Read These

Whatever happened to Short Round? Ke Huy Quan returns to the big screen
Ke Huy Quan was of the '80s' most recognizable child stars thanks to his roles as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies. So why did he quit acting? And what lured him back in front of the camera after 35 years away?

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Michelle Yeoh goes on a mind-bending trip in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Actress Michelle Yeoh who has broken boundaries and bones across her genre-spanning career, takes on her most ambitious project yet: saving the multiverse.

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How Do I Talk to My Daughter About Violence Against Asian Women?
"Should I tell you that I don't want you to walk through the world afraid, even though I have sometimes walked through the world afraid?"

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Stephanie Foo on Gaining Agency From C-PTSD
Stephanie Foo's memoir, What My Bones Know, details her painful experiences with childhood abuse, and the long, indirect path she took to healing as an adult.

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The Nostalgic Glory of the '90s Chinese Buffet
The all-you-can-eat restaurants of Naureen Khan's childhood -- the China Gardens, Super Buffets, and King Woks -- are dying out.

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J. Kenji López-Alt Says You’re Cooking Just Fine
Ahead of the release of his new book, The Wok, food columnist J. Kenji López-Alt reflects on kitchen-bro culture, who gets credit for recipes, and how not to be an asshole.

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John Cho’s young adult novel about the L.A. riots wants us to look beyond 'rooftop Koreans'
Troublemaker. John Cho's new young adult novel about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, is a sincere attempt to make sense of an event that we are still trying to understand.

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An Actor Who Cedes the Spotlight While Quietly Commanding It
Daniel K. Isaac, a theater actor with a steady gig on the series Billions is appearing at the Public in Lloyd Suh’s play The Chinese Lady.

RISE: Help Us Celebrate the Release of Our Book

Friday, March 4 at the Japanese American National Museum


If you're in Los Angeles, I invite you to help us celebrate the publication of RISE: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now, the book I wrote with Jeff Yang and Philip Wang. It's been a long road getting this book to the finish line, but at long last, you can hold it in your grubby hands and read the dang thing.

RISE Is a love letter to our community, chronicling the ups and downs, struggles and triumphs, personalitis and ideas that have shaped who we our today. Through intimiate recollections, exclusive interviews, graphic essays, annotated illustrations and more -- thanks, in part, to an amazing squad of contributors -- we assembled a chronicle of the last three decades of Asian America that we hope will inspire delight, nostalgia and exploration.

Please join us Friday, March 4 at the Japanese American National Museum for a book talk, signing and reception with me, Jeff, Philip and a bunch of a amazing folks who made this book possible.

Read These

Remembering Linsanity
In an exclusive, illustrated excerpt from our upcoming book RISE: A Pop History of Asian America From the Nineties to Now, Jeremy Lin remembers his road to the NBA and reflects on where "Linsanity" led.

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My Family Lost Our Farm During Japanese Incarceration. I Went Searching for What Remains.
"Japanese Americans who were forced off their land lost property worth an estimated $3.7 billion in today’s dollars, and $7.7 billion worth of income... But not all losses are quantifiable, even in estimates. How can we count the communities dispersed, the culture disappeared? In the 80 years since, there’s been another loss: the memories of survivors of this forced removal."

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Eileen Gu's Olympic run launches her into stardom and the political fray
Freestyle skiier Eileen Gu's epic success comes in tandem with a highly controversial Winter Olympics and an increasingly strained relationship between China and the United State.

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Why Chinese Americans Are Talking About Eileen Gu
The critical crossfire Ms. Gu has faced has implications that go far beyond the Olympic slopes, Chinese Americans say. And some see themselves in the duality she has embraced.

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Eileen Gu, the Olympics and who gets to be American
"It seems we can’t let an Olympics pass without wondering whether an Asian American athlete is truly American. Every four years, the Olympic team gets more diverse, and every four years, the American media fumbles for the words to describe them."

* * *
Kristi Yamaguchi won gold 30 years ago. American figure skating would never look the same.
When Kristi Yamaguchi became the first Asian American woman to win gold at the Winter Olympics 30 years ago, she changed the face of U.S. figure skating.

