Voxcali

What feels like a trend in the United States has been proven to be a formula in China and if you’ve ever said “TikTok made me buy it”, you’ve already fallen into the algorithm.

You may not have realized it yet, but a lot of what's trending here in the United States was already trending in China. The way we scroll online, the way we shop — it all had to start somewhere.

China is shaping our pop culture quietly beginning with technology. The infamous TikTok app was developed by Chinese company ByteDance and they don’t just entertain audiences, they decide what goes viral and what doesn’t make the cut. So how is it deciding?

With an extremely advanced algorithm, TikTok’s For You Page, which is where you can discover new content, is fully controlled by machine learning. Every tiny move you make on the app is analyzed as data including how long you watch a video or how fast you swipe away.

The ByteDance algorithm then will rank videos based on these actions and push out the videos that are being watched longer and interacted with. This way content doesn’t need millions of followers in order to go viral, just the right engagement patterns.

Douyin is China’s exclusive version of TikTok and has perfected the algorithm model. Douyin came out in September 2016 and sister app TikTok was released internationally the following year, but during this time, a similar short video app called Musical.ly was already popular in the United States. ByteDance acquired Musical.ly in 2018 and merged it with TikTok, boosting its downloads in the US immediately.

So when you see random beauty products or stuffed animal keychains all over your For You Page, it’s something that already has been viral in China on Douyin.

Along with advanced technology, China also has a thorough understanding of consumer psychology and we have recently seen this with the success of blind box collectibles. Chinese brand Pop Mart has become a billion dollar company selling sealed mystery boxes that give consumers the hope of scoring a rare figure or a more common one. Blind box toys gained popularity worldwide back in the early 2000s, so they are a perfect mix of surprise, nostalgia, and FOMO.

Another way we see China tapping into emotional buying is through livestream shopping which has become a global retail ecosystem. On platforms like Douyin and Taobao Live, hosts are going live daily showing off products and speaking to viewers in real time. They create urgency with their limited time flash sales, once again sparking FOMO driving people to impulse buy.

Livestream shopping has now taken root on TikTok Shop and even Amazon Live contributing to the $200 billion dollar market size in the United States.

From the way we scroll to the way we purchase, China’s influence is everywhere but it’s not loud and in your face. It is embedded in the trends we see on the apps we use. It is now algorithm culture, not just pop culture. So the next time you see the same product popping up again on your For You Page, just remember what feels new to you is old news in China and that’s exactly how their influence works.

Dhar Mann has built a digital media empire that produces short videos that aspire to improve humanity.

Dhar Mann makes videos that teach kindness, self-esteem and how to overcome adversity.  In the process he has become the second wealthiest among the world’s millions of content creators.

Dhar Mann Studios has been the foundation of his remarkable success since its founding in 2018. Initially its videos focused on motivational content before shifting to “Stories that Inspire”.

Its YouTube channel has 18 billion views.  The most popular video is “Kids Make Fun of Boy With Autism, They Instantly Regret It”, published four years ago.  The video is highly effective in conveying the importance of empathy and acceptance.

Dhar Mann has accumulated over 60 billion video views and 137 million followers across various social media platforms – including 36 million on Facebook and 25 million on YouTube.

Its team of 200 based in a 125,000 square foot Burbank studio produces an average of five new episodes per week.

Forbes estimates Mann’s earnings will be $56 million in 2025, making him number 2 on its “Top Creators” list.

To promote his studio’s “Content for a Cause” theme Dhar Mann’s videos often include fundraising notes to support various non-profits, charities, and marginalized communities.

Before achieving success with his videos Mann’s ventures included real estate, hydroponics, and luxury transportation. In 2015 he founded LiveGlam, a makeup subscription club that grew to $20 million in revenue within three years.  His wife Laura is a beauty influencer that became a key figure in the development of LiveGlam. Dharminder Mann, 41, is a Bay Area native raised in a Punjabi Sikh family by parents who emigrated from India. He graduated from UC Davis in 2007 with a bachelor’s in economics and political science.

Japan-born Mitski enjoys critical and commercial success with forays into indie rock, synth pop and Americana.

Singer-songwriter Mitski captivates audiences with a distinctive vocal delivery and lyrics that embrace existential themes with painful honesty and vulnerability. 

She has released 5 studio albums and accumulated 9 billion Spotify streams, including 21 million monthly listeners, since she recorded and self-released her first two albums in 2012 and 2013 while at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music.

Nearly 18%, or 1.6 billion, of her streams are of the single, “My Love Mine All Mine” which former president Barack Obama considers one of his top songs of 2023.  He also cited the energetic 1980s-style hit, “The Only Heartbreaker” as a 2021 favorite.

