Yin & Young Podcast

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Dan and James discuss past/future dates, car troubles, inevitable death and the nature of talent and effort. Also...

Busy periods for Chinese Restaurants - Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, New Year's, Mother's Day.

James recaps his second date with the white girl with Yellow Fever. The girl turns out to be very particular and wants to have the guy pay for everything. 

James has a better date later with an Eastern European girl; there's hope for a second date.

There are places in Koreatown where you can rent a room to watch movies.

Applying Tai-Chi push hands principles in social interactions and all facets of life.

GHOST TEXTS Segment: Assessing James' texting skill.

Dating single moms.

James' last car was trying to kill him with the smell of burned oil from the engine.

Yin and Young debate pure effort versus being gifted with natural talent to get to the 99th percentile in any given activity. They reference scientific research and anime as evidence.

LANGUAGE CORNER

Young - Taiwanese - 歹勢 - pai sei - sorry, excuse me

Yin - Japanese - すまん - suman - sorry/excuse me (more slang Japanese)

RELATED LINKS/TOPICS:

Aziz Ansari's "Modern Romance"

Josh Waitzkin's "The Art of Learning"

Tim Ferriss's Blog

Rarámuri people (Mexican tribe of ultra runners)

Having Thai food after the recording. =)

Dan, James and Laura meet with LA Native, DVDASA podcast guest, performer, writer, transporter...Bill Poon!

DVDASA one of the inspirations that led James to podcast.

Bill Poon was a frequent DVDASA guest.

Growing up as a son of a Chinese restaurant owner.

Dan and Bill relate to similar childhoods and hanging out in Chinatown during different eras.

Laura's immigrant experience is different due to the fact that she looks white.

We delve into Bill's dating life, both past and present.

Laura attracts men who view her as a Zooey Deschanel, manic pixie dream girl type and they lose interest when they realize she's more complicated than that.

James shares his recent online match, a white woman who clearly likes Asian men.

Dan bails on the podcast.

James questions whether certain lies are better than the truth for his future kids, i.e. the Santa Claus dilemma.

New Segment!

Ghost Texts: Laura reads James's ghost texts (i.e. when women don't respond to him).

Language Corner!

James - Taiwanese - lí chīu súi -  你就美 - you are beautiful.

Laura - English slang: 

1. y'all - a contraction of "you all", a useful gender neutral plural pronoun, 2. bitchin' - awesome

Bill - Cantonese slang - paak3to1 - 拍扡 - dating, courting

photo courtesy of Gisela Insuaste

Dan and James have a chat with polymath Seng Chen. Seng is an artist (photographer, musician, writer), cyclist, and a tracer (a practitioner of parkour aka freerunning).

James gets some tips on cycling and briefly touches upon his solo ride from LA to San Diego.

Seng doesn’t listen to music while cycling because he likes to “hear myself suffer”.

Perception that minorities are not welcome to some activities like the outdoors.

Seng recently went to Cuba for a week as a cameraman for an art project.

OkCupid helped Seng meet his wife.

James and Seng review “Okja” and discuss eating meat, Koreans directing white people, and exaggerated humor.

Seng’s has been involved in various aspects of filmmaking.

Music is a preferred creative outlet for Seng.

See more of his stuff at: sengchen.com/

LANGUAGE CORNER:

James: 

Korean - 똥 (dong/ttong) - poop

Mandarin - 小便 （xiao3bian4) - pee (number 1); 大便 (da4bian4) - poo (number 2)

Dan: Japanese -  糞 (くそ) - kuso - crap

Seng: Spanish

empoderar - empower

fortalecer - strengthen

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photo courtesy of Gisela Insuaste

James and Dan discuss their past dating regrets.

James rehashes a recent date from the initial approach to the end of the date, where he foils himself with his need to control the narrative.

Being a director, James wanted to set up the scene with the perfect soundtrack, lighting, and conversation only to interrupt the mood with his constant staging of the moment.

Dan talks about his own use of social media and his online dating experiences. He also talks about when he gets in his own way.

The Thomas Crown Affair opened up a conversation with a date on ideal boob size.

Street Fighter II was more interesting than a random college hookup.

Space-Time bringing peace with choices.

The lesson of the day - Learn from your mistakes.

LANGUAGE CORNER -

Mandarin Chinese:

好馬不吃回頭草 (Hǎo mǎ bù chī huítóu cǎo) - literally: a good horse does not eat grass that has passed. figuratively: a smart person does not dwell in the past.

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Yin & Young are back with an interview with writer Breana Harris! We dig in to her mysterious past filled with stories of Area 51, ghosts, disturbing movies and dreams of Pre-Raphaelite artists. Special guest: Laura Cox returns! Our MVP RWG (resident white-Brazilian girl).

Highlights:
Live musical opening!
Area 51, the moon landing and going to Mars
Watching rated R movies and porn
Movie talk: Baby Driver, Wonder Woman
Favorite literary writers
The Pre-Raphaelites and Dante
Fate, ghost stories, and the supernatural
Gastric sleeve surgery

LANGUAGE CORNER - 
James - Taiwanese
吃飯 - chiah png - eat a meal, lit. eat rice.
吃飽沒？ - chiah pa bo - did you eat yet?

