Mike Chang

For the tennis player, see Michael Chang. For the second-in-command of the Merlino Family, "Mikey Chang", see Joey Merlino.

Mike Chang
Glee character
Harry Shum, Jr. as Mike Chang during Glee Live! In Concert! wearing his "Can't Sing" T-shirt
First appearance	"Preggers"
Created by	Ryan Murphy Brad Falchuk Ian Brennan
Portrayed by	Harry Shum, Jr.
Information
Occupation	High school student
Family	Michael Chang, Sr. (father) Julia Chang (mother)
Significant other(s)	Tina Cohen-Chang
Nationality	Chinese American

Michael "Mike" Chang, Jr. is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. The character is portrayed by actor and dancer Harry Shum, Jr., and has appeared on Glee since the fourth episode in the first season, "Preggers", first broadcast on September 23, 2009. Glee follows the trials of the New Directions glee club at the fictional William McKinley High School in the town of Lima, Ohio, of which Mike is a member. He is introduced as a football player who joins the club together with a few of his teammates, and quickly shows himself to be an excellent dancer.

Development

Casting and creation

Mike is played by Harry Shum, Jr. He has also been portrayed as a very young boy by Evan Kishiyama in the episode "The Substitute". When Shum was hired, he had been through the audition process, but as far as he knew "it was just like a regular acting gig where you go on for a day."^[1] In an interview with the New York Post, he elaborated, "I got hired as a day player and it turned into a week, and then a month and so on. I was just rolling with it—I mean, who would say no to that?"^[2]

Mike performed in the glee club's production numbers, but was given very little dialogue, staying mostly "in the background, doing some facial expressions." Shum noted, "It wasn’t until I came on the [Glee Live! In Concert!] tour and had this crazy reaction from the audience, and the producers were like, 'Wow, how do they know him?'"^[1]

Mike is a senior in the third season of the show.^[3] Glee co-creator Ryan Murphy has stated that, due to graduation, "more characters are leaving than are staying" at the end of the season.^[4] Mike's parents are dealing with his college plans and appear on the show in "Asian F" to this end, and may be recurring characters.^[5][6]

Characterization

Mike very slowly developed from a football player who "was afraid to dance outside [his] room"^[7] to a confident and highly skilled dancer and performer. Little was revealed about him during the first season of Glee, though Shum described Mike halfway through that season as a "shy football player"^[8] with "dancing and singing abilities" who has "found a place where he can express himself and feel accepted."^[9]

He was given his first storylines in the show's second season. Mike began dating Tina Cohen-Chang (Jenna Ushkowitz),^[10] was revealed to lack confidence in his singing early in the season,^[11] and although his confidence gets a boost after that, he goes as far as to wear a t-shirt that says he "can't sing" in the episode "Born This Way".^[12] Although he sometimes fools around in academic classes,^[13] he is also very intelligent, and is a member of the school's academic decathlon team.^[14] Indeed, his grades are so good that his father becomes alarmed when Mike gets an "A−" on a chemistry exam, as that could harm his chances of getting into Harvard. Mike Chang is of Chinese American descent, and his great-grandmother was originally from Hubei province in the People's Republic of China.^[6]

Storylines

Season 1

Mike first appears in the episode "Preggers" as a member of the McKinley High football team. He dances to "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by Beyoncé with Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) and his fellow high school football players, and subsequently decides to join the New Directions glee club with his friends and teammates Matt (Dijon Talton) and Puck (Mark Salling).^[15] Mike is a very talented dancer, able to perform complicated lock-breakdown dance steps, and he is shown singing background vocals and performing short dance solos in the glee club's musical numbers.^[16] When Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is briefly made co-director of New Directions along with usual director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), she recruits an "elite glee club" of all the minority students including Mike, whom she calls "Other Asian".^[17] Tina, herself called "Asian" by Sue, later calls Mike "Other Asian", to his consternation, when they partner for an assignment.^[18]

In "Mash-Up", Coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) tells the guys that are in both glee club and on the football team that they have to choose between the two activities. Mike decides to stay with his friends in New Directions, although he is later allowed to rejoin the team.^[19] In the episode "Sectionals", when the glee club is faced with having to create an entirely new setlist for Sectionals in an hour because their prepared songs had all just been sung by the competing clubs, Finn (Cory Monteith) asks the best dancers in the group—Mike, along with Matt, Brittany (Heather Morris) and Santana (Naya Rivera)—to come up with a dance routine for a new song on the spot. They do, and New Directions goes on to win the competition.^[20] In the episode "Dream On", Tina asks Mike to perform a special dance number with her, even though it was originally intended to be for her boyfriend, Artie (Kevin McHale), who is in a wheelchair.^[21] As the season ends, New Directions competes at Regionals, but they come in third and their director Will Schuester is forced to disband the group. When the club members thank Will and tell him how their lives have changed, Mike says that before New Directions he was too afraid to dance outside of his room. Sue later gets the glee club a one-year reprieve, and Mike and the rest of the members celebrate.^[22]

Season 2

Harry Shum, Jr. as Mike during Glee Live! In Concert!

