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 back Daniel Chong, director of the Disney/Pixar animated feature Hoppers. They discuss the silly, unlikely pitch for "Penguin Avatar" that actually got the green light; centering an angry Asian young woman at the heart of this adventure (and why this movie arrives amidst an incredible moment for animated Asian movie heroines); and all the fun world-building that goes into crafting a story set in the animal kingdom. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of making Hoppers. This episode is sponsored by Chinese Republicans, a new play from Roundabout Theatre Company.
What can robots teach us about humanity and about love? Maybe Happy Ending, the 2025 Tony Award winner for best musical, tells the unlikely story of two humanoid robots, as they fall in love while on a road trip. The show, including stars Darren Criss, Helen J. Shen, Marcus Choi, Dez Duron -- and Hwaboon -- recently paid a visit to NPR's Tiny Desk for a delightfully tiny performance.
Netflix has released the first teaser trailer for the highly anticipated second season of Beef from showrunner Lee Sung Jin. Trading the parking lot for the country club, the new season begins when a young couple witnesses an alarming fight between their boss and his wife -- setting off a high-stakes game of favors and coercion within an elitist world ruled by a Korean billionaire. Season two premieres April 16.
A stretch of street in San Francisco's Chinatown will be named to publicly honor one of the neighborhood’s fiercest heroes. Tien Fuh Wu spent half a century rescuing trafficked women and girls and taking care of them at the Occidental Mission Home, which was later renamed Cameron House. "Tien Fuh Wu Way" will cover the portion of Joice Street that runs alongside Cameron House, which continues to be a safe haven for children, as well as women dealing with domestic violence.
Michelle Yeoh talks about playing five different characters in Sean Baker's new film Sandiwara, how Quentin Tarantino convinced her not to retire, that viral "Wicked Witch" meme, and the highs and lows of her storied career. "If there's no up and down," she says, "you've flatlined."
The new Pixar animated feature Hoppers involves body-swapping and flying sharks, both of which are absolute insanity from start to finish. But director Daniel Chong reveals that while the movie as it stands is admittedly crazy, it could have been a whole lot crazier.
Last week, artist unveiled the first mural in Oakland honoring Olympic gold medalist figure skater Alysa Liu. The Illuminaries, a local graffiti artist group, designed and painted a mural in the Temescal neighborhood, on the corner of Telegraph and 43rd Streetm to celebrate the hometown hero.
Last month, vandals spray-painted hate symbols and white nationalist graffiti on the exterior walls of Buddhist Church of Sacramento. The church has a large population of Japanese Americans, and the vandalism occurred on February 19, the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the incarceration of over 100,000 Japanese citizens and immigrants during World War II. The community's efforts to clean up the graffiti have reportedly been... challenging.
Community leaders remember Jesse Jackson’s support of the Asian American community dating back decades. From seeking justice for Vincent Chin to condemning anti-Asian violence during the pandemic, the late civil rights icon embraced Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in his Rainbow Coalition, which united marginalized people for social justice.
"In another edition of You're Not Korean Enough, we have a contingent of cruel and clueless people on the internet who are taking a Korean adoptee to task for not being a real Korean. Why? Because she initially mispronounced the name of a Korean folk song, "Arirang" (아리랑)."
Your girls did it again. Audrey Nuna, Rei Ami and EJAE, the singing voices of Huntr/x from Kpop Demon Hunters, lit up the Manchester skies with this epic performance of "Golden" at the 2026 BRIT Awards.
A nearly blind Burmese refugee who was abandoned by border patrol agents has been found dead in Buffalo, New York. Following his release from a holding center, immigration officials dropped off 56-year-old Nurul Amin Shah Alam, who spoke little English, at a coffee shop miles from his home. His body was found five days later.
In Fairfax County, Virginia, police are investigating a string of home burglaries targeting Asian American residents. Between January 12 and February 21, suspects entered eight homes scattered throughout the county, stealing cash, jewelry, handbags, gold bars and even safes that had been bolted to the floor. The victims have been primarily Asian American small business owners.
For over a decade, Kim Eun-jae, aka EJAE, trained to become a K-pop idol under SM Entertainment, one of South Korea's top agencies. But the label deemed her too tall and her voice too low and husky -- and ultimately decided not to debut her. But that rejection turned out to be a "redirection."
"This winter, two Asian American women, Alysa Liu and Eileen Gu, soared across Olympic ice and snow. One wrapped herself in the Stars and Stripes. The other chose to compete for China. And suddenly the country had very strong opinions about Asian daughters. I learned the quickest way to make America nervous is to let an Asian American woman make her own decisions, especially if she wins a gold medal."
Rep. Ilhan Omar's guest for the State of the Union address Tuesday night said she was hospitalized and arrested during President Donald Trump's speech. Aliya Rahman was removed from the chamber and spent several hours in jail following what she describes as an aggressive arrest by Capitol Police -- all for silently challenging Trump during the speech. "There are only two things you can do at the State of the Union, and they are sit down and stand up," says Rahman. "I was arrested for standing up."
Arden Cho, EJAE, May Hong, Audrey Nuna, Ji-young Yoo, and Rei Ami -- the voices behind the Grammy-winning and Oscar-nominated blockbuster Kpop Demon Hunters -- go head-to-head with the Wings of Death on the latest episode of Hot Ones Versus. They have two choices: tell the truth, or suffer the wrath of the Last Dab. Whoever eats the most wings, loses! Highly entertaining.
A member of the California State Assembly has authored a bill that would establish May 17 as Bruce Lee Day, an annual, statewide observance honoring the martial arts icon. If adopted, it would make Bruce Lee the first Chinese American commemorated with a day in California State Law.