“My Love Mine All Mine” the Lana Del Rey-esque song from her 2023 Americana-folk album The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We has been used in 2.4 million TikTok videos and 1.3 million Instagram reels. It was also used by top YouTuber MrBeast on a video of his proposal which has been viewed 150 million times on TikTok.

“The Only Heartbreaker” and “Working for the Knife” were the first two singles on the 2022 album Laurel Hell.

Mitski’s 2018 album Be the Cowboy was certified platinum and featured the art pop song “Nobody” and the synth-pop hit “Washing Machine Heart.”  The latter is her most viewed music video on YouTube.

These pop hits were a departure from her earlier indie rock sound showcasing her unique voice in the 2016 album Puberty 2.  Its lead single is “Your Best American Girl,” featuring themes of cultural identity and belonging.

Her 2014 debut alt. rock single, “First Love / Late Spring” on Bury Me at Makeout Creek carries a melodic, dreamy pop feel.

Mitski received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song in 2023 for “This Is a Life,” which she co-wrote for the film Everything Everywhere All at Once. Mitsuki Laycock adopted the name Mitski Miyawaki, her mother’s surname.  Born in Japan, Mitski’s childhood involved frequent moves across various countries following her father’s work with the U.S. State Department, before her family ultimately settled in the U.S.  The 34-year-old has cited her nomadic upbringing for her introspective and often melancholic songwriting.

New York Asian Film Festival returns to Manhattan to feature this year’s most daring and diverse stories straight from Asia. 

If you’re in Manhattan this month, NYAFF will be the place to catch movie premieres that you won't be able to find anywhere else. With explosive action movies to summer indie films, it truly is where some of the biggest talents get recognized. 

To celebrate films that are challenging societal norms, this year’s theme is Cinema as Disruption and it is being kicked off with “The Informant”, a crime action movie starring Squid Game actor Heo Sung-tae. 

Another gritty film making its North American premiere is the highly acclaimed Hong Kong drama "The Way We Talk” which follows a deaf woman learning to navigate the world using sign language. 

Screenings will be taking place across four different Manhattan venues: Lincoln Center, SVA Theater, LOOK Cinemas, and the Korean Cultural Center. Along with movie premieres there will also be live Q&As, panels and red carpet walks so fans do get the chance to be around global cinema stars. 

Special guests like Tadanobu Asano who is famously known for his roles in Thor and more recently, the TV series Shogun will be in attendance for a tribute screening and Q&A session. 

NYAFF also announced a special Vietnam Cinema Night which will be headlined by "Skin of Youth" , a Saigon love story involving a boxer and singer and the Shanghai Animation Studio Retrospective will feature restored animated Chinese classics. 

The event will continue the tradition of spotlighting new faces with the Uncaged Award that honors daring story telling by first- and second-time directors. Beyond the screens there will be afterparties taking place as well as local food vendor appearances that will keep the sense of community going. NYAFF is a place for filmmakers and film-lovers from all around the world to connect. 

With Asian cinema becoming more mainstream than ever, it feels like this year's NYAFF will be making a huge mark. Every year this festival pushes conversations forward and creates a space for underrepresented talent. So whether you’re a film fanatic or just want a unique night out in the heart of New York City, this is your chance to experience Asian storytelling on the big screen.

The Summerset, Chapter 2, shows how Grandparents can be the unsung heroes of our identity formation.

Tom Kagy

Hello, this is Tom Kagy with Unconventional Wisdom. Over the years, I've come to start believing that grandparents are the unsung heroes in our identity formation. Of course, they represent the human embodiment of our ancestral culture. So they are important for our cultural identity.

But more importantly, I think they embody some of the deepest, most important human qualities. Things like patience, adoration, tolerance, an infinite degree of acceptance and indulgence.

And these are traits that we don't really have opportunity to pick up from other sources. Yes, from our parents to an extent, but parents are torn between the desire to indulge and their desire to discipline. So they tend to pull the trigger a little quicker than grandparents and often deny their children the opportunity to experience that absolute indulgence that strengthens a person's belief in oneself.

I had mentioned earlier that identity, is our operating system. And grandparents have a deep impact on our operating systems. I'm going to read Chapter Two of The Summerset which contains issues that went into the formation of my identity.

This chapter follows where Robert Taratelli, the main character, enters his old bedroom and sees his grandmother's body in her coffin.

The Summerset, Chapter 2.

