U.S.A. / SPORTS
December 17, 2018
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7
Golding’s Crazy Rich Asians
stardom lands him more roles
By Jonathan Landrum Jr.
AP Entertainment Writer
OS ANGELES — Even
though
Henry
Golding
garnered instant fame from
starring in the smash hit Crazy Rich
Asians, the British-Malaysian actor
isn’t sure if he’ll ever eclipse his
meteoric success in the box-office hit.
“I don’t know how I’m going to top
this year. It’s all downhill from here,”
he told The Associated Press
recently, with a twinge of sarcasm.
Even Golding knows that viewers
are clamoring for more of the
31-year-old actor, who starred in his
first-ever movie role as the suave,
Oxford-educated heir Nick Young in
Crazy Rich Asians, the romantic
comedy that spent three weeks at the
top of the North American box office
and grossed more than $173 million
in North America alone.
It was the first Hollywood film to
have a predominantly Asian-Ameri-
can cast since The Joy Luck Club,
which debuted 25 years ago.
Golding had a sense the movie
would resonate with audiences when
filming it because it “was an amazing
work of art.” But it wasn’t until after
the movie’s release that he was able
to measure its impact on viewers.
“That’s when I started getting
messages. People were coming up to
me saying the movie is amazing. You
guys did such a fantastic job. It means
so much to me to see our faces
portrayed on the big screen,” he said.
“For me, it was wild.”
L
FLOCKING PHOTOGRAPHERS. A Mandarin duck walks in Cen-
tral Park in New York in early December. A horde of photographers has
been gathering daily in the park off Fifth Avenue since November, hoping
to catch a glimpse of the exotic bird with pink, purple, orange, and emer-
ald green plumage. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Quackarazzi:
Mandarin duck
holds NYC in its spell
By Verena Dobnik
The Associated Press
EW YORK — It took just days for the brightly
colored Mandarin duck that appeared suddenly
in a Central Park pond to turn both New Yorkers
and visitors into a new gaggle: The Quackarazzi.
A horde of photographers has been gathering daily in
the park off Fifth Avenue since November, hoping to catch
a glimpse of the exotic bird with pink, purple, orange, and
emerald green plumage and markings that admirer Joe
Amato compares to “a living box of crayons.”
“So many people are drawn to this bird because its
vibrant, vivid colors are associated with sunsets and
rainbows,” said Amato, who comes almost daily from his
Queens home with his expensive camera equipment in
tow.
Bird lovers and sightseers have dutifully documented
the bird’s every move through social media postings and
videos that have noted its gentle glides across the water,
its sniping at the ordinary mallards, and even a vacation,
of sorts, to a lake in nearby New Jersey.
New York’s latest rising star didn’t disappoint — with
the feathery showboat preening its wings in the shadow of
the historic Plaza Hotel as people on shore jostled for a
better look.
Leesa Beckmann commuted two-and-a-half hours from
her home in Vernon Township, New Jersey, to see the
duck that her 90-year-old mother has been talking about
since its arrival.
“I’ve got to see this magnificent duck,” Beckmann said
to her mother.
She plans to shoot and frame photos for her mother to
hang on the wall.
Ornithologist Paul Sweet, however, who heads a vast
collection of bird specimens at the New York-based
American Museum of Natural History, isn’t as throttled
as others are about the duck.
Sweet says there’s nothing special about a Mandarin
duck in Central Park. Not only is there another one (albeit
captive) a short walk away at the Central Park Zoo, but
such ducks are often imported from Asia for use on private
property. From time to time, they escape into the wild.
“This bird is clearly not a vagrant,” said Sweet, adding
that there are no records of actual wild Mandarin ducks in
North America. If that actually happened in New York, of
all places, “birders would be very excited.” For now, he
says, they’re not.
“A lot of non-birders tend to see gaudy birds as more
beautiful,” Sweet said. “But to me it’s no more beautiful
than, say, a sparrow.”
In this case, expertise is not the point: Beauty is in the
eyes of the New York beholders — humans for whom the
carefree creature that has made Central Park its home
offers some kind of balm in a troubled, chaotic world.
N
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GOLDEN GOLDING. Actor Henry Golding poses for a portrait at the Orlando Hotel in Los An-
geles. Golding, who starred in the hit film Crazy Rich Asians, was named as one of 2018’s Break-
through Entertainers of the Year by The Associated Press. For Golding, his rise has certainly been
pretty wild ever since director Jon M. Chu chose him to star in Crazy Rich Asians without any movie
appearances. Golding had primarily worked as a television host for shows on BBC, Discovery Chan-
nel Asia, and ESPN Asia networks. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
For Golding, his rise has certainly scatter the ashes of his parents in the
been pretty wild ever since director film Monsoon, expected to be released
Jon M. Chu chose him to star in Crazy in 2019. He’ll also star in Guy
Rich Asians without any movie Ritchie’s Toff Guys with Matthew
appearances. Golding had primarily McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale.
