On occasion, I check out what my kids look at on youtube. Looking at The Daughter’s subscriptions, it struck me that the majority of them were to Asian American themed channels. I looked at one, NDTitanLady, and I noticed from the channel page that her style was “Asian”. Asian style? What’s that? We had a post a while ago about the next generation of Asian Americans and how they are forging their own identities and media. This generation’s situation is so much different from when I was growing up, even though I grew up in the Bay Area. There really wasn’t anything produced by my generation for my generation, and youtube has really enabled this. The Daughter subscribes to some typically well known channels such as happyslip, kevjumba, and nigahiga, and some less popular but still known like ninjadrops. The Daughter and her friends even gossip about some of them. “A sister of my friend goes to UC Davis with Kevjumba and says he’s really cocky and stuff and blah blah blah…” You get the idea.
NigaHiga has even managed to get a movie made based on his work. Here’s a trailer:
Ryan and Sean’s Not So Excellent Adventure – Exclusive Trailer from Ryan and Sean’s Movie on Vimeo.
It’s played in Hawaii and the Bay Area. Not exactly something that the Wife and I would go out and see, but it’s interesting to see how Asian American media had evolved, and it’s fascinating how a movie would be made and inspired by something on youtube (it’s usually the reverse).
Anyway, here are some of my favorite examples of how this next generation of Asian American looks at things. Here is NDTitanlady talking about Asian stereotypes.
I wasn’t even aware of a few of these – maybe some of them are very southern California. The Daughter does do the annoying peace sign thing, though.
Here is a kevjumba with a take on interracial dating. I am usually pretty tired of this subject, but I found his take on it to be pretty funny (plus some extras at the end).
What next?
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6 Comments to “Youtube Asian Style goes to the movies”
Ernie wrote:
OK, the last two videos were totally awesome. Great finds, Jeff!
Posted on 29-Nov-08 at 11:41 pm | Permalink
cat soup wrote:
Thanks for the vids. I’m trying to get into it…but I find that Kevjumba lame. Maybe it’s not my humor..or his jokes aren’t very innovative. The Asian-American stereotypes…well…yeah..I’ve seen so much of these stereotypes in real life…that it almost makes me think they’re just the plain truth. Heheheh. Some odd reason, in terms of Asians, I mostly hung out with the unpopular Asian immigrants in highschool. They kept it real, man. I couldn’t stand the Asian Americans…Who knows why..I don’t know if it has to do with the fact that I’m a mutt or I’m just plain racist.
Posted on 30-Nov-08 at 5:44 pm | Permalink
Are you really Asian wrote:
Well speaking of Asian-Americans, more specifically Filipino-Americans, seems NDTitanlady was one of the many Filipino-Americans who fell under the impression that they are not Asian and are “Pacific Islanders”….you can watch that in her life lessons videos.
Then she adds that after she “guesses” was a informing talk with someone else, she now knows that Filipinos can and are considered as Asian.
I don’t even get why Filipino-Americans try so hard claiming Pacific Islander.
Posted on 01-Dec-08 at 12:15 am | Permalink
DT wrote:
The first: nicely done.
Posted on 01-Dec-08 at 7:24 pm | Permalink
Daniel wrote:
Hmm…it’s so-so for me. Since I was young, I’ve been able to understand and enjoyed plenty of media coverage (whether it’s news or entertainment) from Asia, been exposed to a lot of academic information regarding history/culture from people and literature, as well as having traveled a lot of places around the world where there are relatives and closed aquantinces…enough dosages of reality and critical thinking where these stereotypes don’t have much value in effecting my perceptions in veiwing other Asians, and other minority groups too.
Stereotypes are too limited, you might meet a lot of people (even just one is significant) who will not conform to those ideas. Depends on what one wants to personally interact with others though. We can’t control minds.
This is coming from a American of Chinese descent born and raised in a small mid-western city.
Posted on 02-Dec-08 at 1:41 am | Permalink
Cryptopath wrote:
I can’t say I agree with his analogies for interracial dating (the M&Ms) or the reasons for having interracial children (so we can eliminate racism?) but I definitely found the video extremely amusing. Because the fact that he comes from a family that insists
As an Asian man coming from a traditional Taiwanese family, I’ve always gotten the “marry a nice Asian girl” thing from both my parents. Throughout school I was kind of that token smart kid so I managed to avoid romantic female attention altogether. So I figured it would never come up, and become a problem. I just nodded and told my parents that we’ll see what happens.
Turns out for the past 6 years, I found myself in a very fulfilling relationship with a Caucasian lady of German descent. They’ve now upgraded to the “you should see other people” argument (since they gave up on the “date only Asians” argument). Would it be racist to say that I’ve never been sexually interested in Asian girls? They always felt a little too like my sister for me to be attracted to them. (although Asian boys don’t seem to pose that problem for my “other side”, since I never had a brother)
So should I be ashamed of not being in a relationship that may produce “perfect Asian babies”? Part of me feels that way from reading this blog… I guess guilt is the Asian parent’s way of making sure their kids do things.
Back to the post. The videos reminded me of my own family so much, that I’m a little sad that my future children won’t get the priviledge of dealing with fobby parents. I mean, after visiting mymomisafob.com, I’m kinda regretting not putting myself in a situation where my children would have another set of awkward fobby parent/grandparents. That’s just how I grew up, and it’s strange how the traditional parental values are melting away and turning into the standard (boring?) Asian-American identity.
Posted on 30-Dec-08 at 10:18 am | Permalink
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