Voxcali

Her unapologetic use of tradition and dazzle infuses Chinese heritage into her powerful runway looks.

Want to know the one fashion designer that every it-girl is obsessing over? It's Kim Shui and if you haven’t heard of her, then you’ve at least seen her work on your favorite celebrities.

Chinese-American Kim Shui was born in the United States, but was raised in Italy, which completely explains where her talent comes from. As the daughter of Chinese immigrants, Shui always felt that she naturally stood out, especially growing up in Rome.

When she got older, Shui decided that she wanted to embrace her otherness and that is exactly what her designs encompass. You can clearly see her commitment to paying homage to her heritage while still blending it with modern pizazz.

After following her parents wishes and graduating from Duke University in 2011 with an economics degree, Kim Shui studied fashion design at the Parsons School of Design in New York and Central Saint Martins in the UK.

She later moved back to New York and finally launched her brand in 2016 bringing a storm into the fashion scene along with her. During New York Fashion Week that year, Kim Shui won the VFiles runway competition which is equivalent to a stamp of approval for emerging designers. Winning this competition gave her the chance to showcase her designs at New York Fashion Week in front of some of fashion’s biggest heavy hitters.

This moment was pivotal for Shui’s career as many editors couldn’t keep her name out of the press. Major magazines like The New York Times and Vogue were itching to feature Shui and her designs and some of entertainment’s most well known names started to get their hands on some of her pieces. Kylie Jenner, Dua Lipa, and members of K-pop group BLACKPINK have all been spotted rocking Kim Shui designs.

The East meets West fashion is so feminine and so powerful. She uses textures, animal prints, and corset tops to bring out the boldness of any outfit. She incorporates beautiful traditional Chinese clothing and turns it into something sparkly, sexy, and completely wearable.

One of the biggest obstacles that Shui has overcome is navigating between cultures and her mission is to design clothing that women can wear as a means of self expression and empowerment. Some of the non-Chinese women wearing Shui’s designs have been accused of cultural appropriation, but she has always made her clothes with the intent for everyone to wear them.

In 2019 Kim Shui made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list and Time Magazine referred to her as a ‘Next Generation Leader’ recognizing the influence she is bringing to the fashion scene.

Kim Shui has perfected one of the most unique fashion styles the runways have ever seen. She’s dressed some of the world’s favorite stars, made fashion headlines, and developed a look that was unapologetically hers. The industry’s best editors know her, it-girls know her, and now so do you so make sure to keep an eye out because every collection Kim Shui drops is unforgettable.

Netflix’s biggest animated movie of the year leaned hard on an irresistible soundtrack by real Asian artists. 

KPop Demon Hunters was finally released on Netflix in June 2025 and brought in over $18 million at the U.S. and Canada box office during its very first weekend. It quickly became the most-watched Netflix film of all time accumulating over 236 million views in the first 67 days.

In August Netflix began streaming a limited sing-along version of the movie which got fans talking nonstop about the soundtrack. The full list of bangers blends Korean influences with fresh talent and the cherry on top is the lineup of Asian artists who brought these songs to life.

The third track on the album is ‘Soda Pop’ and it was performed by fictional boy band Saja Boys who are voiced by multiple music artists such as Kevin Woo and Danny Chung. It was released as a promotional single for the movie and has received many positive reviews because of the bright, bubbly, summer-song rhythm. The song’s beat has been described as annoyingly infectious which is why it peaked at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 and number three on Billboard Global 200.

Next we have the song ‘Golden’. It is the fourth song on Demon Hunter’s album and is performed by fictional girl group Huntr/x voiced by artists Ejae, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami. This track combined both English and Korean lyrics creating a message about shining under pressure and the electropop beat helped the song reach number one on Billboard Global 200. Korean-American record producer Teddy Park helped develop ‘Golden’ into a resilient track that sets the entire tone of the movie.

Then we have ‘TAKEDOWN’ and ‘Strategy’. The first and fifth song on Demon Hunter’s soundtrack are also performed by Huntr/x and voiced by well known K-pop girl group Twice. These tracks were extremely meaningful because they brought real idols directly into the film. Twice members Jihyo, Jeongyeon, and Chaeyoung lended their vocals to the musical fantasy film to create tracks that would act as the film’s warrior anthems. ‘TAKEDOWN’ hits listeners with intensity and the fight between inner and outer demons and ‘Strategy’ emphasizes empowerment and boldness.

