Lady in the Water Actor & Novelist Visit Cryptozoology Museum

Young-Soon Choi: Mr. Leeds, it’s time we prove that some stories are real! ~ Lady in the Water (2006).

Cindy Cheung, who played “Young-Soon Choi,” a youthful character in the M. Night Shyamalan film, Lady in the Water (2006), visited the International Cryptozoology Museum on Saturday, April 10, 2010, along with her famed husband, novelist Ed Lin (who has been interested in cryptozoology since he was a child).

As it turned out, Ed Lin and Cindy Cheung came by at the end of the day, and got a tour along with Kevin of the Portland band Ghosthunter and two of his friends, Jeanelle and Cassidy.

It was a good sunny, warm finale to a week of fewer than normal visitors because of earlier rain and unexpected chilly wind. So, of course, it was an enjoyable treat for me, too, to finish my day with these visitors.

The beautiful, talented actor has found herself typecast as an Asian nurse by some directors. For example, she has appeared as a nurse in “Fringe” (episode “In Which We Meet Mr. Jones,” 2008), “Jonny Zero” (three episodes, 2005), “Sex and the City” (episode “Out of the Frying Pan,” 2004), and Speed for Thespians (2000). She recently was promoted to a Registered Nurse in the “Vital Signs” episode (2010) of “White Collar.”

Cheung began appearing in television programs and movies in 1995, with an appearance on “Seinfeld.” She has been seen frequently on “Law and Order” (2005, 2006, 2008, 2009) and “One Life to Live” (four times in 2009). In Spider-Man 2 (2004), Cheung played an uncredited Chinese daughter in that movie.

Cindy Cheung is proudest of her recent lead role in writer-director Tze Chun’s award-winning Children of Invention (2009).

Ed Lin was in Portland to do a reading at Longfellow Books, from his third novel, his newly released Snakes Can’t Run.

It is the sequel to 2007’s This Is a Bust. His first novel, Waylaid is written from a unique Asian Fortean point-of-view, or as the Time Asia Magazine said: “Waylaid is like a nihilistic — but enjoyable — detour on a journey from nothing to nowhere.”

I had decided the night before their visit, quite coincidentally, to attend Lin’s reading on a hunch. As it turned out, after their museum visit, I did have time to go to Lin’s reading. The novelist was quite funny and gave a good flavor of his book’s reoccurring police detective character.

I also got a chance to talk to his wife a bit more. Cindy Cheung told me that even before they were married, she’d given Ed a gift of a book entitled Mysterious America.

In the world of cryptozoology and Forteana, from Manhattan to Portland, it is a small world, after all.

(A question for readers: Over at Facebook, Jeff Meuse, Chief Docent Coordinator of the ICM, has been posting photos sent in by museum visitors for some time. Would some readers, especially folks not on Facebook here, like to view yourself or other visitors, now and then, at Cryptomundo? We don’t plan to become TMZ or some outlet like that, but would you enjoy seeing some of the faces of regular folks and celebrities who come visit the museum? Just asking….)

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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