August was a great month to be an Asian-American. Two films, “Crazy Rich Asians” and “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,” featured asian leads and received overwhelming praise from critics and social media alike. “Crazy Rich Asians,” a more historic achievement, is the first film to feature an all asian cast in 25 years (the last was “Joy Luck Club”). Strong diversity has been a common theme this summer at the box office with “Black Panther” and “A Wrinkle in Time” being commended for their efforts to increase African American diversity.

“Crazy Rich Asians” offers the asian community something that we haven’t experienced in a long time: seeing characters we can relate to on the big screen.

Asian representation in movies has had a complicated past. Several decades ago, the asian cameo was a racist stereotype of the “yellow terror” or the submissive math genius. While recently we’ve moved away from those primitive images, Asian Americans moved to playing exclusively minor roles. Some examples of Asian Americans who have played small roles on major tv shows and movies includes Sandra Oh in “Grey’s Anatomy” and John Cho in the recent “Star Trek” reboot series. But other than that, I imagine it would be hard for the average person to name an Asian American role, much less name the actor’s actual name.

It seems like Hollywood shifted the delegation of Asian Americans from racially stereotyped roles to ones so small they just became invisible overall. But this year, the tide seems to have shifted.

Asian Americans have been given more major roles and are absolutely blowing the lid on their potential for success. Sandra Oh, formerly known as that girl in “Grey’s Anatomy” and “The Princess Bride,” is now the star of her own show, “The Killing Bride,” and she has made history as the first asian actress nominated for an Emmy as the best lead actress in a drama series.

Crazy Rich Asians made $26.5 million dollars its first weekend and kept up the rage with $24.8 million the second weekend — the biggest Rom-Com since Trainwreck in 2015.

If this pattern continues, Hollywood may realize what many of us already knew, Asian Americans can excel in movies and shows.