Please tell me about your background: Where are you from? What is your job? etc. My name is Joseph, and I am currently working on a documentary about five Korean Americans who ran for the U.S. Congress. So, I’m in the thick of the post-production process. Prior to this, I made a film titled "Jeronimo," which was about a Korean-Cuban revolutionary who was born and raised in Cuba, fought in the Cuban Revolution, went to law school with Fidel Castro, and worked with Che Guevara—who served in the Castro government for 30 years. For the first time in Jeronimo’s life, he visited South Korea at the invitation of the government, and his life transformed as a result. He spent the rest of his 10-plus years reconstructing and rediscovering his sense of Korean identity and reviving the Korean community in Cuba. Those are the two projects that I have my hands on. Prior to all that, I was actually an attorney. I’m a Korean American, who was born in the U.S., raised in Korea, and came back to the U.S. at the end of high school. What inspired you to become an attorney, and what made you shift into a more creative role creating documentaries and films? I actually studied film and video during my undergraduate studies. However, my college, UC San Diego, was more theory-based and less production-based. However, I was primarily interested in film because it is a great means for sharing social causes and stories about social causes, which was how I initially got hooked into the idea of studying film. However, towards the end of college, I realized that film can only show social injustices, and that if I wanted to be more of an active agent of change, I should go to law school. So, the motivation for me to study film and law are actually the same. The funny thing is that life doesn’t necessarily pan out the way you want. Instead of becoming a human rights lawyer, I actually ended up working at a Korean government agency advising intellectual property and startup law instead. However, a serendipitous backpacking trip to Cuba changed everything. What was the inspiration behind your first documentary "Jeromino" and your second project "Chosen"? For "Jeromino," it came down to a random backpacking trip to Cuba when I ran into the descendants of Korean ancestors [sic]. In a way, that serendipitous encounter answered my lifelong query on this notion of identity of: “What does it mean to be a member of the Korean diaspora—those who lived outside their home country, including myself?” Whenever I travelled back to Korea, I would always be questioned as to how authentic I am in terms of my “Koreanness,” how committed and loyal am I, and how much do I identify myself as a Korean. Some believe that Koreans living outside of Korea are not authentic enough or legitimate enough. They don’t even think about how they can build a relationship with Korean diasporians. I think the effort (to do so) from a more national level is also significantly lacking. As such, this has been one of the many questions that I have: “What kind of relationships should exist between the people from the home country and people who live outside (of it)?” It was only when I went to Cuba and ran into the Korean descendants that it opened a can of worms for me. It was not even taught in history books that there are Koreans living in Cuba. I sort of uncovered them by accident. That whole incident really got me thinking that there are some great treasures hidden in their stories. The fact that I was struggling and wrestling with the issue of identity and being a (member of the Korean) diaspora, and somehow ran into a group of people who might know the secret to that treasure, resulted in my deciding to make a film about it. When I finished making "Jeronimo," I didn’t think that I would continue making other films or have a career switch. I just thought that this might be a year or two passion project sabbatical, and that I would then go back to practicing law. However, once again, life doesn’t pan out the way you want it to. I was enjoying the fruit of "Jeronimo" as I was scheduled to screen my film in over 30-40 places around the U.S., Asia, Europe, and other places. But then COVID hit and all the screenings were cancelled. Obviously, that was really depressing because I was just about to share my film. Despite that, I was lucky enough to have my film open in theatres in Korea. So, I was in Korea contemplating what I should do next, and it was during this time that I became increasingly worried about the politics in the U.S. Seeing the way things were going and the mishandling of the pandemic where so many people died was an existential threat to (all of) us. It was around that time that I read that there were five Korean-Americans running for the U.S. Congress, and I wondered if anyone was documenting their story. I started to make contacts and asked them if they minded me tagging along for the next two months or so. They were all fine with it as long as we adhered to safety precautions. If you’re familiar with John Bolton, he was the previous national security adviser to Trump. I read part of his book where he talked about how the peace treaty between North Korea and the U.S. failed. He mentioned that one of the reasons that the deal failed was because of the ego and self-interest of some of the major decision makers, such as Trump, Bolton, Pompeo, and some others, including diplomats. As I was reading this, I was thinking about how the fate of an entire peninsula country is in the hands of a few people who happen to be in this decision-making process. I wondered: “What are the ways to resolve this? Perhaps, if some of the Korean Americans were to occupy important decision-making positions in the U.S. government they might be able to positively influence the outcome of some of the treaties.” At least that was my hypothesis. It was also around then that I read this article about the five Korean-Americans running for Congress, so I thought to myself, I’m going to jump onto this new project! When is the "Chosen" documentary going to debut? The U.S. presidential election was about a month ago (*interview with Joseph was during the beginning of December) so we were able to shoot about three months worth of footage. We are currently doing our story construction because when we first started, we didn’t know how it was going to turn out. What I was interested in was not only on the national level but the candidates’ own personal stories, their role as Korean diasporians, and why they decided to run. So, I’m trying to reconstruct the whole narrative. Once this process is done, I’ll start to edit it. I presume this will take about 6-7 months from today. Are you currently working on this project full-time? Yeah, I’m not working on the side. I’m going all-in on this project, but I still have the desire and curiosity to practice law or something related to human rights or even media law. I do envision myself going back at some point. One of the famous lines in the movie "Parasite" is: “I have no plan and that’s my plan.” That’s not exactly my motto, but I feel that whatever I plan out generally doesn’t pan out. However, in the end I end up in good places. Taking time off from your legal career and going full-time into creating documentaries can be daunting to some people. Have you ever come across any particular barriers that have made you doubt yourself? I think there are a couple of occasions where I think about it…not necessarily self-doubt, but I would constantly think about how I can improve. One of the life lessons that I learned when I was at this conference six years ago by a top-notch designer in NYC was that when he made big decisions, he just jumped off the cliff and then thought about how to open the parachute later. I approach things with the same mentality, especially when I am overwhelmed with passion to tell stories. What would your advice be for younger creatives or film makers? I don’t think I’m in the right position to actually advise them, but I’ll try! I will quote some philosophers because I don’t think I have what it takes to advise others, especially when I’m trying to figure it out myself as well.  Recently, I came across this philosopher by the name of Choi Jin-seok, a very renowned philosopher from Korea. He said: “The only time when a being exists, is when that person questions and not when he answers.” In other words, only by questioning then you are actually existing in the world, because if you have an answer to a set of problems or questions, this means the knowledge already exists in the world and you’re just regurgitating it.

The Universal Asian is excited to introduce Yuyu Kitamura, a talented actress and poet. To see samples of her work, head to http://yuyukitt.com. Tell us about yourself. I am a Japanese actress. I was raised in Hong Kong, and I started acting and doing youth theatre from the age of 10. It was always a passion and hobby of mine, and it was the lifelong dream that every young child sort of brings to mind. I was fortunate enough to go to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where I studied and trained and lived in New York for five years. I got to work professionally for a year after, and then COVID-19 hit, so everyone’s world got turned upside down. My long-term dream is to start a production company where I can help foster and create content and share stories for people; specifically stories that are underrepresented. When did you know you wanted to act as a career and why? I think it was because I was a middle child and my parents were very busy with either the eldest or the youngest. And so, in a sense, it was a very uplifting way that they could come and support me. I also had a lot of creative energy as a child, so it was just kind of like BOOM!—there it is on the stage. I think when I was a child I was always sort of manifesting and telling myself that this was what I wanted to do, so I don’t have this “Aha!” moment—it was never like that. But, the pivotal moment was when I was applying for universities, and NYU was always sort of the ultimate goal. In a lot of Asian cultures, that moment where you think: “What do you want to put your time and your education and your money into?” I think it’s very easy, almost ingrained, to not think about the arts as a career. So, once I got into the school, it sort of affirmed everything I’d been telling myself when I was younger. Like, I can do this; I can do this as a career if I work hard. What are the ups and downs of being an actress? I think, other than the obvious (everyone knows that it’s a lot of rejections, that it might not be immediate success), the sort of thing that I’ve been struggling with over the years is comparison. Comparison to the careers of my friends, the comparison to the careers of the actors and actresses that I aspire to, and also, in this day and age, you have to be multi-faceted. I think it’s not enough just to be an actor. I think with how quickly technology’s evolving you sort of need to be your own content creator, writer—you have to be able to film your own work, you have to be able understand and be with the evolution of filmmaking. You just have to do everything and be the best, and I think that’s something that I’m very excited about, and have also been struggling with. You have quite an impressive resume. What was your favorite role and why? I would definitely say a project that I hold dearly to my heart is a project called “Electable” with Liann Kaye. The reason why I loved the role of Quinn Chinn and working with her specifically is she’s also an Asian creative. From the moment that I even sent my self-tape in and was in communication with her, she made me feel very seen and heard, and I think that is one of the greatest wonders of working with someone who is in your community and who is writing and advocating for stories that we can understand and relate to. It’s a coming-of-age story; so it was so fun. It was all shot in one day, and there were so many different people involved that really made being on set fun, which made the whole creative process a learning process. Do you prefer drama or comedy? I love drama. When I’m sad, when I’m exhausted, I really just want to delve into the heavy stuff. A reason why I love creators and entertainment is that it serves such escapism. It’s a form of “I don’t want to focus on my stress, I want to be watching someone else’s stress.” Comedy is great for the light-hearted, silly moments with your friends, but when I’m alone I’m always picking drama. When I act, it sort of trickles in, that I do enjoy the heavy, raw, edgy, and gritty stuff. Comedy is definitely a beast of its own. It’s hard. It’s so nuanced, and they are so smart. Comedy actors, their timing is just impeccable. It’s a skill that I definitely need to keep crafting and honing. Who is your dream director to work with and why? Recently, I’ve been rewatching Baran bo Odar’s work from "Dark" on Netflix. I remember watching it when it first came out and it was also close to the time when "Stranger Things" came out, and I kind of put it on the back end, but over quarantine I had a lot of time, so I went back and watched it. The colors that he used and the way that his direction is so specific because of how detailed the plot is, I would love to get a chance to one day do something like that, where you really have to take into account so many different elements and make it so cohesive and still manage to keep the tone, the plot, and everything else in mind. I admire his work, and he’s about to do another project that seems really interesting. How would you want your work to be remembered in 50 years? At the moment, at the age I am, the sort of stories that I’m already pitching to myself are stories about very nuanced moments within Asian culture that we don’t normally see played out in film and TV. With my own upbringing, I would consider myself a third-culture kid, and so there are moments where I have a clash within my own cultures, within my own identity. A lot of stories that I’m leaning towards and wanting to write or star in are very family-centric. In 50 years, I want my work to showcase universal themes. I want it to be both universal, but also very culture-centric. I want to write and create stories where they are situationally-based and focused on something, but then these stories can be universal and impactful to a lot of people. I also feel like I want to create and star in things that are both in English and Japanese. There’s more to entertainment and media than just one language. Have you faced any challenges, being a BIPOC actress? When I was in America, working in New York, I was able to get into a lot of rooms and meet people, and it was because the industry was writing for more people of color, and wanting to have more representation and diversity in media. And that is great, and something