Even then her face was full of wrinkles and her body was stooped. But still, she carried me about on her back. I was four and too old to be carried, as my mother and father were always reminding Grandma. But their appeals touched her no more than the spring breeze that lifted a few strands of her gray hair. At the time, we didn't have on-base housing, and the Korean neighbors loved to stop and touch the cute American baby.

While Ma and Papa were at work the two of us ate the Korean lunch that Grandma cooked to my order. If the kimchi was a little too hot, she rinsed it before placing it in my mouth. If I got bored while eating and wandered to another room to watch television or read a comic book, she followed me with the food, waiting patiently for my mouth to open. When my parents complained that she was spoiling me rotten,

Grandma endured silently until they had finished, then replied, "Do you expect me to let him starve?"

"Good God!" said Papa. "Tell that old lady the kid's not a cripple. He'll eat by himself if he gets hungry enough. He can't always have someone following him around with a pair of damn chopsticks. When Ma translated, Grandma shook her head as if to say, What will become of the poor boy when I'm not around anymore?

She was all that stood between me and the indifferent world. For dinner, Ma coaxed me to eat with Papa at the Western-style dining table so he wouldn't feel like the lone American in the house. She ate with Grandma at the tiny Korean table at our feet because she couldn't eat the bland American dishes.

Papa always made fun of Korean food.

"Geez," he would say, his face twisted with horror, pointing down at some fiery-looking dish. "How can you people eat that stuff? No wonder so many of the KNs at the office have ulcers. No wonder!" He turned to me to bear witness, and I gave a hypocritical chuckle. Reassured of our culinary camaraderie, Papa continued, "Why can't you people eat some wholesome food, like Bob and I?"

And the next day I ate my Korean lunch. When I started school, I had to eat at the cafeteria and could join Papa in poking fun with a clearer conscience. When a schoolmate asked if I ate kimchi, I responded with a leery expression. " tried it, but it stinks," I said.

"But your mom's Korean, ain't she?" Persisted the boy. "You ought to be able to eat that stuff real good. And I'll bet you can speak Korean pretty good, too."

"I speak a little, the simple stuff." Why couldn't he just leave me alone? I put on my pants one leg at a time, just like everybody else. "You're lying, you Korean," he said. "You're just ashamed of being Korean."

My friends waited for me to deny it so they wouldn't have to play with a Korean.

"You better take it back, Rambo, or else I'll beat the crap out of you."

"You zip," he cried. I threw him down and sat on his stomach. I slugged away until his older sister in the fourth grade pulled me off, screaming and beating my head with her shiny white purse. Miss Gregory was on playground duty, and she ran over. She shook her head as she led me by the hand to Mr. Adams' office.

She didn't want to do it because I was her pet, but rules are rules.

When Jimmy was born, Grandma could only spend a part of her time on me, and I was glad. I worried what my friends would think if they knew that I was cared for by a Korean grandmother.

Sometimes I felt bad for having tried to avoid her attentions and made up for it by letting her feed me apples, peeled and sliced, while I told her about things I had done at school. At such moments, Grandma's eyes were misty and her face crinkled with happiness. Grandma was proud of the flower garden she had created in the backyard against the gray cement wall that surrounded our house.

Whenever Mary, our tan mongrel, trampled through it, Grandma became fierce as she chased after her with the sticks she kept for that purpose. This caused a lot of hard feelings between the two. There were hard feelings between her and Papa as well because he was equally fond of the struggling young lawn that he had managed to start in the backyard, against all odds.

On Saturday morning, as usual, he was mowing. Suddenly he charged into the house.

"Good God, that old woman's done it again!"

"What's the matter?" Ma asked. He glared in mute anger, unable to find words suitable for the atrocity he had just discovered. He grabbed Ma and me by the arm and dragged us out to the yard.

He pointed an outraged finger at a small patch of freshly-hoed earth that had lately been a part of his lawn.

"See that? Before you know it, this whole damn yard will be nothing but flowers!" With that ominous prophecy, he allowed his arms to flop to his sides.

"It's only a little piece," said Ma, already on her way back to the house. "She's a very old woman, so please be nice to her."

Papa scowled after her. Then he looked at me as if to say, What can you do with a woman like that? I sighed diplomatically.

"It's a shame, ain't it, Bob? I bring home the paycheck for Christ's sake, but I'm nothing around this house. What I say just don't make a goddamn bit of difference. I might as well live out in the doghouse with Mary for all that respect I get."

Mary lifted up her head at the mention of her name, and after a short yawn and a shake, trudged obediently over to us.

"The trouble is," Papa continued, "Grandma ain't got the sense God gives a goose. But she's got an excuse because she's getting old and her mind ain't what it used to be, all right? So what's Ma's excuse? I shrugged. She's hard-headed, that's what, just like the rest of them Koreans. Hard-headed.

