Read These

Randall Park Breaks Out of Character
Randall Park made his career in amiable roles like Louis on Fresh Off the Boat, but his directorial début, Shortcomings, is full of characters who are, in his word, "shitty" people.

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Schools unprepared to help Asian American students navigate racial trauma
Amid recent high-profile attacks and the larger surge in anti-Asian hate, young Asian Americans -- for whom the leading cause of death was suicide even prior to the pandemic -- are calling on schools to invest in the sustained mental health resources they need to cope.

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Stephanie Hsu on Lessons Learned from Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan
Actress Stephanie Hsu dishes on her Academy Award nomination for Everything Everywhere All at Once, lessons learned from her veteran co-stars and being a future bingo night winner.

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She’s Oscar-Nominated, but Hong Chau Hopes to Stay an Underdog
Nominated for best supporting actress for The Whale, actress Hong Chau never dreamed of being a performer. But she has turned into a force of nature," says co-star Brendan Fraser.

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'Everything Everywhere' Producer Jonathan Wang Unlocks the Secret of the Daniels' Success
Oscar nominated producer Jonathan Wang explains how he became the "third leg" of the Daniels and why the success of Everything Everywhere should be seen as a counterpoint to Top Gun: Maverick.

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For a Film About Korean Adoptees, a Group Effort
In Return to Seoul, a French adoptee repeatedly visits her birth country of South Korea. Neither filmmaker Davy Chou nor star Park Ji-Min were adopted, but they got help from friends.

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How 'Physical 100,' Netflix's Korean reality gauntlet, destroys misconceptions around Asian bodies
"The major contribution here is that it completely destabilizes the ways we link up race and ability."

Greta Lee and Teo Yoo Star in A24's 'Past Lives'

Celine Song's decades-spanning romantic drama premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival.



Damn, that's a hell of a trailer. Here's your first look at Past Lives, writer/director Celine Song's decades-spanning romantic drama starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro. The film premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival is scheduled for release this year.

Past Lives follows Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrest apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Two decades later, they are reunited in New York for one fateful week as they confront notions of destiny, love, and the choices that make a life, in this heartrending modern romance.

Take a look:

A24 is Auctioning Off (Almost) Everything from Everything Everywhere All At Once

Online charitable auction featuring original and iconic props, wardrobe, and set pieces.



If you're an Everything Everywhere All at Once superfan like me, you can't get enough of Daniels' multiverse jumping sci-fi action adventure comedy. But how about owning an actual piece from the movie?

A24's online charitable auction platform A24 Auctions is offering fans a chance to own a piece of movie history. Starting Thursday, February 23, 12:00 PM (ET), you can bid on the original and iconic props, wardrobe, and set pieces from Everything Everywhere All at Once. How about Jobu Tapaki's bedazzled Elvis costume? Hot dog hands? Racacoonie? The Auditor of the Month trophy? Yup.

100% of each of the auction's proceeds will be donated to one of the three charities that filmmakers The Daniels selected: Laundry Workers Center, Transgender Law Center and Asian Mental Health Project.

Read These

This comedian just won a $550,000 prize. Up next: A boundary-pushing Culver City show
Part of the world may have moved on from COVID-19, but performance artist Kristina Wong is reliving the worst of the pandemic night after night as part of her solo show, "Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord."

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Chinatown's Hidden Poverty: How a Big Family Struggles To Survive in a Tiny Room
For the Yus, simple survival in San Francisco while struggling with poverty is filled with challenges, but the harsher question is whether they will ever find a way out of their one room SRO and into a home of their own.

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While Florida targets Black history, Texas Republicans plan to make life miserable for Asian Americans
If Texas' proposed SB147 is enacted, the bill would ban citizens from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran from buying property or real estate in Texas. At least 11 other states are considering similar legislation.

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Letters from the Japanese incarceration camp at Santa Anita
Ted Fujioka was 17 years old when he was forced into an incarceration camp during World War II, and he wrote letters to a high school teacher. Decades later, those letters made it back to Ted's nephew Darrell Kunitomi, historian for the Los Angeles Times.