I’m very proud to see. But, then there was this whole other part of not being American, and the struggles I faced. I sound like I could have grown up anywhere in the states. But within the industry, once people knew of my immigration status, they wouldn’t treat me the same. The immediate switch that I felt of how they saw me was so apparent, and I understand immigration in the States is this whole other Pandora’s box, but to see it happen right in front of you is really traumatizing because you suddenly feel so small. They would make me feel so small. And the words they would use—they would say that I was a waste of time; that I was just more paperwork. I’m a person, I’m someone with aspirations, and I am legally able to work in the U.S. And it felt, in those moments, that diversity was just a trend, because of how I was being treated. It showcased how layered this problem is, that it’s not really just about people of color, but it’s political, and we haven’t even tackled and fully overcome those problems, so how do you go to the next level without actually figuring out how to properly treat people? *For more on immigrant performers, see: https://www.asiancinevision.org/crossing-over-understanding-the-plight-of-immigrant-performers/ You’re also a poet, and you’ve published a book! Can you tell me a bit about that and the type of poetry you write? I would just call it free form. I don’t think it follows any specific structure. But it is often tied to the emotional experiences that I’ve had. I’ve been writing poetry for about five or six years. It first came out of the way that I was journaling. It was very personal, and, quite frankly, I never intended for it to be seen—I never intended to write a book. But a wonderful mentor of mine taught me all the steps of publishing, just as sort of a side passion project of ours, and it got to the point where I could press submit and I could press publish. This book, it’s called "Circles and Lines"; all the poems in there came out of a really dark mental health journey that I had been going through. I would like to say they go through the five stages of grief. When I put these poems together, it was almost cathartic for me to go through the process of rereading my words, knowing I’m in a better place. Buy Yuyu's book here; visit her IMDb page; see more press on Yuyu here! Cover photo credit: THEGINGERB3ARDMEN

Tell me about yourself: Where are you from? What is your job? I was born in Tianjin, China, where I lived for eight years before moving to Singapore, which is where I grew up and lived through high school. For my undergrad, I attended the University of Toronto to pursue a degree in International Relations and Economics; so, my interest in internationalism was there from an early point in my adult life. After graduating and a couple of years working in a boutique capital market advisory firm, I decided to further my studies with a Masters in Social-Organizational Psychology at Columbia University in NYC. I then stayed and worked in New York City for five years, working in consulting doing large organizational transformational projects like mergers and acquisition integrations and expanding to business strategy and development. But working in the corporate world never felt quite right, and towards the end of 2018, I finally took a leap of faith, quit my corporate career, started venturing into the journey of entrepreneurship, and eventually founded CulturedGen. What was your experience like growing up as a third culture kid—having travelled around and lived in different cities/countries? It felt awkward in the earlier part of my life. I never had a clear sense of home and belonging. For instance, when I moved from China to Singapore (where I spent most of my formative years), I always felt more Chinese than Singaporean. When I met other Chinese international students in Canada while at the University of Toronto, I felt more like a Singaporean Chinese and less like Chinese nationals. When I went to NYC for my graduate degree and work, I felt I carried a piece of Toronto with me. Now that I am back in Asia after 11 years in the Western Hemisphere, and having travelled to close to 40 countries, I am more comfortable to say that I cannot be fully defined by one nationality or geography. I’m shaped by every city and country I’ve lived in. What is CulturedGen? CulturedGen creates content and live experiences, with a focus on Chinese artistic and cultural heritage. Through digital content and immersive pop-up experiences and by partnering with artists and creatives, we help young Chinese diasporians around the world reconnect with their roots. Furthermore, through our own voices, we promote a better understanding and appreciation for Chinese culture and heritage. What inspired you to start CulturedGen? It all started with my growing curiosities in people and culture, along with learning about and being immersed in the cultures of places I visited. However, along the way I realized how little I knew about my own culture and heritage. The more I began to reconnect with my Chinese roots, the more I felt compelled to share with others—especially with my fellow Chinese diasporians and with the world. It’s like finding a treasure and having the inner urge to shout, “Hey! Look what I’ve found!” What has been the best thing about running CulturedGen? Finally doing something I believe in and that I’m passionate about! Prior to starting CulturedGen, I followed a rather conventional career path, even though I had the opportunity to explore different industries and roles—from financial services to healthcare, and business development to consulting. But, there was always something missing. I’m happy that I’m finally working towards aligning my personal purpose with my business focus. Have you come across any challenges or hurdles, and how did you overcome them? (For example, have you ever received any hate messages or comments about your platform?) I haven’t received any hate massages or comments—maybe because we are still quite small. That said, there are definitely challenges, and many are not unique to CulturedGen. Without external funding, we have to be extremely thoughtful and ruthless about how we spend our money, because of the lack of resources. What was your aim/goal in creating CulturedGen? I grew up in an environment that assumes Westernization is modernization, and that implicitly regards our heritage and traditions as inferior to that of the West. Unfortunately, even to this day there is still prejudice and racism towards Chinese people globally. My goal with CulturedGen is two-fold: To help my fellow Chinese diasporians to reconnect with their roots and to strengthen our collective cultural confidence. It is important to understand and appreciate our own cultural heritage to appreciate that of others. I believe it is difficult to love others without knowing how to love yourself. To reclaim the narrative of our history, culture, and heritage. We should be the protagonist of our own story, rather than having outsiders tell our story, which I feel happens too often. It is important that we use and assert our own voice and share our perspectives with the world as lived through our own experiences. You’re currently living in Singapore, but do you see yourself moving to another country soon? Do you have a city/country that you see yourself settling in for a very long time? It is sometimes difficult to imagine settling in a city for a very long time. I am still excited by the idea of moving to a foreign city and adapting to a new environment. I would love to be able to split my time across different cities across different continents. Maybe that dream will come true someday. What are your plans for the future? Do you plan to expand your platform? We live in a world of uncertainty. I never thought with all the plans we had going into 2020, we would have to fundamentally change our business model from 100% offline to 50-50. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to make an impact without compromising on my initial goal. So, it could be expanding in reach or it could be deepening the interaction between us and our audience.

The Universal Asian got to know Keyser Nguyen, a Vietnamese-Jewish comedian and producer. Tell us about yourself. Where did you grow up? What was it like? I grew up in Long Beach, California. It was a great place to grow up—a lot of beaches, bonfires, and, you know, house parties. There’s a very good sense of community here. I did a lot of activities growing up: skateboarding, surfing, skim boarding, etc.—a lot of that stuff. Now, my background’s a little funky. I came over here from Vietnam with my family, and when I was 15, I left home. I worked full-time when I was 15. I was, well, people would say “homeless,” but I was jumping from home to home and living out of my truck at the time. Then, when I was 16, I was taken in by a Jewish family. How did you get into comedy? I was actually doing some non-profit work in Arizona, and I met Hannibal Buress’s sister. I’d been a comedy fan for my entire life. My influences were Dave Attell, David Cross, and the biggest impact was Dave Chappelle with "Killin’ Them Softly." So, I met Hannibal Buress’s sister, and she basically took me to his show in Phoenix, and I got to hang out with him backstage for a long time. I wasn’t a comedian back then. We were just talking about the non-profit stuff we were working on, and then, as I was leaving, I was like: “What do you think about me doing stand-up?” I remember he told me: “You know, I used to do open mics back in the day, and there would be about 50 people there, and 49 would just not be there. So it’s kind of like, if those statistics scare you, then it’s probably not for you. If you start comedy in spite of those statistics, then you’re probably made for it.” How would you describe your sense of humor? I’m very sarcastic. I like a lot of history jokes. I like the cultural dynamics, you know, the compare and contrast being born into a Vietnamese family and then growing up in a Jewish family. It’s very fascinating to me, and I’m sure it’s fascinating to other people too, but I kind of have the inside scoop on it. Because I’ve lived it and that’s all I know, it’s second nature to me. So, my comedy is very adaptive, it’s very dialogue-based. It’s me explaining my life experiences from the viewpoint of a Vietnamese Jew. Do you pull your material from your life or the world around you? Oh, definitely my life. I’m just an observer and participant of the world. Everything comes from me, even observations would tie back to me, and how I feel about it. “The world is burning! And I love it.” You know what I mean? My most passionate stories and topics have to do with things that have happened to me. What is your favorite part about being a comedian? My favorite part about being a comedian is having an outlet to express how you feel about things. It’s very dynamic. Even in today’s environment and constraints, I feel there’s a lot of bandwidth for you to let out your feelings, your observations, and your thoughts. I think that’s one of the best parts of comedy, and I think the connection with the audience is almost everything. When you make it personal and you’re talking to the audience, it’s like a monologue masked as a dialogue, right? Because you’re up there by yourself, but you’re talking in dialogue form to the audience. That’s really what amazes me. Least favorite? The worst part of comedy is—and I generally avoid it—is the cutthroat nature of the business. I understand it because I’ve been in the business for a very long time, so I don’t shy away from it, but I see the effect it has on other comedians. How do you deal with tough crowds? I look at it as a challenge. I think every crowd is a learning experience. Preparation is very important. A lot of people don’t even talk about that, but if you’re going on the road, you really want to understand who the audience is, how they look at things, and their viewpoints on the world. You cater your conversation to them in a way that opens up that dialogue, and then they can relate to what you’re saying. How much does your identity as an Asian Jew influence your comedy? It’s everything. It’s an opportunity for me to tell the audience about my experiences that they generally wouldn’t get anywhere else. I mean, everyone has hardships; I do not think mine are unique or worse than anybody else’s, but they are different. It’s made it very confusing, and my job is to make it less confusing and make light of it. So, it’s affected everything, from the material I write, to how I dress, to how I approach comedy. What are your proudest achievements so far? I definitely think what we’re building with Electric Comedy is one of them. Just to give you a little background: we’re a media and comedy production company. So, we produce live shows; we also produce branded content, and we’re pushing the boundaries of technology when it comes to how a comedy show should be produced. All our live shows have an element of online digital streaming. We’re basically taking the best practices from other industries and applying them to a very archaic system in the industry of comedy and entertainment. I believe it’s the future. It’s additive; it’s not that we’re changing live comedy; we’re just adding elements on top of it and making it more accessible. What advice do you have for up-and-coming comedians now? Number one: learn the business side. It may be as, or more important, than being funny. Number two: just be respectful to everybody. It’s not a competition. It’s not a race. It’s only a competition versus yourself. Be professional, don’t burn bridges. Just be a kind human being. If you could travel back in time, what would you tell your younger self? I would just tell him: “You’re doing great. Don’t worry, you’re doing great.” People think life is this complicated thing, but you know what complicates it? You. People over-analyze and over-complicate things all the time. I’ve dealt with lifelong, chronic anxiety, and many times you think about the core issues there, and it’s like: “Wait, why am I even worried about that?” And, many times you just have to stop and give yourself credit for being resilient, for just being present. Website: https://vietpholife.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoZzILNjs6CfgwHB6Z38wtQ

