hAAPI hour with melissa cho

My guest today is Justin Kim, the 21-year-old Korean-American artist, musician, and filmmaker who goes by the name Suave Punk as his musical alter ego. Suave Punk was actually the title of Justin’s first song, and he liked the name so much that he decided to attach it to his own creative identities. His other personas also include being someone who loves fishing, or someone who developed a Southern twang after growing up in a predominantly white neighborhood in southeastern Florida.

Justin’s discovery of his love for storytelling was when his father gifted him a point-and-shoot camera 11 years ago. He’s since been honing this craft at film school, but during freshman year of college started becoming more serious about pursuing music. Growing up listening to the radio, Justin naturally gravitated towards funk, classic rock, 80s synth-pop, and shoegaze or dream pop. He never listened to pop music as a kid, so he joked about not knowing who this Katy Perry person was when his family moved to California.

Now represented by a record agency, he’s currently working on releasing his debut EP titled Heaven is a Night Drive, a collection of five songs that he’s been writing since freshman year.

This conversation was recorded in mid-July, so we had our chat just the day before Justin published his EP’s second single and music video called, “Heat Death,” which you’ll get to listen to at the end of this episode. But at that time, we discussed his recently released first single, “Dreams of Losing Teeth,” a song born from loneliness, rejection, heartbreak, recurring dreams, and the solemn realization regarding the painful yet hopeful passage of time.

Before you hear my full chat with Justin, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

Meet Ethan Soo, the 21-year old Cambodian-American filmmaker and current USC film student.

He’s about to direct an independent horror short titled “Swept Under;" the film follows a Cambodian American man who moves into a new house and discovers that a rug may hide sinister forces beneath its surface.

Growing up as a child of a Cambodian refugee, Ethan was always frustrated that people weren’t taught about the American bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. Our understanding of history is heavily packaged, repackaged, and cherry-picked, and countless moments get swept under the rug. Through this film, Ethan hopes to shed light on this forgotten historical event by adapting it into a modern context. And of course, making audiences scream is a bonus goal.

Before you hear my full chat with Ethan, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice, maybe a stuffed animal this time for emotional support, and let’s spend happy hour together.

Ethan and his crew are over halfway there with their film's fundraising campaign. Help make their killer rug dream a reality by donating to their fundraising campaign: https://seedandspark.com/fund/swept-under#story

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

Happy Sunday, my dear happy hour friends! Today is a bit special because I turn 22. I'm not a personal birthday celebratory person at all, but I do have a small birthday wish and I hope you can make it a reality, which is to leave a quick hAAPI hour review on Apple Podcasts. It requires no money at all and it takes less than 3 minutes, but it would make me super glad knowing that you're helping me promote this show. If you’ve been listening to the show for over a month, I’m so grateful for your listenership, your support, and your kind words. Thank you so much for believing in this show’s potential and I’m so excited for you to see where this show goes.

Meet Peggy Kong, the superwoman owner of two small businesses, Polaris Cafe and Oakland Tea Company, a business that makes organic tea leaf blends and curated boba kits.

Before starting her two businesses, Peggy worked in corporate property management. But something major happened in her life which made her leave the corporate world and into the culinary realm.

Before you hear my full chat with Peggy, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice, and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

Happy Fourth of July hAAPI hour friends! I hope you all spend quality time with family and friends today—this episode fits today's theme of spending time with your favorite people. My guest today is Wenny Chou, the 22-year-old Taiwanese-Canadian and recent USC business graduate who just started Saloon 301, an exclusive dinner club that seeks to celebrate food and people. During the pandemic, Wenny had the initial thought of running a small takeout business where she would cook for her friends, but as she metaphorically fed into this idea of making food for others, the concept expanded into Saloon 301.

Although she’s currently running her newly minted restaurant in her small, college apartment, Wenny’s been able to transform her own living space into an energizing dinner club, where guests wine and dine, try out new cuisines, and often stay past midnight.

She cooks everything herself from scratch, such as the pie crust, cake mix, pesto, vegetable stock, or anything premade that could be store bought. But someone who loves cooking and is inspired by intimate, family-owned restaurants in Italy, she wishes to establish recipes that preserve the integrity of the ingredients. It brings me great joy knowing that at Saloon, not only are the original ingredients preserved and honored, but so are the new relationships you establish there.

Before you hear my full chat with Wenny, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

Meet Kendra Ing, the 23-year-old Taiwanese-American dance artist and hopeful educator-to-be very soon. Like many other college students during the pandemic, Kendra left New York City and came back to Taiwan to escape the big apple’s alarming covid crisis. But since graduating last year, Kendra’s been based in Taipei as a freelance dancer, choreographer, model, and teacher. As a lover of environmental science, public health, social justice issues, education, and dance, this young renaissance woman hopes to bind her multidisciplinary passions together. And although she’s still trying to figure out how, throughout our conversation, I was able to learn a little more about how she’s been able to intersect her curiosities over the years.