"She knows I'm trying to grow a lawn so you'll have a nice patch of grass to play on instead of the dirt. I tell Ma, if you let me grow a lawn out there, you won't have to worry about mud when it rains. And it won't be so dusty when it's dry. So what does she do the next day?"

"She covers the yard with gravel," I answered to hurry it along so I can return to watching the cartoons on TV.

"And you know, I had a hell of a time getting all them rocks the hell out of here. I'm telling you, the woman's got rocks in her head. Just like the rest of the Koreans. Why do you think they call this country ROK? I felt obliged to chuckle. Now don't get me wrong, Bob. I'm not saying the Koreans are bad people. They're hardworking and good-hearted. But they think they know everything and don't like to listen to nobody.

"But they can't even get along between themselves. How do you think Japan took over for so long? Now, your typical Japanese is smaller and weaker than your typical Korean. But they know how to work together. All the Koreans can do is fight among themselves.

"Now you got some of that Korean hardheadedness in you, Bob. You can be a little stubborn at times, but you're a smart boy and we're going to give you the best education money can buy. Harvard, Yale, Princeton. You just keep up the good grades and I'll take care of the financial end. You're going to have that hardheadedness educated right out of you." He ruffled my hair and let a smile creep over his face. "All right. Run inside and watch your Captain Kangaroo."

I ran back into the house and Papa returned to mowing his diminished lawn.

In the fifth grade my closest friend was a blond-haired boy named Bob Wiley. Everyone called us the Bobby Twins because we were always together. When he asked me to spend the night at his house, I told him I would let him know after asking my mother.

The next day I decided to accept. After that I accepted several more invitations.

"How come you never invite me over to your house?" he asked, looking at the sky.

"I live too far away. I felt my face burn."

"Well, I'll bet it's loads of fun riding in a bus full of kids."

"It's all right. We have orange peel fights and make fun of the dumb girls." I couldn't contain the pride I felt at the one advantage I had over him. "This morning, Peter Shouf gave Carl Stephenson a bloody nose."

"My mother says I could go over if it's alright with yours," Bob said.

Before I knew it, I had invited him to spend the entire weekend and felt miserable for the rest of the week, anticipating his reactions to all the non-American things about my family, house and neighborhood. If only I could be sick enough on Friday. After that, there were only a couple of weeks left until summer vacation when I would simply avoid him.

But on Friday morning, my act didn't fool Ma, and I rode silently to school. Bobby opened his bag and showed me the orange and firecrackers he had brought for the ride.

"Nobody sets off firecrackers on the bus. The driver would really get mad."

"So what?" His blue eyes shone with anticipation as he pantomimed the lighting and tossing of a firecracker. "He's just a Korean, right?"

That afternoon I forgot my worries as soon as we started an orange peel fight with some girls who wore plastic hairbands and lipstick that they rubbed off before getting home.

After we had used up the orange sections, as well as the peels, Bobby tossed the firecracker to the front of the bus and plugged his ears. The bus didn't blow apart as I had expected from the sound of the explosion, but it did screech to the side of the road. The driver jumped out of his seat and glared at the busload of momentarily silent kids, biting hard on his lower lip. "Goddamn son of a bitchmotherfuckingshits."

After repeating that a couple more times, he muttered a few fascinating phrases in Korean. When the bus was once more rumbling down the road, Bobby led the kids in a sing-song taunt of the Zip bus driver. I again felt ill. From the bus stop to the gate of our house was a narrow dirt road bordered on one side by an open sewer overgrown with weeds and beyond a cabbage patch, and on the other side by the unbroken cement wall that formed the front of the row of houses. Fortunately, ours was the largest. Bobby made no comments as if we were walking down a white cement sidewalk of the Yongsan Eighth Army South Post, bordered by neat lawns and well-barbered maples.

When I pressed the buzzer concealed in the mail slot of the heavy iron gate, he chuckled and wondered out loud if we would be let in.

"It's like a fortress!" he said, gazing at the spikes and barbed wire atop the wall.

"Lots of slickyboys try to break in." I tried to make it sound like a joke. With the army of MPs and SGs patrolling the wall that separated South Post from the rest of Seoul his family didn't have to worry about burglars.

The door was opened by Grandma, who, as usual, was happy at my return from school.

"Is she your maid?" Bobby asked as I tried to evade her affectionate touching.

"No." In the foyer, I bent down to pull off my shoes, feeling my ears grow hot, and Bobby quietly followed suit.

"Is she your grandma?"