Our insecurities, anxiety, and depression often reinforce the misconstrued conception that we are not enough. Kyla Mitsunaga, a certified Theta Healing, life, and happiness coach spoke with The Universal Asian with full vulnerability, authenticity, and transparency to share her personal journey and practices for cultivating our truest form. Can you tell us a little about yourself? I was born and raised in Hong Kong to a Singaporean mother and Japanese-American father. I grew up around British people with English being my first language. Because I grew up in the '80s, there was no term for third culture kids (TCKs), who are children raised in a culture different from their parents. I’m so happy for TCKs and their community, but it was called an identity crisis in my day! I can empathize with the #hyphenatedAsians identity because growing up I was never American, British, nor Asian enough. Graduate school at Harvard was like a jumpstart in being American, even though I have a U.S. passport! I’m living in Korea now, and I feel very comfortable here. Korea is my home; even though everyone thinks I’m Korean or Korean-American, no one understands I have no Korean blood. What caused you to transition from being a Harvard professor to a life and happiness coach? I went to graduate school at Harvard, and I spent my 20s and most of my 30s clueless career wise. After graduate school, I was offered a position as a professor at the University of Yonsei in Korea and fell in love with the campus. Concurrent to my job as a professor, I was building my career on the global speaking circuit. I met the Dean of the University of Mexico at my first speaking gig in Austria, and he invited me to speak and inspire students to give back to their communities in Mexico. After extensive research, I found all roads lead back to happiness with the simple premise that if you give back to others, you become happier. I built a happiness workshop and brought it to the University of Mexico, and was featured on the evening news! I then brought my workshop around the globe to 16 countries across Asia, the U.S, and Europe! Back at the University of Yonsei, I created a freshman seminar based on my happiness workshop in which 150 students enrolled. For reference, our freshman seminars usually max out at 15 students. Then, my mom was diagnosed with early onset dementia, which was a pivotal turning point because I had researched and workshopped happiness, but I couldn’t help myself. I ended up taking 2017 off and did things I always wanted to do. I quit my job as a professor, wrote a book, hired a certified life and happiness coach, and created a private cafe in my apartment. The best thing I did for myself was go on a retreat in Bali where I met a Theta Energy Healer. I didn’t know what it was, but I was determined to heal myself organically since I knew the research behind antidepressants. I took this leap of faith and ended up working with her for two years. Last year, I became a certified Theta Healing Practitioner so I can certify others! It completely transformed my life as evidenced by my client’s results and my own! I built my business, WITH Warriors, to incorporate one-on-one theta healing, virtual retreats, eight-week online programs, etc. I’ve researched the tools, tips, and strategies that worked for me. I’ve experienced 15 different healing modalities, but Theta Healing reliably and continuously gets me out of depressive states. Can you describe what Theta Healing is? Clients usually come in with fear, anxiety, or stress. The majority come in with anxiety, especially during COVID-19. The coronavirus has been this magnifying glass for what has gone unhealed because there aren’t distractions like clients are used to. Routines at work have changed, and there are many factors beyond their perceived control. We briefly engage in talk therapy, then I guide us into the theta brain wavelength, which is a scientifically rooted brain state between alpha brain wavelengths that is similar to meditation, and delta brain wavelengths, which is synonymous for sleep. I ask questions like: “Who told you that you’re not enough?” “Why do you believe that?” “Why do you seek evidence to support that story?” “Is that your story?” “Is that someone else’s story imposed on you?” So many of us, especially women, have bought into that “I’m not enough” story. In life, we tend to neglect the limiting belief and focus on the repercussions it brings. We pile more on until everything collapses due to an unstable foundation. In Theta Healing, we get to the root of the limiting belief and pull it. This way, all the limiting beliefs that were built on top are broken down, and we begin rebuilding like a game of Jenga. During a theta session, you don’t notice anything. It’s not until triggers no longer stress you where you experience results. Theta may not work for everyone and some people prefer Reiki, which is our more known cousin. Maybe others prefer yoga or meditation, but whatever it is, as long as you’re getting results, I say do it! It’s safe to assume that your clients come to you because they have a desire to heal, but what advice would you give those who struggle with mental illness and lack the motivation to get better? Take your life a day at a time. One thing that was really helpful for me was to stop burning the candle at both ends. What I mean is making a decision, and then judging yourself for that decision. We spend our time in high judgement of ourselves and others and typically our forgiveness for ourselves and others is very low. The great thing is that when we start realizing we judge less, we actually become more forgiving. How do you balance being forgiving of yourself and others and not letting others take advantage of you? Being understanding and empathetic are different from forgiveness, which comes later. In theta, we call resentment one of the three Rs (resentment, rejection, and regret). A large part of why we hold resentment is because we don’t forgive. In the initial stages it’s really challenging, but the more you get to know yourself, the more you love and respect yourself. I would say my top core value is being true and with myself. I spent 38 years of my life as a people-pleaser. When I reevaluate my top core value, if something’s at the expense of my mental health and mental sanity then I pull back. Most of us spend 15 plus years learning about subjects other than ourselves. We don’t learn about fear, handling emotions, banking, or real life skills, so we spend a lot of time needing external validation. I saw that you gave a TED TALK on "Why Teachers Must Learn WITH Their Students." Were you always a strong public speaker, and what advice would you give to those who aren’t? I think judgement is the reason why public speaking is feared more than death. My story started in high school when my dad enrolled me in an acting class because I was so shy. I’m actually an extroverted introvert because I spent a lot of time recuperating myself and WITH myself. I started in a workshop class in high school and began winning speech competitions. We’d have to give a speech in front of the whole school if we won. I would say I was never confident, and I was always afraid. But, after high school and then becoming an educator, I realized I cannot stand in front of an audience and tell others to change their lives if I couldn’t express myself! I’m also on the global speaking circuit with a lot of older white men, and I’m usually the only woman and certainly the only Asian woman. Self-transcendence was a huge motivator for me, especially when fighting self-doubt thoughts. I wrote a book with myself on the cover, the transcendence part is not about me. It’s about younger Asian women who can see what’s possible for her! What life advice would you give to others, especially young women of color? Don’t follow the path that other people have created just because it may be easy. Instead, create your own path, even though you may have to use your machete, avoid mosquitos, get cut and cry, and it may be very challenging, but you will create and inspire other women to do the same. No matter how challenging, it’s that moment of self-transcendence where you realize your body is just a vessel. We’re only here for a finite amount of time on this earth. Every morning I get up and ask if today was my last day on this earth, would I be ok? If your answer to that question is no, then you just change something. It’s not always easy doing happiness and growth work. When I was depressed I didn’t want to get out of bed, and that’s okay! But if I share that with someone, they know they are not alone. We just don’t talk about it, but it doesn’t mean it’s not there. Try to learn about who you are inwardly and whatever is meant to be will follow.

Can you tell me a bit about yourself? I was born in Australia. My parents came from Vietnam. Growing up, I would say it was pretty stereotypical. As an Asian-Australian, there’s the physical punishment side, which I think everyone’s quite familiar with, and the constant tutoring in order to get into good schools to study something relating to STEM. I have two older brothers; one of them was pushed to become a pharmacist and the other to be a doctor and me to be a dentist. However, I had zero interest in that. I was really interested in computers, and I always liked to mess around with them. So I thought, why don’t I find a job that lets me use computers even more? I kind of used that as an excuse to use the computer to claim that I was studying, but I was playing games. My parents didn’t know much about it and they wouldn’t even believe that I could earn six digits unless they heard it from friends. What inspired you to start the podcast? I wanted to start the podcast "Rice n Mics" to share stories of people that aren’t doing a typical STEM degree. Although that is just a subcategory of topics that I cover, that’s probably one of my favourite ones. I’m planning to interview a friend who is a doctor and I would love to know his perspective on whether he actually wanted to be a doctor and how much his parents pushed him into it. That’s something interesting that I’m really looking forward to. Originally, it was more just to share experiences of Asians living in Australia. When you’re in high school, you have to pick the subjects for the Higher School Certificate (HSC): a big exam that everyone has to take during their last year of school. All the exams they do during that final year will accumulate into a score which is called an ATAR (Like the SAT in the US). Depending on the score, it can get you into the course that you want. I felt that it would be really helpful to share my own experiences with the choices of subjects. I wanted to help others because I didn’t have that kind of advice when I was younger. I covered the schooling and education subcategory of episodes to inspire other kids and teenagers that may not have the help and support. Ultimately, I see it as a platform of sharing the stories of everyday people and experiences that might make you go, “Oh yeah, that’s happened to me” or “That’s so true!” In your podcast, you cover a wide range of topics from anime and dating to travelling and COVID etc. How do you plan what topics you want to discuss? I cover a lot of broad topics, but they all tie back to being an Asian-Australian. I currently have an Excel spreadsheet that I’ve created for future and discussed topics. Every time something pops in my head that I think might be interesting to talk about, I add it into that ever-growing list. When I first started, I wasn’t able to find a lot of podcasts about Asian-Australian culture. It’s predominantly mostly Asian-American podcasts. I’ve covered common things such as green card marriages, the money game and interracial dating—which is still pretty controversial with our parents. Sometimes people reach out to me and suggest topics to me, which is really thoughtful. A friend asked me if I will run out of topics eventually. I personally think it wouldn’t be for a while. I guess that’s why I enjoy mixing my topics with interviews about people’s lives, careers, current affairs and topics that affect us. The best example is COVID which I feel is a bit overdone nowadays. Since you mentioned COVID and you also talked about it on your podcast, what is it like living in Australia, especially since the COVID pandemic? Have you personally experienced racism as a result of that? Not to the extent that some people may have experienced. I think now, because people understand that everyone can get it, it has become an even playing field. In general, I think racism is a whole other topic to talk about in Australia. The racism here is pretty casual and it happens quite often. Most of the time it’s banter between mates and it’s kind of normalised as well. Sometimes even people I’m not that close with would throw out racist comments as a joke. I don’t know if it’s because they feel that we are seen as "submissive" so it’s okay. I haven’t put in much thought into this, but this is definitely something I want to discuss more. As Asians, we are sometimes seen as people who are less assertive and I believe that ties back to how we were raised. We were taught to avoid confrontation because it would make your family look bad. Do you have a specific target audience for your podcast? When I originally started, it was just something between friends. I didn’t really advertise it at all! I think it just stemmed back to the fact that during my high school days, everyone was pretty judgemental with everything that you did. When I initially started, you might notice a gap between the first few episodes. This was because I was still testing the waters. I don’t know what it was, but at that time, I was going to the gym and I had a personal trainer. He was actually a friend of mine and he started a PT business and was doing pretty well. I asked him if he ever thinks about what people think about his posts on Instagram. He told me he had the same feeling but eventually just said “F*** it! Just put it out there. What’s the harm? Everyone will say something but if you can make something out of it, why does that matter?” I think that really pushed me and made me stop caring about what other people thought. Eventually I made the Instagram account and started sharing the stories on my own personal account. Honestly, I was really surprised with the feedback that I received. People told me that the podcast was a really good platform to share their own stories and rant. That really inspired me to put some more effort into it. My podcast then branched out to people through word of mouth between which eventually led to people messaging me outside of Australia. I thought that was crazy and it really made me feel good about it. Even though I don’t have a huge audience, I just want to share everyone’s story. As long as a few people enjoy it, I’ll be happy with the results. Do you see yourself working as a full time podcaster one day? That’s something that I’ve definitely thought about as I’ve always leaned towards the entertainment industry. When I was in high school, I tried to get into streaming on Twitch, but the internet in Australia is pretty abysmal. But let’s not get into it because that’s quite political… If it does kick off, that would be a fun career to focus on full time.

