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 writer Sarah Kuhn and artist Arielle Jovellanos, whose new original DC young adult graphic novel Girl Taking Over: A Lois Lane Story re-imagines Lois Lane as an Asian American teen tackling a summer internship in the big city. They talk about finding your people, putting an Asian American twist on a beloved legacy character, the dreaded drawing of cars and crowds, and re-directing the scent of stinky lunchbox moments.
Generation Connie
Growing up, Connie Wang thought being named after Connie Chung made her unique. Little did she know that there was a whole generation of Asian American women named after the same iconic news anchor.
To Court SF Voters, Politicians Give Themselves Flowery Chinese Names
San Francisco political candidates who are not of Chinese ancestry have traditionally appeared on ballots with a Chinese name based on their English names' phonetic transliteration, but aspiring officeholders are now being much more deliberate about selecting an "authentic" Chinese name.
* * *
Constance Wu Put Mental Health In Asian Communities In The Spotlight. Here’s What's Next.
"Though Constance Wu’s transparency about her mental health has opened up a conversation around the pressures of being an Asian American woman, there’s still a long way to go in terms of people of Asian diasporas getting the help they need to ensure their mental well being. And, we need to be talking about it."
* * *
She Wrote a Blistering Satire About Publishing. The Publishing Industry Loves It.
In her latest novel Yellowface, R.F. Kuang draws on her own experiences to tackle issues like cultural appropriation and representation. "I hate the feeling of being read just because somebody's trying to tick off a diversity check box," she says.
Randall Park's Big Plans
Longtime actor Randall Park talks to GQ about his directorial debut, Shortcomings, what real creative freedom looks like, and why he's been working out so much.
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 Shin Yu Pai, award-winning poet, museologist, and host of Ten Thousand Things, a podcast about modern-day artifacts of Asian American life. We discuss the personal objects and collections that say who we are and where we've been, from Rep. Andy Kim's now-famous blue suit to our precious stuffed loved ones. We also play a special show-and-tell version of The Good, The Bad and The WTF featuring our own Asian American artifacts.
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 awesome sibling duo Alex and Maia Shibutani, two-time Olympic medalist ice dancers and authors of the children's picture book Amazing: Asian American and Pacific Islanders Who Inspire Us All. They discuss their unique journey growing up as brother/sister teammates on the ice, their evolution as role models and community advocates, and The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of working with your sibling.
The Fallout of a Callout
What happens after a public callout? Hari Kondabolu and Hank Azaria, the voice of Apu on The Simpsons, speak to each other publicly for the first time since Hari's documentary The Problem With Apu came out in 2017.
Surgeon General: We Have Become a Lonely Nation. It's Time to Fix That.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is introducing a new framework to address loneliness in the United States this week, writing in a new op-ed that social connections must be a "top public health priority" in the country.
Greta Lee and Steven Yeun Have an Emotionally X-Rated Conversation
A professional scene-stealer in shows like Russian Doll and The Morning Show, Greta Lee’s career blew up at Sundance when her movie Past Lives wowed the entire festival and made the actor an early awards contender.
The big casting blunder on ‘Beef’ sends a message
"When we talk about rebuilding Hollywood, we can't do it on the same rotten foundations. And ironically, the lesson of Beef itself is that as much as it hurts to reckon with our own failures, it hurts more people and causes more damage when we fail to do so -- all of which is to say, the individuals and institutions associated with the show can’t stay silent."
* * *
We're in Asian America's peak media moment. But 'Beef' has poisoned the well
"To uncritically embrace Beef for what it gives to the Asian American community shows that we’re on board with rape culture and with misogyny, especially against Black women. To embrace it shows that we're willing to let others pay the price for our feelings of validation and belonging."
Hari Kondabolu is a Vacation Daddy
Stand-up comic Hari Kondabolu discusses pandemic fatherhood, humor and his new special Vacation Baby.
* * *
Nida Manzoor Is Changing The Way Muslim Women Are Portrayed On Screen
Nida Manzoor's debut feature Polite Society centers on Ria, a British Pakistani teen aspiring to be a stunt performer in movies, who stages a heist in order to stop her older sister's wedding to "a rich Mr. Darcy wanker."
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 Vivian Yoon, host and writer of the podcast K-Pop Dreaming from LAist Studios, a journey through the rise and history of K-pop in the United States, mapped against Vivian's own coming-of-age as a second generation Korean American in Los Angeles. We talk about some of the unknown stories behind K-pop's ascent, how diasporic Korean identity has always been in conversation with K-pop, and how to feel, as Asian Americans, about K-pop's seemingly sudden global dominance and ubiquity.
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 the Bruce Crew, perennial favorite guests Rebecca Sun of The Hollywood Reporter and Dino-Ray Ramos of DIASPORA, to slice, dice and discuss the Netflix series Beef. They talk about the evolution and future of Asian American storytelling, the seductive appeal of the worship leader oppa, and what happens when Asian American character are allowed to be their whole, messy, specific selves. Also, stick around for the bonus SPOILER discussion at the end of the episode.
In 'Beef,' Road Rage Is Only the Beginning
Steven Yeun and Ali Wong star in this comedy about a traffic incident that triggers a bitter feud. "It really is about how hard it is to be alive," said Lee Sung Jin, the creator.
Nicole Chung on Writing Through Grief and How to Begin Again
In her second memoir, A Living Remedy, Nicole Chung writes of losing both her father and mother to illness within a short span while interrogating issues of class and the inequities of medical care in the United States.