"Yeah. I'll take your bags to my room. That's my baby brother. Ma, I'm home with Bobby!" I warned, hoping that she had not forgotten my list of special requests, mostly don'ts, that I had carefully written out for her before leaving for school. Ma came in with a tray of cookies and milk and, according to my script, asked Bobby several senseless questions while I feigned irritation.

"She's pretty," Bobby confided.

When she had gone to cook dinner, I prayed that she hadn't forgotten about the smelly foods.

"She's different from the other Korean ladies."

I wished he hadn't felt it necessary to add that.

Our split-level seating arrangement at dinner confused Bobby. At first he tried to pretend that there were only we three men in the room until Papa made his usual cracks. Then Bobby hung his face over the little table of curiosities.

"Ooh, what's that, Mrs. Taratelli?" asked Bobby, pointing to a dish of toasted seaweed.

"Here, try a piece," said Ma, holding it up to his mouth with her chopsticks.

He looked at Papa and me and shrugged as if to say, what the heck? you only lived once before taking it into his mouth. He made a show of chewing it very cautiously, amusing everyone but me, then swallowed with an exaggerated gulp.

"That wasn't too bad," he decided. "What's that, Mrs. Taratelli?" he asked suspiciously, pointing to the hot pickled radish.

This sort of foolishness continued until Bobby had filled himself on Korean food, hardly having touched his own plate. For the rest of the stay, he joined the women outright. He didn't have to worry about me thinking that he was Korean. Anyone could see he wasn't.

The next afternoon Grandma came into my room while we were reading my collection of Superman comics.

I tried to ignore her as she stroked my head and asked me questions. Why hadn't Ma told her not to speak Korean to me? I snapped one-syllable answers. When she persisted, the strain of embarrassment and hypocrisy became too much. I burst out of the room and ordered Ma to make Grandma leave me alone.

"Bobby, she's your grandmother. You haven't said a word to her since you came home yesterday."

"She's bothering us!"

Grandma didn't understand English, but she had understood. As she passed slowly out of my room, she touched me and smiled as best she could. I reached out for her hand, but it was a weak gesture and too late.

I reached into the coffin and ran my fingers over the cool but still soft wrinkled face. I had the urge to open her lids so she could see me once more, at least so I could see her looking at me. I opened them slowly but immediately re-closed them. She was dead.

Michelle Phan pioneered a multi-million dollar beauty empire, then vanished for years before making a powerful return.

She is the original influencer and became one of the first faces of Asian representation in the beauty industry, a place where we rarely saw ourselves.

Back in 2007 Michelle Phan began posting easy-to-follow makeup tutorials that would eventually make her into a global star. Some of her classic videos, such as her recreation of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” look, have over 50 million views today. Her Barbie transformation video is currently sitting at over 70 million views and is one of the most watched beauty videos of all time. Some of her less mainstream videos, such as her Daenerys Targaryen recreation, are still uploaded with around 4 to 6 million views.

In 2010 Michelle was named the official video makeup artist for Lancôme, making her the company’s first Vietnamese-American voice. The next year she co-founded Ipsy, the subscription beauty box brand that is currently valued at over $800 million.

At the height of her fame in 2015, Michelle became the first L'Oréal YouTube spokesperson, earned herself a spot on the Forbes 30 Under 30 List and landed magazine covers for Nylon and Fashion. To add to her endeavors, L'Oréal launched EM Cosmetics by Michelle Phan, a makeup line dedicated to Phan’s mother.

While things seemed to be going well, that same year without any warning, she disappeared. Her fans were left shocked and confused as they wondered why one of the world’s biggest beauty influencers was suddenly gone. Of course rumors swirled and some fans claimed she had joined a cult after posting content that was unlikely of her.

But in 2017 Michelle appeared on YouTube with her explanation. In a video titled “Why I Left” she opens up about the pressures of fame and her struggle staying true to herself in such an intense industry. She explained that profit became more important than passion which is why she isolated herself looking to focus on happiness and honesty.

Her hiatus continued as she was dealing with legal copyright troubles, the failed relaunch of EM Cosmetics and her own mental health issues before returning to YouTube in 2019.

Since then she has rebranded EM Cosmetics and rebuilt it from the ground up with a more authentic approach and it is now a hit with fan favorites like the Color Drops Serum Blush. She continues to create and share glimpses of her life on social media where she opens up about her everyday activities and entrepreneurship.

Michelle has also been open about her investments in the future of beauty and tech as she is savvy with crypto trading and supportive of AI being the next frontier of content creation.

She was once a beauty YouTuber but now she is a beauty icon who has evolved into an even more powerful mogul paving the way for a generation of Asian Americans.