As a follow-up to our highlight of Daniel W.K. Lee’s "Anatomy of Want" book release, The Universal Asian was able to get to know Daniel a bit more. Can you tell me a bit more about your poem collection "Anatomy of Want"? And, what inspired you to write it? A lot of the poems were written a while ago, and a lot of them are dedicated to a specific person that inspired the poem. What I was interested in exploring with the poems were the ideas of desire, clinging, and those dimensions of it. The poems span both light-hearted topics and more intense pieces. There are several ghazals, which is a kind of Persian form, that I fell in love with many years ago. Towards the end of the collection, there’s this piece called "Commitment" which hijacks the form of the Cosmos sex quiz. I’m interested in this kind of meta-textual dialogue between the questions and the answers. Do you have a favourite poem that you’ve written in your collection? I would say the ghazals are typically the ones that I worked the hardest for because the form is so demanding, especially with the economy of words. I would say "In the Dark" is one of my favourites. Even though the ghazals are against the grain of much of contemporary American poetry, I just really love them and I’m really happy to have been able to include them in the collection. How did you get into poetry writing? Is this something you’ve always done growing up? Yeah, I remember the first two poems I’d ever written were in fifth grade. I was probably 10 years old or so and they were saccharine love poems to a girl that I thought I was really into. But she, to use current nomenclature, friend-zoned me. So, I wrote a couple of poems about her and I was really shameless so I gave them to her, which I don’t think anyone would do at 10 years old. This was also during my pre-queer identity. When I was in junior high, which was my sixth and seventh grade, I used to write poems for my friends to give to their girlfriends. Most of those were love poems. I was in high school when my political consciousness made me more interested in writing about what is going on in the world and addressing those things. I was certainly looking to poetry as a mode to express my dissatisfaction or desire for a more peaceful and just world. That became an anchor to me because I was interested in various kinds of arts. In fact, I initially applied to go to undergrad to become a photographer. So, I’ve always got my hands in a lot of creative buckets, but poetry seems to be the one that sticks around for the longest periods. Is writing your full-time role or is this only a side passion that you enjoy doing? Whenever people ask me about my job, I’d tell them my job is to make myself happy. What I do to make money is something else. It’s an office job. Writing does in a way keep me going. It’s an outlet. There are times when I oscillate between wanting and not wanting to become a creative writing teacher. Do I take this passion that I have and make it a job? That is frightening to me because I’m scared that I might become exhausted by poetry. I’m the kind of writer that gets a lot of inspiration reading other people’s work, but if I see it as something that I have to trudge through, I could also see myself losing that passion for it and not wanting to do it anymore. Currently, I’m not making money out of writing and it’s great that other people can do that, but life as a poet, financially, isn’t the kind of career that you can really live off of. I also like to write cultural criticism pieces. When I feel very strongly about something I’ve noticed in culture, it gives me an outlet to concretise them and argue it in the public sphere. I like to opine about certain things, especially issues surrounding Asian-American representation and Asian American masculinity. These days, I’m very interested in what’s going on in Hong Kong. The cultural resistance really interests me especially because I’m part of the Chinese diaspora through generational refugee experiences, but maintain an emotional, cultural attachment to Cantonese culture. I worry about the Cantonese language and culture in the face of a more homogenised ethno-national identity from the Mainland that seeks to suppress regional languages. Do you feel that the poems that you’ve written help inspire other people to be interested in the issues and topics that you have highlighted? My approach intellectually is interdisciplinary. I’m not saying I’m a China or Hong Kong specialist and that I know everything, but the things I tend to write about are areas that I know a little bit more about and I hope that the things I do write about start conversations. The Black Lives Matter movement is creating this air around socio-political discourse that demands individuals to self-investigate where they are within systems of oppression. I don’t have any expectations, but I just hope that if someone does read my work, they will see it as a platform for which they can further explore the issues and ideas surrounding racism, queerness, etc. What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far? When I got into a Master’s of Fine Arts programme back in New York, my parents didn’t really understand why I was willing to go into further debt for something that you don’t necessarily come out of with better job prospects. This didn’t make sense to them, and when my mom was asked by others what I was doing, she would tell them that I was studying journalism. I think for me, the biggest challenge is just being inspired because my head is just all over the place. I’m not a particularly prolific writer. However, what’s been great about now living in New Orleans is that I’ve been inspired by not just what’s been happening around COVID-19 and racial justice, but the city itself. But, I don’t make too many expectations for myself to either write a certain number of poems or anything. I just kind of go with it. If my next book takes 10 years, then so be it. I am working on a new manuscript, though. When I got my first book published, it definitely created momentum for me to write. What is your idea of success? Since my job is to make myself happy, I’m focused on the things that bring me joy. I would be disappointed if I don’t write another book, but it won’t be the final measure of success. With my first book, I knew in my gut that it would get published. I just believed in my work. It took me 10 years, but I can now tick it off the bucket list. I hope the second book shows a different aspect of my writing, but again, I don’t have specific expectations. To me, ambition can be a setup for emotional letdown and unnecessary suffering. I’m more interested in putting in the right effort and see what transpires. In my youth, I was more preoccupied with this idea of legacy and how influential I could be. But with writing and poetry, you could very well become famous after your death so sometimes it’s just outside of your control. I’m just going to continue crafting the best poems that I can, and hopefully, people will be interested in reading them. What advice would you give to younger people who are also interested in entering the creative space or writing in particular? I think there’s a couple of things, but first off, I would say we have to do some deprogramming especially if you come from a heavily Confucian culture where one strives for status and money at all costs, where your happiness is a non-priority. You should also believe in your work and yourself. It’s great to have an audience for your work, but to paraphrase the drag queen Alyssa Edwards: Before you can to sell it, you gotta buy it yourself. It’s also important to find a community, people who share your passion and will help you stay accountable. I’m inspired by other people. On one hand, while I have a laissez-faire approach to many things, I’m also very competitive. If someone is working on something and they finished it, I also want to be able to push ahead. It’s competition as inspiration rather than self-destruction. Do something that makes you enough money, but orient yourself towards happiness. Happiness is the point of life. You mentioned that your parents were from Vietnam and you moved around a lot. Do you ever find yourself struggling with your own identity and where you belong? Not so much now. I do think it’s a very common struggle for Asians in the diaspora especially if they were born in Asia. We often have difficulty identifying where “home” is…nationally, but also culturally. The refugee experience that my family and I were subjected to is probably a huge reason why I am comfortable with dislocation, with crossing borders and inhabiting new cities. As background, my grandparents on both sides started off in Guangdong, China. They, then, escaped during the Japanese occupation. My parents were born and raised in Vietnam, but then the whole family during the purge of ethnic Chinese in the late '70s were eventually taken to Malaysia, which was where I was born. Then, via sponsorship, my family moved to Chicago which was where my sisters and I were raised. I would later live in New York City for 17 years, Seattle, Washington, for five and now in New Orleans. I just learned to embrace this kind of movement. My identity moves with it and it’s ever changing. It’s the Law of Impermanence, as we Buddhists call the condition where all things are subject to change. I hope people find ways to manage or address the struggle with identity whether it be creatively, intellectually or politically, so long as they don’t fall into despair. This makes me think of Audrey Lorde, where she talks about the creative uses of difference. We often hammer inside ourselves this idea that the only way towards acceptance is homogeneity—to assimilate. But, our differences between each other can be a source of creativity and empowerment, too. My personal mantra is: choose happiness. You have the agency at all these moments in your life to decide whether or not you are going to indulge in misery and anger, or let it go and lean toward something or someone that brings you joy. It’s not to say one can always choose happiness, but it’s great to be reminded that we have power over our lives and our condition is not solely towards helplessness. You can purchase Daniel’s first poetry collection "ANATOMY OF WANT" at RebelSatori.com, Bookshop.org & that "A" online retailer.

Tell me about yourself: Where are you from? What is your job? etc. I am a second generation Chinese-American. To me, growing up was quite a bit of a challenge both externally and internally: being the minority, the cultural differences, the social identity… Ultimately, I was trying very hard to figure out just where I fit in the world. What I did know was that I wanted to be somebody. I wanted to do something special. I wanted to rise up on top and prove to people that I wasn’t just the girl next door, and I didn’t need anybody’s help doing it. So, I was very independent from a young age and I just had all these dreams and ideas that I was going to do it all on my own. Fast forward a number of years later, I am now the Associate Director of Budget and Operations for Columbia University. That is my main role during the day. I just finished my Ph.D. in business psychology as well, and I am also working on a startup with a partner. The startup is for a cloud-based application that will be used by small restaurants and cafe management. I also manage properties as a solo side-hustle. I own multiple properties and I manage the tenants for those properties. So with everything that I’m doing, I am trying to put all of that in my book. You are working on so many different projects at the same time. How do you manage your time? I will be very honest and tell you that I cannot do everything by myself. Yes, I’m wearing multiple hats, but I also acknowledge that I can’t be a one-woman army. I need help and I need support. For example, for the startup, I have a partner that I work with and I do the business aspects of things such as building up the internal interfaces and the system structures whilst he focuses more on the technical aspects, the actual software engineering side of things. There’s also a lot of time management, self discipline, but at the same time, it’s really acknowledging that you need help building the team as well. Tell me about "Asian Duckling." Who are the characters? What is the premise? Why did you decide to write this? What are some of your inspirations? With this book that I’m working on, it’s a story about my experiences, all the challenges that I have gone through and how I thought I was alone in the world. I have a partner who uses her magic wand and takes all that and puts it into creative writing. Essentially, it started off as a reflection on my own experiences. Growing up, I went through a lot of those identity crises and social dilemmas. At that time, I didn’t know what I was going through, but now as an adult and with my background in psychology I can identify those themes a lot more. I wanted to create that awareness for the next person that is growing up and going through what I went through. Growing up, I didn’t have a support system. I’m Chinese ethnically and culturally; we don’t really have that type of support background. So I’m trying to create that platform so that the next person who’s going through these challenges will realize that he or she is not alone in this world. The challenges that they’re going through are not unique to them. I think that was really the main reason why I wanted to capture all this in a book, the story itself is a way to outline this. I wish my partner was with me because she would be really great at telling this, but I’m trying to find the balance where I can share but not give too much of the book away. It’s basically about this young Asian-American woman who is in a mid-management position, and she’s encountering challenges at work. Those challenges remind her of past incidents and those life lessons that she learned. Those incidents are actually based on my own personal experiences. When will it be published? It’s still a work in progress. Originally, we were planning to have this published probably towards the end of this year. However, with the pandemic, that kind of threw a wrench in everyone’s plans. Hopefully, we will be able to pick up traction again. We’re now aiming for mid next year. I’m really hoping that there are no further delays. But, I don’t want to give you any promises. I would hate to really disappoint. Keep following my Facebook page, I try to update as much as I can, and keep progress updates as we move along. Who do you hope your book reaches? Who is your target audience? I would say it’s more for whoever is feeling lost. Those that are really feeling lost whether you’re born here, or you came here when you were young, or even if you just came here recently, and you’re struggling to find where you fit in that world. I’m trying not to set a specific target, but it’s more of a general kind of conceptual idea. What would you like to see in the Asian community moving forward? I feel like we’re already starting to move towards it, especially with the recent protests that have been going on which we’ve kind of branched off of a little bit. But, I’ve seen the Asian communities starting to empower themselves to be a little bit more vocal and expressive and advocate for themselves. That is so amazing compared to me growing up and the resources that were available. I’m really happy to see that we’re starting to do this. I would love to see us advance further and also further empower ourselves. When I was doing my doctoral research, I came across the idea that yes there are external factors like a glass ceiling, but at the same time, there are things that are within our control. Those are self-imposing factors that we can take charge of and change. What does your identity mean to you? For me, I feel that I’ve created my own version of an identity that I don’t belong in one specific place. There’s the Asian identity and there’s the American identity, but then there’s this new merged version of the two. It took me a while to get to that place where I am very proud of who I am to be able to see the pros and the faults of both cultures. Basically I pick and choose to become the person I want to be. For example, in Asian culture, we are very family-oriented. I agree with that value, so I’ll pick and choose that value. At the same time, in the American culture, we’re taught to be very independent and to stand up for ourselves. I also agree with that value. So, I have this very customized identity that is unique to myself. Honestly, I like going against the trend. I don’t like to be a follower. I like being my own individual person. What is your advice for younger Asians navigating through the world we are currently living in? I would say, don’t be afraid to be yourself. Forget what other people are saying. For example, growing up, for some odd reason, I had this love to learn Chinese. I had this passion and so I went to Chinese school and all my classmates were looking at me going, “Well, you gave up your Saturday cartoons for this? Are you serious? We were all dragged here. Why are you so weird?” If that’s your passion, be proud of it and stick to it. Now, I’m fully bilingual and I can speak, read, and write in Chinese. That’s a skill set that comes back and benefits me. So, don’t be afraid to do it. Those friends and people are not going to carry you 10-20 years later in life. So, if there’s something that you believe in, hold onto it. If anything, I would further advance it! What’s your vision/goal for the "Asian Duckling?" Interestingly enough, when you were talking about not being Asian-American but British-Asian, I was on a different podcast a few weeks back with someone from Australia. I never imagined that [the book] would get this much attention. I thought it was something that was going to be local and domestic. I’m blown beyond belief at this moment right now. I’m also wondering if I should take some of the feedback that I’ve gotten in the past and in today’s session and go back to my writing partner to see if maybe we can kind of adjust it a little bit. Maybe add in some language where it’s not just Asian-American related but more of an East meets West thing so that it’s a little bit more applicable. Right now, I’m just beyond belief at how far it’s reaching. Who are your favorite fictional “hyphenated Asian” characters? I know so many people are going to laugh as soon as I give this answer. My favorite character, which I assume is Asian because it’s an anime character, is Sailor Moon. To me, she is Asian but she was speaking English this entire time. I really loved her because of what she stood for, seeing how she stands up for justice. Although during the day she’s this clumsy, ditsy character who you can barely rely on, when you actually need her, she comes through without even caring for her own safety. My favorite character from the book—I don’t want to give away too much again—so this is just a little sneak peek: the main character has a best friend and that best friend is actually my favorite character, because she is just so spontaneous and so fun. It’s like the ying and the yang to the main character. So, the main character is this serious person who is just trying to do her job and everything she does is to the bullet. Whereas, the best friend…she’s just a good compliment to the main character. I will be sitting there and wondering, “Oh my gosh, what is she going to do next? What crazy thing is she going to just pop out?” You can also follow "Asian Duckling" on Instagram.

