Hello from the Quiz Bowl room!

Today we’re talking with Democratic pollster and Andy’s high school friend Brian Stryker of ALG research.

Recently, the Democratic Party circulated a memo Brian wrote about the Democrats’ poor showing in some of the November elections and their uneven prospects for the 2022 midterms. You can read his interview with The New York Times here.

The main topics we hit on are: how much do cultural wedge issues like critical race theory matter over bread-and-butter questions like jobs, wages, and inflation; the balance between a focus on economic versus social issues; whether emphasizing “social justice” concerns could (ironically) deter Asian and Latino/a voters; and Brian’s crystal ball for the 2024 election.

0:00 – Tammy in Korea update

6:40 – Brian explains his polling research on the Virginia elections and what it tells us about the state of the Democrats: CRT, school closures, the economy and Covid stimulus plans, and supply chains.

17:40 – The prospect of Asian and Latino voters going Republican (see Jay’s pieces on this topic) and why the Democrats struggle to convey economic messages.

34:30 – The gap between the Democrats’ “white woke consultants” and the reality and diversity of “voters of color.” Is there common ground between patriotic Democrats and the left?

45:30 – How can the Democrats speak to different racial groups in a more nuanced way? What’s the role of organized labor in the Party? Is the future of the Dems just a lot of moderate POC candidates? Is the average POC more conservative than the average wealthy white liberal? And some scary thoughts about Trump 2024.

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Hello from a blockchain!

This week, Jay and Tammy talk with Alex Rivera, a filmmaker, media artist, immigrant rights activist, and MacArthur genius, about crypto.

What is crypto currency? How does it work? And why is it often cast as a right-wing, libertarian, carbon-depleting project?

Can the left reclaim crypto for the people? How might decentralized financial networks power social movements? Post-national transactions? Worker cooperatives? Global decision-making?

For more, check out:

* The National Day Laborer Organizing Network (Donate and get yourself some merch!)

* Alex and Cristina Ibarra’s film, The Infiltrators

* Alex’s film, Sleep Dealer (pictured above)

* Jay and Aaron Lammer’s podcast, “CoinTalk”

* Jay on his toad NFT

* Alex on border technologies, via “Tech Won’t Save Us”

* Crypto Communism by Mark Alizart, translated by Robin Mackay

* Murtaza Hussain on crypto remittances

* Crypto POC economies

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Hello from the 19th century!

Today’s episode features Andy in conversation with Prof. Mae Ngai, Lung Family Professor of Asian American Studies and Professor of History at Columbia University. Her new book has just come out this fall, titled, The Chinese Question: the Gold Rushes and Global Politics. She takes a story we are somewhat familiar with but presents it in ambitious, new terms, tracing three major gold rushes from the 1850s to 1900s, across California, Australia, and South Africa, and along the way, the origins of Chinese communities in the Anglo-American world:

The gold rushes occasioned the first mass contact between Chinese and Euro-Americans. Unlike other encounters in Asian port cities and on Caribbean plantations, they met on the goldfields both in large numbers and on relatively equal terms, that is, as voluntary emigrants and independent prospectors. Race relations were not always conflictual, but the perception of competition gave rise to a racial politics expressed as the ‘Chinese Question.’

This is a history of labor and migration, but it is also a book about race and racial ideology. Ngai traces the origins of politics organized around Chinese, and eventually Asian, exclusion at the turn of the twentieth century in the world’s white settler colonies. It’s a story most popularly known by the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act in the US, but it also had many parallels worldwide — a “global anti-Chinese ideology” that “gave rise to a global race theory,” as Ngai puts it.

We discuss the fine details of her research and then try to tease out some bigger implications of the “Chinese Question” for today.

(0:00): Mae’s own trajectory in migration and Asian American history and how she came to undertake this project.

(15:30): We dig into the Chinese Question: how did Mae wind up writing about Australia and South Africa? what was the “coolie myth” that dogged Chinese migrants in the 19th century? how did “free soil” and “anti-slavery” politics dovetail with racist exclusion laws? if Chinese migrants were not “coolies,” then what was life really like on the gold mines?