Pressure from the US to sell to US owners or be shuttered appears to have prompted the development of a US version of the TikTok app, delinked from its Chinese parent.

AI engineer Jiahui Yu shaped generative image software and more complex thought processes in LLM technology for Google and OpenAI until his recent defection to Meta.

AI engineer Jiahui Yu made headlines with his move in late June from OpenAI to Meta.  His hiring by Zuckerberg was a loud shot fired in the ongoing machine learning talent war.  Yu is among seven key OpenAI members recently recruited by Meta which is reportedly budgeting up to $300 million over four years in compensation packages to recruit top AI talent.  Most of the compensation is in the form of stock options whose value is keyed to length of employment and company share performance.

Since joining Open AI in 2023 Yu contributed to the evolution of its core AI models, including GPT-4, GPT-4.1, and GPT-4o. He led the Perception team which develops the “senses” of a Large Language Model allowing it to collect, interpret, and understand data, including images, audio, and sensor readings. Yu also contributed to the “o1” reasoning model to enable more “thinking time” to deliver more robust and strategic responses.

Prior to OpenAI, Yu co-led Gemini’s multimodal development at Google DeepMind to improve cohesion and understanding between senses. His work at Google from 2020 to 2023 enabled Gemini to natively process images, audio, and video in addition to text.

In 2017, while interning at Adobe, Yu developed project “Deep Fill” which creates correct facial features when masked, remove unwanted elements like people from scenic photos, and create unique features within masked regions. This project was a direct contributor to Photoshop’s Generative Fill which launched in 2023. A Chinese native Yu graduated Hefei’s School of the Gifted Young at the University of Science and Technology of China before earning a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Illinois in 2019. Yu’s published works on Google Scholar have been cited over 34,000 times.

Over 100,000 fans gathered at the Los Angeles Convention Center for four days of cosplay, exclusive merchandise, and community memories at the annual Anime Expo

This year’s Anime Expo has returned to the Los Angeles Convention Center and brought more than 100,000 fans together to honor culture and creativity. 

The four day event celebrated anime, manga, and Japanese culture with over 900 hours of programming so attendees can spend the entire weekend at scheduled performances, panels, and workshops. 

AX 2025 was the perfect place for cosplayers to go all out and show off their love for characters like Sailor Moon and Naruto Uzumaki.

Artist Alley spotlights talented independent creators who are building their own fanbases displaying their artwork, handmade creations, and comics for sale. 

The convention brought out major voice actors and directors to get the chance to interact with their fans and industry giants like Netflix and Crunchyroll attended panels to share unseen teasers and exclusives. 

Anime Expo’s Exhibit Hall is a goldmine the size of six football fields for those looking for exclusive merchandise or rare collectibles. Here, you can also find booths with electronics, games, and fashion pieces. 

There is something for everyone in the exhibit hall including some that feature immersive experiences and gaming stations. The Breaking into Manga Publishing class hosted a panel with industry professionals answering questions from those who are looking for a career in manga. The Anime Family Feud panel gathered teams of 5 to test their anime knowledge for prizes. 

This year’s expo also wanted to highlight the roots anime and manga were built on setting times for K-pop dance crews and J-rock band concerts that lit up the stages with electrifying live sets. 

Outside the convention center, the themed cafes, photo ops, and meet and greets with influencers and other online creators had fans lining up for their special social media moment. 

Anime Expo 2025 brought an entire community together, not just to celebrate the culture, but to also meet new people and create unforgettable memories. This year’s panel lights have dimmed, but the light still shines through those who showed up and showed out.

By day, Ann Nguyen decodes trends. By night, she defines them by spinning high-energy sets at clubs around the world.

Kelli Luu (00:00)

Ann (00:17)

Kelli Luu (00:19)

Ann (00:33)

I had to cancel my flight and I was like, you know what, but I still am super excited and very passionate about travel. And so when I thought about like what niche I wanted to get into on TikTok, that's where I decided to start. So I actually started off making travel content. And what's really fun too is that quite honestly, before I started posting on TikTok and making content, like I never really saw myself as a creative person. Like I always saw myself as a very like data, logistical, numbers type of girl.

But when I started scrolling on TikTok, I was like, wait, I think that I can give this a try. And it felt like a very, kind of like a low effort or a low entry barrier to creativity. And I think that since then, it's just really blossomed from there. It's really given me the confidence, honestly, in my own creative voice and just creating different types of content and also different types of art from there too.

Kelli Luu (01:43)

Ann (01:50)

Kelli Luu (01:53)

Okay.

Ooh.