The album not only showcases Asian talent but also forms a bridge between the movie’s fictional world and real K-pop culture. With a record-breaking Netflix release and an outstanding soundtrack, Kpop Demon Hunters is cementing itself as one of the greatest animated musical films of all time.

The success of his Taiwanese films has earned Chen Hollywood gigs as director and screenwriter.

Director and screenwriter Arvin Chen is best known for his 2010 debut film Au Revoir Taipei, a Taiwanese film that succeeded at the box office and won international acclaim.

The 46-year-old has directed four feature length films, three of which he wrote.

Chen’s most recent is Love in Taipei released in 2023 on Paramount+.  Based on a bestselling novel the romcom follows a Taiwanese American premed student who attends a summer school program in Taipei to study Mandarin.

His third feature Mama Boy premiered in 2022 at the Far East Film Festival.  The Mandarin-language film was co-written by Chen.

The same year he also directed three episodes during the second season of the Apple TV+ hit series Pachinko.

In 2013 he released his second feature film Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? which tells the story of a man grappling with his gay past as his wife pressures him to have a second child.  This is Chen’s highest rated feature on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. Chen was raised in Bay Area suburbs to parents who emigrated from Taiwan in the mid-70s.  He earned a bachelor of arts in architecture from Cal and an MFA in film from USC.

As an Asian American pioneer in television, Julie Chen Moonves has broken barriers and built a legacy on our screens. 

Julie Chen Moonves has been leaving her mark at CBS Broadcasting for decades and for the last 25 years she has been the host of Big Brother, one of the country's most iconic reality TV shows.

She was born in Queens to Chinese immigrant parents. Julie’s father was a prominent political figure in China before moving to the States so there was never any thought that his daughter wouldn’t succeed. In 1991 Julie graduated with a double degree in broadcast journalism and in English from the University of Southern California.

While studying at USC she began interning alongside legendary TV personality, Andy Cohen, at CBS Morning News. She would answer phone calls and fax distribution papers, not knowing that 10 years later she’d be one of the faces of the company.

Julie also worked at ABC NewsOne as a desk assistant and was promoted to producer of the show after three years. However, Julie didn’t feel fully content because she really wanted to be in front of the cameras as a news anchor. So, she left California in 1995 and worked for WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio. Here, she had a painful encounter with a news director that told her she would never be a successful anchor because of her “Asian eyes” and suggested that she get plastic surgery. This lit a fire under Julie and she was ready to prove him wrong.

After spending two years in Dayton, Julie moved back to New York to be a reporter and weekend news anchor at WCBS-TV. From there, her career took off as she was offered the anchor position for CBS Morning News and The Early Show. Viewers were immediately drawn to Julie’s elegance and natural charm but it was when she traveled to Kuwait and Qatar during the US invasion of Iraq where she conveyed incredible news reporting skills that impressed everyone.

In 2000 CBS introduced two major reality TV programs, Survivor and Big Brother, which completely swept media ratings. From the start, Julie was chosen to host Big Brother, but was quickly criticized during the first season for her “very scripted” performance, giving her the nickname “ChenBot”. Rather than taking the comments to heart, Julie embraced the “ChenBot” persona and integrated the phrase, ‘But first…’ into her signature script, which was one of the aspects of the show that kept viewers coming back to watch every summer.

Aside from Big Brother, Julie also co-hosted CBS Daytime talk show The Talk for eight years where she has opened up about her career, culture, and identity, bringing important conversations to television screens.

Not only is Julie Chen Moonves a friendly face on TV, she is also paving the way for Asian American women in television and broadcasting. Today she is currently hosting the 27th season of “Big Brother” still giving the world a strong presence that portrays resilience, professionalism, and representation.

Struggles with monetizing his own social media helped John Hu build Stan, a platform that empowers creators to turn their followings into businesses.

John Hu is co-founder and CEO of Stan, an all-in-one platform designed for creators to monetize their online presence.  Stan’s customizable storefront can be linked from a creator’s social media accounts, enabling the sale of digital products, courses, and services.  The platform also includes features for email list building, managing appointments and affiliate programs.

