Interviews

Better Asian Man.com’s feature interview segments dive right into the center of Asian American pop culture. We feature prominent individuals who shape our community, and provide an inspiration and a source of pride for Asian Americans everywhere. Tune in to the only weekly Asian American Podcast on the web!

Index: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Adachi, Jeff

Producer, “The Slanted Screen” (a documentary)

From silent film star Sessue Hayakawa to Harold & Kumar Go to Whitecastle, The Slanted Screen explores the portrayals of Asian men in American cinema, chronicling the experiences of actors who have had to struggle against ethnic stereotyping and limiting roles. The film presents a critical examination of Hollywood’s image-making machine, through a fascinating parade of 50 film clips spanning a century.

The Slanted Screen includes interviews with actors Mako, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, James Shigeta, Dustin Nguyen, Phillip Rhee, Will Yun Lee, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, comedian Bobby Lee, producer Terence Chang, casting director Heidi Levitt, writer Frank Chin, and directors Gene Cajayon and Eric Byler.

The film was written, directed and produced by Jeff Adachi, co-produced and edited by Alex Yeung, with the opening music, titles and credits by Sean Dana. Michael Becker composed the musical score and the post-production sound and audio. The film also features a new song performed by the San Francisco rock-punk band Say Bok Gwai.

Winner of the Best Short Documentary award at the NY International Independent Film & Video film festival, The Slanted Screen envisions a new, exciting future in the entertainment industry, where the diversity of our culture and society is fully recognized and represented.

Listen to to the full interview.

Cabico, Reggie

Co-Founder, The Sulu Series

Regie Cabico is an NYU graduate who was looking to launch a career in acting. Disappointed with the restrictive range of acting gigs available at the time, he gave up acting to do poetry, and was eventually accepted into the “Writers’ Voices, Writers’ Community” workshop, and began reading his poems everywhere. Now, he is the Co-Founder and host of the Sulu Series, a monthly LIVE performance showcase of Asian American talent. The Sulu Series is named after the character “Sulu” of the original television series “Star Trek.” He was the first Asian American to venture into unknown galactic quadrants.

Better Asian Man: What can we expect to see on a typical night at the Sulu Series show?

Cabico: An eclectic mix of different artists! Music, spoken word, and occasionally an activist fighting for the next cause.

Better Asian Man: You said that for some of our AA listeners out there who aren’t yet performing, but want to get started, what are the difficulties out there, and why is it good for them to have outlets like Sulu Series?

Cabico: The challenge is finding a community. When you’re starting out, you’re wondering “is this any good?” It’s better to get Asian American peers and Asian American audiences supporting you. You’re also trying to form a voice– what makes you different from any other singer or poet? It’s not necessarily about having a great voice or even being a great writer, but what makes you different.

Listen to the full interview here.

Chan, James

Author, The Alpha Asian Mindset

The Alpha Asian Mindset is series of exploratory essays on the observations, experiences, and life-lessons of James Chan. Elements common to almost everyone’s life– education, career, and health– are addressed, as well as many topics that are peculiar under-empowered Asian Americans. (Chan refers to these individuals as “injustice collectors.”) The breadth and scope of topics covered in these 67 pages is pretty vast. However, this high level overview comes with enough of a snapshot of Chan’s own life experience so as to offer a lofty vision without being an unreachable ivory tower.

Listen to the full interview here.

Chin, Curtis

Producer, Vincent Who?

[**See Lam, Tony.]

Hamomoto, Darrell

Director, YELLOWCAUST
The first(**) Asian American on Asian American heterosexual porno movie
(**) That we know of.

BetterAsianMan.com:

Darrell Hamomoto:

Listen to to the full interview.

Ho, Wayne

Executive Director, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF)

BetterAsianMan.com:

Wayne Ho:

Listen to to the full interview.

Hsiung, Ernie

Editor, 8Asians.com
Organizer of a collective blog, 8Asians.com, Hsiung has tapped into the collective soul of Asian American/Asian Canadian perspectives. Always current, Hsiung and his writers bring fresh new insight into what’s going on in the world.

Better Asian Man.com: I like reading your website because I like the diversity of topics; all of your writers are very individual.

