Si Yang Ng was thrilled with the guest lecturer in his improv class—a well-known motion picture actor. Ng willingly participated at every opportunity, which didn't go unnoticed. "You're from Asia, but you speak up quite openly," the movie star said to Ng. "Can you tell me why I'm having so much trouble getting Asians to speak up in my improv classes?"

Ng could have taken offense to the question, but he didn't because he knew from his own classroom experience that the observation—although stereotypical—had some validity.

"Quite frankly, I wasn't able to answer that question very well," says Ng. But he wouldn't let the question fade away.

Ng—along with his Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) classmates Ken-Yu Chou, Michelle Hwang, Yun-Ling Lee, and Priscilla Tsang—used the actor's question as the premise for their animation project. They gathered 10 hours of interview footage from Asian and American ETC students, which they whittled down to about five minutes. For animation, they chose western Marvel-style superheroes working with eastern martial artists.

The intent, each of the students note, wasn't to give a five-minute culture class; they wanted the film to build cross-cultural understanding so the next time Asians stop themselves from expressing an idea, or Americans judge Asians as being introverted, they will stop and think and not be judgmental.

"We're trying to start a dialogue with Superhero Training Center," says Tsang.

Audiences have been receptive. The animated short has been screened at several film festivals, awarded first prize in Animated Documentary at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, and won in the animation category of the University Film and Video Association's NextFrame festival.

To view Superhero Training Center, go to www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/cultural/progress.html

Karen Hoffmann (CMU'04)