Hu started Stan in 2021 after experiencing the difficulties of trying to monetize his own social media following.  Today the 31-year-old has over 429,000 followers across the biggest social platforms. 

Stan reported $28 million in annual recurring revenue in 2024, doubling the previous year’s, and multiplying over 15-fold the first year’s.  The platform helped generate $172 million of income for its 70,000+ creators who pay between $29 to $99 per month for the service.  A shining example is Jenna Peterson who has made $2.5 million and counting with Stan’s help.

Among VC firms and angel investors who have taken stakes in Stan are Forerunner Ventures with a $5 million seed round investment in 2022.

Before founding Stan Hu worked as a senior associate at Norwest Venture Partners and as an investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.  The Chinese American graduated from the University of North Carolina in 2016 with degrees in finance and computer science.  He began Stanford’s MBA program in 2020 but dropped out two years later to focus on Stan.

Shiseido started as a Ginza pharmacy in 1872 and is now a $6 billion global skincare empire.

Some beauty brands come and go but Shiseido is one of the most legendary beauty brands in the world. It is the Asian founded brand that was created over 150 years ago in 1872 and it has stuck as a vanity staple even after all this time.

Shiseido’s story began as a pharmacy in Ginza with Ariniobu Fukuhara. He was a former head pharmacist to the Imperial Japanese Navy who developed Shiseido into Japan’s very first Western-style pharmacy. His dream was to provide affordable and effective medicine to the people of Japan that would help support health, beauty, and wellness.

In 1897 Ariniobu made his first step into the cosmetics game with Shiseido’s first skincare product, Eudermine, which became the talk of the town, solidifying the company’s place in the beauty industry.

During a trip to New York City in 1902 Ariniobu encountered the soda fountain. Never seeing anything like it before, Ariniobu decided to import one to Japan to put in the pharmacy which grew the business into the Shiseido Parlor.

In 1913 Ariniobu passed on Shiseido to his son Shinzo Fukuhara. Using the knowledge he learned from traveling through the U.S. and Europe, Shinzo looked to expand even more into the cosmetics industry and became interested in advertising as a huge selling point for the business.

Shinzo wanted to revolutionize makeup. In 1917 cosmetic lovers were obsessed with white powder until Shiseido released a colorful rainbow face powder.

By the 60s and 70s Shiseido started to branch out internationally with sales hitting in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Hawaii, and Europe quickly exhibiting themselves to be an incoming powerhouse.

Customers were fond of Shiseido because of their skincare technology. Anti-aging research and their development of excellent sunscreen formulas have kept Shiseido ahead of all the skincare trends. In more recent years, Shiseido has also demonstrated their desire to stay relevant with younger consumers by acquiring popular brands like Drunk Elephant for $850 million.

As of September 2025 Shiseido is bringing in around $6.5 billion in yearly revenue and continues to stand as Japan’s number one beauty brand.

Although it is over 150 years old, Shiseido has never lost its sparkle. Shiseido has been around this long for a reason and it is because they excel at staying up to date while still producing quality products that honor its heritage. Our great grandmothers kept Shiseido on their vanities and today its legacy is still proving that true beauty never goes out of style.

A viral single, a hit debut album, and a sold-out tour is making the young Singaporean a fresh breeze on the global music scene.

Regina Song’s dreamy vocals and intimate lyrics are persuading the music world that’s she’s a rising star.

Her breakout single “the cutest pair” from her 2024 debut album Fangirl, has been streamed over 50 million times.  A live performance of the single has pumped up her most viewed TikTok to 26 million with 2 million likes.  The single’s popularity made her Spotify’s most streamed Singaporean artist in 2024.

Song’s second most streamed track is the album’s lead “high school boy” encapsulating her early-Taylor-Swiftian lyrical voice of a supersensitive teen.

Fangirl’s success powered her first-ever headlining tour through four Southeast Asian nations in January 2025.

 “Love me again”, released in May 2025 when Song was 21, quickly earned 1.2 million views between YouTube and Spotify.

Her music career began in 2021 with the youthfully wistful debut single “Lucas”.

Song’s musical journey began at age six with classical piano lessons.  She later majored in that instrument while attending Singapore’s School of the Arts.