Ernie Hsiung: The point of 8Asians.com when it started two years ago was to have writers of all different backgrounds blog about what’s on their mind. So you’ll have your activists, and then on the flip side you’ll have your writers who just talk about stuff going on in their lives. So you have all different types of writing and all different kinds of stuff.

Listen to the full interview here.

Jin

A freestyle batling MC whose creative genius lifted him up as a reigning champion of Freestyle Fridays on BET for several weeks in a row– a feat that no other MC has ever achieved in the history of the show. Redefining himself and his art form with each new album, Jin continues to inspire other Asian American MCs.

Better Asian Man.com: You’ve gone further in this industry than any other Asian American that we’ve seen, and a lot of people are trying to break in. Could you give us an inside scoop?

Jin: I didn’t realize that race would really be that much of an issue. For me … it was really all about the music. It was never really a factor. But every time someone wanted to write an article on me, the number one question would be, “how does it feel being Asian and rapping?” Not to say that that’s either a negative thing or a positive thing– they like to look for what’s interesting and what’s going to sell the story. So naturally, if Newsweek wants to write an article about me, but the center point is that I’m Asian, so be it. ‘cuz I know in my own mind that I can bring so much more to the table.

Listen to the full interview here.

Kwon, Yul

Yul Kwon won the hit CBS reality show, Survivor: Cook Islands, during 2006’s controversial, racially-segregated season. On his way to victory, Kwon skillfully led a multi-ethnic team, earned a reputation as one of the show’s most strategic and honest players, and smashed stereotypes about Asian American men in the media.

Better Asian Man.com: You’ve been spreading awareness of Asian American issues. Even though you’re out there trying to bring out these issues in our communities, do you think that people are actually “getting it?”

Yul Kwon: If you want to fundamentally change perceptions and stereotypes about Asian Americans in this country, you have to go where people are watching. You have to go into the broader mainstream. That’s ultimately why I went on the reality show. Reality shows are often very cheesy, but the fact is, millions of people watch these shows, and it’s not just Asian Americans, it’s people in the broader community. I do feel that we have to serve the community and work within the community, but also try to change perceptions by targeting the broader mainstream.

Listen to the full interview here.

Lam, Tony

Director, Vincent Who?

Chin, Curitis

Producer, Vincent Who?

BetterAsianMan.com: How did “Vincent Who?” come into being?

Tony Lam: Curtis Chin grew up in Detroit, so the case of Vincent Chin was part and parcel of his daily life. Last year was the 25h year remembrance of the case of Vincent Chin, and he was found founding board member of Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, the organization that spearheaded the nation-wide town hall on the case. I learned about Vincent Chin only 2 years ago. When I learned about it, I was shocked. How is it possible that this important story, that I had not heard about during the course of my life, pass me by? The executive producer, Catherine Park, referred me to Curtis, and when I heard about the project, it just coincided with what I had heard about Vincent Chin, and I was ready to jump on the project.

BetterAsianMan.com: How does your film “Vincent Who?” differ from the original film, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”

Tony Lam: “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” Is an amazing film. It’s one of those movies that Asian Americans… it’s very important… every American should view “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” once in their life, because that film really captures the story of who killed Vincent Chin. Our film recaps that story, but it looks at the impact, and the legacy of Vincent Chin, 25 years later. There really hasn’t been anything since that film came out to really touch upon those issues. We really felt it was time… 25 years later… it’s really time to look at that case again, and see how it has impacted our community, how far we have come, and how far we need to go.

Listen to to the full interview.

Lee, Min Jin

Author, Free Food For Millionaires
Min Jin Lee went to Yale College where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She then attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time.

Her debut novel FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES was a No. 1 Book Sense Pick, a NEW YORK TIMES Editor’s Choice, a WALL STREET JOURNAL Juggle Book Club selection, and a national bestseller; it was a Top 10 Novels of the Year for THE TIMES of London, NPR’s FRESH AIR and USA TODAY.

Better Asian Man:

Min Jin Lee:

Listen to to the full interview

Nam Ninja

Singer/Songwriter

Nam’s musical journey has gone through many ups and downs, including starting a band, seeing that band break up, then leaving music, only to return to it several years later as a solo recording artist.

Better Asian Man: Many of our listeners have never heard your music before. If they bought your album today, what kind of experience could they expect?

Nam Ninja: I write from my own experiences. I try to comment on a lot of stuff that I’ve been through… throughout my life.