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How 'Broker' and 'Return to Seoul' reveal hard truths about Korean adoption
Two critically acclaimed films about South Korean adoption were recently released depicting different sides of the adoption story: Broker and Return to Seoul. To better understand how these films speak to real-life adoptees, Jae-Ha KIm talked to Korean academics, human rights experts, and adoptees.

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Sandra Oh's Sense of Purpose
Sandra Oh discusses Hollywood survival skills, winning the lottery, and her interest in telling “messy" Asian American stories.

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Portraying Asian Americans Positively and the “Messiness That is Life in Any Community"
When Kathryn Ma wrote her new novel The Chinese Groove, she said it felt risky to write a Chinese character who was behaving badly.

They Call Us Bruce 188: They Call Us White Savior

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 Eric Nguyen and Scott Burman, creators of White Savior, a hilarious comic book spoof of white savior stories (à la The Last Samurai, The Great Wall). They talk about their creative partnership, the unique confidence of white guys, and why the time was right for a samurai skewering of this tired and tiring narrative trope.

Twenty-two Angry Years

Happy Angryversary.



This one snuck up on me. Happy Valentine's Day, to all who celebrate. But by pure coincidence, today also happens to the be the anniversary of this website. Yes, on this day twenty-two years ago, just after midnight, I hit publish on the very first iteration of Angry Asian Man. Powered by some very rickety HTML code and a little bit of that dumb fearlessness of the new millennium internet era, I just started blogging. I didn't even know what I was doing was referred to as blogging. But that's how this journey began. Now 22 years and counting.

Of course, this website is not quite what it used to be, as the day-to-day blogging has scaled back significantly and my energy and attention have been diverted to other concerns. Health, money, family, and gravity (and a global pandemic) have all collected their cut of my 24 hours. But I've been keeping busy with other personal and professional projects, maintaining a voice on social media, and still devoted to this community called Asian America, no matter how many times it inflates and breaks my heart.

So this is the annual post. Another ring on the tree trunk and another opportunity to say thank you. Thank you to all the supporters, especially the ones who have been here since year one. Thank you to all the great friends this website has brought into my life; you are easily the best thing about this journey. Thank you to all the creators and collaborators; let's make more great stuff. And thank you to my partner in crime Joanna, who has held my hand on every step of this path.

Let's keep this going. There is more great stuff to come in year 23 and beyond.

Why Do Asian Americans Love "Bizarre Love Triangle"?

Why can't we be ourselves like we were yesterday?



Asian Americans, we have an anthem. If you are Asian American of a certain age, there is a song that can immediately pull us into circle formation on the dance floor like synth siren's song. I am, of course, talking about "Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order. If you know, you know. But why? What is about this specific track that has resonated so strongly with a generation of Asian Americans?

Our friend, sociology professor, DJ and music scholar Oliver Wang is formally asking the questions about "Bizarre Love Triangle" and doing some important work for the culture. Through a research study entitled "Bizarre Love Theories," he intends to get to the bottom of why New Order's 1986 dance chart hit has been embraced as an unofficial anthem of Asian America. And he needs your help. Check it:

Read These

As a reporter, I’d braced myself to cover mass shootings. My first was in my own community
"As a journalist in the U.S., I knew covering a mass shooting was a matter of when, not if... It never occurred to me that the first mass shooting I covered would take place in my community."

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How a Bruce Lee mantra empowered me to try new things
Illustrator Hyesu Lee overcame her fear and tried to do something she always wanted to do.

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Brandon Tsay, still grieving, gets the 'hero' treatment in Washington
While Brandon Tsay was welcomed in Washington and lauded as a hero for his courageous actions in Monterey Park, he's still processing his emotions just a few weeks after the mass shooting.

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Biden's about to have a Cabinet opening. Asian American lawmakers have a favorite.
Julie Su, deputy labor secretary, is widely viewed as the frontrunner to take over the department's top job.

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You Think You Understand Thai Culture Because You Eat at Thai Restaurants? Think Again
A government campaign drove the popularity and similarity of Thai menus, but they left out an ingredient: the experiences of actual Thai people.

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The Curry Trap: How a Continent's Worth of Food Got Mashed Into One Word
American ignorance about Indian cuisine is flattening and hurtful.