Here are 5 of the smartest influencers that are using their brains to help inspire and educate viewers online.

These Asian influencers have brains and serious followings and they are using their influence to school the world with their knowledge. 

Number 5: Nemo Zhou 

She holds Woman Grandmaster and FIDE Master chess titles and she also began live streaming full time on Twitch in 2017. Zhou has over 1.6 million followers across all social media platforms as she shares her chess mastery alongside lifestyle, fashion, and gamer content. 

Number 4: Miki Rai

She’s a pediatric ICU nurse who began creating videos about her job back in 2010. Since then she has documented her life as a nurse and also shares her own personal travel experiences. By putting out such diverse content, Miki Rai has accumulated over 2.5 million followers on TikTok and over 800 thousand followers on Instagram. 

Number 3: Humphrey Yang

With over 4 million followers across his platforms, Yang is the finance guy to go to if you want to make money talk easy. He’s known for his valuable advice and clear analogies that explain investing and saving. Yang’s 260-day posting streak earned him a loyal fan base and he is now developing his YouTube presence with an impressive 1.5 million subscribers. 

Number 2: Dr. Anthony Youn

He’s known as ‘America’s Holistic Plastic Surgeon’ and he is excellent at keeping his 8.4 million TikTok followers entertained with anti-aging hacks and wellness tips. Youn is a board certified holistic plastic surgeon who shares his expertise through social media, his best selling book Younger for Life and his podcast, The Dr. Youn Show. 

Number 1: Ankur Warikoo

With 2.6 million followers on LinkedIn alone, Ankur Warikoo is a serial entrepreneur, author, and mentor. He has built a fan base of over 16 million followers across platforms and has been recognized for his advice on personal finance that he shares in order to help inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and content creators. 

Whether it's through finance tips or chess strategy, these Asian creators are proving that brains and influence go hand in hand and they definitely have the following to back it up.

Navigating the vast cultural differences among Asian Americans forms another layer in our identity formation.

Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom.

Today we're continuing with Part 5 of the series Identity is Our Operating System.

Race and all the baggage that carries in American society is an inescapable burden of growing up Asian in America. That can make us believe that simply being a part of the majority race would eliminate all conflicts.

We sometimes forget that beyond race are differences of upbringing, education, and personality. Certainly the experience of being surrounded by other Asians can be liberating and empowering, but the effort to fit in with other Asians can also subject us to cultural differences that can be nearly as alienating as racial stereotypes.

Those of us Asian Americans who grew up surrounded by Whites develop sensibilities and preferences that differ markedly from those who grew up in predominantly Asian social settings. Those cultural differences and how we learn to cope with them add another layer to Asian American identity formation.

Having spent most of my childhood among white schoolmates, I developed an early awareness of race and of white sensibilities.

Awareness is conscious, but adaptation of our sensibilities to our formative milieu is mostly instinctive. We rarely acquire an awareness of how our perceptions and tastes adjust to conform to surrounding norms.

For my sophomore and junior years of high school, I went to Hawaii and attended a mostly Japanese American high school in Honolulu.

Finding myself surrounded by Asians, I initially felt a sense of assumed acceptance. Within a few days, I became acutely aware that my culture and sensibilities were very different from my schoolmates, most of whom had grown up in Asian majority schools and neighborhoods. My Hawaii experience played a big role in my own identity formation and was very much on my mind during my college years where I once again found myself in a predominantly white setting.

Vivid memories of my years at McKinley High provided the material for Chapter Six of my college novel The Summerset.

The Summerset, Chapter 6

Dear Ma and Papa,

I still can't get over how fresh and colorful everything is over here. It's almost too nice to be true. After three days of hunting, I found an apartment for $160 a month. It's a studio furnished with everything but taste, and is only a 10-minute bus ride from McKinley High.

McKinley is the alma mater of Senators Fong and Inouye.

When Senator Inoue was student body president of McKinley High, the school raised $30,000 to buy an Air Force bomber during World War II. The students are mostly Japanese, so they call it Tokyo High sometimes. While I was registering, I met a guy named Mike Koretsky who's new from the mainland and doesn't speak with that pidgin accent which I can hardly understand.

"Not a decent chick in either of my classes so far," I said.