Ann (02:19)

Kelli Luu (02:40)

So COVID kind of in a way almost helped you with the startup, huh? yeah, yeah. I feel like a lot of people have the same like same kind of experience with COVID. they took advantage of it, which is awesome to see. So growing up, did you travel a lot? also did you always love music when you're growing up?

Ann (02:46)

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah, so growing up, my parents were, or my family was super fortunate. My parents did always kind of make it like a priority for us to travel as a family together at least once a year. Really good bonding. And I also think like both of my parents, so they're Vietnamese immigrants. And I think for them, know, like being kind of displaced here in America, like they felt like they had such a big lifestyle change. And they wanted my brother and I to kind of grow up with that.

Kelli Luu (03:14)

Ann (03:31)

I was young, I always remember him telling me about his musician dreams. He put me and my brother, every Asian kid I guess, in piano. Yeah, so I think music has always been a really big part of my relationship with my dad. as I got older too, professionally, I have worked in the music festival industry, I've worked at record labels, and then I used to work in music tech.

And then I think naturally for me was like, okay, how do I keep getting closer to music in my passions as well?

Kelli Luu (04:25)

Ann (04:30)

Yeah, so I moved to New York about three years ago for work. Like I mentioned before, yeah, pretty recent, I guess. was born and raised in LA. I grew up in El Monte in the 626 San Gabriel Valley neighborhood, and I loved growing up there. I still, of course, call it home. And then I went to college in LA too, and then I went to work in Santa Monica after college, and I was like, okay, I've hit the end of the 10 freeway basically, once I started working at Santa Monica.

Kelli Luu (04:38)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah. ⁓

Ann (05:02)

and so I was like, okay, I think it's time for something new. And so I had applied for jobs, not really thinking about where I would end up. think I was just looking for a company that was super global and I ended up landing an opportunity here in New York and I've been there ever since.

Kelli Luu (05:17)

Ann (05:30)

Kelli Luu (05:33)

Night.

Ann (05:54)

my friends too started to really think about how can we put our own shows, like what are things we can learn from each other in terms of DJing and yeah, now two years later I'm like DJing at like all the clubs that I used to go to when I first moved to New York and now I have an awesome community here.

Kelli Luu (06:35)

Ann (06:42)

Kelli Luu (07:00)

Ann (07:08)

Kelli Luu (07:20)

Ann (07:34)

Kelli Luu (07:37)

did you know already how to actually DJ or did you have to learn that?

Ann (07:45)

Kelli Luu (07:54)

Ann (08:11)

Kelli Luu (08:32)

Okay, so how do you prepare for a set? Do you still get butterflies at all before performing?

Ann (08:40)

Kelli Luu (08:50)

okay.

Ann (09:07)

Kelli Luu (09:34)

Ann (09:45)

Kelli Luu (09:48)

Mm, mm-hmm.

Ann (10:10)

Kelli Luu (10:30)

Ann (10:37)

Kelli Luu (10:42)

Ann (10:45)

Yeah,

no, it's so funny. one of my other friends said, you know, I always look at you when you're DJing and you look so calm. And I was like, girl, I'm not so calm. it's me, like, prepping the whole week prior to make sure I, look okay on stage. Yeah, but it's so fun.

Kelli Luu (11:07)

I bet, yeah. So do you ever get tired being in the nightlife like that often?

Ann (11:20)

Kelli Luu (11:32)

Ann (11:47)

Kelli Luu (12:11)

Ann (12:24)

Kelli Luu (12:29)

Ann (12:30)

yeah, 100%.

And I do think that, I mean there definitely is money to be made, but I think that if you want to make money as a DJ, it's just a harder grind, I would say. I think that I do it just because I love to set a vibe, like for my own love of music. I make decent money. I always joke that I DJ on the side so that can pay for my dog's lifestyle here in New York.

Kelli Luu (12:39)

Ann (12:58)

Kelli Luu (13:12)

Ann (13:25)

Kelli Luu (13:38)

So what would you say is your favorite city to perform in?

Ann (13:45)

Kelli Luu (13:46)

Ann (13:50)

Kelli Luu (14:02)

Ann (14:03)

and it was so fun too, because in San Jose, my family is there, huge Vietnamese community there. my family was there, my college friends pulled up too. And so that was really awesome because they don't really get to see me play because I live all the way in New York. So being able to play for a new crowd, but also to my direct friends and family meant a lot for me. And then this year too, I got to play in a club in Tokyo, which was really fun.