Better Asian Man: There is one song on this album that is very different from the others: Immigrant Sun. The lyrics describe your family history, your past, and your culture, and I see a lot of hear in that song. Tell us a little more about it.

Nam Ninja: When I went back to Vietnam to visit my family, there were Vietnamese folk songs that I would listen to. One of them got in my head and kept repeating itself throughout the whole trip. So I came back and I was doing an interview with my parents for a project I had for this one class… I had to put together a notebook of their experience and their history. I was always writing [songs] about stuff that I did, but this was a song that was dedicated to them, but at the same time explaining how I felt within all of it.

Listen to the full interview here

Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology

A graphic novel; Editors: Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, Jerry Ma, Jef Castro

William: Parry, you’ve said in the introduction page, on the preview for Secret Identities, that Asian Americans have a deep connection with the superhero comic genre. Could you elaborate on that?

Parry Shen: We used the superhero template. He or she wears a mask to conceal their identity, but usually in their alter-ego, they go about everyday life, just sort of unnoticed. We said, “Asian American’s moreso” would relate to something like this because for the most part, we are seen sort of as the cultural group that is easily ignored, the silent minority, but if you peel back the layers and reveal who we are underneath, we have all these great talents.

Albert: Jerry, you’re the Art Director for Secret Identities. You’ve contributed your own artwork to the book, and you also run your own design studio, Epic Proportions. What does Secret Identities represent in the spectrum of your career?

Jerry Ma: When I first started publishing my own comics, it’s always been really important to me to have an Asian American hero. I just feel like there really are none, of any kind in any genre of entertainment. Really, Bruce Lee was the first, and probably the last, Asian male that, I think, more than just Asian people looked up to. So, it was important to me to be a part of this just to get the chance to have more than just a couple of people see it. My books alone, if you see [them], are all Asian American. I’ve taken a lot of crap for it from Hollywood. This was really, I felt, the perfect chance for me to showcase Asian men in a positive way, besides being a side-kick, or a kung fu guy.

Albert: Could you give us an example of what kind of flak you would get from Hollywood?

Jerry Ma: I’ve been told literally from studio houses, “This will be made a movie, if the hero can be white. The girl and the bad guy can be Asian, but that’s about it.” Word for word.

William: We know that Secret Identities is a book for everybody. But I have one question for the Asian American men who are listening to this right now. You’ve talked a lot about empowerment on your website, and in the previews for Secret Identities, what do you think this book will empower the Asian American MAN to do or to believe?

Keith Chow: That’s another reason why we were using the superhero template. When you think of the superhero genre of comic books, it is one of the most mythological things. People who have never read a comic book in their lives have heard of Superman, Batman, and Spiderman, right? When you look at Superman, and how he transcends popular culture as part of the fabric of Americana, what better way to express what Asian Americans go through, than using that lens to look at our issues.

There’s a story in the book called “The Citizen,” by Greg Pak and Bernard Chang. Where the main hero is a Japanese American guy who has a bad ass attitude and these rippling muscles, and he’s wearing spandex, you know? These are guys that are your archetypal superheroes. When you look at how Asian Americans are depicted in media: mild mannered guy who’s good at his job but sucks around women– they’re not these idolized, hyper-masculine figures.

But superheroes are. You can’t be a superhero and not [have] these rippling muscles. That’s just one aspect– I’m not saying that’s the total experience, but I think that says something about how– that’s a commentary about how Asian American men, in particular, have been depcted in the media, and we’re trying to flip that script and say that these hyper-masculine superheroes can also be Asian Americans as well.

Listen to / download the full interview
Read the full interview transcript

Slants, The

“Chinatown Dance Rock” Band
Portland, Oregon

Better Asian Man.com: In a recent article on NPR (National Public Radio)’s website entitled “The Slants: Trading in Stereotypes,” NPR states that you guys are transforming a hateful word into a badge of pride. … Tell us about how you guys are doing with what some would consider a hateful term, and how you are forging a path to re-purposing that word and taking it back.