It was lunch on the first day of classes.

"Are you kidding, man?" Mike's blue eyes sparkled as they widened in his mainland fresh, fair face. "This place is just crawling with those compact, foxy Japanese chicks. He waved his milk carton at the tanned, black-haired girls dressed in their short muumuus.

"I like tall blondes."

"You mean with big tits," he leered.

"Forget the big tits, Koretsky. I mean, these girls look like they should be picking pineapples."

While waiting for fifth period to begin, I gazed out at the sky-reaching palms. They could have been the legs of some huge blue birds.

"Are you going to just sit there or take one?"

I glanced up and there, slender and blonde, and a good three inches taller than one of Mike's compacts, was my Petrarchan beauty. Actually, her lips were too prissy and her nose a shade too high, but still.

"I'm Whitney Carson," she said, as I took one of the Modern Civics books.

The next morning, she hustled into my sophomore honors English class and dropped into the seat next to me.

"I thought you might be in here," she said. I almost expected her to add, You Rascal, you!

"How about me?" said Mike, leaning forward. "Did you think I might be in here too?"

Whitney shook her head vaguely and looked at me for guidance.

"I've known Mike longer than anyone in the islands."

She smiled affably at my old friend.

"How long is that?"

"A week tomorrow."

I met Stan Fukuda in my French class. He had only recently moved from San Fernando, but he already dressed in faded aloha shirts, jeans, and zoris, and was working on picking up pidgin. We worked on our tans together at Ala Moana Beach after school.

"Hey, that Haole girl I see you walking around with," he began casually. "It doesn't look right. Know what I mean?"

"What are you, my social director? She's a friend."

"She's not right for you."

"I said she's a friend."

The phone rang as I was putting on my Adidas. It was Stan.

"Hey, we get one pati tonight obah at da Red Lion? One of my friends da fuckah, he getting hitched up with one cute wahine. You like come?"

"Sure. All right if I bring Mike?"

"I no lie that fucking haole. He still tink he on da mainland. And his mahoo jokes. I start tink he one mahoo hisself."

"He's all right."

"Bro, if dat haole come, the pati gonna be pao-hana lie dat."

"Cut that pidgin crap. You've only been here six months."

"I'm telling you, Koretsky just isn't going to fit in. These guys don't go for Haoles, know what I mean? Pick you up at seven."

I stepped out into the thick night air scented with the sweetness of Hawaiian flora and the salt of the sea breeze. At a break in the one-way traffic whizzing along Ala Wai Boulevard, I ran across to the dark canal side and over to where Mike was waiting.

We started running toward the west end of the canal, bypassing joggers. Our feet touched the sidewalk in even strides, occasionally crunching the monstrous black cockroaches that scuttled across our way. I could feel their fat, hard bodies crack and explode, leaving large grease stains on the sun-bleached sidewalk. Our breaths came in shuddering gasps when we reached the end.

After a brief rest, we started back the mile and a half stretch. A hundred yards from the end, we raced, our arms and legs pumping to eke out speed from exhaustion. It was neck and neck and neck and neck. Then we burst through the imaginary finish line and coasted our heaving bodies to an agonizing stop.

"You did say all this will make the chicks go for me, didn't you?" said Mike. "I'd hate to think it'd be wasted on my bathroom mirror."

"Mike, you've got to get a tan. You look like shark bait."

"My skin refuses to take a tan. And I have a feeling they don't go for Haoles, except maybe the surfers."

"Take it easy on the mahoo jokes. It makes people wonder."

"Man, what is this? You're so down on me all of sudden."

"I've been telling you these things for months."

"Sometimes I envy those mooks. They're so perfectly happy sitting under the trees all day, eating poi, getting drunk on that Primo shit and trying to pick fights with Haoles. Paradise!"

It was after seven, so when I opened the door, I expected Stan. It was Mike.

He walked past me and flopped onto the bed.

"I can't stay long, Mike. Stan's supposed to pick me up."

"Where you guys going?" Mike tried hard to sound nonchalant. "I haven't seen Fukuda in quite a while."

"One of his friends is throwing a party."

"Think he'd mind if I came along?" With a strange jesting innuendo. "I mean, if it's not one of those intimate affairs."

"Well…"

Stan pounded on the door and opened it himself.

