Gemma Chan, photographed here in 2019, signs on to produce a podcast about the murder of Vincent Chin (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)
Cover Gemma Chan, photographed here in 2019, signs on to produce a podcast about the murder of Vincent Chin (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb)

The podcast will take the format of a table-read of the feature-length script for 'Hold Still, Vincent', and will be supplemented with interviews with artists and prominent figures in the AAPI community

Crazy Rich Asians star Gemma Chan has signed on to produce a podcast about the murder of Chinese-American Vincent Chin, who was killed in 1982 at his bachelor party in Michigan by two white men who mistook him for Japanese and used racial slurs during the attack. 

The podcast, which Chan is developing in collaboration with A-Major Media and representation company M88, will take the format of a table-read of the feature-length script for Hold Still, Vincent, and will be supplemented with interviews with artists and prominent figures in the AAPI community

“The death of Vincent Chin occurred during a dark time in America’s history with unsettling parallels to what we have seen happen over the past year with the stoking of hatred towards Asians and the scapegoating of Asians for Covid-19,” Chan said, according to a report on Deadline.

“However, it also brought Asian Americans together to form multi-ethnic and multi-racial alliances in the pursuit of justice and to advocate for change. It feels more urgent than ever to bring Vincent’s story to a wider audience.”

Vincent Chin was born in the 1950s in Guangdong, China, and was adopted by a Chinese-American couple and brought to the United States in 1961. After graduating college, he worked as an industrial draftsman in Michigan. Chin was attacked a week before his wedding and died in the hospital a few days later. 

The murder of Vincent Chin spurred national outrage in the United States among Asian-American activists and advocates, and was compounded when the two murderers, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, were convicted of second-degree murder but were sentenced to zero jail time, three years probation, and fined $3,000. While a 1984 federal court case found Ebens guilty of violating Chin's civil rights and sentenced him to 25 years in prison, that verdict was overturned in 1987. The two men were later sued in civil court, with Nitz ordered to pay $50,000 and Ebens ordered to pay $1.5 million in damages. 

Who Killed Vincent Chin?, a 1988 documentary about Chin's murder, was nominated for a 1989 Academy Award.