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The surgeon general's young daughter got COVID. This is what he wants you to know
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy says he wishes vaccines for kids under 5 were available, but that more data is needed first.

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The Millions of People Stuck in Pandemic Limbo
What does society owe immunocompromised people?

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Here's why your shoes will be staying the hell out of my house
A Wall Street Journal essay about keeping shoes on inside the house left many Asian Americans aghast.

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Cheetos Flamin' Hots Made Me Who I Am
In middle school, Summer Kim Lee envied the wealthy white kids. But she had something they didn't have, too.

* * *
What Min Jin Lee Wants Us to See
Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires, discusses her research process, her memories of arriving in America, and why she reads the Bible before writing.

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Tablo of Epik High on Success, Bullying & the Stories That Got Him Here
"All the things we did wrong and that we suffered through got us here," Korean rapper Tablo says.

* * *
How Sun and Jin's relationship went from problematic to transcendent on Lost
Here's why this underrated Lost couple is ranked Entertainment Weekly's No. 1 TV romance of all time.

They Call Us Bruce 149: They Call Us Shoes Off

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 round up The Good, The Bad and The WTF of the week, including Ali Wong's latest standup special, Asian American excellence at the Winter Olympics, anti-Asian violence, Wrong Asians, and taking off your damn shoes inside the house.

Twenty-One Angry Years

Happy Angryversary



Here we are again.

Honestly, with everything going on these days, I almost forgot. But on this day in 2001, I started this website. I hit the upload button on the very first rickety-ass HTML iteration of what I would eventually learn was called a blog. I've been doing this damn thing for 21 years. Angry Asian Man is allowed in the bar.

Every year I write this post, I am more bewildered about this journey and how I got here. I know I say this pretty regularly, but when I started this blog, I had no idea I was starting something. And certainly not the "something" that would go on to define my personal and professional identity for the next two decades and beyond.

Other things have become clearer. Raising the issues, fighting for visibility and engaging in hard conversations about our Asian American identities and communities are not more relevant and vital right now -- they've always been relevant and vital. I'm tired, and I'm twenty-one years older, but my work is not done. Our work's not done.

That said, I have to acknowledge that, in terms of output, I'm not the blogger I once was. My attention, time and resources have been diverted in a lot of different directions that pull me away from posting here -- fun stuff, like podcasts and writing a book, but also general adult life concerns like the safety and well-being of loved ones, paying the billz, my own mental health, and the goddamn COVID-19.

Truthfully, there are just days that I feel overloaded and paralyzed.

But other thing I know for sure after twenty-one years, none of this would be possible without my community. The hands-down best thing about this whole endeavor are the people that it has put in my path. The partners, the collaborators, the challengers, the teachers, the listeners, the readers. On the most difficult days, you've had my back, and in our most joyous moments, the celebrations are sweeter because we got there together.

Thank you being on this journey with me. Twenty-one years. I'll take that drink.

Stay Angry.

Read These

Who's winning at the Winter Olympics? Asian Americans, and that's a big deal
Asian Americans have had a stellar performance during the Beijing Olympics, with heavyweights like Nathan Chen, Eileen Gu and Chloe Kim pulling in gold medals in a breathtaking fashion.

* * *
The Asian American Pipeline in Figure Skating
For the second consecutive Winter Games, four of the six figure skaters who arrived to represent the United States in the singles events were Asian American. The chain of success stretches back for years and has only strengthened as more have poured into the sport and become Olympic stars.

* * *
More than 20 years later, Michelle Kwan still holds a special place in hearts of Asian Americans
Michelle Kwan still holds a special place in the hearts of Asian American millennials, who have continued to follow the two-time Olympic medalist and five-time world champion throughout her career.

* * *
I'm an Asian American Harvard student. The anti-affirmative-action case does not speak for me.
"As president of the Asian American Association at Harvard and the son of an immigrant family, I have a message for those who oppose affirmative action: Do not use the Asian American community to advance your political agenda."

