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Both my parents are immigrants. They came from nothing, had to work so hard, and so the idea for them, I suppose, of taking a risk, that wasn’t a luxury they had. I always knew that was the luxury and privilege that I had, that they had given me.

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More quotes by Gemma Chan

I do feel a responsibility to try and raise awareness and to help tell the stories of those who may not otherwise have a voice.

We all have skin in the game, it is imperative that all of us stand up for each other, because prejudice against one group will bleed into prejudice against other groups.

To be honest, when I was growing up, the beauty industry did feel very monocultural. It wasn’t that easy to find people that looked like me or my family - whether you’re talking about advertisements or magazines, or general representation in the media.

It’s a lazy comment and people who say that, who say homophobia doesn’t exist, that racism doesn’t exist, they say that from such a privileged place. Usually, it comes from people who are not gay or not a person of colour and just because you haven’t seen it or experienced it doesn’t mean that someone else isn’t experiencing it. Just open your eyes to what is going on in the world!

The time when I get the most blowback is when I say anything political or when I say anything that is standing up for women’s rights, gay rights – that’s when I get the backlash. But you just can’t let that stop you from speaking up, because if you don’t speak up, you’re leaving that space purely to the worst elements – the internet. It’s savage.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gemma Chan (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.