The Harry Mok Project

In the spirit of The Grace Lee Project, I’m embarking on my own search for all the Harry Moks out there. Fortunately, Harry Mok isn’t as common a name as Grace Lee.

The only other Harry Mok I know of is also Chinese American and apparently is a stuntman, actor and producer in martial arts films and a music video director. Googling him brings up more recent references to him living in the Central California town of Manteca and running a film festival there.

When I was going to college at San Jose State in the early 1990s, I used to get phone messages about film shoots and other similar things that were obviously not for me. I don’t look myself up on the Internet (that often), but in seeing all these references to another Harry Mok, I put two-and-two together. Those messages in San Jose must have been for him.

I’m glad to see that other Harry has made some impact on the entertainment industry. As our earlier discussion on this blog and at Hyphen about Adam Carolla has shown, the media (and many in the audience) are sorely lacking in enlightenment when it comes to Asian Americans.

I went into journalism because I thought I could add something to make a difference. I’m not sure that anything I’ve done has accomplished that, though working for Hyphen is a start.

The news media, like the entertainment industry, is slow to change. The perspective, the stories and the humanity of Asian Americans and other underrepresented groups often doesn’t come through in the media. Hyphen started in part as a reaction to this. The dedicated group of volunteers love what we do in producing Hyphen because we can bring some of those missed stories to life.

That’s my story. I want to know the other Harry Mok’s story and any other Harry Moks out there. If you know them, send them my way.

Also posted at Hyphen magazine’s blog.