"Hey, you ready to go, Bob?" he said, ignoring Mike. Mike looked at me. Stan stepped outside impatiently.

"You want to ride home?" I said.

"So you think it'd be cool if I…"

"It's not even one of my friends who's giving the party."

We walked out to Stan's Camaro, Stan a pace or two ahead of us.

"Where's it going to be?" asked Mike loudly.

Stan pretended not to have heard.

"The Red Lion," I said. "Sure you wouldn't like a ride home?"

"Yeah, wanna ride home, Koretsky?"

Mike said nothing but climbed into the back seat. We rode in silence along Kuhio. Stan's center-parted shag hung over the side of his face, hiding his eyes. But I could see his mouth set humorlessly.

We circled the heart of Waikiki several times before Stan managed to squeeze into a space.

"Hey Stan, you think it's okay if I go in for one quick drink?"

"Gee, don't know, Mike." We were stopped in front of the Red Lion. "What do you think, Bob?" he said skeptically.

"Well, would they mind if he had a quick drink?"

"Okay," said Stan in a tone that told me that the responsibility was all mine, and jerked open the heavy wooden door.

One of the side rooms was spilling over with boisterous laughter and the thick smell of pizza.

All were local boys with dark tans and shiny black hair parted in the middle. Stan introduced me to the friend who was getting married. Then we sat down to wine cooler and pizza and joined in the mindless banter that passed for wit among the intoxicated. Mike's mahoo jokes were received with polite chuckles by a few and snide remarks by Stan.

"I told you not to bring him, dammit!" groused Stan.

"He's not bothering anyone."

"He's bothering me plenty.

Only a few strands of tentative conversation laced the air, and the pizzas had grown cold. Mike stood and announced that he was going home. Stan scowled at him.

"Aren't you going to pay for your share?" he said.

"What?" said Mike.

Several pairs of dark eyes gazed at him with languid curiosity.

"Sure, how much do I owe?"

"The fucking Haole," said Stan. "He think we pay for stuff he eat?"

"Listen, man, I said I'd pay," said Mike. He unfolded a small crumpled wad of dollar bills. "I've got three on me."

Stan made a face and turned to the others.

"This one Polak worse than da kine Pake!" Several obliging laughs.

"He's just putting you on, Mike," I said, and handed back his money.

As Mike started for the door, Stan put out a leg and made him trip and fall against the table.

"You son of a bitch," said Mike, beet red and getting redder.

Stan sprang up, pushing over his chair.

"You're not on the mainland, white boy," he cried and threw a punch. I and a few others pulled the two apart.

"Hey, I no lie one fucking brawl at dis party," said the host.

Several voices agreed that it was in bad taste and suddenly the room came alive again, blooming with gay sounds like the fake flowers that burst out of a magician's hat.

"Stay not, be gone!" beseeched Romeo. "Live and hereafter say a madman's mercy bid thee run away."

"I do defy thy conjuration," I declared, drawing my sword. An excited murmur rolled through the dark auditorium. Romeo looked like a drag queen with his smeared rouge and eyeliner. "And apprehend thee for a felon here!"

"Wilt thou provoke me?" Romeo drew as he sprang forward. "Then have at thee, Boy!" His rapier crashed down on mine.

As I stumbled backward downstage, shouts came up from the audience. Parry, forward, two, three, one, five, thrust, parry, parry, four. The rapier flew out of my hand and skidded across the stage. With a sobbing cry, Romeo thrust into my armpit and I dropped to my knees.

"I am slain!" I gasped, but the words were drowned out by the cheers.

Following the ninth and final performance of our production, which had been appraised by the Honolulu advertiser as "sometimes wooden, often absorbing", we went out for a round of drinks at the Surfrider. Then two of the cars drove to an abandoned driveway near Diamond Head.

With the headlights snapped off, there was only the light of the stars and the glowing joints as we sat in a circle on a patch of grass. The cool sea breeze and the sound of the rushing surf below lulled me. Suddenly, Juliet moved over to squeeze in next to me. She was homecoming queen and the girlfriend of the student body president. And my heart thumped me back to life as she leaned her black liquid hair against me.

"Paris, you should have played Romeo," she whispered, her siren's voice melting me into the night. Her black eyes glowed softly in her childishly round face as she smiled. "You never tried to talk to me once during the past two months."

