Over the last year director/writer/producer Quentin Lee and I have been working hard on a new company, CHOPSO, the first video streaming platform featuring English-language Asian content in the world.
As a filmmaker/writer and as a former Vice President at the Japanese American National Museum, I had the unique perspective of being on both sides of the art world. Looking back now, I can see that together they led me toward the path of creating CHOPSO.
One of my goals as a filmmaker and as a writer is to create content that features people that look like me. However, one of the things I learned quickly was that making movies about Asian Americans was not really a viable career option. In fact, my wife calls my Asian American moviemaking volunteering. The big problem of course is that the traditional distribution channels aren’t interested in content that features or is about Asian Americans and therefore it just doesn’t make financial sense to make them. Despite this bleak outlook, I have continued to produce and write Asian American movies.
At the same time I was making movies, I spent almost thirteen years at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM). In my time there, I programmed screenings, film festivals, book readings, panels, family days, workshops, and exhibitions. The mission of JANM “is to promote understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience.” But I took this a step further and included a more pan-Asian Pacific Islander American view in my programming.
One of the memories that has stuck with me from my time at JANM was when we screened the first episode of Fresh Off the Boat. I was excited to see a long line of people show up to celebrate the premier with some of the creators and actors. As I spoke to one of the visitors standing in line, they asked me why Asian American haven’t made anything since the iconic movie Better Luck Tomorrow. This blew me away because Asian Americans had been making content between 2002 and 2015. Some of it—a lot of it—amazing. At first, I wondered if they just weren’t paying attention. But then as I spoke to more people I realized the problem was not that Asian Americans weren’t making content, it was just hard for people to see it because there was no one place to go. You had to either come to JANM on the weekends I was screening something (or places similar to JANM), go to the local Asian American film festival (assuming you were lucky enough to actually live in a city that hosted one), read about it on Angry Asian Man, or stream it on YouTube. If you looked away too long, there was a strong chance you’d never hear about it—let alone see it.
When Quentin Lee and I first started talking about CHOPSO, I knew from my past experiences as a content creator and as a programmer what was missing—a place where Asian filmmakers (who speak English) could show their work but also a place for those who are interested in seeing such content to actually be able to see it. Our goal for the company is to bring those two places together and hopefully inspire new filmmakers and audiences to tell the Asian diasporic story.
Please support CHOPSO and subscribe now. Tell a friend, or two, or three! Buy a gift for someone you know.
CHOPSO is the ultimate streaming destination for English-language Asian content worldwide. For $4.95/month or $49.95/year, customers can stream CHOPSO’s library anytime via the app (on iOS – App Store Link & Android devices – Play Store Link) or website worldwide (www.CHOPSO.com).