Kelli Luu (14:26)

Ann (14:26)

So that was like the first time they saw me DJ and it was like in Tokyo and it was like the best vibes ever. So I think, you know, it's, funny cause like, yeah, I started the year kind of worried about like, am I going to get as many gigs if I'm like more strict, but actually it like turned out that this year ended up being like the most meaningful shows to me emotionally. so I'm really thankful for that.

Kelli Luu (14:49)

Nice, okay. performing in Tokyo, that's a huge thing. That's crazy, that's awesome. I bet, yeah, for sure. So what's something a normal person wouldn't understand at all about this lifestyle?

Ann (15:11)

That's a tough question. it's a tough question only because I know that I'm a super open book, so if any time anyone has questions, I'll break it down for you in the most simplest of forms. I think maybe what we talked about before, how much time goes into prepping DJ sets prior, a lot of people, myself included, we don't really…

just press play, but it's like you do have to kind of come in with like a strategy or a game plan, I guess, to make sure that it's a good vibe for everyone. But also to do what I really love about DJing is that you come with a strategy or vibe, but like it can totally change, right? So you also have to be pretty adaptable if like, okay, I wanted to play this, but the crowd doesn't really like that. Okay, like let's switch it up on them and make it more exciting for them. So like, I think that like kind of freestyle element too makes it super exciting of like.

And it gives you kind of like the confidence of like, my gosh, yes, killed it. You know, cause to like pivot quite quickly.

Kelli Luu (16:22)

Ann (16:38)

please, I wanna put my phone down, you know? Yeah, so I think now I definitely post content maybe once or twice a week, just to kind of keep up, honestly. And it's really good for me too to practice posting content for my full-time job, but also for DJing as well, because it's just like a creative muscle to flex to, to kind of think about what is it that a creator goes through or what is it that a creative kind of goes through to think about like, how do you connect with an audience?

on like a weekly basis, yeah.

Kelli Luu (17:28)

Yeah, for sure. Okay, so ⁓ just as a woman in the DJ scene, have you ever been treated differently at gigs and venues?

Ann (17:38)

and you aren't. being a girl isn't the reason, right? But I, yeah, but I will say too, and this is something that me and my like best friend who's also a DJ, we talked about all the time, is like there's, because you're a girl, there is a certain kindness that you have to carry, right? Cause if you're like mean to people, they'll automatically call you a B word, right? And you have to be kind of kind to everyone. So I think that is probably like the hardest thing because

Kelli Luu (18:06)

Ann (18:32)

Kelli Luu (18:54)

Do you think your Asian heritage at all influences your work or just the way you go about your business mindset?

Ann (19:05)

girls that I knew or friends that I had that listen to K-pop. so it was always something that we kind of like key keyed about in private, but now it's really fun that I'm able to kind of bring that K-pop stand this into the clubs now, which is really awesome. Like blending that with kind of like an EDM style, which has been really cool. Like introducing it to new audiences. Even my headline show I did in San Jose. So I had mentioned my family and friends were there. And I remember being a little bit nervous because I was like, Hey, like this is like.

Kpop headline show just wanted you to know like I know you guys don't listen to kpop too much and they were like of course like we'll go to We'll like go because we want to support you and I was like, okay cool And then the end of the night they were like that was awesome I've never listened to kpop but that was so much fun and now it got me really excited to Learn more about kpop and listen to it and so I'm Vietnamese and I'll like throw in some Vina house in there, too so it's just yeah, really fun to like be able to I don't know bring in a new audience to

Kelli Luu (20:14)

Ann (20:18)

Kelli Luu (20:26)

Ann (20:35)

Kelli Luu (20:37)

Uh-huh.

Ann (21:00)

Kelli Luu (21:11)

Ann (21:23)

Kelli Luu (21:34)

All right, so I have just one more question for you. Where do you see yourself in the next five years? Do think you're still gonna be DJing?

Ann (21:48)

Kelli Luu (21:56)

Ann (22:13)

Kelli Luu (22:27)

Ann (22:31)

at the outdoor stage. ⁓ She was playing and she was like, I think it would be really fun for us to play back to back. And I was like, I'm down. So we're doing that. We do that pretty often. Our like back to back name is BT bunnies, cause we both really like bunnies. Yeah, it's super cute. so my residency show I mentioned. I play at Berlin under A once a month and it's really awesome. They kind of just let me do.

Kelli Luu (23:07)

Ann (23:16)

Kelli Luu (23:22)

yeah. It's happening.

Mm-hmm.

Awesome, okay. When was the last one?

Ann (23:45)

one is in July 12th. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelli Luu (23:48)

All right. Well, thank you so much, Ann for sharing your story with us today. I really appreciate your time.

Ann (23:57)