America wasnt ready to see a Asian man to play a Asian man?

Thats America for you

The Weekend Has Landed

It was not they did not think America was not ready for an Asian to PLAY an Asian.
They felt the "tv world" was not ready to see an Asian act in a starring role.
But this is how times were back then.

The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he is God.

I think that David Carradine did great in the role and can see how different the show would been with Lee. But found it weird how the producers felt they had to go out there way to get an white American. Also on the dvd one of producers said that they could understand Lee's English. Which i feel is just a excuse. Considering that Lee's English was fine in the Green Hornet TV show. Not to mention Enter the Dragon.

just because the statement is stupid doesn't mean it wasn't true. And it's not so much that America wasn't ready to see it, but that the producers weren't willing to risk it.

Before Kung Fu, Asian roles were rarely inhabited by Asian actors, unless they were sidekicks, comic foils, or background characters, like James Hong playing Barry Chan (Charlie Chan's brother), while Charlie was played by a guy with the very Asian-sounding name Joseph Patrick Carrol Naish. In Bonanza, Victor Sen Yung played Hop Sing, but Marlo Thomas played Tai Lee (a mail-order bride who was mistakenly sent in response to Hoss's mail order for fireworks - say wha???).

It happened even recently (in the 1990s) in the theatre world, when there was an outcry from Asian actors because Jonathan Pryce was cast in a leading Asian role in Miss Saigon. The justification was that "non-traditional casting" allowed the producers to cast someone from one racial/ethnic group to play someone from a different racial/ethnic group - although that was never really the intent of NTC, which was to cast more minority actors in white roles.

Although we have come full circle and now see many Asian actors cast in roles with traditionally non-Asian names, indicating a sort of "color blindness" in casting, there's still a resistance to accept Asians in leading roles, particularly if the character is romantically involved with a white or black character. One really refreshing example of the colorblind casting was in 24 - Daniel Dae Kim and Kelvin Han Yee played Agents Baker and Erwich, respectively. Loved it.

neat . . . sweet . . . petite