Dan - Japanese
頂きます - itadakimasu - about to partake
ごちそうさま - gochisousama - thank you for the meal

Laura - Portuguese - barbaridade - that’s barbaric, lit. barbarities

Breana - French - avez-vous du feu? - do you have a light? slang: did you want to hook up?

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Breana + cat. Photo courtesy of Breana Harris.

photo courtesy of Robert Jay Arnold

Y&Y w/ RJA: Martial Arts, Race, and Life in Taiwan

Yin & Young are back! In this episode we speak with martial artist and writer Robert Jay Arnold (孔有有). Robert is a martial arts lineage holder for Gao style Bagua Zhang (高式八卦掌）in Taiwan and a published author (links below). In this episode we get into some deep topics:

• Growing up as a black kid in Ohio near the KKK

• Martial arts as part of the Arnold family culture

• When to fight

• Martial arts as a lifestyle

• Traditional Martial Arts and Mixed Martial Arts

• Xu Xiaodong vs Wei Lei: "MMA vs Taichi match"

• Blasians kids in Taiwan

• Humility

Martial Arts Tips:

James - Try standing meditation aka standing like a post (站樁 zhanzhuang).

Daniel - Your forms are the language of your style, know them well.

Robert - Test your style in many different scenarios.

Check out Robert Jay Arnold’s novels here!

https://www.amazon.com/Robert-Jay-Arnold/e/B01EKPEK7Y/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Robert's blog "Fox Bagua Zhang":

http://warriorfox.blogspot.com/

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Byron's the director of the feature films Bang Bang, Raskal Love, and Las Vegas Story. He joins us from Germany and shares some of his life experiences and spiritual thoughts.

Formative years living in many cities and locales including a four year stint in China living with various relatives.

Asian gangs were an early focus of Byron's due to his interest in seeing a different facet of Asian life represented in media and the camaraderie of gangsters reflect his own friendships growing up.

Meditation has led to more self reflection by Byron. He's embraced meditation as a way of living and seeing life.

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Language Corner:

Dan - Japanese

残念 - zannen - tough luck, regretful

James - Taiwanese

沒辦法／沒方法 - bo hoat-to - there's nothing to do about it, no way

Byron - German

alles klar - all is clear, everything's fine.

Yin & Young Episode 15 - Film Director Henry J. Kim

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In this episode, James talks with filmmaker Henry J. Kim about his journey from being a comic book enthusiast to film director, his thoughts on the craft, and the ethics of directing.

Highlights:

Warriors documentary in the works

Comic book love and art

Inspirations

The nature of artistic taste

The Tinkerbell effect

Mutual masturbation

What are you willing to die for

The ethics of directing actors

Can we appreciate the art while also condemning the artist?, i.e., can we separate the art and the artist?

Language Corner:

James - Mandarin

金盆洗手 Jīn pén xǐ shǒu: lit. wash one’s hands in a golden basin, to turn over a new leaf, move from gangster life to a legitimate life.

(a lyric from Shawn Sung - Life’s a Struggle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsrXRsXQHmM)

Actor/Performer Judy Lei shares her tumultuous journey from growing up in East New York to Smith College and back to NYC to pursue acting.

Highlights:

- James met Judy at her one person show: The World's Greatest http://heyjudylei.com/theworldsgreatest/

- Judy is a hustling, Brooklyn girl

- Comparing Chinatowns of NYC, SF, and LA

- Smith College was a culture shock for Judy, seeing nature for the first time and learning to interact with Caucasians

- Enunciating with proper diction led to people asking her why she is portraying herself as someone else

- Her one person show dispels Asian stereotypes

- Judy had to create her own opportunities due to the dearth of what was available for Asian American women in film/TV

- Three key people helped shape her one person show

- Created her own major at Smith College

- Judy's dating preferences...

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Language Corner:

Dan - Japanese

侘び寂び - wabi-sabi - the art of imperfection

James - Taiwanese

我去玩 - goar khix chitthøo - go out and play

Judy - Cantonese

堅持 - gin1 ci4 - to persist

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In this episode we talk with 10th planet student/ jiu jitsu practitioner/competitor/instructor Aaron Estrada! Topics:

- Aaron's Filipino background

- Aaron being sent home to live in the Philippines with various relatives

- CSUN Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

- Asian guilt

- Expressing emotions as a kid and learning emotions

- Debate on whether Bruce Lee is a fighter and the definition of a "fighter"

- Desires to fight

- Aaron's BJJ origins and ambitions to devote more time to fighting

- The dream to provide BJJ instruction to kids in need for free

- Aaron doesn't casually date

- The various martial arts Aaron has tried: Tae Kwon Do, Escrima

- Aaron likes saying "garage" in a way that adds character.

Language Corner:

James - Mandarin

半途而廢：bàntúérfèi - (idiom) to abandon halfway, to leave something unfinished is a waste.

Dan - Japanese

参った: maitta - I give up

Aaron - Tagalog

paalam: let you know I'm leaving.

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