"I didn't dare," I said truthfully. She looked at me as if I had been too forward with a compliment.

"It's a bit chilly, no?" She said, taking my hand. I nodded.

"Come on, do one OJ with me." She pulled me up and led me to her car.

A stoned fantasy, said my brain, but my heart beat too fast. To make sure I kissed her as she searched in her purse for the OJ. A faint smile crossed her lips. Then they pursed and I thought she was requesting another kiss, but she filled the vague opening with a joint. The red glow inflamed her face and my desires.

The smoke rushed into my lungs and dissolved me into her eyes. She ran a finger along the ridge of my nose.

"You have a nice face," she said.

"You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

"Kiss me, Paris." Her hands pressed against my chest, slid up to my neck and flowed through my hair as we kissed.

I kissed her lovely, flat nose that faded almost to nothing at the bridge. The constellations moved through a long arc in the rich, tropic sky.

"You're a dream," I murmured.

"Let me give you a massage." Her small hands pulled my head down to her lap and worked on the muscles at the base of my neck.

Someone rapped on the window.

"Hey, Juliet," begged Romeo, his face a study of apology, embarrassment, and determination. "We're all ready to leave."

"You guys take off in Lady Capulet's car," she said. "We don't feel like leaving just yet."

There was a silence.

"Remember Ken?" Ken Ogawa was the student body president and Romeo's close friend.

"No, I don't," she said and continued massaging.

"What's the matter with you, Juliet? Now come on!" pleaded the voice outside. But it drew no attention.

A few minutes later we heard the car rumble up the dirt road.

"I wonder how they got all those people into the Datsun," she giggled.

"Maybe one in the trunk and one strapped to the top?"

"Do you know, Paris, you and I are the only real people in the cast. The others are just actors."

I laughed and she looked at me in surprise. When she'd realized what she had said, she laughed too.

"I mean it seriously, though. We respect ourselves. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yes," I said and thought I knew.

"Good, then let's go down to the beach," she suggested. I didn't see the connection, but we stumbled down the narrow, overgrown path to the white sand that threw off a cold light of its own.

"Look how the waves glow green," she said, with outstretched arms, and dropped to her knees a few yards from the surf. I went over to the wet sand and scooped up a handful.

"It's the phosphorescent plankton." I showed her the tiny spicks of smoldering green light. Juliet lifted it with a finger and after studying it for a while, crushed it, spreading it into a green powder on her hand.

"It's just powder," she said. "Find me another." I did and she crushed that one too. Then she lay down on the sand. "I wonder if the stars are the same way."

"Crush one and see."

She laughed and took my hand. I lay next to her. We stayed at the beach until the false dawn had come and gone. We were silent as she drove me to my apartment. The real dawn was breaking when she pulled over and turned to me.

"Ken and I are getting married right after graduation," she said with a forced smile. My heart sank.

"Do you love him?"

"Your line is, 'I'm happy for you' or something like that, not 'do you love him.'"

"Do you?" The loveliness of her face made me sick.

"Don't be like that, Paris."

"You don't even know my name." I opened the door and got out, slamming the door.

"Have fun in Korea, Robert," she said before driving off.

Falling out of love in the summertime, like flying a kite in a snowstorm or getting drunk on Dr. Pepper, wasn't impossible. The key was a dedicated imagination. By September I had imagined myself in love with a caddy, a waitress, and the girl who sold tickets at the base theater. It worked. One morning, I awoke sobered by surfeit knowing that never again would I gaze quite so wistfully at every raven-haired, midnight-eyed girl with a daringly diminutive nose. A good thing, too, because there are many, many of them in Korea. My heart was out of mortgage when I flew back to Hawaii.

"Some of my friends are thinking of forming a social club," said Stan, stirring his bowl of Zippy's saimin. "Six guys from McKinley and six from Waipahu. We'll have cards printed up that we can pass out to cute chicks. What you think?"

"I nodded, munching on my teriyaki.

"You're not still involved with that Korean Club, are you?"

"They just elected me president. What's the matter with it anyway," I said, though I knew the answer.

"I don't know why you want to be involved with those FOBs."

"What the hell do you think your grandparents were, Fukuda?"

