If you missed the Glee Season 3 Episode 3: Asian F last night, you can watch it below. Tamilyn Tomita and Keong Sim guest stars as Mike Chang’s mom and dad. Below are the spoilers of what happens with the Mike Chang story line played by Harry Shum Jr.:
Mike’s very serious and driven father, Mike Chang, Sr., accompanies him on a visit to Principal Figgins’ office to request a daily drug test now that Mike’s brought home his first A-, what Mr. Chang labels as an “Asian F.” Mr. Chang is convinced that his son is on the road to academic ruin, and he hopes to determine if the problem is drugs, or possibly that his romance with Tina is distracting him from his studies (Figgins agrees Tina could be the problem, believing her to possibly be a vampire). Mr. Chang also suggests that glee club might be a detriment, but Mike swears he’ll improve his academics. At football practice, Mike is distracted as he worries about keeping everything in balance.
Tina wants Mike to rehearse and try out for the second male lead, a singing part to show that he’s more than just a fleet-footed “dance ninja,” but he resists: he’s overwhelmed with his workload already. She urges him to be honest with his father and let him know how important his artistic pursuits are to him, but he reminds her that she wasn’t very honest when she was pretending to stutter.
On his way to a tutoring session, Mike, still fretting over his father’s judgment, promises to bring his grades up and apologizes for disappointing him. But he finds himself compelled to work out some dance moves in the school’s studio. Suddenly, he imagines his dad in the mirror, criticizing him for wasting his time on a hobby, not a career. Mike uses dance to work out his frustrations, and suddenly Tina tells him how beautiful it looks when he dances, saying that it’s why she fell in love with him. Then Mike realizes that Tina’s just in his head, too.
Later, it appears that Mike’s not going to show up for his audition, but he arrives just in time to try out for a singing part as the Jets’ leader Riff, performing “Cool” from “West Side Story,” with some dance backup from the football team. Praised by the directors, Mike admits that performing is what he wants to do: “It isn’t a waste of my time.” (You can download Harry Shum Jr. singing “Cool” on .)
Mike’s mother confronts him at school. Having learned that he missed the tutoring session, she lied to his father to cover for him, and now she demands to know what’s going on. He tells her that he doesn’t want to be a doctor or a lawyer – he wants to be an artist. Mrs. Chang tearfully confesses that she never had to courage to stand up to her own parents and break from the path they set her on, and she promises to support Mike’s dreams. If he lands the role in the musical, they’ll tell Mr. Chang together. Learning that she, too, loved dancing, Mike shares a waltz with his mother.
See more real life acting and dancing skill from Harry Shum Jr. outside of Glee: Matched, LXD, Buffet, 3 Steps to Self Esteem, Best Date EVER!, and 3 Minutes.
Glee Season 3 Episode 3: Asian F
Glee Season 3 Episode 3: Asian F
Glee Season 3 Episode 3: Asian F