(44:15): The theoretical stakes of the Chinese Question: how to think about ‘race’ historically and the political value of doing so; Mae’s intervention into the headlines about anti-Asian violence during Covid; thoughts on the “racial pessimism” trend in academia and popular media and the relationship between “anti-Black” and “anti-Asian” racism; the “Chinese Question” today, e.g., the China initiative at universities, ongoing US-China tensions, and the flexible class politics of its racial ideology.

Thanks for listening and supporting us via Patreon and Substack! Stay in touch by email ([email protected]) or Twitter.

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Hello from both sides of the Pacific!

This week, a reunited, international podsquad talks K-quarantine, Enes Kanter’s Sinopportunism, and how the left should think about the “supply chain crisis.”

* Tammy’s first few days in South Korean quarantine:

* What’s going on with the Celtics center’s anti-China rants (and shoes)?

* How can leftists think beyond shopping in our relationship to global supply chains? Tammy wrote about this recently for The New York Times, with a focus on port truckers. (Photos below by Sean Rayford.)

* More on the transport workforce here—by longshore activist Peter Olney, friend of the pod Charmaine Chua, and logistics scholars Jake Alimohamed-Wilson and Ellen Reese.

While recording this episode, the Korean media reported the death of the murderous dictator Chun Doo-hwan. Here’s cartoonist Kim Wan’s take: “karma” on the left; “Gwangju massacre” on the right.

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Hello!

Guest episode this week with Andy talking to Brian Hioe and Wen Liu, writers and academics based in Taipei, with the online magazine New Bloom. We talk about the scary headlines warning of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, why the global left seems to dismiss Taiwan in favor of romanticizing the PRC, and what is the relationship between Asian and Asian American politics (if there is any)?

0:00 - Banter

7:00 - Recent headlines over the US’s commitment to defend China + Chinese fighter planes in Taiwanese air space + what is life like for regular Taiwanese people as a chip between two global superpowers + why New Bloom is skeptical about the probability of Chinese invasion.

22:00 - Why the western left reflexively dismisses Taiwanese concerns. We explore a few: PRC romanticism, anti-Republican Party liberalism, anti-US imperialism (esp. among Asian Americans), all kinds of weird racial assumptions, horseshoe anti-war politics, etc. And what Brian and Wen say in response to these.

58:30 - Some takeaways: what distinguishes a “leftist” position on Taiwan? what is the ideal relation between Taiwan and China? what can people in the rest of the world “do”? what is the role of Asian American and Asian diasporic politics for Asia, and vice versa?

Stuff mentioned/reference materials:

* Brian’s recent piece on Taiwan for Spectre journal

* John Oliver’s recent 20-minute history + summary of Taiwanese politics

* The Intercept’s recent weird piece on Taiwan

* Brian interviews Wen about activism and the 2014 Sunflower Movement

* Last June, we first talked with Brian about the “tankie” phenomenon

Thanks for your support! Be sure to sign up via substack or Patreon. Find us on twitter (@ttsgpod) or email [email protected]!

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Hello from our election hangover!

This week, we talk about last week’s mid-mid-mid-midterm results.

* Did the very rich Republican win Virginia’s gubernatorial race on account of critical race theory—or not?

* Are the Democrats continuing to lose the Asian/Latinx/POC vote?

* Should we take hope in local progressive wins? (Yay, Boston, Missoula, Dearborn, Hamtramck, Cleveland…)

* Whatever happened to bread and butter economic concerns like housing and healthcare?

Plus: podsquad digressions and a Taiwan preview.

See you at the subscriber-only Ishiguro book club tomorrow!

Thanks for your support. Please subscribe and stay in touch via Patreon and Substack, email ([email protected]) and Twitter!

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Hello from HISTORY!

This week, Tammy interviews Professor Kori A. Graves, a historian of adoption and the family at the University at Albany, SUNY.

Kori’s 2020 book, A War Born Family: African American Adoption in the Wake of the Korean War, explores how Black Americans came to adopt Black Korean children.

Tammy and Kori talk about the history of transnational, transracial adoption — and the special place of Korea and the Korean diaspora in adoptee activism and the contemporary architecture of family.

