Previously, the actress had noted that when she first began her career her parents “looked down on the arts.” “It’s like one step above, you know, prostitution,” she joked to DeGeneres.

But as she showed them her devotion to her work and as her career progressed, Oh said that her parents became her biggest supports and unconditional fans.

“My parents, who are amazing and amazing people and internet sensations,” Oh reflected in the press room at the Golden Globes. “They’re so happy, and it’s just the kind of thing, for Asian kids to make our parents happy, it’s so fulfilling. I’m just so grateful that they were here and able to come.”

In the wake of Oh’s emotional Golden Globes speech, a piece was published in the New York Times that examined the subject of why Asian parents “struggle to say ‘I love you’” to their children. “She was emotional, her parents were proud, and I could not help but project onto them one of the central dramas of Asian immigrant and refugee life: the silent sacrifice of the parents, the difficult gratitude of the children, revolving around the garbled expression of love,” the piece read.

What we can learn from Sandra Oh’s relationship with her parents