Garrett Wang #AsianPacificAmericanHeritageMonth #APAHM #AAPIHM
Harry Kim’s role played by Garrett Wang on Star Trek Voyager was a significant milestone in East Asian Screen Representation, via StarTrek.com
Star Trek: The Original Series shoved the American media world in the right direction by giving us George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu – an admirable member of the bridge crew and one of the series’ heroes. He was a rare character of Asian descent who got to be a major player on a sci-fi show. In fact, such sci-fi roles for Asian characters are so rare that decades later, when John Cho took over the role for the 2009 Star Trek cinematic reboot, Sulu’s very existence still felt groundbreaking for diversity in media.
But more than a decade before that, Star Trek: Voyager gave us Garrett Wang as Ensign Harry Kim — who was not only a major character on a sci-fi show, but also the romantic lead in several episodes. While his adventures (well, mostly misadventures) in love were entertaining and often lighthearted fun, they were also something of a milestone for Asian American representation. In a media landscape in which Asian men were almost never depicted as desirable, Harry Kim got the girl and in 1997 Garrett Wang was even named one of People Magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
