There are Asian-American stars in sports, movies, television and classical music. But the “Asian thing” is what Mr. Lee and many other aspiring Asian-American singers say largely accounts for the lack of Asian-American pop stars.

I suspect, looking at this from a Mainland China perspective, another reason for that lack of Asian-American music stars that was not mentioned in the article is that Chinese (and Asian) parents and culture as a whole in the States frowns upon youth entertaining the idea of becoming a “rock star.” Accordingly, parental and societal demands to “make it” in other areas have hampered an Asian artists attempt to developing their talent or perhaps starting their own labels. A case in point: I have a good friend from China who is now in the US but not very happy. After arriving here to study accounting, she discovered she hated it and got into music by taking piano and singing classes to fufill her genereal ed requirements. When I mentioned that perhaps she should give up the accounting and focus on the music, she blew off the suggestion claiming that her family back in China would never go for it. She is now suffering in a well paying job as accountant (to the absolute delight of her family) but continues to enter piano contests, in the hopes that she will one day be discovered (my guess is that even if she was discovered she still would not be able to “give up” the accountant job).

Trying to Crack the Hot 100