Tomorrow's Teachers -- 2003

Interview

Finding the Joy in Reading

ER's Ming-Na gears up for NEA's Read Across America.

Actress Ming-Na, known for her portrayal of Dr. Jing-Mei (Deb) Chen on NBC's ER, will co-chair this year's NEA's Read Across America campaign. Ming-Na first attracted attention with her performance in the The Joy Luck Club. The actress, who moved from China to New York when she was four years old, also provided the voice of Mulan in the Disney animated musical of the same name. Her other credits include playing Trudy in the television comedy The Single Guy and providing the voice of Aki in the 2001 computer-animated film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Ming-Na spoke with Tomorrow's Teachers editor Kristen Loschert about the role reading plays in her career.

Why did you want to co-chair Read Across America?
Well, I am a new mom, first of all, and I love reading to my daughter. I've always been an advocate of reading to children, and it's a great program that encourages kids to read.

Do you think publishers offer enough diversity in the images portrayed in children's books?
I think more so now than when I was a kid, that's for sure. There's definitely a greater variety to choose from.

Do you have any favorite authors or books?
When I was a kid, I enjoyed Dr. Seuss, which I've passed on to my daughter. I read her The Cat in the Hat all the time. For myself, it runs the gamut from the Harry Potter books to science fiction.

How has your love of reading helped you as an actor?
Acting is all about words. No matter how wonderful an actor can be, if it weren't for the written words there's really not much we can do. I've been trained as a theater actress and trained to respect the written word.

Tell me a little bit about the goals of your music company, Innovazian.
Being Chinese-American, I think it's important to have diversity in all areas. My husband and I both felt that there was absolutely no diversity as far as having Asians represented in the music business. So that was our actual motivation, to produce this Asian-American boy band called AT LAST. Once again, it's about communicating through words, and this is adding music to words, which is probably one of the most powerful forms of communication because it can touch you on so many levels.

Do television and film producers do enough to portray positive images of Asian-Americans?
I think they try. My show, ER, is definitely one of the more diverse ones. It's slow in coming, but it is happening. A lot of it, unfortunately, is based on economics. You can see more diversity in commercials and that's the first step. When you start seeing it in commercials, you start seeing it in the television shows and in movies.

What project in your career are you the most proud of?
The Joy Luck Club, without a doubt. When I read the book in college, it was the first time I felt like I was reading a book that related to who I was and the kind of upbringing I had as an Asian-American. It raised my self-esteem about how I'm valued or how I value myself in this world, that I do have something to contribute and that I am part of the whole. And yet I am very special because I'm Asian. I'm more recognized for that project than anything else I've ever done. So that means that the movie really made the connection for the audience.

Is there any final message about reading you'd like to share?
If you make reading fun and introduce children to it, it opens up such an incredible world for them. When I was right out of college, I volunteered with a literacy program for adults. That was fascinating for me because there were so many adults who would try to hide the fact that they couldn't read. Then they would work one-on-one with a tutor, and I would see their faces light up when they finally were able to read their first sentence. I was always so proud of being part of that program. That's why I wanted to be involved with Read Across. I just think reading is an incredible experience. It's a skill that every human being deserves to have.