Golding said his recent projects
worked as a television host for shows
on BBC, Discovery Channel Asia, and have given him more confidence. He’s
been putting in extra work through
ESPN Asia networks.
Now, Golding is on the fast track as acting classes to hone his skills.
“If you’re looking for longevity, you
others are seeing the potential in
him. After Crazy Rich Asians, he took have to be a hard worker,” he said.
on a much darker role in Paul Feig’s “You have to put in the due diligence.
thriller A Simple Favor starring You’ve got to be that people person.
Essentially you become a commodity.
Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick.
Next, Golding will be playing a gay You need to be that showman. ... It’s a
British-Vietnamese man who travels long road, but I’m getting to that
to his birth country in Vietnam to point.”
Crews rescue man stuck in grease vent of vacant Chinese restaurant
SAN LORENZO, Calif. — A man
who authorities say was possibly
trying to burglarize an abandoned
Chinese restaurant was rescued from
the grease vent, where officials say
he’d been trapped for two days.
The Alameda County Sheriff’s
Office said deputies and firefighters
were called to a vacant building on
Bockman Road in San Lorenzo after
someone heard a faint voice calling
for help.
When first responders arrived on
scene, they heard the voice and quick-
ly determined it was coming from a
roof vent on top of the restaurant. A
ladder was extended and personnel
were able to locate a 29-year-old man
trapped in a sheet metal grease duct
running from the roof to the kitchen.
The man was covered in grease and
oil and was trapped in such a
condition that he could not move.
Firefighters went to work and were
GREASE TRAP. A man who was possibly
trying to burglarize an abandoned Chinese res-
taurant in San Lorenzo, California, is shown
trapped in a grease vent before being rescued
by first responders. Officials say the man was
trapped for two days. Deputies and firefighters
were called to the vacant building after some-
one heard cries for help. The sheriff tweeted
that the man was trespassing and possibly
trying to burglarize the empty restaurant.
(Photo/Alameda County Sheriff’s Office)
able to extract the man from the
metal duct within about an hour. The
man, who was physically exhausted
and suffering from dehydration, was
transported in an ambulance to a
local hospital for treatment.
Sgt. Ray Kelly said the sheriff’s
office is conducting a trespassing and
vandalism investigation; it is not yet
known if the suspect intended to
commit a burglary.
Afghan president orders probe into abuse of female athletes
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) —
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has
ordered an investigation after the
Guardian reported that members of
the national women’s soccer team
were sexually and physically abused
by men from the country’s football
federation.
The report in the British news-
paper cited senior figures associated
with the team as saying the abuse
took place at the federation’s head-
quarters in Kabul and at a training
camp in Jordan last February.
The Guardian also cited Khalida
Popal, a former head of women’s soc-
cer in the Afghanistan Football Fed-
eration who was forced to flee the
country in 2016 and seek asylum in
Denmark, as saying that her own
investigation uncovered physical and
sexual abuse, death threats, and
rape.
Ghani described the report as
“shocking to all Afghans,” the
presidential palace said. He met with
officials from the Afghan National
Olympic Committee, sportsmen, and
sportswomen, and pledged authori-
ties would “conduct a thorough
investigation into this.”
Attorney general Farid Hamedi
promised a transparent probe.
“I would like to assert in front of our
athletes, the president, and people of
Afghanistan that we will proceed
with this investigation trans-
parently, justly, and comprehen-
sively,” said Hamedi.
Sayed Alireza Aqazada, Asean
Football Federation’s secretary-
general, denied the allegations in the
Guardian report, saying they were
“all baseless and untrue.” Hafizullah
Wali
Rahimi,
president
of
Afghanistan’s Olympic Committee,
told local media that such allegations
were not new and that there had been
similar complaints in the past.
“Even if mere allegations (of abuse)
cause our people to stop sending their
sons and daughters to sports, we need
to act immediately,” said Ghani. “We
have to have a framework in place to
mitigate such incidents in our
sports.”
Danish sportswear brand Hummel
cancelled its sponsorship of the
Afghan team in November, calling for
new leadership of the soccer federa-
tion. It said the decision was made
after “allegations of severe mental,
physical, and sexual abuse as well as
documentation of new contracts
stripping female players of basic
human rights was presented to the
company.”