Snow Flower And The Secret Fan, Hugh Jackman, Wayne Wang, And WTF Is Going On Here People?

Somebody help me out here because this makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever, and honestly - I'm going to give some benefit of the doubt and just ask the question - because I just don't get it:

There's a film being made by Wayne Wang - based on the Lisa See novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan - and from all the reports I've read the male lead character - which was going to be played by an unnamed member of the former Taiwanese band F4 - is now going to be played by Hugh Jackman.

Now I haven't read the book myself - but comments (and a friend as well) tell me that there is no lead White Male in this book - and since the original lead was going to be played by someone who's Asian doesn't it just lead me to ask the question of WTF is going on here?

I mean am I really using the word WHITEWASHED and Wayne Wang in the same sentence?

Is that possible?

Maybe Wayne Wang doesn't know what's going on.

Maybe it is just a cameo.

Maybe all of these reports are completely false.

I'm hoping that there's a lot more to this story that I just don't know...