#168 - The RISE of Asian American Culture with Jeff Yang & Phil Yu aka AngryAsianMan (They Call Us Bruce Podcast)

This one goes out to the Asian diaspora Gen X, millennial & Gen Z-ers who are getting better acquainted with or just further embracing tf out of their Asian identities. For most of us Asian Americans, we grew up assimilating, disconnecting, and/or over-representing this side of ourselves - our languages, customs, features - in a society where we were mostly stereotyped, fetishized, or simply overlooked and ignored. But throughout the many decades since our parents and grandparents immigrated from our motherlands, we've created spaces, trends, and our own subcultures that have blossomed into a unique and increasingly stronger identity. In this episode, Minji sits down with two Asian American trailblazers who have contributed their life's work to carving out a space for our stories - writers & public figures Jeff Yang and Phil Yu (aka AngryAsianMan). Together they discuss their new book RISE, co-authored with Phil Wang of WongFu Productions, which covers some highlights in the evolution of Asian American pop culture. They dive into how times have changed, the significance of challenging the status quo, and the importance of a supportive, unified community to address bigotry, hate, and ignorance. 

Links: Spotify - Featured Music Playlist
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/feb/15/wsj-shoes-on-shoeless-house-essay

Follow Minji on:

Follow our guests Phil Yu (AngryAsianMan) and Jeff Yang on: 

▫️ Music featured in this episode include "Uzutrap" by Uzuhan and “This Is A Song About Self Love” by DANakaDAN.  Check out his new album "Me. Also Me." here! 
▫️ Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter and support our Patreon
▫️ This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Produced by @marvinyueh & @AnnaSun
Supported by @JulianaDeer

00:00:00 - Peace for Ukraine 
00:03:55 - Intro’ing the topic + guests
00:12:42 - Disappointment and hope from the pandemic
00:15:18 - Phil and Jeff elevator pitch of what they do  
00:23:20 - Impact of Angry Asian Man on college Minji 
00:25:56 - Impact of Jeff’s writings and publication
00:34:48 - Origin story of Phil + Jeff
00:42:32 - Phil as a judge for Kollaboration 
00:48:51 - BREAK - [They call us Bruce Podcast] + FOA Patreon
00:50:20 - RISE - the book is slice of AA history from 90s to now 
00:56:55 - If we don’t tell our story, who will?  
01:03:36 - The decision making process for the book

This one goes out to the Asian diaspora Gen X, millennial & Gen Z-ers who are getting better acquainted with or just further embracing tf out of their Asian identities. For most of us Asian Americans, we grew up assimilating, disconnecting, and/or over-representing this side of ourselves - our languages, customs, features - in a society where we were mostly stereotyped, fetishized, or simply overlooked and ignored. But throughout the many decades since our parents and grandparents immigrated from our motherlands, we've created spaces, trends, and our own subcultures that have blossomed into a unique and increasingly stronger identity. In this episode, Minji sits down with two Asian American trailblazers who have contributed their life's work to carving out a space for our stories - writers & public figures Jeff Yang and Phil Yu (aka AngryAsianMan). Together they discuss their new book RISE, co-authored with Phil Wang of WongFu Productions, which covers some highlights in the evolution of Asian American pop culture. They dive into how times have changed, the significance of challenging the status quo, and the importance of a supportive, unified community to address bigotry, hate, and ignorance. 

Links: Spotify - Featured Music Playlist
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/feb/15/wsj-shoes-on-shoeless-house-essay

Follow Minji on:

Follow our guests Phil Yu (AngryAsianMan) and Jeff Yang on: 

▫️ Music featured in this episode include "Uzutrap" by Uzuhan and “This Is A Song About Self Love” by DANakaDAN.  Check out his new album "Me. Also Me." here! 
▫️ Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter and support our Patreon
▫️ This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Produced by @marvinyueh & @AnnaSun
Supported by @JulianaDeer

00:00:00 - Peace for Ukraine 
00:03:55 - Intro’ing the topic + guests
00:12:42 - Disappointment and hope from the pandemic
00:15:18 - Phil and Jeff elevator pitch of what they do  
00:23:20 - Impact of Angry Asian Man on college Minji 
00:25:56 - Impact of Jeff’s writings and publication
00:34:48 - Origin story of Phil + Jeff
00:42:32 - Phil as a judge for Kollaboration 
00:48:51 - BREAK - [They call us Bruce Podcast] + FOA Patreon
00:50:20 - RISE - the book is slice of AA history from 90s to now 
00:56:55 - If we don’t tell our story, who will?  
01:03:36 - The decision making process for the book
01:11:13 - Not a definitive chronicle but a POV from authors + collaborators  
01:18:04 - Parts of the book they each championed   
01:24:10 - Respect your elders! 
01:25:18 - FOA Qs for our guests 
01:33:08 - Outro + Drop a 5 star review + Music by DANakaDAN - “This is a Song About Self Love”
01:36:31 - [All the Asians on Star Trek Podcast]
 

Mentioned in this episode:

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