Mx. Asian American

Luyan Yih is a first-generation Chinese-American undergraduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In this episode, we discuss the effects of being bilingual and immersed in Chinese culture. Primarily, Chinese pop culture helped both of us to maintain our language abilities and culture.

Carmen Zhou is a Chinese-American cosplayer, resin-maker, and entrepreneur currently attending Georgia State University. In this episode, we discuss the Chinese entertainment industry, mainly focusing on dramas and reality shows and touching on movies and music that have social impacts such as raising awareness about recycling. We also discuss recent disastrous events of Hong Kong and celebrity deaths.

1:25 Chinese Dramas

5:25 LGBTQIA+ Content

6:50 Raising social awareness

12:00 Death of Gao Yi Xiang

14:00 Celebrities’ Private Life

16:30 Hong Kong

23:00 Difference in Media Portrayal

29:20 Misunderstanding of China

35:00 Social Hierarchy in China

41:00 Our Parents

Connect with Carmen:

@mintymilkycraft

@minty_blue_cos

Connect with us:

IG: @mxasianamerican

Email: [email protected]

Support: patreon.com/mxasianamerican

Carmen Zhou is a Chinese-American cosplayer, resin-maker, and entrepreneur currently attending Georgia State University. In this episode, we discuss the good and the bad in the cosplay and anime communities and the changes within the Cpop and Kpop communities.

0:45 Getting into Cosplay

4:30 Parents’ Disapproval

8:00 Getting into Anime

11:15 Chinese vs American Cosplay

14:00 Anime Culture & Cosplay Community

24:00 Making Cosplay

28:00 Making Resin

30:30 Passion

31:30 Self-improvement

34:25 Popularity of Kpop vs Cpop

42:25 Chasing Numbers

Jemarc Axinto is a Filipino-American and the CEO of We Are Heroes Productions. Jemarc created his production company in order to ensure inclusivity based on race, gender, and sexuality. Their flagship show, Tabletop For the End of the World, is an actual play podcast mixed with audio drama where players live in a post-apocalyptic America. In this episode, we discuss Asian American representation on the big screens, including The Farewell, Crazy Rich Asians, and Wong Fu Productions.

1:25 Jemarc’s approach to Asian American representation

8:46 Advocacy from allies/non-POCs

13:35 Less representation from Asians that are still connected to their culture(s)

15:15 Target Audience (The Farewell)

20:25 Crazy Rich Asians

25:20 YouTube

34:45 Asians behind the camera

43:40 Self-Promotion

Ep. 4 Journey to College with Martha Sungkono

Martha Sungkono is an Indonesian-American, first-generation, college-student attending the University of Georgia. In this episode, we discuss our journey’s towards college, parental expectations of pursuing career paths, and passions in the arts.

3:50 Asians Raised With the Arts

6:00 Martha’s Career Journey

13:30 Careers That Help People

18:08 Making Life Choices at 18

21:45 Parental Expectations

26:00 Application Process

39:30 Comparing Among Children

Nayu Kim is a half-Korean, half-Japanese American. She is an undergraduate majoring in music at the University of Georgia. In this episode we take a perfectionism test and dissect each of our perfectionistic tendencies. There are lots of funny moments!

“I can shower in five minutes!” – Nayu Kim

1:30 Planning/Productivity tendencies

9:13 Tidying tendencies/sleeping patterns

16:12 Putting off tasks/deadlines

26:00 Failure

27:30 Lateness

29:20 Parental expectations

45:10 Internal expectations on yourself

55:18 Efficiency

56:15 Satisfaction with yourself

58:00 Karen’s results

59:33 Nayu’s results

1:07:10 Philosophical quotes

Nayu’s IG: @nayukk Twitter: @/nananayukk

Podcast IG: @mxasianamerican

Support: patreon.com/mxasianamerican

Jade Edwards is a current undergraduate student at Emerson College. Culturally, she is a quarter Korean. In this episode we discuss the cultures that may have been lost in her family in the older generations and her experienced identity as more Southern American than partially-Korean American.

“If you’re trying to interact with other cultures, you need to stop seeing yourself as the norm.” – Jade Edwards

Show Notes:

1:35 Introduction

2:45 Jade’s Heritage/Appearance and its Effect on Others

7:20 Other People Lump All Asians into One Category of Asian

8:30 Jade’s Mother and Grandmother’s Journey to Navigating Their Culture vs Jade Herself

14:00 Googling Culture

15:10 Feeling More Southern American than Partially-Korean American

19:25 Boba Story

27:10 Duluthian Culture

30:00 Coworker Story

32:00 Inauthentic Asian Food

36:00 Boston’s Diversity

37:00 Privilege in Human Nature

38:45 Guilt When Participating in Culture

IG: @jadesoylentgreen

Contact: [email protected]

Support: patreon.com/mxasianamerican

Saeeda Ullah is a first-generation low-income, Bengali-American undergraduate student at Dartmouth College. She is planning on majoring in English with a Concentration in Creative Writing (fiction). In this episode, we discuss her journey towards being open about her mental illness, the inspiration she has had on others, and the taboos surrounding mental illness in the community.

Disclaimer: We are by no means experts or professionals. We are just sharing our stories.

1:00 Our own experiences with mental illness

3:20 Talking to parents about mental illness

6:45 Formal diagnoses (or lack of)

9:30 Self diagnoses

10:30 High-functioning mental illness

15:27 Riff on New York

17:10 Processing emotions through creative outlets

19:55 Changes that caused a more openness in discussing mental illness

23:00 How our partners affect us

28:30 Does vulnerability change depending on who we talk to?

29:10 The effect of being too open about some things

34:45 Dealing with toxic people in your life

Follow Saeeda: https://twitter.com/SaeedaUllah

Questions: [email protected]

Support this podcast: patreon.com/mxasianamerican