For more on this subject, Kori recommends:

* Global Families: A History of Asian International Adoption in America by Catherine Ceniza Choy

* Adopted Territory: Transnational Korean Adoptees and the Politics of Belonging by Eleana J. Kim

* Disrupting Kinship: Transnational Politics of Korean Adoption in the United States by Kimberly D. McKee

* “Side x Side” (documentary film project) by Glenn Morey and Julie Morey

* To Save the Children of Korea by Arissa H. Oh

* Framed by War: Korean Children and Women at the Crossroads of US Empire by Susie Woo

Tammy adds:

* All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir by Nicole Chung

* Interrogation Room (poetry) by Jennifer Kwon Dobbs

* Dust of the Streets: The Journey of a Biracial Orphan of the Korean War by Thomas Park Clement

* “Made in Korea: A One Way Ticket Seoul-Amsterdam?” (film) by In-Soo Radstake

* Palimpsest: Documents from a Korean Adoption (graphic novel) by Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom

* The Language of Blood: A Memoir by Jane Jeong Trenka

* Older Sister. Not Necessarily Related.: A Memoir by Jenny Heijun Wills

On November 16, Also-Known-As will host an event with deported adoptees. Register for free:

Tomorrow, November 3, catch Andy at NYU’s Skirball Center (via Zoom; register for free), in conversation with Prof. Charmaine Chua of UC-Santa Barbara. He’ll revisit some themes in his “‘Chinese Virus,’ World Market” essay from March 2020 in n+1 — twenty months later, twenty months into the pandemic!

We appreciate your support! Please subscribe and stay in touch via Patreon and Substack, email ([email protected]) and Twitter!

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Note: Apologies for resending + reposting; some technical errors earlier.

Hi from TMZ studio!

Like all of Asian American Twitter, we’ve been talking about The Loneliest Americans quite a bit. But this week, Andy and Tammy get a full-on, personal Jay AMA.

Thanks to all our new listeners and everyone who joined our Discord subscriber book club last week.

Event announcement:

Next week, on November 3rd, Andy will be giving a talk at NYU’s Skirball Center (via Zoom), in conversation with Prof. Charmaine Chua of UC-Santa Barbara, Global Studies. He’ll revisit some themes in his “‘Chinese Virus,’ World Market” essay from March 2020 in n+1 — twenty months later, twenty months into the pandemic!

We appreciate your support! Please subscribe and stay in touch via Patreon and Substack, email ([email protected]) and Twitter!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from the John Deere picket line!

This week is, um, eclectic and slightly technologically challenged. Thanks for bearing with us.

4:15 – Jay’s book is out! Thursday evening, Oct. 21, Jay will be doing a Discord AMA about The Loneliest Americans. It’s for subscribers only, so if you want to ask Jay any burning questions about the book, sign up now via Patreon or Substack!

7:13 – MSG—we all love it, even though it’s bad for us. Or is it? We discuss a recent piece (short and fun) about the history of the seasoning, the veracity of “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” and MSG’s rebranding as umami.

27:49 – TTSG labor reporter Tammy Kim updates us on “Striketober.” From John Deere to Hollywood to healthcare, we are seeing record unemployment (quitting! switching sectors!) and labor militancy. Tammy is here to break it all down for us.

56:40 – Joe Manchin is holding up the Biden infrastructure bill and gutting our hopes for a livable climate. WTF?!?!

Thanks for listening and supporting the pod. Please stay in touch via Patreon and Substack, email ([email protected]) and Twitter!

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe

Hello from a spicy group chat!

This week, we begin by celebrating the release of Jay’s book, The Loneliest Americans, which was just excerpted in NYT Mag. Congrats, Kang! Order it now for yourself and family and friends!

Then, we talk the Kidneygate controversy (from the same issue of NYT Mag) aka Bad Art Friend, the long story based on a short story that launched a million Discord chats. Who’s really “kind”? Is the art any good?

Finally, a dip into the cancellation(?) of Bright Sheng, the composer and music professor at the University of Michigan who got in trouble for showing a film featuring blackface in class.

Reminder to catch Tammy in conversation with Noam Chomsky tomorrow, Wednesday, October 13:

Thanks for supporting the pod. Please stay in touch via Patreon and Substack, email ([email protected]) and Twitter!

Kindly,

The TTSG Podsquad

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit goodbye.substack.com/subscribe