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Simu Liu recounts his traumatic and frustrating journey to becoming a Marvel hero and trying to change Hollywood, writes

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings was the first movie to feature an Asian superhero. It was unlike anything fans had seen from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and a step in the right direction away from pervasive Asian stereotypes.

The face behind this new superhero? Simu Liu, China-born Canadian actor who first made a name for himself on five seasons of the comedy series Kim’s Convenience.

In writing We Were Dreamers, Liu set out to tell the story of how he became Shang-Chi and how, as he says, he made history with a movie that should have been made a long time ago.

“This book tells the story of an immigrant dream that is shared by the tens of millions of families who made the same journey as mine, and who continue to fight every day for their happy ending,” Liu writes in the prologue of his memoir. It’s a story that deserves to be told.

Liu was born in the Chinese city of Harbin where he was raised by his paternal grandparents for his first four-and-a-half years. During this time, his parents were investing everything they had in pursuing university degrees — first in the US and then in Canada — after defying all odds in China during a time when a high-school career was available to a very select few.

Liu takes the reader on a frustrating journey — first through an abusive childhood, then his university years as a bright but slacking student, and finally into his first job from which he got fired before discovering his passion for acting.

While his relationship with his parents was mended later in life, there is little explanation of how this came to be, an omission I feel does the book an injustice.

What the 33-year-old does manage to convey with great heart is the sacrifices made by so many immigrant families in the West and the frustration of growing up as an Asian male in pre-woke Canada.

Ultimately, what starts as a slow, juvenile account of a younger Liu finding his feet becomes a stunning motivational account of finding your passion, pursuing it with everything you have and working tirelessly — both on screen and behind the scenes — to enact change in an often problematic entertainment industry.

This book tells the story of an immigrant dream that is shared by tens of millions of families