SCOTS Harry Potter actress Katie Leung has hit out at the Oscars for “taking the p*** out of Asians”.
Motherwell-born Leung played Harry’s love interest Cho Chang in five of the big screen adaptations of Rowling’s wizarding novels.
But the 28 year-old star seemed unimpressed with comedian Chris Rock – who appeared onstage to provide the opening monologue to Sunday night’s Oscars.
Rock took to the stage to mock the awards for nominating only white actors – calling them “the White People’s Choice Awards”.
But Leung – like many other asians in showbusiness – felt that whilst mocking Hollywood for racism he let slip a series of offensive and stereotypical remarks about Asians.
During his stint onstage Rock thanked PriceWaterhouseCooper – the firm responsible for managing the Academy’s voting process.
As part of the presentation he said the firm had sent three of their “most dedicated, accurate and hard working representatives…Ming Zhu, Bao Ling and David Moskowitz”.
Three Asian-American children then walked onto the stage – dressed up as businessmen – in a joke that appeared to fall flat with the celebrity audience.
Rock then added: “If anybody’s upset about that joke, just Tweet about it on your phone—that was also made by these kids.”
But many felt that the joke was offensive to Asians – rolling out the stereotype that they are hardworking and good at maths, as well as distastefully alluding to Asian child sweatshops.
Katie Leung was one of those who tweeted in outrage – also observing that Rock had failed to mention races other than “black and white” in taking the awards to task over diversity.
Last night she tweeted to her 100,000 followers: “Inclusivity only means black and white apparently. And taking the piss out of Asians. For f**** sake Oscars.”
Many of her followers seemed to agree with her frustration over the slip-up.
One said: “God, made me so angry! Let’s not mention Hispanics, Native Americans or disability. Let’s rip the s*** out of Asians! Disgraceful.”
Another added: “It’s sad to say, but this s*** probably isn’t gonna be changing in our lifetime.”
Other Asians in show business were also unimpressed with Rock’s remarks.
In the aftermath Justin Chang – a film critic for US magazine Variety – tweeted: “I think my brain shut down for a few minutes. Did that appalling joke about Asian kids actually happen?”
Beauty blogger Jen Chae added: “How unnecessary to make fun of Asians on the Oscars when Hollywood isn’t even evolved enough to give Asians Asian-specific roles yet.”
Some also observed that at the Oscars there were more Minions – the loveable animated yellow creatures – than Asians on stage.
