They Call Us Bruce 187: They Call Us Heartbroken

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we break fron our usual format and take a moment to react to the mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. This one's kind of raw.

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Authorities identify 72-year-old man as suspected gunman in Lunar New Year mass shooting
Authorities have identified the man responsible for a deadly shooting inside a Monterey Park dance studio as Hemet resident Huu Can Tran, 72.

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Lunar New Year shooting: A grim moment in Monterey Park, America's first suburban Chinatown
"Sometime between 1970 and 1990, Monterey Park became America’s first suburban Chinatown, where swift demographic changes heralded conflicts over language, signs, a changing business scene and political voice. In 2023 it is a city once again in flux, but as a tight-knit community whose residents typify what it means to be an Asian American -- and the spectrum within."

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After Indiana Univ. stabbing, Asian American students haven't received enough support from school
The suspect, Billie Davis, told Bloomington police that she targeted the student, who survived, for "being Chinese," adding, "It would be one less person to blow up our country."

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Redefining the 'New' in Lunar New Year
Some younger Asian Americans are creating their own Lunar New Year holiday traditions, putting a spin on lessons they've learned.

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Their Children Are Their Retirement Plans
The offspring of many East Asian immigrants are raised to support their elders in their later years. That gives a segment of Americans challenges others don't face.

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A Professor Who Challenges the Washington Consensus on China
Jessica Chen Weiss argues that Biden's China policy is contributing to an "action-reaction spiral."

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What My Father's Martial Arts Classes Taught Me about Fighting Racism
The goal of martial arts is self-defense. But what happens when the violence is as atmospheric as racism itself?

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Randall Park's Long Wait for Shortcomings
Fresh Off the Boat star Randall Park makes his directorial debut with the adaptation Adrian Tomine's graphic novel Shortcomings, an Asian American story he waited 15 years to tell.

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How the Team Behind 'The Accidental Getaway Driver' Sought to Make a Culturally Sensitive Film
Producer Andy Sorgie, director Sing J. Lee and a team of consultants-turned-producers immersed themselves in the Southern California enclave of Little Saigon to tell the true-life story of an elderly Vietnamese war veteran whose life is changed by one fateful passenger pickup.

They Call Us Bruce 186: They Call Us Missing

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, writer/director of the hit thriller Searching, and writer/producer of its follow-up feature Missing. He talks about why 2018's Searching is now a period piece, the seemingly simple but actually super-complicated process of telling a story that unfolds entirely on screens, and why he and the team are not in any rush (for now) to make a third movie in the "Searching Cinematic Universe."

First Look Photos of Disney's 'American Born Chinese'

Adaptation of Gene Luen Yang's graphic novel stars Michelle Yeoh, Daniel Wu, Ke Huy Quan and more.



Disney+ has unveiled some new first look photos of its upcoming adaptation of American Born Chinese, based on the beloved graphic novel of the same name by Gene Luen Yang. The series has shaped up to be something of a reunion for actors Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, who also star in Everything Everywhere All at Once, which is currently cleaning up in its awards season run.

Adapted by Kelvin Yu, the "genre-hopping action comedy" series follows Jin Wang (Ben Wang), the son of Chinese immigrants who struggles with assimilating in the United States. Jin escapes into fantasy realms to grapple with his emotions and encounters spiritual creatures from Chinese mythology like Sun Wukong the Monkey King, played by Daniel Wu, and Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, played by Yeoh.

Check out the photos:

Indiana University Student Stabbed in Anti-Asian Attack

The suspect said she stabbed the victim because it "would be one less person to blow up our country."



It would be nice to not live in fear of literally being stabbed in the head for being Asian.

In Bloomington, Indiana, a woman has been charged after an 18-year-old Indiana University student repeatedly was stabbed in the head on a public bus in an anti-Asian attack. The suspect told police she stabbed the victim because the victim was "Chinese," adding that it "would be one less person to blow up our country."

The victim told investigators she was standing and waiting for the exit doors to open on a Bloomington Transit bus Wednesday afternoon when another passenger began striking her in the head multiple times with a folding knife. Surveillance footage showed that the suspect and the victim had no interaction leading up to the assault.