Over the summer, Mike and Tina are both arts counselors at "Asian Camp", where they kiss and start dating. By the beginning of the school year when season two begins, Tina has officially broken up with Artie, as she is more attracted to Mike and his abs.^[23] He gets his first vocal solo in the episode "Duets" when he performs "Sing!" from A Chorus Line with Tina, though he initially tries to tell her that she should sing and he should just dance around; the duet ultimately gets a great reception.^[24] This experience gives him the confidence to volunteer to play the lead when the glee club is planning a performance of The Rocky Horror Show, but he has to pull out when his parents object to him playing a transvestite.^[25] Tina and Mike's relationship continues to heat up—they are still a couple at the end of the school year—and in "Never Been Kissed" they try to cool themselves off by thinking of coach Shannon Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones), but this leads to Mike getting jealous and confronting Coach Beiste. When Mr. Schuester falls ill, he has a dream in which he and Mike perform a recreation of "Make 'Em Laugh" from Singin' in the Rain.^[26] Fellow football player Dave Karofsky (Max Adler) is relentlessly bullying glee club member Kurt, so Mike and Artie confront him in the locker room after practice, telling him to back off. In the ensuing fight, Sam (Chord Overstreet) jumps in to defend them, and all four of them are injured.^[27] Guidance counsellor Emma Pillsbury (Jayma Mays) tells Will that there are more talented members in glee club than just Rachel, Finn and Mercedes (Amber Riley), so he picks Mike and Brittany to take the lead in a dance number for Sectionals. Their constant rehearsing worries Tina, who mistakenly fears that she is losing Mike to Brittany; she later apologizes to him for her doubts.^[28] In "The Sue Sylvester Shuffle", the glee club and non-glee factions of the football team initially rupture, imperiling the team's chances, but ultimately come together to wins the championship. In the episode "Born This Way", when everyone in New Directions wears T-shirts to describe the thing they dislike about themselves, Mike's T-shirt says "Can't Sing". Along with the rest of the glee club, Mike travels to New York City at the end of the season for the National show choir competition. New Directions finishes in twelfth place out of fifty teams.

Musical performances

In the first season, Mike only appeared in numbers performed by the entire glee club. He had no solos or other vocal leads, though his dancing was featured in a few numbers. His only vocal lead in the second season was in the episode "Duets", when he performed "Sing!" from A Chorus Line with his girlfriend, Tina. Both Aly Semigran of MTV and Anthony Benigno of the Daily News named the piece as their favorite routine of the episode, though Benigno gave it only a "B" grade, as its appeal hinged on Mike's dancing, rather than his vocal performance.^[29][30] Vanity Fair's Brett Berk gave it four stars out of five, his highest rating of the episode; it was one of two songs to get that rating.^[31] Though Raymund Flandez of The Wall Street Journal and the Houston Chronicle's Bobby Hankinson also commented positively on the song, the former thought that Tina's sung interjections became annoying and the latter called it "far from the best of the evening".^[32][33] In the third season, Mike sings his first solo in the episode "Asian F" when he auditions for the school musical, West Side Story, by singing one of its song, "Cool". Later in the episode, he has a short solo in an ensemble number from Dreamgirls, "It's All Over".

