Lu Yu - Taiwan: actor, teaching artist, airline steward Object

Lu Yu

Taiwan: actor, teaching artist, airline steward

Object: Monkey King crown

America is a country of immigrants, and it’s what

makes this country beautiful. That is what I believe.

Before I left Taiwan, I signed a six-year contract

with a movie company in Hong Kong as my

sponsor. My family was very happy I’d have the

opportunity to leave the country and start a

career as a professional actor in the movies. The

actors were under contract to make six movies

a year, so the company just threw

any script at us and we had to make it. Later I

traveled around the Paciﬁc and to America and

then back to Hong Kong. I did another movie

where the famous actor and martial artist Jackie

Chan was my stuntman. But then I decided to

leave because they weren’t giving me good roles.

I was busy doing voice over recordings, and I

also worked for the Voice

of America. I produced radio shows because

that’s what I know, what I’m good at.

So then I came back to New York to visit, but

fate had other plans for me. Mary Scherbatskoy,

who started Arts Inc., told me, “I’d love

someone who has your experience with a

theater and movie background, who can teach

kids.” So she hired me, and I got my Green

Card, and that was when I started teaching in a

public school. It is gratifying watching children

grow. When I see one kid who has transformed,

or another tells me that they want to become

an artist or an actor, that really makes me feel

good. Watching them shine on stage with joy

on their faces, that’s when I know what I’m

doing. I believe that we have a mission to change

what people think. I really think that I should

put in my one penny of thought, to keep

educating people’s minds, to keep America

beautiful. Let 100 ﬂowers bloom. That’s what I

bring.

Bio:

A graduate of the National Academy of Arts in

Taiwan in drama and cinema, Lu Yu is also

trained

in ballet and classical Chinese dance. He

has appeared in more than thirty Mandarin ﬁlms

and numerous television series and ﬁlms in the

United States. Lu Yu’s acting and choreography

credits include the Four Seas Players of New

York, the Downtown Music Theater, the

Berkshire Theater Festival, and Woody Allen’s

Hollywood Ending. He holds a MS degree in

Education from Long Island University, speaks

ﬁve Chinese dialects, and has worked as a

teaching artist in the NYC public schools for

over thirty years. He works professionally as an

international ﬂight attendant on weekends, and

as a teaching artist for City Lore and other non-

profits during weekdays, and an actor in the

evenings.