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Delia Cai's Small-Town Romance Goes Beyond The Tropes
With her romance novel Central Places, Delia Cai deploys the familiar Hallmark movie plot to tell a different story, offering readers an unflinching examination of what it means to be an Asian American in small-town America, enclosed in an ultra-romantic shell.

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Jeremy Lin on 38 at the Garden doc, Linsanity, Asian hate - Los Angeles Times
Jeremy Lin talks about the Oscar-shortlisted documentary 38 at the Garden and how his career impacted the Asian American community.

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How Rajiv Surendra Went from Mean Girls to the Renaissance Man of Your Dreams
He made a name for himself playing Kevin G in Mean Girls. Since then, Rajiv Surendra has built an enviable life for himself centered on his creative pursuits.

First Look at Adele Lim's Raunchy Comedy 'Joy Ride'

Here's a first look image for Joy Ride, the upcoming raunchy comedy from director Adele Lim (co-screenwriter of Crazy Rich Asians), and starring Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, Stephanie Hsu, and Sabrina Wu.

Written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao, Joy Ride is described as a "hilarious and unapologetically explicit story of identity and self-discovery centers on four unlikely friends who embark on a once-in-a-lifetime international adventure."

The movie follows Audrey (Ashley Park), whose business trip to Asia goes sideways when her chances of closing a big deal suddenly hinge on her tracking down her birth mother.

To do so, she enlists the aid of Lolo (Sherry Cola), her irreverent, childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; Kat (Stephanie Hsu), her college friend turned Chinese soap star; and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin. Their no-holds-barred, epic experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging, and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.

Produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the film also stars Ronny Chieng, Desmond Chiam, Alexander Hodge, and Chris Pang. Joy Ride is set to hit theaters June 3 from Lionsgate.

More here: Ashley Park goes for a wild Joy Ride in first look at Adele Lim's hard R-rated comedy

Of Course Your Chinese Spy Balloon Jokes Are Racist

"Weather Barroon"



The appearance of a Chinese surveillance balloon over North American airspace last week inspired about a thousand hand-wringing discussions about spying and safety. And, predictably, racist jokes.

Case in point, this tweet from Joel R. Carter Jr., a state senator from Mississippi who immediately went to the tired and shitty place for this comic gem to take a jab at the Biden Administration. Carter posted an edited image of the balloon with the words "Weather Barroon (Totary NOT for spying)."

Some classic shit, Joel. You really got 'em good.

Read These

How a Lunar New Year celebration became a fight for survival
L.A. Times interviewed survivors, combed through dispatch recordings, and reviewed videos taken the night of the shooting to piece together what happened inside Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Lunar New Year's Eve.

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Asian Americans can no longer be silent on gun laws. We must confront threat on our community.
Stop AAPI Hate: We support ending gun violence, but we are not usually part of the policy conversations. AAPI organizations are uniting to advocate for action.

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Daughter of slain Monterey Park dance hall leader hopes to reopen studio
Ming Wei Ma was the manager of Star Ballroom Dance Studio. His daughter, Mary, wants to remember her father, not by his tragic final moments, but by the community he sustained through his love of dance.

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The US Values Asian Work More Than Asian Lives
Well-meaning comments about Asians being diligent and dutiful workers is precisely part of the problem.

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A Love Letter to Restaurant Cooks
"Restaurant work is exhausting, thankless, and full of petty frustrations... But within that reality, unfolding daily, you also meet multifaceted, wondrous, vibrant people at all stages of life."

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Corky Lee and the Work of Seeing
Ken Chen looks at the late llegendary photographer Corky Lee's archive. "But what also becomes clear when looking at Lee's photographs is how what it meant to be Asian American then is not what it means now: the historical specificity and limits of an identity designed to be capacious."

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Activist Alice Wong reflects on 'The Year of the Tiger' and her hopes for 2023
NPR interviews activist/writer Alice Wong, author of the memoir Year of the Tiger: An Activist's Life.

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12 Books About Coming of Age as an Asian American
Delia Cai, author of Central Places, recommends stories that capture the complexities of young adulthood.