* * *
Meet the 1st Asian American mayor of a major Midwestern city; Flood maps shortfalls
Cincinnati's new Mayor Aftab Pureval is the first Asian American mayor of a major city in the Midwest. He talks to NPR about the Bengals in the Super Bowl and his plans to tackle gun violence, climate change and other challenges.

* * *
For these Asian American adoptees, celebrating the Lunar New Year means creating new traditions
For Asian American adoptees, Lunar New Year can be complicated: They may not partake in rituals handed down through generations. For many, traditions start with themselves, burnished by an alchemy of research, adaptation and a continuous revision of self-discovery.

* * *
My Mother Told Stories Through Hmong Embroidery, I Use the Pen
Lisa Lee Herrick recalls how her mother's Hmong embroidery lessons shapes the stories she writes.

* * *
Ming-Na Wen Worked Her Ass Off To Be Here
Ming-Na Wen has long attributed her success to luck. Now, she's finally giving herself credit.

They Call Us Bruce 148: They Call Us Dante Basco

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 one and only Dante Basco. He talks about his directorial debut The Fabulous Filipino Brothers, making a movie with his family -- his entire family -- growing up in Hollywood, and being perpetually linked to iconic characters, including Prince Zuko and, of course, RUFIO.

Read These

The Legacy of Linsanity, 10 Years Later
A decade after Jeremy Lin's NBA breakout, Lin and some of the people who observed his sudden ascent reflect on the excitement and lasting cultural significance of his heroics for the Knicks in February 2012.

* * *
Stop asking freestyle skier Eileen Gu about her political views
Having first competed for Team USA and now competing for China, freestyle skier Eileen Gu has been caught up in geopolitical tensions surrounding the Beijing Winter Olympics.

* * *
San Francisco apologizes for racism against Chinese Americans
San Francisco has become the latest major California city to apologize for its history of racist and discriminatory acts and policies against Chinese Americans.

* * *
How the Pandemic and Anti-Asian Violence Spurred 2 States to Change History Lessons
New Jersey and Illinois have passed legislation requiring Asian American history lessons – and other states are trying to follow suit.

* * *
How One Dance Studio Became a Bulwark Against Loneliness in New York City's Chinatown
In the midst of rising rates of Anti-Asian hate crimes and social isolation for many Chinese immigrants, one dance studio created a safe social space for New York City's Chinatown seniors.

* * *
A St. Louis woman discovered her mom’s secret past — as a Vietnamese rock star
Far from simply entertaining troops, Dr. Hannah Ha learned, her mom had been a recording artist who worked with South Vietnam's top composers in the scene's 1960s heyday. She performed under the stage name Phương Tâm.

* * *
Notes on Work
There's a masochistic pride to overworking. How heavy a workload can I truly handle? How many plates can I keep in the air?

* * *
How Cleaning for the Lunar New Year Helps Me Let Go of the Past
Grace Hwang Lynch cleans in preparation for the Lunar New Year, and in doing so, lets go of the past.

* * *
60% of the World's Seeds are Owned by Corporations. How Farmer Kristyn Leach is Resisting.
Namu Farms in Winters, California is one of several small farms cultivating Asian heritage vegetables.

* * *
The Anxiety of Exclamation Points
For Lan Samantha Chang, exclamation points are part of a decades-long project to be as truthful as possible to her lived experience as a child of immigrants.

* * *
'We're Putting a Piece of Ourselves Out There': The Linda Lindas Talk 'Growing Up' on Debut LP
The Linda Lindas, who went viral last year with their punk anthem "Racist, Sexist Boy," will release their debut full-length album Growing Up on April 8.

They Call Us Bruce 147: They Call Us Year of the Tiger

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 Potluck Podcast pals Ada Tseng (Saturday School) and Raman Sehgal (Modern Minorities, Quarantined Comics) to celebrate the Lunar New Year and discuss superstitions, superheroes, Michelle Yeoh, Lou Diamond Phillips, urine, basement bunkers and utility journalism.