We saw Viv Yau popping up on social media calling for more awareness and action against the portrayal of Asians in mass media’s imagery of the Coronoavirus and had the opportunity thanks to our collaboration with Asians in Britain to learn more about this movement. Read on and get involved! Can you tell me a bit about yourself? I’m the founder of Bee Influence, an influencer marketing agency where we essentially work with clients to market their product or services using social media influencers. We’ve recently also launched a talent management programme as part of the business so we’re representing influencers. Our focus is on representing a more diverse roster. This means having as many different people from as many different backgrounds as possible, especially from marginalised communities—in particular East Asian and South-East Asian influencers because I feel that we are so underrepresented. What made you decide to become an entrepreneur? I kind of just met an investor who planted the seed in my head in terms of starting my own business. It really gave me the confidence to do that. It’s a bit weird because usually, you see other businesses go through Dragon’s Den to try to receive investments. However, I just had this opportunity right in front of me and I never really sought out the opportunity. I was extremely fortunate and I was at the right place at the right time and my investor saw something in me and the business. So, that’s how it started. What pushed you to start this campaign to stop the disproportionate depiction of East and South-East Asian depiction in the media? The reason why I started the petition was because of an Australian article in The Guardian and how they were depicting East Asians in the article related to face masks, which I thought was unfair. You see five East and Southeast Asian people in the forefront of this picture taken in Sydney (below, taken from The Guardian site), Australia. It was meant to be talking about the whole Australian population, but that photo just disproportionately represents the Australian population. People leave Flinders Street Station on 21 June. Australia updated its Covid face mask position in response to rising coronavirus cases in Melbourne, with new rules making face masks mandatory across Victoria. That wasn’t the only article that I saw because I’ve seen it enough times to feel that something needs to be done. In some instances, we’ve got the images changed because we explained to them how the images negatively affect our communities and perpetuates inaccurate stereotypes and idea that all Asians are responsible for Coronavirus in some way or are Coronavirus carriers. So, I emailed The Guardian's complaints department which went through to David Whitfield, the Assistant Readers’ Editor and we got a response very quickly. However, I was extremely disappointed with the response which you can see on my Instagram (@itsvivyau) where I’ve created detailed threads about it. Essentially to summarise his response, he denies what we were saying in terms of the imagery being discriminatory and he comes up with rebuttals by listing 10 articles and how the articles don’t show "people like you." In fact, he believes that the article that I complained about shows people like us displaying good behaviour, so we should be grateful for how they are depicting us in the media. This really sparked a lot of rage in me and that night, I started the petition on Change.org. You need to get at least five signatures in order for it to be registered on the website so I was texting everyone so sign it. I also host this podcast called "But Where Are You From?" and I have built a really nice community of East and Southeast Asian people and we all follow each other. A couple of them got in touch with me; they also felt the same. I also managed to find other people who shared the same thoughts as me. I can’t remember how we all found each other exactly, but somehow the six of us, six women, were all connected to each other. Then, one of the women suggested we start a Whatsapp group to chat about this together. It was really nice to find a group of people who feel the same way as you because it can feel quite isolating when you think that you’re the only person in the world to say something and care about this. After a week of us complaining and trying to figure out this big mess of an issue, we’ve realised that we have uncovered something that was way bigger than just one news outlet. It involves politics—worldwide politics. There are reasons why governments are dispatching and displaying these types of imagery. It’s all influenced by what’s going on in the world. We’ve also discovered issues with systemic racism in these organisations. The truth is that the top editors of these news outlets are mainly all white with rarely any people of colour, especially black people. Not only that, these images are from Getty Images. The question is how are Getty labelling these images on their website? There is this whole network of issues that we uncovered and it was extremely emotionally exhausting and draining. We’ve realised that it’s not just The Guardian. It’s our entire system that needs fixing. However, thanks to Daniel York Loh (@danielfyork), an activist, musician, artist, actor etc., he has a connection with Sarah Owen (@SarahOwen_), who is a Labour MP from Luton and is also a British East Asian. He then sent her the petition and at that time, we only had less than 3000 signatures. But, because she understands what we’ve been through, she went straight to Parliament and raised this issue with them. She basically asked the government what they are doing to tackle hate crimes towards East and South Asian people because the media are contributing to this issue at hand. Whether they chose to admit this or not, it’s not like the media is doing this in a very overt way. Initially, you might think that there’s no issue with the media just showing one East Asian person wearing a mask in a Coronavirus-related article. However, when you see it repeatedly, it’s reinforcing the idea that we are somehow connected to this and puts us on a monolithic block in terms of who we are. That’s really dangerous because it results in racial hate crimes, abuse and also hate speech. Owens raised this with Victoria Atkins, the minister for safeguarding and they have promised to meet with us and we are now waiting for this to be confirmed. Since the initial push in Parliament, we have now reached over 10,000 signatures. That is a big milestone for us and we were really keen to get it to 10,000 signatures before our meeting with Victoria Atkins in September. We’ve managed to achieve this within a month and this just shows that you don’t have to personally experience this to do something about it. However, we’re still in step one. We’ve not even managed to make any changes. We still have a lot to go when it comes to how we actually tackle all these issues. Meanwhile, whilst we’ve been petitioning, we’ve also linked up with other organisations who are also fighting against this. We’ve been working with an organisation called End the Virus of Racism who are also crowdfunding to start the first not-for-profit organisation to tackle hate crimes against East and Southeast Asian people. So, we’ve been volunteering our time to help with that as well. We just really need to tackle these issues ourselves because the government isn’t going to do it so we’re going to take it into our own hands and do something about it ourselves. Other than helping to sign the petition, what else can we do to support this movement? There is so much you can do. Carry on sharing resources on social media. If you see imagery on the news that is not related to East and Southeast Asian people where it’s about Coronavirus, but we are being used as poster children of the article, complain. It takes only two minutes to do this. We still have a lot to do, but more people are speaking up about this which does make a difference. Recently, the BBC was caught using the N-word and they racked up 19,000 complaints. Without this significant number of complaints, they wouldn’t have issued an apology. Unfortunately, it took for someone to leave the organisation for them to actually say something about it and apologise for their actions. We can all help each other. I think we all feel empowered that we can do our own bits. We can all do different things. What I’ve learnt recently is that not everyone is going to be as vocal about it as I am. People do a lot on their own privately and in their own time, almost kind of supporting the cause silently. This is something that is really valuable as well because no route is better or worse. Bee Influence: https://www.beeinfluence.co.uk/influencer-network Sign the Petition: https://www.change.org/p/bbc-stop-depicting-east-asians-in-coronavirus-related-media You can also hear more about Viv Yau’s work on the High Expectasians podcast Episode 8: COVID Ain't Real.

Please give us a brief bio. David Henry Hwang’s stage works include the plays "M. Butterfly," "Chinglish," "Yellow Face," "Kung Fu," "Golden Child," "The Dance and the Railroad," and "FOB," as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s "Aida" (co-author), "Flower Drum Song" (2002 revival), and Disney’s "Tarzan." Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is also the most-produced living American opera librettist, whose works have been honored with two Grammy Awards, co-wrote the Gold Record Solo with the late pop icon Prince, and worked from 2015-2019 as a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe-winning television series "The Affair." He is currently writing the live-action musical feature film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" for Disney Studios and a movie to star actress Gemma Chan. Hwang serves as Head of Playwriting at Columbia University School of the Arts, and as Chair of the American Theatre Wing, founder of the Tony Awards. "M. Butterfly" recently returned to Broadway in a revival directed by Julie Taymor, which marked Mr. Hwang’s eighth Broadway production. His newest work, "Soft Power," a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori ("Fun Home"), premiered at Los Angeles’ Ahmanson Theatre, where it won six Ovation Awards. Its subsequent run at the Public Theatre in NYC received four Outer Critics Honors, eleven Drama Desk Nominations, and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. Where did life begin for you and what was your experience like growing up? I was born in Los Angeles, and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, which today is home to one of the largest Chinese communities in America. When I was a kid, however, it was mainly a working class white and Latinx area, with only a smattering of Blacks and Asians. In fact, when my parents first tried to buy a home in this area, they were turned down because the owners wouldn’t sell to Chinese people. As an Asian-American kid during the '60s, I experienced microaggressions, but not a lot of outright racism. In retrospect, the place where I felt the most racism was watching American movies and TV. It got to the point where, if I knew a show or film had an Asian character, I would go out of my way not to watch it, since I had learned that these images would just make me feel badly. I suppose it’s therefore fitting that I’ve spent my adult life trying to create new Asian Pacific American (APA) stories and characters. How did you identify yourself growing up and how has that evolved over time? I didn’t think much about my identity growing up and just considered myself an American. I knew I was Chinese, of course, but I considered that a relatively minor detail, like having red hair. Only when I got to college and started trying to write plays, did I discover themes appearing on the page: immigration, assimilation, racism. So clearly, some part of me was incredibly interested in these questions, but it took the process of writing, and accessing my subconscious, to bring them to my attention. At that point, I started identifying as an Asian-American, which in the mid-1970s was a fairly new term. I still like the term today (or Asian Pacific Islander (API) American) because I believe it represents my reality: as a Chinese-American, I have more in common with a Laotian or Vietnamese-American than I do with a Chinese national in say Shanghai. When you were growing up what was representation like for Asian-Americans and who were your role models/elders/influences as a Chinese-American artist? I had no idea that I was going to become a playwright, or any sort of author, when I was growing up. But, as I mentioned before, I was acutely aware of the way Asians and APIs were represented in the popular media. We were so desperate in those days for any Asian character to be something other than a villain, a submissive female, or the butt of a joke. Once I got to college and began writing, I became influenced by novelist Maxine Hong Kingston, as well as artists from the emerging Asian-American arts scene in San Francisco, such as playwrights Philip Kan Gotanda, Momoko Iko, and Wakako Yamauchi. Playwright Frank Chin, the first AA dramatist to have a work staged Off-Broadway, was an inspiration too, but he quickly decided he hated me after my first play opened! The late actor/director Mako was also an important elder and a huge influence on my career. How have you observed it (representation) to have changed over the course of your life and career, and are there any “watershed” moments that you can point to in regards to how Asian-American representation has changed in the arts world specifically? In some ways, APA representation has improved considerably, but if you consider that it’s been over 50 years since I was a kid, progress has been glacially slow. From my very subjective viewpoint, here are some pop culture moments that have felt exciting and game-changing to me, sticking strictly to scripted works (and excluding my own): "Flower Drum Song," "Enter the Dragon," "Chan Is Missing," "Better Luck Tomorrow," "Joy Luck Club," "Who Killed Vincent Chin?," "Mulan," "Lilo and Stitch," "Saving Face," "Harold and Kumar...," "Fresh Off the Boat," "Crazy Rich Asians," "Killing Eve," "The Farewell." One of the purposes of TUA is to feature a wide spectrum of Asian-American voices from a variety of fields so as to increase greater representation, which has only recently been on the uprise. As the first Asian-American to win a Tony Award for your play M. Butterfly, do you have any reflections to share with our readers about what it was/is like being “the first” and what pressures and/or responsibilities you feel were placed on you or your work? The most difficult thing about being a “first” is that your work is expected to represent and speak for an entire community, ethnicity, or race of people. Obviously, this is impossible, since any group is necessarily diverse and encompasses a wide range of opinions and experiences. Understandably, some of the harshest criticisms come from your own community: those who don’t see themselves represented in your work and therefore accuse you of selling out. For instance, when my first play, "FOB," was produced