Reception

Mike has received generally positive reviews from critics mainly for his dancing. In the second season episode "Special Education", when he and Brittany (Heather Morris) are given featured dance roles in the song "Valerie", sung by Santana (Naya Rivera), Flandez wrote that "Brittany and Mike's pas de deux rocked".^[34] Benigno stated, "Brittany and Mike Chang handle the moves (extraordinarily well), but the vocals here are what steal it", and gave the song an "A".^[35] Entertainment Weekly's Tim Stack was slightly less generous with an "A-", and wrote that it was a "great song choice for Santana"; he gave "bonus points for the phenomenal Mike/Brittany choreography", while Jen Harper of BuddyTV said that their dancing "totally made the song".^[36][37] Zap2it's Hanh Nguyen liked the dancing, but she was critical of how the song sounded, as she felt "it lacked something and didn't really feel worthy of the standing O", while Erica Futterman of Rolling Stone said "Santana's sassy vocals are a perfect echo of Winehouse's, but the rest of the song feels a bit like a circus".^[38][39] Amy Reiter of the Los Angeles Times felt the entire song "seemed kind of tacked on", both the dancing and Santana's solo.^[40] In the episode "A Night of Neglect", when Mike performs the show's first solo dance routine—to the song "Bubble Toes" by Jack Johnson—he garnered some rave reviews, including from Sandra Gonzalez of Entertainment Weekly, who gave it an "A" and called it "one of the best [performances] of the season."^[41] MTV's Aly Semigran concurred, and characterized Mike's dancing in the number as "awesome".^[42]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Tabb, Michael (May 11, 2010). "Glee star visits WU". Student Life (Washington University Student Media, Inc.). http://www.studlife.com/news/campus-events/2011/04/04/‘glee’-star-visits-wu/. Retrieved August 22, 2011. 
2. ^ Wieselman, Jarett (May 11, 2010). "Harry Shum Jr: I love that people see dancers as artists now". New York Post (News Corporation). http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/popwrap/harry_shum_jr_w0uyaLEV4ymnMVFmWO79YJ. Retrieved August 22, 2011. 
3. ^ Ausiello, Michael (August 16, 2011). "Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Glee, Bones, Chuck, Castle, Grey's Anatomy, House and More!". TVLine. Mail.com Media. http://www.tvline.com/2011/08/ask-ausiello-spoilers-glee-bones-chuck-castle/. Retrieved August 23, 2011. 
4. ^ Goldberg, Lesley (July 12, 2011). "'Glee' Exclusive: Lea Michele, Chris Colfer, Cory Monteith Not Returning for Season 4". The Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/glee-lea-michele-chris-colfer-210869. Retrieved July 12, 2011. 
5. ^ Ausiello, Michael (August 23, 2011). "Ask Ausiello: Spoilers on Gossip Girl, 90210, Glee, Sons of Anarchy, Housewives and More!". TVLine. Mail.com Media. http://www.tvline.com/2011/08/ask-ausiello-spoilers-gossip-girl-glee-90210/. Retrieved August 23, 2011. 
6. ^ ^{a b} "Asian F". Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. October 4, 2010. No. 3, season 3.
7. ^ "Journey to Regionals". Brad Falchuk (director, writer). Glee. Fox. June 8, 2010. No. 22, season 1.
8. ^ Lin, Shannon (September 2, 2009). "Harry Shum is full of Glee". Asiance Magazine. http://www.asiancemagazine.com/2009/09/02/harry-shum-is-full-of-glee. Retrieved December 18, 2009. 
9. ^ Steinberg, Jamie (November 2009). "Harry Shum, Jr". Starry Constellation Magazine. http://starrymag.com/content.asp?ID=4671&CATEGORY=INTERVIEWS. Retrieved December 18, 2009. 
10. ^ "Audition". Brad Falchuk (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. September 21, 2010. No. 1, season 2.
11. ^ "Duets". Eric Stoltz (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. October 12, 2010. No. 4, season 2.
12. ^ "Born This Way". Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (director), Brad Falchuk (writer). Glee. Fox. April 26, 2011. No. 18, season 2.
13. ^ "Sexy". Ryan Murphy (director), Brad Falchuk (writer). Glee. Fox. March 8, 2011. No. 15, season 2.
14. ^ "A Night of Neglect". Ian Brennan (writer), Carol Banker (director). Glee. Fox. April 19, 2011. No. 17, season 2.
15. ^ "Preggers". Brad Falchuk (director, writer). Glee. Fox. September 23, 2009. No. 4, season 1.
16. ^ "Vitamin D". Elodie Keene (director), Ryan Murphy (writer). Glee. Fox. October 7, 2009. No. 6, season 1.
17. ^ "Throwdown". Brad Falchuk (writer, director). Glee. Fox. 2009-10-14. No. 7, season 1.
18. ^ "Ballad". Brad Falchuk (director, writer). Glee. Fox. November 18, 2009. No. 10, season 1.
19. ^ "Mash-Up". Elodie Keene (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. October 21, 2009. No. 8, season 1.
20. ^ "Sectionals". Brad Falchuk (writer, director). Glee. Fox. December 9, 2009. No. 13, season 1.