Not every K-beauty brand is benefiting from the category's viral success. In his own words, Good Light founder David Yi shares his story—and why, after five years, he's made the agonizing decision to shutter his brand.
Pre-order this book! Five years after the Atlanta-area spa shootings -- and amid renewed national debates over hate crimes, immigration, state violence, and American imperialism -- historian and activist Scott Kurashige offers a sweeping new history of anti-Asian racism in the United States in American Peril: The Violent History of Anti-Asian Racism. Hits shelves on April 7.
Behold, the freshly revealed cover for American Hagwon, the highly anticipated forthcoming novel from acclaimed Pachinko author Min Jin Lee. Described as "a panoramic and emotionally riveting portrait of one family’s pursuit of success in a perpetually shifting world," American Hagwon is set from Korea to Australia to Southern California and tracks the journey of a middle-class Korean family upended by the Asian financial crisis and hoping to regain its bearings. American Hagwon hits shelves on September 29.
This looks awesome. Check out the trailer for Hamlet, a contemporary film re-imagining of William Shakespeare's play. Riz Ahmed takes on the titular role of a man avenging his father's death and taking on his family's corrupt empire. Set in London's elite South Asian community, Hamlet (Ahmed) returns home for his father's funeral, where he's shocked to learn his uncle Claudius (Art Malik) is marrying his newly widowed mother Gertrude (Sheeba Chaddha). During a visit from his father's ghost (Avijit Dutt), Hamlet discovers Claudius was behind the murder, sending him on a path of vengeance and self-reflection.
Didn't see this one coming! Kpop Demon Hunters has been added to the Criterion Collection, which publishes classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality, as well as special behind-the-scenes supplemental materials. Heck, it's cool enough that Kpop Demon Hunters will be available as a physical home release, but getting the prestigious Criterion treatment? Awesome.
Asian American shoe brand 1587 Sneakers has filed a lawsuit against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, alleging trademark infringement. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, claims that the Kansas City steakhouse owned by the Chiefs' stars, 1587 Prime, is harming the sneaker's business. For what it's worth, 1587 Sneakers is named after the year 1587, to mark the year that Asians first arrived in America.
"When the pandemic hit, and reality settled in that life would be isolated and mostly inside, Grammy winner Anderson .Paak found himself on the outside looking in, in a way he didn’t anticipate. "I was the odd man out. My son was 8, and BTS took over the whole house. It was a K-pop storm. Before that, me and my son were bonding off of my music."
Kpop Demon Hunters continues its epic steamroll through awards season, dominating the 53rd annual Annie Awards -- honoring excellence in the field of animation -- on Saturday night, winning all ten of the categories for which it was nominated including Best Feature, Direction for Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans and Voice Acting for Arden Cho as Rumi. Don't want to jinx it, but an Oscar win seem like a pretty damn sure thing.
Meanwhile, in their first-ever live performance outside the United States, EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami -- the singing voices of HUNTR/X -- performed their smash-hit "Golden" at the British Academy Film Awards.
U.S. figure skater Alysa Liu and Beijing-backed freestyle skier Eileen Gu woke up Friday morning to find themselves in a side-by-side contrast they never asked for, pitted against each other in a geopolitical battle they never sought. Hours after Liu's stirring performance in the free skate on Thursday won her America's first Olympic women's figure skating gold in 24 years, the Oakland native was suddenly thrust into association with another native Californian, Gu, the skier who is competing on behalf of China.
Of the many viral moments from Alysa Liu's joyous, triumphant Olympic gold medal win, one moment has gotten attention for being adorably wholesome. After the results were announced in the final at Milano Ice Skating Arena on Thursday, confirming that 17-year-old Ami Nakai of Japan had won bronze and Liu won gold, the American star rushed over to Nakai to celebrate with the biggest hug.
This funny Nike ad dropped last year, but I've been seeing it passed around again in celebration of the Lunar New Year. As we all know, you should never accept that money without a fight! Or a chase.
With a fearless, show-stopping performance, Alysa Liu won Olympic gold in the women’s single figure skating event, becoming the first American woman to medal in over two decades. What makes Liu’s win extra rewarding is not simply that she finished on the top of the podium, but that she did it on her own terms after having taken control of her career when she returned to the sport two years ago. The medal was almost an afterthought. And as she skated off the ice, the cameras caught her own triumphant assessment of her performance: "That's what I'm fucking talking about!" Because that's what she was indeed fucking talking about.
A detainee died in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Indiana on Monday, with the cause of death under investigation, marking at least the seventh death in 2026 in federal immigration custody. Lorth Sim, a 59-year-old Cambodian national, was being held at the Miami Correctional Facility. According to ICE, staff found him unresponsive in his cell.
"On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized what became the mass incarceration of my ancestors and over 100,000 Japanese Americans. With the current administrations shredding the constitution and rule of law to detain citizens and non-citizens based on racial profiling, the lessons from that shameful moment in U.S. history could not be more vital or timely."
"While sitting there watching this boldly and aggressively talented group of performers pour their heart and soul into a story rooted in their culture, there was a cloud of skepticism looming over me that I couldn’t avoid. It’s been there since the inception of this musical. This musical wasn’t made for the Filipino community."
Netflix has given a series order to Dang!, an adult animated comedy starring Stephanie Hsu, Poppy Liu and Andrew Law. The series follows a brother (Law) and sister (Liu) whose fun, messy lives in New York City are interrupted when their worst nightmare comes true: Their high-achieving older sister (Hsu) shows up and wants to hang out with them.