Off-Broadway, a San Francisco Asian-American periodical claimed I had “set Asian America back twenty years.” And I was only 22 at the time! The only solution is a broader range of Asian-American stories, so that each person can find works which speak to them, among the inevitable pieces which do not. What do you believe are some of the most damaging stereotypes that exist in the arts world about Asian-Americans and how do you believe them to impact opportunities for today’s up and coming Asian-American theatre artists and playwrights? The most damaging stereotype from producers and casting agents is that they can’t find enough APA actors. Given how star-driven, even the theatre is today, this necessarily leads to companies avoiding works by APA playwrights. This stereotype only serves to illustrate the industry’s laziness. Every time I have written a challenging role for an APA character, I have been able to find an actor who has excelled in the role, and even launched some who became stars. What are some of the obstacles you yourself have faced and how have you dealt with them? I have been very fortunate to have been championed by some forward-thinking producers and critics, including Joseph Papp, Frank Rich, Rocco Landesman, and Stuart Ostrow. That said, the theatre industry can certainly be racist, and I’ve had to overcome that. When "FOB" was presented at the O’Neill Playwrights Conference, I overheard the white sound designer ask, “So what are we going to use for this one? Chink music?” When "M. Butterfly" premiered in Washington, D.C. for its out-of-town tryout, one reviewer wrote, “If David Henry Hwang hates America so much, maybe his father should have stayed in China.” In the early '90s, when I was part of a protest against the yellow face casting of Jonathan Pryce in "Miss Saigon," every major theatre in America—with the notable exception of Joe Papp and the Public—came out against us. I guess I learned to take overcoming these obstacles as a badge of pride, and that it’s always better to speak out against racist behavior than to accommodate it. Is there a particular point in time in which you look back on as being the period in which you became engaged in your identity? If so, who or what were the influencing factors and why? As I mentioned above, I discovered myself as a playwright and an Asian-American pretty much simultaneously by learning (from teachers like playwrights Sam Shepard and Maria Irene Fornes) to access my subconscious through my writing. How would you say, if at all, that your sense of identity has influenced your art? I think my exploration of identity has been at the center of my art. What do you want people to take away from your body of works? I hope people come to feel that APA stories and characters can embody all aspects of what it means to be human, just as I was raised to believe white characters can. In the current climate of Black Lives Matter, what do you believe are the responsibilities that we, as Asian-Americans and members of the diaspora, have in dismantling anti-Blackness in our communities and showing up as vocal allies both as individuals and in the arts world? I found my identity during an era when “Third World Solidarity” was the principle around which we organized our politics and our art. As APAs, our interests and stories absolutely align more closely with our Black, Latinx and Indigenous colleagues than with white supremacy, a fact I believe Asians have forgotten over the past couple of decades. I hope we use this moment to rediscover that ideal, particularly since the failure of “model minority-ism” has become glaringly obvious with the current explosion of anti-Asian COVID-19-related hate. That said, I believe this current moment also needs to foreground this country’s anti-Blackness and violence against Black bodies. Along those lines, it’s important for APAs to remember and be inspired by the long history of Black-Asian solidarity, political protest, and activism, which predates the more recent model minority period. I would like to see more stories about activists like Yuri Kochiyama, who was a comrade of Malcom X and held him as he lay dying. In fact, maybe I’ll write that play myself! And finally, what would your takeaway be, then, for younger, aspiring universal Asians and how important do you believe it to be for an individual to be engaged in their cultural and racial identity and why or why not? I think being engaged in one’s identity is simply part of what it means to be human. Cultural and racial identity is one critical aspect of that search, and it will mean more to some than others. But, to ignore it completely is to give in to the lie that universality means cutting off a part of yourself and your history. The more specific our explorations, the more universal we will become. Cover photo credit: Gregory Costanza

We first came across Juliana Sohn’s name through an announcement for the release of the second season of the podcast "K-Pod" that she co-hosts with Catherine Hong. Through Episode 11, we get to know the hosts a bit more, but The Universal Asian was given the opportunity to delve even further into Juliana’s journey of initially rejecting her roots and later redefining her identity as it merged with her calling as a photographer and artist. Could you tell us a bit more about your background? I was born in Korea and we moved to the States when I was five. I remember bits and pieces of what it was like living in Korea. We lived in pretty extreme poverty though I don’t know if I realized it at all when I was there. We raised pigs and I think my grandma sold them for food. We had just a hole in the ground for a toilet. When we immigrated to the States, I remember seeing flushable toilets for the first time at the JFK airport. Since my uncle, who was a priest, got stationed in a church in New Jersey that was where we moved. Do you remember trying to learn English? I do remember because I was five. I remember my uncle teaching me how to read a "Dick and Jane" book. I don’t remember actually learning the alphabet and sounding out the letters, but I think it was almost like sight-reading and I just had to memorize it. For the first year that we were living in the States, we stayed at home because I think we must have moved in the middle of the school year. We just tried to pick up as much English as possible. We had a black and white TV set and tried to pick up what words we could. I remember going to the first day of kindergarten and not actually understanding anything they were saying. I would just look around and follow directions from watching what the other kids did. At some point, I started to understand what they were saying and realized they didn’t know that I understood. It was an interesting transition. Were there a lot of other Asians or Koreans in your school? No, we went to Catholic school. We moved around to other communities, but there were no other Asians in the school. When we first arrived, the kids didn’t really know how to act or treat us. I don’t think anyone was intentionally cold and there was no overt racism. People would say things, because they just didn’t understand us. There was a lot of goodwill, though still we felt pretty alienated. So, as you were growing up, did you identify with being Korean-American? The whole question about identity is really interesting, and is at the heart of a lot of people’s journeys of trying to figure out who they are. When I was younger, I just wanted to fit in. Since we went to Catholic school we went by our Christian names. So, when we came here [the U.S.], we went by our baptism names. As lovely as the name Juliana is, growing up in the '70s, it was too different. So, I made everyone call me Julie during high school. After trying to and wanting to fit in and experience a certain kind of American life—a very typical one—I think it wasn’t until I went to art school that I really understood I could be my own person. I could be a creative person. I could be myself. That’s when I reverted back to being called Juliana. But, even then, I was trying to find myself as an artist and trying to figure out what my voice was creatively. I was trying to assert myself as a feminist and fighting for women’s rights. I never really wanted to be identified first as a Korean or a Korean artist because it felt very niche and kind of inferior. I never wanted to be the token female artist nor the token Asian. I just wanted to be Juliana—whatever all that encompassed and what I hoped for as a unique individual. I never really saw my primary identity as Korean. I associated that with my parents’ generation that included conservative values, a patriarchal system, and all those things that went against the things I grew to believe in and were important to me. Korea has gone through such a huge change since the mid-'70s when we immigrated. I think for my parents’ generation they had this arrested development of these values based on what they knew at the time. So, while Korea may have been developing and evolving, I feel like my parents’ very core, conservative, traditional Korean values were arrested in development and we grew up under those values. So, even though people think, “Oh, you’re so American, you don’t have an accent, you’re so white,” we grew up in a very traditional [Korean] household. Even though I am very respectful to my parents and we have a great relationship, living under that system wasn’t something I wanted for myself. It was only after college when I spent all my time focusing on my work—my creative and professional work and the work I put out there—that I started to think about identity and how that defined me. Still, I didn’t make space for “Korean” as part of my identity. So, it is really late in life that I have come to embrace the Korean-American aspect of my identity. In the "K-Pod" podcast Episode 11, Catherine mentioned about being uncomfortable around other Asians or groups with Asians. Did you feel that as well? Oh yeah, definitely. When we were younger, there was a Youth Group after the kids’ mass and all the kids and teens would hang out waiting for the adult mass to finish. My sisters and I would just huddle together because we didn’t identify with the other Korean kids, the things they were interested in, or talked about. We just didn’t share a commonality. When I got older, if I was in a room and there were other Asian people at a party, I didn’t want to be associated with them. I didn’t want people to think, “Oh, you guys are Asian; you must be friends.” Instead, almost as a prophylactic to that kind of wrong association, I think I took it out on the other Asian person(s) in the room. I would kind of distance myself, and it was like I blamed them for being there, for putting me in that awkward position of having people think that we were related or would become friends. In retrospect, I was taking the microaggressions I experienced from white people out on other Asians. But, after I started to get to know people on a more intimate level, thanks to Korean American Story, I realized that there are pockets of people like me out there, who are more creatively-minded. As you moved into photography professionally, being Asian and female, did you feel that it held you back in any way or that you were looked at differently? When I was starting out, photographers wanted to be thought of on a certain level and not be associated with doing grunt work. Being a 5’ 3” woman, I definitely didn’t get many jobs because they wanted a strong guy. So, if you had a petite young Asian woman doing the lights, you were going to look like a jerk if you didn’t want to help. Many didn’t want to do that because they wanted to hang out, so oftentimes I didn’t get hired because of how it would make them look. Despite all that, then, what motivated you to keep pursuing photography? You know, it’s funny when you asked me that question, I was thinking, “What are you talking about? What else would I do?” I went to college and got a degree in photography. There was a point where I thought: “What if I can’t do this?” I don’t think that there was anything else that I felt was so right about as much as I felt that photography was right for me. It’s being able to see things in a certain way; not only seeing them, but also to show how I see that to other people; and to show other people how I see them to themselves. People often don’t think they are important or have stories to tell. If I can see them from my perspective and show them that they are worth their stories, it helps them to understand themselves better. So, how do you go about choosing your projects or do they come to you? They come to me, but I have to be there, to be open to see it for what it is. There have been projects that I have thought about for years before I started shooting them, because there are doubts about their value, the feasibility, etc. But, there are times like the Korean Funerary Portraits [published in the New York Times in 2016] that I worked on—I thought about doing it for a long time, but I guess you could say it came to me. It started with Juliana’s grandfather visiting one day in a suit. She thought that he was going to need a funerary portrait one day and so she got her camera. She took pictures of him, and then a year or two later when he did pass, she had the pictures she had taken knowing that they would be needed. She gave them out to her family. Many years later, her uncle got ill and they didn’t have any photos then either, but her family asked her if she had any. Juliana found some and redid the images to create funerary pictures. Her dad, one day, asked how much it would cost to have funerary portraits done. She asked why as she didn’t realize that it was a thing that people did. It turned out one of the congregants was doing them for a small fee, but he wasn’t a professional. That planted a seed showing there was a need and a service that she could provide, and for which she had experience. So, she thought she could volunteer, but also make it a cultural piece that would tell the story of who the person was in this life. The original idea was that while sitting in front of the camera she would ask them questions like, “How do you want to be remembered?”; “Did you dress a certain way for a reason today for this to be remembered?” The reflection of their stories could then be seen on their face to express who or what they were in life. It was a personal project and touched upon Juliana’s personal story. What would your main piece of advice be to a young universal Asian, who is wanting to celebrate being Asian, but looking for a role model? In other words, what would your takeaway be for them? I don’t know. All I can say is, this is something that has been said so many times, but your own perspective, life, and story is so much more interesting than telling someone else’s story or what is hot right now. The more you can personalize something, and the more specific you can be about something that you know or feel dear about, the more people will be interested, and the more people you will reach. So, regardless of how very banal or quotidian whatever you are documenting is, if it’s your experience, then it is completely valid.

