My dear friends, there's so many to name and I'll thank you in person later.
我有太多朋友,无法一一提及他们的名字,稍后我会当面感谢你们。
But I'm very grateful that you made the trip out here. Everyone came from all different places in the United States to be here. I have to say that I am completely overwhelmed by the love and the support of my friends, family, my fans.
I want to thank the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Walk of Fame Committee for bestowing this everlasting honor on me. And even though this star has my name on it, it is actually the result of the hard work of many brilliant writers directors actors and crew who elevated me and helped me shine.
For the last seven years, CBS has welcomed me into their family. I can't express my gratitude enough to Kelly Carl, David Staff, Peter Golden for being my champions.
So when I moved to Los Angeles, I actually lived on Vine Street. So it's thrilling to have Anna May Wong as who is the first Asian-American actress as my neighbor. A hundred years ago, she was a pioneer while enduring racism marginalization and exclusion. We could actually start our own little Chinatown right here. What do you think?
So sometimes people talk about my mainstream successes as groundbreaking for an Asian. But Asians have been making movies for a long time. They just weren't making them here, because we weren't yet invited to the table.
I was lucky that trailblazers like Anna May Wong and Bruce Lee came before me. If my body of work somehow helped bridge the gap between stereotypical roles first given to Anna May and mainstream success today, I am thrilled to have been part of that process.
At the time I started on Ally McBeal, it was rare to get a glimpse of any diversity on screen. David Kelley who is here today took a risk by creating Ling Woo and helped break the glass ceiling. David, thank you for taking a chance on me.
I would not be here today if my parents hadn't emigrated from China in pursuit of better opportunities. We grew up without much at all. And even though my parents dealt with so many roadblocks, they never gave up. I am grateful to them for overcoming tremendous obstacles as they created a life for us here in the United States.
Their survival instincts, perseverance and determination were passed on to me and my siblings Jenny and John who are both here today.
他们的生存本能,坚持不懈的精神和决心,都传递给了我和我的兄弟姐妹,珍妮和约翰,他们今天也都在场。
I want to acknowledge my brother John and his unwavering support. He never questioned my career choice, even when the prospects of earning a living as an actress seemed insurmountable.
He let me stay in his tiny matchbox studio apartment in the village where he already had a roommate, no kitchen and maybe one chair. John worked full-time, slept on the floor while I slept in his bunk bed and helped me pay off my college debt, while I worked three jobs and went out on whatever auditions I could scrounge up.
My dream was just to find work as an actress. I just wanted to act. I didn't see any difference between myself and the mainstream world I lived in. So I didn't think America would see one either. Well that was a bit of a miscalculation. I heard so many more noes then I heard yeses.
I'm lucky enough to have someone in my corner who does not take no for an answer. My manager of almost three decades Mary Anne Mulcahy has been my dear friend and staunch defender. She's been there every step of the way to steer my life and career. Mary Ellen, I love you. And I had to take this moment to express how much you mean to me
I share today with my son Rockwell. Being three-and-a-half he constant he's constantly curious. One day he asked me, “What does a soul look like? ” I was so touched by the simplicity of his question. I told him, “You can't see it, but you can imagine it to be anything you want it to be.”
Everyone wants to see someone that they relate to. Today there is so much more representation on screen. Now he can see himself in this world and he won't know there's a limit.
I never set out to be groundbreaking. I didn't have the goal of being a first. I just knew I wanted to do what I loved. I'm still excited about this business every single day.
Over the course of my career, I have learned that the specific things that made me feel like an outsider were actually the biggest contributors to my success. This industry has afforded me the opportunity to grow as a human being and discover more and more of what I am capable of.