Simu Liu is pretty active on social media, whether to add his thoughts on a well-worn debate about Marvel movies or dunk on his critics on a take he disagrees with. And while some of those dunks can be cathartic to watch—such as trolling those who claimed Shang-Chi would flop—other responses led to some calling him out for using his platform to set up critics to be harassed.
In a video posted on her page, TikToker @parisbynightcore criticized Liu for thinking that his presence in Hollywood is “the end all be all of Asian representation” and for having thin skin.
“The man cannot handle a single speck of criticism,” she said. “The ego is more fragile than glass.”
@parisbynightcore self serving, thats it.
♬ original sound – 🍪
The sentiment might not have come out of nowhere. Liu recently made headlines for criticizing a HuffPost op-ed from April in which he was criticized for his presence in the Barbie movie, which argued that “when a single actor appears to be getting the bulk of Asian male roles in Hollywood, it starts to feel a little less like representation and a lot more like tokenism.”
That belief around replacing Liu isn’t new: It emerged in the immediate aftermath of the trailer’s release, with Manny Jacinto being a popular suggested alternative. He’s somewhat polarizing online, with critics calling out his alleged Reddit history and his defense of deleting tweets criticizing Mark Wahlberg over his attempt to get pardoned for assaulting two Vietnamese American men as a teenager after Liu signed on to star in a movie with Wahlberg.
In a now-deleted post from last week, Liu responded to the article on Facebook, according to Insider, and called HuffPost out for what he called “the trashest take.”
“Way to attempt to put us against one another,” he wrote in a comment to his own post. “What ‘bulk’ of roles are you referring to? Are there movies I’m in that I’m not aware of? Do you really think that there is a quota of ‘Asian male roles’ that is a zero sum game? Every thing I have taken post Shang-Chi was not written Asian.”
TikToker @parisbynightcore didn’t use Liu’s name as a hashtag or tag him. But her video was reuploaded on Instagram by @ngoc.ph_ (whose account is private), which included the caption, “@simuliu is the biggest ick walking on this planet and all u asians eat his shit up.”
Liu reposted the video on his Instagram Stories (which is no longer visible on his profile) to address the @parisbynightcore’s criticisms, noting that “I was for some reason mentioned in this story so I figured I might as well share it.” He denies that he’s the face of the Asian diaspora and that he’s homophobic or an incel, something that @parisbynightcore mentions in her video, likely in reference to the Reddit posts linked to him. Her TikTok handle is visible in the screengrab.
“I can completely respect that you don’t rock w me but maybe see someone for the amount of hatred you feel over someone you literally do not know in the slightest!” he wrote. “hope you get the help you need.”
Screenshots made their way over to Twitter. Liu was criticized for setting @parisbynightcore up to be harassed by Liu’s fans because he shared her initial video—in which she doesn’t mention his handle—with his 3 million Instagram followers.
“This is what I mean by more celebs need a group chat. Simu has every right to feel away about her post but sharing it to his 3 MILLION followers is inviting a pile on & he knows that,” Franchesca Ramsey tweeted. “He should’ve vented to his friends OFFLINE & left it at that.”
In a duet with her previous TikTok, @parisbynightcore responded to Liu’s post by pointing out that his post proves her point. She also noted that despite initial fears of getting harassed, she hasn’t been so far.
@parisbynightcore #stitch with @🍪 ♬ original sound – 🍪
“He still can’t handle criticisms,” she said.
