theatre which opened in 1929.  Bill became the owner in 1986 and restored the vintage marquee.  To read more about the Music Box Theatre, which recently celebrated its 90th Anniversary, please click this link. 

Note: Tickets are no longer available via the CHF website.  While this is a General Admission event, our group will have a specially reserved block of seats together for Princeton Club of Chicago guests. 

AS THIS EVENT IS PART OF THE CHICAGO HUMANITIES FESTIVAL, MASKS ARE REQUIRED WHEN ATTENDING INDOOR PROGRAMS. AS POLICIES MAY SHIFT, PLEASE CLICK TO READ THE LATEST.

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simu-liu-squareSimu Liu made his feature debut as the title hero in Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Shang-Chi broke box office records on its release and became the second-highest grossing film of the pandemic era. Liu won the People’s Choice Award for Action Movie Star of 2021 and was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actor in a Superhero Movie. As a writer, Liu has contributed think pieces and editorials to publications such as Variety, Character Magazine, USA Today and Macleans. He is the author of the family memoir We Were Dreamers: An Immigrant Superhero Origin Story, detailing his family’s journey from Harbin, China to Hollywood, California. Before his motion picture breakout, Liu filmed five seasons of the award-winning CBC/Netflix family sitcom Kim’s Convenience, which chronicled the lives of a Korean-Canadian family that owned a bodega in the inner city of Toronto. He recently completed production on One’s Arthur the King opposite Nathalie Emmanuel and Mark Wahlberg, as well as on One True Loves, the film adaptation of the bestselling romance written by Taylor Jenkins Reid. He is currently in production on Greta Gerwig’s Barbie movie, starring alongside Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.  Click here for interview on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
joanne-molinaro-060222Joanne Molinaro 
Known to millions as “The Korean Vegan,” Joanne Molinaro began her blog of the same name in 2016 after adopting a plant-based diet. In less than a year, she cultivated a modest following of approximately 10,000 and landed her first television appearance on the Food Network show “Cooks v. Cons.” In 2017, Molinaro expanded the objective of her social media platforms to add a second and, to her, more urgent component: sharing the immigrant story. In response to the divisiveness revealed by the 2016 presidential election, she began incorporating very short stories in the captions of her Instagram posts, often about her parents or grandparents. The idea was to utilize her platform to provide insight to the immigrant experience in the United States, with the hope of developing empathy and compassion, and to begin an ongoing dialogue rooted in civility and a common denominator: the love of food. In July 2020, Molinaro created her TikTok account (@thekoreanvegan). After a single post of her making braised potatoes for dinner (while her husband taught a piano lesson in the background) went viral, Molinaro shifted her attention to producing 60 second recipe videos, while telling stories about her family—immigrants from what is now known as North Korea. To date, she has amassed more than 2 million followers and tens of millions of views. Since starting her TikTok account, Molinaro has been featured in Salon, "Healthy-ish" by Bon Appetit Magazine, and "The Stream" on Al Jezeera English. Molinaro also teaches live cooking classes (virtually), provides in-person cooking demonstrations and talks (prior to the pandemic), and was the keynote speaker at the 2019 Korean Women’s International Network annual conference. Molinaro believes that when we revere and respect all of the different cultures and ethnicities of those around us, we can create a harmonious society that we all want to live in.