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'Shang-Chi' star Simu Liu shares the Asian snacks he can't live without

The actor revealed what snack he was munching on when Disney told him he'd booked the role of Shang-Chi.
SIMU LIU SNACKS
Pocky, the Japanese flavor-coated biscuit sticks, are one of them.TODAY Illustration / Getty Images

While chronicling his on-the-road essentials for GQ, actor Simu Liu took a moment to list the Asian snacks he just can't live without.

Liu, who introduced audiences to Marvel's first Asian superhero in the recently released box-office hit "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," said that he was on a mission to "demystify" the snacks that he had grown up loving.

"So many Asian kids, like myself, when we brought these snacks to school, we used to get made fun of because the kids wouldn't know what they were," Liu said. "So now we're here to demystify them."

Liu showed off snacks like "absolutely delicious" shredded squid and the "delicious, iconic" White Rabbit Candy, as well as the "lunchbox staple" that is Vita's Lemon Tea Drink. Liu also included Japanese rice crackers, which he described as "wonderfully sweet, savory" snacks that resembled rice cakes and, of course, Pocky, the flavor-coated biscuit sticks.

"These are sweet, they're delicious, they're crunchy," Liu said of the Pocky, before chowing down on one. "Just how I remember them."

Liu ended the list of snacks with his "personal favorite": shrimp crackers.

"Shrimp crackers are actually exactly what I was eating when I got the call that I was going to play Shang-Chi," said Liu. "I had just woken up from a nap, it was about 6:30 in the evening, I was eating some shrimp crackers at my desk, and I get a call from an unknown number in Burbank, California, and my heart immediately skips a beat because I know the Disney head office is in Burbank."

"I had a feeling this was going to be the call, so I picked up the phone, and (heard Marvel Studios president) Kevin Feige's voice on the other end, telling me I was going to be Shang-Chi," Liu continued. "I basically realized that my life would be changed forever."

Liu, who also starred in the popular Canadian sitcom "Kim's Convenience," told NBC Asian America in June that he was excited to celebrate his culture and play Marvel's first Asian superhero.

"We have a lot of heroes. We have Asian heroes, we have Asian American heroes, men, women, of all ages, and not all of them do martial arts," he said. "But that doesn't mean that they don't have their own arcs, their own stories, their own subtleties and nuances. And I think that's what's important."

In the GQ video, Liu took a moment to note that representation is more than seeing himself and other Asian actors in movies and on TV.

"Representation matters," Liu said. "It’s about more than just actors on a screen. It’s about snacks, it’s about food, it’s about culture in every possible way."

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