Before you hear my full chat with Kendra, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

Meet Corey Nguyen, the 23-year-old cinematographer based in Los Angeles and Orange County. He found his calling for cinematography after experiencing an incident on a big TV pilot. He had his first breakthrough with a documentary he shot in 2019 called "Frat House" (directed by Nancy Nguyen), which was about the last gay bar in the town of Garden Grove, California. The film was featured in The Advocate and the LA Times and had its premiere at the Newport Beach Film Festival. Since then, Corey’s films have played at festivals such as the San Diego Asian Film Festival and the Philadelphia Asian Film Festival. He's shot documentaries in Paraguay and South Africa, and in a few months, he’ll be traveling to Vietnam, which brings us to his feature-length documentary, "Son of Vietnam: Nguyen Duc Quang," currently in pre-production.

This upcoming film is about his grandfather, Nguyen Duc Quang, who captured the hearts of millions as a singer-songwriter in Vietnam during the 60's and 70's. His music, which called for community service and patriotism, is still recognized to this day.

Despite his grandfather’s dazzling reputation decades ago, Corey was never educated on his grandfather’s history. So now Corey is determined to chronicle his grandfather’s experiences, and although there will be many hurdles to overcome, he believes that after 10 years of waiting, he’s finally ready to share his grandfather’s story.

Before you hear my full chat with Corey, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice, and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

My third guest is Steven Lee, formally known as stevenoclock on social media. He’s a photographer, illustrator, CG artist, and art director based in Orange County, California. Steven’s work is known to be vibrant and out of this world, and his intersectional interests between fashion and surrealism have allowed him to produce bold and visually stunning work, many of which have been featured in fashion publications such as British Vogue, MOEVIR, French Fries Magazine, GEZNO Magazine, Grazia, and several more. With his multidisciplinary talents in illustration, photography, CG, and music, Steven's work explores themes of gen z energy, queerness, identity, and diversity.

Before you hear my full chat with Steven, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice, and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagra.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

Music from ⁠Epidemic Sound⁠. Like the music? Find my playlist with the music I've used ⁠here⁠. And, if you sign up for Epidemic Sound through the playlist link, you'll get 1 month for free!

My second guest is Isha Punja, the 24-year-old founder of Hut Mentality, an ethical clothing brand sourced by Indigenous and rural artisans in India. The brand's clothes are made by hand and natural materials, such as organic cotton being hand printed with vegetable dyes. Isha's designs have been notably featured in British Vogue and at New York Fashion Week. With India still facing the devastating effects of its second COVID-19 wave, I was curious to find out how Isha’s business was doing. And especially because all her artisans are based there, I wanted to learn how she and her team have been weathering this pandemic-related storm.

Recently, her business experienced some controversy on the video-sharing app, TikTok, when she defended herself from someone’s comment saying, quote, “why do you put white people in our clothes though?” Before you hear my full chat with Isha, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice, and let’s spend happy hour together.

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

Send us your thoughts and any guest recommendations to [email protected]

Music from ⁠Epidemic Sound⁠. Like the music? Find my playlist with the music I've used ⁠here⁠. And, if you sign up for Epidemic Sound through the playlist link, you'll get 1 month for free!

In this first-ever episode of happy hour, I talk to freelance cinematographer and photographer, Farrah Su. She’s a 1.5 generation, Buddhist, Taiwanese-American creator, who was born in Taipei, Taiwan, grew up in Long Island, NY, and now resides in Los Angeles, CA. Other than speaking to her about her experiences in film and photography, we shared anecdotes about our Mandarin names, the Asian diaspora, and opened up about our fears and excitements about authentically telling Asian-centered stories even though we’ve grown up with a blend of Eastern and Western cultures. Before we start, I invite you to grab a drink of your choice, and let’s spend happy hour together.

*Note: Farrah was experiencing some audio frequency issues so her natural voice is actually lower in pitch!

Keep up to date with our show on Instagram at www.instagram.com/haapihourpod

(Music from Epidemic Sound)

Welcome to hAAPI hour, a podcast for featuring AAPI creatives. I'm Melissa Cho, a 21-year-old Taiwanese-Chinese-American, who grew up in Taipei and Shanghai for around two decades. I’m also a multimedia journalist, documentarian, and digital content editor.

There are so many AAPI filmmakers, editors, creative directors, designers, performers, stylists, food bloggers, content creators...you name it, they’re all out there. And I’m now making it my fun mission to hunt them down and get to know them, while highlighting their businesses and personal brands. 

Throughout this series, if you happen to come across someone you really admire or think is super cool, give them a follow, support them, and go ahead and connect with them! All of their information and exclusive features will be available on the official hAAPI hour Instagram. And when you’re listening to an episode, I invite you to pop open a beverage of your choice, and let’s spend happy hour together.

(Send us guest recommendations or any love mail via [email protected])

(Music from Epidemic Sound)