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 Susie An and Esther Yoon-Ji Kang, hosts of WBEZ Chicago's Shoes Off: A Sexy Asians Podcast. They talk about scheming up the podcast as a shameless, naked excuse to interview sexy Asians; the public radio hoops they had to jump through to get it made; and why listeners in search of "bold sexual discourse" might be disappointed. And of course, they discuss The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of sexy Asians.
How Filipinos in the Mission Recorded the First Asian American Rock Album
In the 1970s, San Francisco rock band Dakila was the second Filipino band signed to a major label in the U.S., the first American band to record a track in Tagalog -- and the first to put their Filipino identity front and center.
* * *
The Summer Camp Where We Are is a series about young people coming of age and the spaces where they create community.
* * *
The unseen Asian American mental health crisis
Asian Americans' psychological state over the last few years has been one of hypervigilance and pretending -- constantly having to act as if everything is "business as usual." But as Asian Americans across the country continue to grapple with violence, cracks are appearing in their ability to live their everyday lives.
Two action icons and a pop star take ‘John Wick 4' to new heights
No Hollywood franchise is doing ballistic, balletic, bone-crunching fight action better than the John Wick series — and in its newest installment, a murderer's row of talent joins Keanu Reeves to take the hit-man saga to the next level.
* * *
How to Stay, When to Vanish
Jean Chen Ho's Criterion essay about Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey Into Night, the pandemic, her sense of time, and the ending of a relationship.
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, recorded the day after the 95th Academy Awards, we welcome perennial favorite guests Rebecca Sun of The Hollywood Reporter and Dino-Ray Ramos of DIASPORA to debrief and discuss a historic night at the Oscars, for Everything Everywhere All at Once, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Daniels -- and Asians in general.
What counts as an 'American name' in a changing nation The Washington Post's Marian Chia-Ming Liu asked readers if they felt the need to Anglicize their names to fit in. She showcases just a few of the thousands of responses she received.
‘Everything Everywhere All at Once' Is Big Winner at the Oscars
In a historic night at the 95th Academy Awards, Everything Everywhere All at Once won seven awards, including for best picture, original screenplay, directing and in three of the four acting categories.
What I Found When I Looked Into the Fate of Anna May Wong, a Hollywood Star
"There is a platitude that has often been repeated in recent years: You can't be what you can't see. These Asian pioneers in cinema prove the contrary. They were each firsts in their own right, pushing forward where there were no trails to follow."
The PEN Ten: An Interview with Monica Youn
In her fourth poetry collection, From From, poet Monica Youn explores Asian American identity existing in the space between a homeland and a country of residence/citizenship.
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 Yoko Okumura, Midori Francis and Jolene Purdy, the director and stars, respectively, of the horror/thriller Unseen. They discuss the challenges of crafting a story about two people connecting via FaceTime; the unique storytelling dynamic that occurs when a movie, not originally conceived as an Asian American story, is told by a director and two leads who happen to be Japanese American; And The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of making Unseen (hint: involves bugs).
Hong Kong's Ageless Action Hero
Nearing 60, Donnie Yen, the last of a golden era of martial arts stars, looks back on an unparalleled career—and forward, to his role in the new John Wick film.
Ali Wong Gets Dramatic
Boundary-pushing stand-up Ali Wong tests her limits with an intense part on Netflix's Beef and a new real-life role as a divorced mom: "Whatever happens, I'm in my first trimester of life right now."
Kung Fu Nuns of Nepal Smash Convention
In Himalayan Buddhism, the religious roles of nuns have long been restricted by rules and customs. But one sect is changing that, mixing meditation with martial arts and environmental activism.
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 revisit the film Everything Everywhere All at Once, now in the thick of awards season and on the cusp of Oscars glory, with an epic super-sized compilation of our previous conversations with Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Daniel Kwan, and of course, Michelle Yeoh -- who now all happen to be Academy Award nominees.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
* * *
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.
* * *
Sandra Oh's Sense of Purpose
Sandra Oh discusses Hollywood survival skills, winning the lottery, and her interest in telling “messy" Asian American stories.
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 (Ã 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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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)."
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.
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."
* * *
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."
A Terrifying Sign of Assimilation
"Ours is a nation where the unimaginable has somehow become inevitable. If Mr. Chou, Mr. Tran and Mr. Zhao committed mass shootings, they did so not because they were Asian but as Americans. Mass murder may be the fullest act of assimilation possible into a culture that has proudly chosen as its colors the red of innocent blood, the white of panicked eyes and the hazy blue of semiautomatic smoke."
* * *
The Joy And Connection Of Ballroom Dance Will Outlast The Monterey Park Shooting
For decades, Star Dance's spacious hardwood floors drew professionals and amateurs alike to Monterey Park's downtown. But on Saturday, violence shattered the community's celebration of the Lunar New Year, when a man opened fire during one of the studio's busiest nights of the year, killing 11 people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s and injuring at least nine others.
* * *
Why the Monterey Park shooting feels like an attack on Asian America
"To be sure, violence -- whether or not it is driven by prejudice -- happens everywhere in the U.S. But given the political climate since 2020, it is hard for Asian Americans to not automatically think that hate is the force behind any attack in our communities."
Marie Kondo's life is messier now - and she's fine with it
Marie Kondo is a bit frazzled since giving birth to her third child in 2021. Like most of us, she’s having trouble keeping up with all of it. Never fear, though: She is still sparking joy. It’s just that, these days, that doesn't hinge on having a tidy house.
The Pen Ten: An Interview with Franny Choi
Franny Choi doesn't see dystopia as science fiction. In her poetry collection The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On, she writes about the dystopias that are happening now, and historically, to marginalized people everywhere.
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.
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."
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.
* * *
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.
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.
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."
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.