56-year-old Billie R. Davis has been charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery. According to NPR, Davis has not been charged with a hate crime because Indiana is one of four states that lack a comprehensive law. So this is, officially, just a regular head stabbing attack -- not a hate-motivated head stabbing attack.

More here: Indiana's Asian American community is grieving after a bus stabbing attack

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I Am Michelle Go's Father. I Am Marking Her Death Where She Lived.
"It has been exactly one year since the death of our daughter, Michelle Alyssa Go. On Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022, at around 9:30 a.m., Martial Simon viciously shoved Michelle in front of an oncoming subway train at the Times Square station. She was 40 years old. We now return to Manhattan to pay our respects to our daughter in the city she came to love."

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Gwen Stefani: "I Said, 'My God, I'm Japanese'"
Fourteen years after the debut of her Harajuku Lovers fragrance collection, Gwen Stefani essentially tells Allure that she learned nothing about cultural appropriation.

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Crime Concerns Drove Asian Americans Away From New York Democrats
Worries about public safety, especially attacks against Asian Americans, caused some in the once-reliably Democratic bloc to vote Republican last year.

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Why Michelle Yeoh's 'shut up' at the Golden Globes was profound for Asian women
"We have to live with these stereotypes and expectations of being demure and diminutive on the daily. So to witness that on such a big stage of something like the Golden Globes was profound."

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Is Stephanie Hsu the 'Dark Horse' of Award Season?
Stephanie Hsu, who plays Joy/Jobu Tupaki in Everything Everywhere All at Once, may not be as well known as her co-stars, but her role is crucial enough to deserve awards consideration.

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American Born Chinese: Uncovering Asian American Stories With Cartoonist Gene Luen Yang
Gene Luen Yang's beloved graphic novel American Born Chinese is currently being adapted into a TV series on Disney+ starring Ben Wang, Michelle Yeoh, Chin Han, Yeo Yann Yann, Daniel Wu, and Ke Huy Quan.

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They Call Us Bruce 185: They Call Us New Year 2023

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.



What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. (Almost) each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.

In this episode, we welcome the new year with one last look back at the year that was, in the kind of super-sized conversation they only reserve for two of our perennially favorite guests: Rebecca Sun of The Hollywood Reporter and Dino-Ray Ramos of Diaspora. We discuss personal developments, the tired and tiring buzzwords of diversity, and finally falling to COVID-19. We also go three rounds of a special new year edition of The Good, The Bad and The WTF: Boost, Mask and Unknown Variant, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Find an updated COVID vaccine near you at vaccines.gov. #WeCanDoThis.

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America's Covid Test Requirement for Chinese Travelers Is a Farce
"By treating only Covid from China as a real danger and domestic cases as presumably milder, the U.S. government effectively endorses the centuries-old tropes of Asians as the 'diseased other' and the notion that the coronavirus is, in fact, the "'China virus.'"

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I May Have Started a Rumor About K-Pop, and It May Be Ruining My Life
Euny Hong addresses a rumor that K-pop is funded by the Korean state – a rumor she may have started.

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The Etiquette Guru Who Broke Up With a Boyfriend Over Text
Sara Jane Ho offers practical manners for a new, global world.

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Why South Asians are the most politically liberal of all Asian Americans
South Asians are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S., especially in battleground states. And out of all Asian Americans groups, they are the most politically liberal.

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The Best Woks
Wirecutter set out to find the best wok. They spoke with experts and then got to work sautéing, frying, and steaming. One clear winner stood out.

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Q&A: Iris Yamashita, Author of ‘City Under One Roof'
In City Under One Roof, the debut novel from Academy Award-nominated writer Iris Yamashita, a stranded detective tries to solve a murder in a tiny Alaskan town where everyone lives in a single high-rise building.

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Everything Everywhere's Ke Huy Quan is, all at once, an awards contender
The child star of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies is back in the spotlight, joining the Marvel universe, and, smart money says, the Oscars nomination list.

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The Dave Bautista Method
After hanging up his wrestling tights, Dave Bautista could've made an easy living cranking out one brainless, explosion-happy blockbuster after another. Instead, he's improbably emerged as a serious thespian trapped in an action hero's body, and the who's-who of Hollywood auteurs keep lining up to work with him.