I went when I was 18-years-old and had not yet been anywhere with 20 or more unrelated-by-kin Asians altogether. The thought of 2,000 unrelated-by-kin Asians altogether terrified me. Mom signed me up without my consent, included THE WORST photo she could have POSSIBLY FOUND of me and that went into the damn yearbook, and I got shipped off to Taiwan.

Oh yeah. I met west coast Asians for the first time on Loveboat. OMFG DID YOU GUYS TERRIFY ME. Especially those “L.A.” Asians. You L.A. girls look like barbie dolls. Blonde haired blue-tinted-contacts barbie dolls. FOR CHRISSAKES YOU’RE ASIAN. *LOOK* IT!

Check that last comment.

How about “no one wanted to date me on LOVEBOAT”

I think John Lin owes us a post about this…

I have two words for the Taiwanese members of this blog – They will either trigger warm feelings of nostalgia or trigger PTSD. Here it goes…

LOVE BOAT!

I agree with the article that Asian American kids are different from previous generations. Yang is right that they have their own new media role models. My kids were the ones who showed me Happyslip, Nigahiga, and Kevjumba – I had never heard of them before they told me about them. Role models in general for them are different than when I was growing up back (way back) in the day. Perhaps my view is skewed by being in Silicon Valley, but the Asian American kids I am around have far better role models and don’t have the kind of inferiority complex I saw with previous generations of Asians Americans. There are Asian American mayors and councilman, CEOs like Jerry Yang and Jen Hsun Huang, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla. We didn’t have that when I was growing up or even in my early days of working – Silicon Valley firms had a glass ceiling back then.

They also interact with things Asian differently. I noticed that a lot of Asian American kids go to Asia fairly often – some as often as every year. That never happened when I was a kid. Asia is powerful and influential now – not only economically but culturally. Stuff from Asia is considered cool now, as Yang points out. Back then – they just seemed backward compared to the mainstream. My nephew goes to the Philippines every Christmas to perform as a DJ. Some of the girls I used to coach in volleyball watch soap operas in Tagalog. Those are ways of connecting with Asia that we wouldn’t even consider in my past.

Still, some of the issues are the same. They are still wary of how they will be treated as minorities. I remember at one volleyball practice the girls were talking to two teammates who returned from a student trip to Washington DC. One girl asked them, “Were you the only Asians there?” The reply: “Yes, but they were nice to us.” My daughter once complained to me that some creepy old white guy subscribed to her and friends’ Youtube channels. Colorism still affects their mentality (see my post in the biracial thread).

While some things are the same, a lot of things are different. I am anxious to see the next part of his article, where he talks to Asian American Youtube stars on what it means to be Asian.

Practice every day and you will stay young forever. Hey, when I was 21 (which is now OVER a decade ago) I could barely touch my toes. Now I can touch the back of my head with the sole of my foot.

Long live yoga!

Akrypti: Thanks for making me feel old as dirt! At least the people I swim with and do hip hop with are always amazed that I’m 10+ years older than them and can keep up with (even though I am in pain for days after–my booty doesn’t shake that well anymore).

It’s kinda weird considering that I always used to be the youngest person among all my friends–and now I’m suddenly realizing that I’m now one of the oldest. WTF happened…?

1975-1978 – “Almost as old as Efren”
1979-1982 – “Not quite as old as Efren, but not too far off”
1983 on – “Totally not as old as Efren”