The Slants: For one thing, that term is out there– we Asians are considered “slants,” and we have slanted eyes, but growing up it was something that people used as an insult. And now we’re just saying “hey, we should be proud of that… having slanted eyes is a beautiful thing… it’s awesome.” We’re proud of who we are. We’re proud of the very extensive and beautiful history that we can bring to the table. Asian Americans have contributed quite a bit to American society. Everything from its food to its laws to just embracing diversity. So we wanted to subtly put that into our music. There’s a song we have called “Sakura, Sakura” where we take one of the hateful rhymes growing up where kids used to run around and say, “Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these,” and we changed that into something that is more of an anthem that kids can rally behind, saying hey, we’re proud of who we are, we’re here, we sing for all the different types of Asian people… we’re trying to transform the world.

One of the things that I’m particularly proud of is that a couple of years ago, if you were to put up the word “SLANT” into google, it would come up with a lot of these hateful things, like definitions in urban dictionary– the equivalent of calling someone a chink, a gook, a fish-head, but now if you put in “SLANT” or “SLANTS,” it comes up with our band, and our positive message that we bring to the table saying, “hey, we’re proud of being Asian.”

Listen to / download the full interview

Vudoo Soul

Singer/Songwriter

Better Asian Man.com: You’re an Asian American guy making moves in an industry that is dominated by African Americans and also white Americans. How does this affect your approach to getting noticed by record labels?

Vudoo Soul: I’m the type of person who likes to turn what is perceived as a weakness into a strength. I try to make being Asian as a way to market myself. As I became more established, people started discovering my music in states [across the US]. At that point many more Asians started listening to my shows… and they would contact me. If it’s good music, it doesn’t matter what I look like.

Better Asian Man.com: On your myspace page, your quote says: “From the Breakdown… Rises the Breakthrough.” Tell me about that quote.

Vudoo Soul: If I need to get better at music, then I’ve got to grow as a person. I’ve got to be more disciciplined about my music. One of the hardest things is to unlearn what you’ve learned, or what you’ve become used to doing. Some of that stuff is set into your emotion from a very young age. To break through that is hard… if there’s one thing I’m always trying to improve about myself, it’s being disciplned… you gotta work! It’s tough to look at yourself in the mirror and say, “what’s wrong with me, and what can I do to fix it?” And [after going through a year] with that mentality, my music is so much more free… more fresh now.

Listen to the full interview.

Wong, Christopher

Producer, Whatever It Takes

Christopher Wong seeks to highlight minority voices and stories, revealing ordinary people accomplishing extraordinary things. WHATEVER IT TAKES represents Christopher Wong’s debut as both director and producer. Largely self-taught, Christopher has also worked as a camera operator, editor, and production manager on a wide variety of projects. Currently, he is also developing a new feature length documentary about television game show fans. Christopher received his B.A. in Economics from Princeton University in 1992. Following stints in New York City, Santa Barbara, and Seattle, he now resides in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.

Better Asian Man.com: Give us a quick overview about the story.

Wong: Whatever it takes is a documentary that is 4 years in the making. We follow the story of this AMAZING Chinese-American man, and his journey, after switching careers to become a [high school] principal.

…

Better Asian Man.com: What was it like to be in that room with him…. ‘cuz he looks INTENSE.

Wong: He IS intense, and everyone who has watched it says that they’re scared, and that they would not have wanted to be in that room. Not too many times have you ever seen a man who is that intense … there’s ferocity, but at the same time there’s also love behind it. I think that’s what the students really identify with. He’s saying, “I’ve sacrificed my whole life and my whole career to be here with you.”

Listen to the full interview here.

Zhang, Jie-Song

(Musician, Stone Forest Ensemble)

The Stone Forest Ensemble is a Classical/World Music/Hip-Hop fusion, whose core consists of Jie-Song Zhang (Emcee and Electric Violinist), Alex “Krussia” Kalnev (Beatboxer), Varuni Tiruchelvam (Cellist), and Joshua Benson (multi-faceted percussionist).

Better Asian Man.com: There are very few Asian American musicians, particularly male, who are publicly visible. Do you at all feel some sense of responsibility to “represent,” because you are one of the few?

Jie Song Zhang: I have a strong sense of self confidence in what I do and what I embody. A lot of that is distinctly Asian American, but these are just consequences of who I am. I try, when it is appropriate, to represent the Asian [American] identity, honestly. I think that in a greater sense, everybody should strive to do that to some degree. No one is going to understand you if you don’t speak up for who you are.