E.J. Koh is author of the memoir "The Magical Language of Others" (Tin House Books, 2020), winner of the Pacific Northwest Book Award and Longlist for the PEN Open Book Award; and the poetry collection "A Lesser Love" (Louisiana State University Press, 2017), winner of the Pleiades Press Editors Prize for Poetry. Koh is also the recipient of the Virginia Faulkner Award and fellowships from the American Literary Translators Association, Jack Straw Writers Program, Kundiman, MacDowell, Napa Valley Writers’ Conference, and Vermont Studio Center. She is the editor of "Pleiades: Poetry by Korean American Women." Koh earned her MFA at Columbia University in New York for Creative Writing and Literary Translation. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington in Seattle for English Language and Literature, and Korean and Korean American literature, history, and film. Visit her site to learn more. Eun Ji Koh’s journey began when she was 15, and her parents moved back to South Korea, leaving Koh and her brother alone in California to raise themselves. While Koh and her parents lived apart, her mother stayed in touch by sending handwritten letters in Korean. Koh has written absolute masterpieces like "The Magical Language of Others" and "A Lesser Love." In every book, she has managed to put together words in such a way as to take the reader back in time to the place she describes, and readers are able to experience every little detail in a very delicate and intricate manner. Her way of writing touches the reader’s heart, allowing them to deeply and specifically feel emotions and connections. Koh has also continued to translate and write poetry, fiction, and nonfiction works, which helped her achieve various honors in her field. Diving deeper into her works; Koh, in "A Lesser Love" describes heaven as signifying home, and war as signifying her past, how it impacted her, and its ties to her grandmother and great grandfather; thereby, shedding light on her childhood. In her debut memoir, "The Magical Language of Others," she translates letters that she discovered years later, that were written by her mother over the course of several years and traces the connections between mothers and daughters, cultures and histories, and her own journey to write about them across Korea, Japan, and the U.S. Through her books, Koh has always conveyed many deep and diverse messages. In my interview with her for TUA, she shared her challenges, emotions, and advice for writers out there. When you started out as a writer, what would you say helped you stay inspired despite all the challenges/obstacles? Looking back, a part of me believed I didn’t have to be anybody to have something worthwhile to say. That kind of thinking when I was younger helped me through some difficult times. Is there any process that you follow while putting together a book? It’s not the same for every book. I plan mostly not to plan, but sometimes I can make outlines if there’s something I feel needs another look. If there’s a problem that sticks around, I tend to “sit back” and observe the things I read or experience in my life. There is a sense the pieces will come to me, but if I go after them, they’ll run away. You have received numerous honors up until now. However, at which moment would you say you felt like you had achieved what you set out to do. My family complains about how I ask them questions. Because I ask a lot of questions, and when I’m given an answer, I have to re-word the answer and say it back until I’ve understood them as clearly as possible. I feel satisfaction and relief when I can grasp something I couldn’t before. What do you want your readers to learn from your books. Is there any specific message or emotion that you are trying to convey? My answer will probably change, but right now, I’d like to hold as many things as I can at one time. Rage and grief—with forgiveness and love. We are constantly separating and coming together. What advice would you give to someone who wants to get into becoming a writer? One advice I might give is to feel secure in uncertainty. Certainty is helpful, but it can also be limiting. But uncertainty, though it can be tough to write through, brings with it unlimited possibilities. To feel secure in uncertainty is to savor the surprises and experience magic.

Amy Phung, a British-born Chinese campaigner talked with Xindi Wei of The Universal Asian about how she co-founded an ESEA grassroots movement tackling hate crimes during the pandemic. “If you define an activist as someone who cares about people, who is vocal, and is working on a social injustice campaign, then here I am,” said Amy Phung from her flat in South London. It’s been nearly a year since Phung co-founded Besea.n—a U.K. community network that champions East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) voices. “It’s actually very hard work. It’s mentally draining because constantly every day you’re thinking about the social injustices of the world, such as racism, which is very sad.” We met over Zoom, where the campaigner and graphic designer recalled how her network has come together during the pandemic. “I had anxiety when the pandemic first started last year. Mainstream media, even the ones that are neutral and well-received were using words like ‘China Virus,’ and I could see a pervasive sort of xenophobic messaging, which could potentially influence unconscious biases,” said Phung. “When I talked to my white friends about the possibility that I could be racially attacked—I found that there was a lack of understanding, and there seemed to be no empathy or thoughts going towards sympathising with my situation.” Phung paused slightly as she recounted her frustration and worry around that time. She explained that she wrote to newspapers and complained about the issue, but the feedback she received was very invalidating as they denied that their image choices were influenced by racist attitudes, even though there was a disproportionate use of ESEA faces in their COVID reporting. However, by chance, Phung found some people on social media who shared her indignation and causes. The six of them, all British-born Asians, thus came together because of a shared trauma and for a common goal: to show the diversity, vibrancy, and history of the ESEA community, as they believed that there is a missing part of media representation and a lack of education around who ESEA people are. “It was great to meet people who can validate how I’m feeling,” Phung continued. “We know that as ESEA people, people will notice us if we are seen in any public platform because we are very invisible. So, it is quite a big deal when we do get seen. But unfortunately, when we do get visibility, it is in a negative light. “For many decades we have been less able to organise and connect, because we are so spread out across the country. And, so, being able to find that community online, especially during the pandemic, is a way in which we can connect with people.” Growing up in Clapham, London in a Chinese family, Phung shared she has definitely experienced racism and discrimination, but on a very subtle level. She explained: “I never had people constantly shouting at or harassing me, but I certainly have experienced people pulling their eyes back, and people ‘othering’ me like saying ‘Where are you from?’ It’s generally very ignorant things, and that is from strangers and also people who I grew up with and called my friends.” However, she has experienced more direct instances of racism since March of last year. “I was walking in the park with my daughter and someone actually shouted at me and told me to stay away from him. And you know that was a very overt case of racism. I’ve had someone spit at me on the bus as well during the pandemic,” she said. “We could all sense that hate crimes were going to happen inevitably. The history of anti-ESEA racism in the U.K. is not a new one; you can’t say that the first time that ESEA people have been abused is in the pandemic. It is historical. It is just not talked about.” Because of escalating racism towards ESEA people, Phung and her other co-founders created a petition in July to ask the media to stop using ESEA faces in COVID reporting, catching the attention of Sarah Owen, the MP for Luton North. She took the petition to the government, which led to the first parliamentary debate—fighting anti-ESEA racism. “It was a very seminal one because it was the first one ever,” Phung smiled. “It was able to give voice to our causes, and to get people to recognise that racism does in fact impact people of colour, of ESEA origin.” From that point on, Phung’s campaign really started snowballing. They advocated for more people to write to their MPs, supporting Sarah Owen in that debate; made a podcast where guests can talk about their experiences; and they host talks and workshops for various institutions, helping people to gain advocacy skills to be able to use their voice. Phung went on to say: “We’re going to do a workshop about finding [our] collective voice, and that is for the U.K.-based charity China Exchange in Chinatown. We also have another ongoing project where we are hoping to hold active bystander training workshops, which is showing people how they can be a good active bystander if they see a hate incident happening, and what they can do to help the victim and to deescalate.” In addition to organising a non-profit charity, Phung is also an artist whose artworks echo her anti-ESEA racism sentiment, as well as her heritage. She uses her art to tell her personal relationship with ESEA food and to celebrate it. “My art has come from feeling more galvanised in recent months campaigning anti-ESEA racism to express my heritage and to educate on my experience as someone who is British-born Chinese,” she said. “I found that ESEA food was often seen as unhealthy or unhygienic, consequently causing many chefs to culturally appropriate our cuisines and ‘elevate’ them by using language such as ‘clean’ and ‘MSG-free’ in order to paint ESEA food as unhealthy.” “When we understand that historically and in current-day attitudes, ESEA people have been painted as dirty and ‘virus-carriers,’ we can understand why it can lead to anti-ESEA racism and harassment.” When I asked Phung if she thinks her campaigns do help change systemic racism towards ESEA people, she answered with a firm “yes.” But, not because institutional racism is lightly embedded into the fabric of this country, nor does she think it will disappear in her lifetime—but she does have hope that things will change one step at a time. “I can’t look in the future and say racism will be indefinitely eradicated. But without hope there is no fight. How can we serve future generations if we don’t speak out against racism? So, I think it’s important to understand that we still have to do it because historically they have been activists and we need to take their wisdom and continue that work forward.” Besea.n is now planning a nationwide movement to establish the U.K.’s first ESEA heritage month. They want to get the government to recognise it as a national observance because there is Black History Month, South Asian History Month, and so on, but not an ESEA Heritage Month. “Even if they don’t, we will still be holding it because the power is in our hands,” she stated. “We aren’t just facilitating it and we want people in the community to feel like they can take it into their own hands to set something up within the month of September to celebrate our history, to encourage education around us. This is really a community project.” Indeed, people are so much more connected these days. In the long-term, Phung and her team aim to form coalitions with many social and environmental injustices and campaigns. They want to not only support BLM but also to fight against Islamophobia, transphobia, and so on. “I don’t think we can do this on our own. We have to understand the struggles of the many different communities and find a way of working together,” she said. Ultimately, according to Phung: “We’re all fighting towards the same thing, which is dismantling the white superiority complex. It can be upheld by white people. It can be upheld by people of color and we all need to work together.” Follow Besea.n on Instagram @besea.n or go to besean.co.uk

The Universal Asian got to know Helenna Santos: actor, writer, and producer. Her poetry book “A Long Dark Summer” is available for purchase. See her website for details! Tell us about yourself. Where are you from/where did you grow up? Well, I was born in California, and my mom is from the Vancouver, British Columbia area, so I had dual citizenship from when I was really young. My dad is from the Philippines, so we actually lived in Singapore and the Philippines before he ended up immigrating to Canada when I was 5. I was in Canada from 5 to 26-ish; then I moved down to L.A. for 10 years. I’m back up here in Vancouver now, working and living. I’ve been a little bit all over the place, but I’m grateful that I had such a varied experience and life as an artist. The thing about Vancouver is that it’s stunningly beautiful five to six months out of the year, and then the other six is torrential downpour. I always tell people: if you’re going to visit Vancouver, you want to see her as beautiful as she is, but if you want to move there you should probably go in the fall so you understand the reality of what it’s like here half the year. It shocks a lot of people. When did you start acting? Like, earnestly? Probably when I did the BFA—I got my Bachelor of Fine Arts in college; graduated in 2004. Before that I’d done musical theater shows and plays in school, but not a lot of it. I was actually a jazz singer, and I was planning on doing that for my life. I had scholarships to go to places, but I actually decided to stay closer to home, which I’m glad I did, because deciding I was really bored just doing jazz music theory all the time is kind of what propelled me into finding acting and everything that goes along with that. With the creative endeavor of being an actor, you can be a writer and a director and a producer, and all of the other things. It’s a fully collaborative art form that I don’t think I would have found if I had just stayed in the track to be a jazz singer. Do you have a preferred genre in film or TV? I love so many different things for so many reasons. I really love episodic television in general, whether that’s a limited series or a long-running network show. There’s just something about, as an actor, being on set in something