21. ^ "Dream On". Joss Whedon (director), Brad Falchuk (writer). Glee. Fox. May 18, 2010. No. 19, season 1.
22. ^ "Journey to Regionals". Brad Falchuk (director, writer). Glee. Fox. June 8, 2010. No. 22, season 1.
23. ^ "Audition". Brad Falchuk (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. September 21, 2010. No. 1, season 2.
24. ^ "Duets". Eric Stoltz (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. October 12, 2010. No. 4, season 2.
25. ^ "The Rocky Horror Glee Show". Adam Shankman (director), Ryan Murphy (teleplay). Glee. Fox. October 26, 2010. No. 5, season 2.
26. ^ "The Substitute". Ryan Murphy (director), Ian Brennan (writer). Glee. Fox. November 16, 2010. No. 7, season 2.
27. ^ "Furt". Carol Banker (director), Ryan Murphy (writer). Glee. Fox. November 23, 2010. No. 8, season 2.
28. ^ "Special Education". Paris Barclay (director), Brad Falchuk (writer). Glee. Fox. November 30, 2010. No. 9, season 2.
29. ^ Semigran, Aly (October 13, 2010). "'Glee' Recap: Episode 25, 'Duets'". MTV. http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2010/10/13/glee-recap-duets/. Retrieved October 13, 2010. 
30. ^ Benigno, Anthony (October 13, 2010). "'Glee' 'Duets' recap: Episode 25 sees Brittany and Santana have girl-on-girl make out session in bed". Daily News (New York City). http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/10/13/2010-10-13_glee_duets_recap_episode_25_sees_brittany_and_santana_have_girlongirl_make_out_s.html. Retrieved October 13, 2010. 
31. ^ Berk, Brett (October 13, 2010). "The Gay Guide to Glee: Season 2 Episode 4, "Duets"". Vanity Fair. Condé Nast Publications. http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/10/the-gay-guide-to-glee-season-2-episode-4-duets.html. Retrieved August 5, 2011. 
32. ^ Flandez, Raymund (October 12, 2010). "'Glee', Season 2, Episode 4, 'Duets': TV Recap". The Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/10/12/glee-season-2-episode-4-duets-tv-recap/. Retrieved August 5, 2011. 
33. ^ Hankinson, Bobby (October 13, 2010). "Glee: "Duets" brings happy days here again". Houston Chronicle. http://blog.chron.com/tubular/2010/10/glee-duets-brings-happy-days-here-again/. Retrieved August 5, 2011. 
34. ^ Flandez, Raymund (November 30, 2010). "'Glee' Season 2, Episode 9 'Special Education': TV Recap". The Wall Street Journal (News Corporation). http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/11/30/glee-season-2-episode-9-special-education-tv-recap/. Retrieved December 1, 2010. 
35. ^ Benigno, Anthony (December 1, 2010). "'Glee' recap: 'Special Education' has Rachel and Finn breaking up, Emma getting married". Daily News (Mortimer Zuckerman). http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2010/12/01/2010-12-01_glee_recap_special_education_has_rachel_and_finn_breaking_up_emma_getting_marrie.html. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
36. ^ Stack, Tim (December 1, 2010). "'Glee' recap: Performance Anxiety". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/glee-season-2-episode-9/. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
37. ^ Harper, Jen (November 30, 2010). "'Glee' Recap: A Shocking Breakup and a Surprise Wedding". BuddyTV. http://www.buddytv.com/articles/glee/glee-recap-a-shocking-breakup-38767.aspx. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
38. ^ Nguyen, Hanh (November 30, 2010). "'Glee': Which song was best? 'Dog Days Are Over,' 'Time of My Life,' 'Hey, Soul Sister' and more". Zap2it. Tribune Media Services. http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2010/11/glee-which-song-was-best-dog-days-are-over-time-of-my-life-hey-soul-sister-and-more.html. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
39. ^ Futterman, Erica (December 1, 2010). "'Glee' Playback: 'Special Education' Pales Next to Last Year's 'Sectionals'". Rolling Stone (Wenner Media). http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/glee-playback-special-education-pales-next-to-last-years-sectionals-20101201. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
40. ^ Reiter, Amy (December 1, 2010). "'Glee' recap: Switching it up at sectionals". Los Angeles Times (Tribune Company). http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/12/glee-recap-switching-it-up-at-sectionals.html. Retrieved August 15, 2011. 
41. ^ Gonzalez, Sandra (April 19, 2011). "'Glee' recap: Holly Takes a Holiday". Entertainment Weekly (Time, Inc). http://tvrecaps.ew.com/recap/glee-season-2-episode-17/3/. Retrieved April 19, 2011. 
42. ^ Semigran, Aly (April 20, 2011). "'Glee' Recap: 'A Night of Neglect'". MTV. http://hollywoodcrush.mtv.com/2011/04/20/glee-recap-a-night-of-neglect/. Retrieved April 26, 2011. 

External links

• Mike Chang at the Internet Movie Database