Skip to main content Currently Reading The SF-set reboot of 'Kung Fu' on The CW flips the classic martial arts show's gender roles Max Gao FacebookTwitterEmail Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen in "Kung Fu" on The CW.Kailey Schwerman/The CW In a modern reimagining of Ed Spielman’s hit series that starred David Carradine, “Kung Fu” is returning to network television with two unprecedented changes: The lead is a Chinese American woman and the cast is predominantly Asian American, a rarity in the landscape of network television dramas. The gender-flipped reboot chronicles the journey of Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), a young woman who, after going through a quarter-life crisis, decides to drop out of university and take a life-altering journey to a remote Chinese monastery. When Nicky returns to San Francisco three years later, she discovers that her hometown has been overrun with crime and corruption and that the local Chinatown, where her parents Jin (Tzi Ma) and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) own a family restaurant, has been at the mercy of a powerful triad. She’s forced to use her martial arts skills to protect her community, while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor.