CAIS

A Putonghua-speaking American teen is on the road to stardom on the mainland, writes Katie Lau

From South China Morning Post, May 2, 2008

Arriving early for his interview, 17-year-old American Kyle Rothstein banters with the photographer like a native Chinese speaker, while his father Jay talks business. Based in Shanghai, they are in Hong Kong to promote their movie, Milk & Fashion, which opened across the mainland yesterday. And with Kyle as the male lead and his father as producer, it’s very much a family affair.

Kyle’s linguistic proficiency has made him something of a media personality on the mainland, says Jay Rothstein, a former international lawyer, whose company, China Venture Films, financed the US$1.4 million (HK$11million) production. The teenager is a frequent guest on children’s TV shows and Milk & Fashion could boost his profile.

Billed as a cross-cultural love story and coming-of-age drama, the production was directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Roy Chin from a script by Paul Collins.

Kyle plays Tyler, a ballet-dancing American nicknamed “Milk” raised in Yunnan by an anthropologist father. After moving to live in Shanghai with his fashion impresario uncle, the boy meets ballerina Yao Yao, nicknamed “Fashion”, and falls in love.

The film’s multicultural cast and Kyle’s language skills have drawn US media attention. The Los Angeles Times has profiled the teen who “can speak the lingo” and The Hollywood Reporter celebrated his Billy Elliot-style role in the first movie to “include Chinese-speaking Caucasians in lead roles”.

For someone who is on the brink of stardom, Kyle is rather reticent, preferring to let his father do much of the talking.

Jay Rothstein, who came to admire Chinese culture after spending several years as a consultant on the mainland, says he started Kyle on Putonghua lessons at the age of five to give his son a career advantage. “In the US, you can learn either Spanish or French,” he says. “Chinese is more complicated and can distinguish him. I want him to have a distinguished career and have a wonderful life.”

Kyle found the Chinese-language studies hard going at first when he was in the Chinese-American International School in San Francisco. “But my dad encouraged me to stick with it, always telling me that I could do anything if I put my mind to it. I’m really happy that I didn’t quit,” he says.

He remembers how proud he felt when promoted from the school’s Caucasian group to join native speakers in a city-wide speech contest. “That’s unheard of in our school and it showed that my [Putonghua] was as good as [that of] people from Taiwan and Hong Kong,” he says.

Later he competed with students two years his senior and finished second in a competition dominated by Chinese speakers.

Kyle’s proficiency grew when he and his father lived a life of “true immersion” after relocating to Shanghai in 2003. They don’t live in a compound for foreigners and Kyle attends a local school.

“Everyone here is nice to me. I feel accepted. Living in China has been a great experience. I feel comfortable in China and with speaking Chinese. Learning Putonghua has opened my world. My language skills have made it possible for me to do so many things and to meet so many interesting people.”

A keen dancer, he has performed in minor roles in the San Francisco Ballet’s productions of The Nutcracker and Don Quixote. After moving to the mainland, Kyle studied with the Shanghai Ballet School for a few months before making his film debut as a dancing harlequin in James Ivory’s The White Countess in 2005.

That brief appearance sparked his interest in filmmaking – and the idea for Milk & Fashion.

Some might think he’s being pushed into the limelight by an ambitious parent, but Kyle says he welcomes his father’s guidance.

“My dad is a very driven person and I’ve learned a lot from him,” he says. “I’d wind up in a different place if it wasn’t for my dad.” The two have been inseparable since Rothstein divorced when his son was six and Kyle now often acts as his father’s interpreter on business trips.

Jay Rothstein, for his part, says: “I play many roles in Kyle’s life, but the one I’m proudest of is the role of father. As a parent, I always try to listen to what he’s saying. I believe parents need to nurture, guide and stand by their children.”

That’s not to say they don’t have the odd argument, but dad prevails.

“I know my father wants what is best for me,” Kyle says. “We communicate well. These days we spend a lot of time talking about college. I’ll take his advice, but it’s my life, and I’ll make my own choices, especially as I’ll be 18 soon.”

And as he looks ahead to college life, Kyle seems quietly eager to buckle down for the studies. “As a child in America, I started with the strong American work ethic,” he says. “In China, I’ve learned the importance of family, education and respecting cultures. Even when I go to college in the States, I’ll keep these values with me.”

Rothstein nods as his son explains how he is “too busy for dating”, seldom watches TV and shuns partying and drinking. Kyle says he’s different from the confused youngster he plays in the movie. “We do the same things like taking ballet lessons and playing basketball, but I’m more mature and happier. The character feels he can’t fit in and is more emotional.”

Filmmakers working with him agree. “Kyle is a man of the world,” says Robert Vicencio, who will direct the teenager in Distance Runners, which is still in pre-production. “He attains a 360-degree understanding of what goes on around him and has a kind and generous nature which allows him easily to make friends.”

Kyle says friends have sometimes compared him to Jackie Chan “because Jackie Chan was one of the first Chinese to bring kung fu culture to America, and I was one of the first Caucasians to bring American culture to China. But I really admire him and hope to work with him in the future.”

His precociousness impressed Chin, who directed Woman at Persimmon Hill, Summer Rain and TV series Legend of Heroes.

“[Kyle’s] been growing up in an entirely different culture and society,” Chin says. “With an early start and strong support from his family, he’s already getting better opportunities than most actors. If he keeps this driven attitude, he’s not far from being a rising star.”