that has this life that goes on for years and years and years, in some cases. It’s just really exciting to be a part of. I do really enjoy the CW network shows; some people find them cheesy or whatever, but I really love acting in that kind of stuff because there’s always a little bit of comedy you can throw in there, but the stakes are really high. There’s a lot of room to play with stuff. I also love independent film. I’ve produced two indie features and I’ve done a lot of indie films, and I love that for completely different reasons. That’s the fun part about being an actor; you get to play in all of these different worlds, whether that’s a world you helped create or somebody else’s world. It’s kind of the best thing, truly. Who is your dream director to work with and why? Oh my gosh, so many. Okay, if I had to choose one director right now, it might have to be Karyn Kusama. She did Girlfight (2000), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Æon Flux (2005), and then she did The Invitation (2015), which is an amazing indie horror film. I really love her work, and I feel like she doesn’t get recognized enough for how absolutely incredible she is. Her work is great; her sensibility is amazing. She kind of floats between genres a little bit, in a way that a CW show kind of does. She does really hard-hitting drama, but then Jennifer’s Body (2009) is this really subversive, cool movie that got slammed when it came out, but it’s got so many levels in there that, since it became a cult favorite, people are now starting to discover. I feel like it’s time for her to really get recognized, and it would be such an honor to work with her and learn from her. There’s so many people, but she’s top of my list right now for sure. What advice do you have for aspiring actors? Ooh. Hours of advice. When I started out, there wasn’t really much in the way of guidance. I mean, the Internet was just starting to be a thing. I graduated in 2004 so Facebook hadn’t even started yet, there was no Instagram, no Twitter, podcasts didn’t exist, and YouTube wasn’t a thing. Now with so much at our fingertips, it’s imperative for anyone interested in being involved in the industry to educate yourself on what that really means. You can be an actor who does community theater or you can do your own short films—you can go about it that way and really enjoy your life and have fun and be an artist that way, but if you want to make it a business and you want that to be your career, it’s a whole different thing. I would say one of the best places to start off is just listening to podcasts. There’re so many podcasts now that are amazing resources for actors, that can help you dip your toe into the world and see if that’s what you want to spend time and energy and training on, or if you want to have it be a hobby, which is completely fine. Being an artist in any form can be a hard road, but if it’s something inside you that you have to do, it’s a calling. For most of us that stay in this business a really long time, it’s not an easy “do it or don’t do it.” It’s like, we have to do it and figure out a way to make that work, whether it’s a hobby or a career. What do you want to see in the future of AAPI representation on screen? More, more, and always more. I was actually watching a Hollywood Reporter roundtable the other day that had the comedic actresses of this year, and there was zero AAPI representation. We think it’s getting better, and it is getting better, but in these tiny, incremental steps. It’s not enough. But, the great thing is that one of my favorite shows, Kung Fu (2021), is an accurate picture of people living their lives. Yes, it’s about her (the lead character) background and stuff, but the people in it, they’re just humans living life. It doesn’t have to be a show about specific heritages and things; it can just be humans. Why can’t the lead in whatever thing—you know that whole thing #StarringJohnCho, it was shocking to me when I did see those posters because I was like, woah that is weird to see him in those lead roles. Why is that weird? Oh yeah, we haven’t seen any of that. I haven’t seen any of that. Part of the reason why I started producing work is because I didn’t see anybody who looked like me. Why can’t this other character, who is white, in a show just be a POC or mixed-race actor instead? The CW and Freeform do a really good job with that. I think that because those are networks that are skewed to slightly younger viewers, it’s expected. Everyone knows the world is changing and growing, and that representation is different and needs to be important. So it’s kind of a non-issue, whereas, some of the longer standing studios and networks, it’s a little harder to break down their ideas because they’re still run by very powerful, older white men. It’ll take some time, but we just need to keep championing each other’s voices. You recently published “A Long Dark Summer.” How did that come to life? For so many years I had written poetry as a hobby, and one of my things was that I always wanted to publish a book of poetry one day. At the top of the pandemic, I really wanted to put it all together and figure out a way to do that in a narrative form that would make sense for all the different pieces—and there was a whole lot of new stuff I was working on. I just wanted to do it because I love writing poems and telling stories in that way. So I put together what I call a pseudo-memoir, because it is loosely based on my experience as a biracial woman, growing up where I grew up, and my experience in Hollywood. It takes the reader through 1993 to now, 2021, and it has an overarching narrator that you go on a journey with. It’s got a dark tone, but it also has a lot of nice bite to it, and some humor. It’s very indicative of who I am; I always say that my Filipino side and my Russian-German side are at odds with each other. There’s this bright Filipino and then there’s this brooding Russian. It’s kind of like, if you want to get to know who I am, just read this book. It’ll tell you exactly what kind of person I am and what I am as an artist. “A Long Dark Summer” Cover photo: Bjoern Kommerell

The Universal Asian got to know Lava Buckley, a talented filmmaker and producer. She recently won Outstanding Female Content Creator in the Asian American Film Lab™ 2020 72 Hour Shootout! Tell us about yourself. Oh boy. Well, I grew up in Appalachia, Ohio on the border of West Virginia, in a town called Athens. My mom is from Thailand, and so I would say I’m one of the early generation mixed race kids. It was shortly after the law passed that mixed race couples could marry. I was born in the mid-'70s, so growing up in Appalachia as a mixed Asian kid was very challenging. We weren’t allowed to have our own culture, not allowed to speak our language, I got spit on quite a bit, and called ‘jungle baby’. All in all, not really pleasant. I’m always happy to see how much more accepting kids are now of being mixed race. From eight-years-old on, I lived with my mother; and I was raised very Thai. I ended up in the international district. All my friends were from different countries, different races—so I went from growing up in a small, kind of scary, racist town to a much more accepting, diverse community. It was nice to have the two dynamics. What got you into filmmaking? When I was eight—when my parents divorced—we lived in a domestic violence shelter called My Sister’s Place. The shelter was amazing; it’s an amazing organization. They set us up in a small apartment and got us some basics to start living and surviving. I remember shortly after we got out of the shelter, I was watching TV and I saw Audrey Hepburn on the TV with children. And, I thought "if I get into the film industry, I can help poor kids too." I could become an ambassador! That actually kind of stuck in my head for most of my life; the idea that if I work in film, I could do some good that can change and help people. What can you tell us about the process of creating your latest short film, “Charlie”? It’s very interesting! I actually love all the different aspects of filmmaking: the pre-production, the production, and post; it’s all really exciting. What I like is that every project is so different, and I’m grateful that I have a foot in both the indie world and high budget studio work. So, I can take a lot of that studio knowledge and experience I have and do what I can with an indie film. When I was writing “Charlie,” I knew that I would have very limited resources. I was like, okay I know how to shoot this with a certain budget, $2000, and I want to make sure I pay everyone involved. I can do that, at least. I wanted everyone to feel good about participating. So, I found this story probably five years ago after working on a western. I was in the casting department, and I was working with someone who didn’t believe there was much diversity in the Old West. I started doing my own research and I found the story about Charlie. We don’t know much about her, so I decided to write it as an inspired story. I wanted it to be real and not say "based on a true story," because there’re a lot of elements I did take out, such as the fact that there should be three white men and two Chinese people. I had to work with my resources. I had a really fantastic Chinese woman, whom I loved working with. I knew I could find a white actor, and I knew the location. I really felt inspired because those railroad tracks in the town I live in actually have a plaque dedicated to the Chinese railroad workers who helped build it. So that was my process in creating the story, and I really wanted to stick with the idea of trying to make sure Charlie stays strong and not a victim. Does your cultural identity influence the work you produce? If so, in what way? I will say that most of the stuff I want to create— “Charlie” included—is totally influenced by my cultural background. I like writing stories about strong Asian women. I know “Charlie” is about a Chinese immigrant, and I’m Thai, but I still felt very connected to her. I could actually see my mother doing this role. My mom has overcome so much. I don’t know, Charlie just has that feel to me of what my mom would be like, fighting back, finding ways to be resourceful, and just kicking ass. That’s how I see Asian women. I see them strong; I see them resilient, determined. I just think they’re badass. Do you think art should be political? Why or why not? I would say, not always. For me, it is what I’m interested in. I do tend to write about the experiences of Asian women because I do feel like we have been ignored and incorrectly perceived by a lot of the public. If I can, I will write stuff with political stories. I think we need a balance. We have lots of great entertainment out there. My mind just feels more driven to write about this to show that racism towards Asians has existed since the 1800s; this is not new. The way that we fetishize Asian women, that’s not new. The way we try to make them weak, this is not new stuff, and it drives me. I’m not saying I have it right; I’m not going to do it perfectly—even people in our own community may not like it, but I realized a long time ago with filmmaking and art, you can make the best project in the world, and someone will hate it. What advice do you have for aspiring filmmakers? I have a couple things. One, I’ll just say it again, no matter what you make, someone’s going to hate it and someone’s going to love it. Accept that at the beginning. What can you do? You can’t satisfy everyone, not even your own community. People want to be gatekeepers on how you can present yourself and talk. Nobody is your gatekeeper. No one’s the gatekeeper of my voice anymore; I used to let people tell me my ethnicity, tell me how much I belong or don’t belong. I don’t give them that permission anymore. That was important for me, to own my voice. Another thing I would say is—I recently did life coaching, and my life coach asked me, "do you know enough right now to make your film?" Once I realized it didn’t have to be perfect and I knew enough to get it done, I knew I’d rather have it done than never completed at all. So, I just want to encourage people: don’t wait for perfect. Work with what you have and see what happens. You’ll just get better each time you do that. What impact does social media have on film? Would you say it’s an overall good or bad effect? Oh man. I struggle with social media. It’s finding a balance, that’s what I’ve been discovering with my own film career and social media. I do see the benefits of having it for promotion, to connect with other people in your community or people who would be interested in your projects. It has a lot of good. There is a lot of not-so-good, in the sense that it can suck up all your time. Also, there are a lot of assholes that just hide there. I don’t even know, it’s like, did you even see the movie? Are you just writing that to be a jerk? You gotta just let those people roll off you. Easier said than done because I do get a little bit affected by that stuff. Social media is an interesting place because it’s kind of unhinged, you know? The good of social media has brought a lot of awareness for the Asian community and mixed-race community, giving us voices that we didn’t have before. Also, it’s shown other people that we have things to say, and you haven’t been listening. I try to take the good, and I’m just trying to navigate it myself. Do you have any projects in the works you can tell us about? Yes, I do! I’m in pre-production for a documentary. It’s about honoring and celebrating our Asian clothes. I was thinking so much about identity, and it’s very important to me that we keep having our own clothing. I have my western clothes, nothing’s wrong with that, but I think we should learn from history. One of the first things that colonizers did here is take away the clothing of the natives from some of the tribes. What that does is strip them of identity, and I really sat with that idea for a bit. We should embrace that we are different, it’s okay that we don’t all wear the same clothes. I fear this idea of assimilation and losing who we are. We often get accused of being the model minority and being white adjacent, and it’s like, well how can we point out that we actually have a rich culture? It’s with clothing. So, that’s my documentary, kind of exploring this idea of identity through clothing. More press on Lava: https://thecre8sianproject.com/blogs/news/amazing-asians-in-the-arts-lava-buckley You can also connect with Lava on Instagram: @lifewithlava