When Hallmark’s All’s Fair in Love & Mahjong premiered on May 9, the backlash was swift and scathing. Pitched as a frothy romance in which a teacher discovers mahjong, the film has drawn fierce criticism for packaging an Asian cultural pillar as a white-led curiosity during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Critics have pointed out that aside from Crystal Lowe and Derek Kwan, the primary cast is overwhelmingly white. Hallmark’s decision to promote a US$350 “Miss Heirloom” tile set – all lavender, green and non-traditional symbols – has been slammed as cultural appropriation, repackaging mahjong as an “aesthetic” lifestyle accessory that leans on American mahjong rules without acknowledging the traditional Chinese game.

For Vancouver-based Kwan, who plays supporting character Gary in the movie, that dynamic reflects an uncomfortable truth about an industry that all too often sidelines Asian voices – where Asians are allowed to exist but only in the background. Kwan has not watched the film.

“In Vancouver, the roles that are always available and that they’re always auditioning for are these supporting roles,” says Kwan, 36. “The industry is so tough, and it’s very much like, take what you can get. You either don’t do it and not work, or kind of just have tougher skin, let it blow over you, and just suck it up and do the job.”

This is not the first time Kwan has done the “token Asian” type of gig. For the better part of a decade, Kwan has been an industry go-to for these supporting roles – detectives, paramedics, boutique hotel clerks, policemen, the waiter who glides through a scene with a line or two and then vanishes. If you have watched other Hallmark films, chances are you might recognise him.