"You know you really don't fit in with those Koreans."

"I'm half Korean, remember?"

He never mentioned the social club again.

I was one of what everyone, snidely, called the Big Five, the members of our Junior Honors English class that hogged the discussions. The other four were Haoles — Mike, Whitney, Maggie Smith, and a long-haired dope dealer named Greg Zeller. One morning, Greg handed me a paper sack, his sleepy eyes gazing at me pinkly. There were several plastic bottles of tiny orange pills and a bag of grass.

Could you stash the stuff for a few days? My old man's been snooping around, and if I carry it on me the mokes'll rip me off."

"Sure."

"You can have some, but be mighty careful with the orange microdots. There's 500 mics of acid in each tab. Enough in those bottles to blow the mind of half this fucking school."

After lunch, Mike and I agreed to split a tab out of curiosity. I hesitated — chromosome damage, recurring hallucinations, psychosis — before placing the innocuously small bit on my tongue. By the time the bell rang for class, we had nearly forgotten about it.

"I guess we didn't take enough," I said, secretly a bit relieved.

An alarm clock jangled inside my stomach during ethnic studies class. A floodlight switched on, washing the color out from everything and making me sweat.

"…an imperialist society," Miss Suda was saying. "Without exploitation, there would be no raison d'être…"

"What? blurted out a fat Samoan guy. "Who give one damn if we no get da kine raison fo' eat?"

Aha, there was the cornucopia of the ridiculous!

"Do you know what you're saying?" I cried, emotion welling irrepressibly. "It's only raisins now, yes, but think for a moment. What will go next? Figs? Dates? Dried persimmons?"

A few titters.

"You're not aware that we're in real danger of being made into an underprivileged society. I mean, imagine, if you can, a life without prunes!" I buried my face while Miss Suda explained raison d'être.

"Gee Miss Suda," said the Samoan. "No need fo' screw up tings with da kine foreign language. Simple English mo' bettah, yah?"

"You're crazy to miss out on your senior year," said Stan.

"Sunshine and clean air is great for growing pineapples, sure, but who wants to sprout leaves?"

"Aaah!" he said, waving his hand in mock disgust. "You banana."

"Oahu is going to look gorgeous from the plane. Gorgeous from the plane!"

The surf at Waikiki would look like the lace trimming on a blue wedding dress. And the jet will bank and bye-bye paradise!

Your next Trader Joe’s trip may be to stock your freezer with these classic Asian fan-favorites.

Trader Joe’s has always been known to stock their shelves with iconic customer favorites, and when it comes to Asian inspired dishes, shoppers can’t get enough.

You can grab a box of legendary chicken or pork soup dumplings that are filled with a savory broth with authentic dim sum flavors. They go in the microwave and you’ve got delicious steamed xiaolongbaos in just two minutes making them one of Trader Joe’s most popular freezer items.

Also in the frozen aisle, you can find kimbap, a Korean snack shaped like a mega-sized sushi roll. Trader Joe’s Kimbap has a veggie assortment as the filling, so it is the perfect snack for when you’re craving something that’s not too heavy, but still packed with flavor.

If you’re looking to prepare an easy meal on any day of the week, the Asian vegetable stir fry is a classic freezer staple. It has an assortment of peas, peppers, corn, and more and it also comes with a stir fry sauce that goes great over rice or noodles. Toss in some protein with the veggies and you’ll have a complete dinner ready in minutes.

For dessert Trader Joe’s has taiyaki which has become a viral Japanese treat on TikTok. Taiyaki is a crispy fish-shaped pastry with a creamy custard filling and the ones at Trader Joe’s crisp up beautifully in the air fryer. Add these to your shopping list if you’re looking for a fun and nostalgic dessert that feels like you got it from a Japanese street market.

And of course you cannot leave Trader Joe’s without restocking on the chili onion crisp oil. This is the ultimate condiment that will add a crunchy kick to anything. It adds the perfect amount of spice to the frozen soup dumplings or even over eggs so make sure to grab a jar if you want to upgrade any meal.

Trader Joe’s is like a goldmine for quick and easily preparable Asian-inspired dishes, so the next time you plan on refilling your freezer don’t forget to pick up one of these viral favorites before they sell out.