May is Asian Pacific American Heritage month. A lot of people tell me that they are shocked that the creator of the Pussyhat is Asian-American. I always ask who they expected and I get a range of answers, with these attributes being the most common: white, middle-aged, lesbian, spiky red-pink hair, angry.
I am not white, I was 29 when I created the pussyhat, I am heterosexual, I have long black hair, I am generally happy.
It's nice to take down a stereotype just by being me! :)
I do think that Asian-Americans are not known to be creative, so to bust THAT stereotype, I wanted to send y'all an email of some of my favorite Asian-American writers, singers, artists, actors for you to check out!
Why is this important? Of my many hats I wear (self-help author, pussyhat of course, etc.) I wear the hat of a screenwriter in the entertainment industry and this industry is known for a lot of sexism and racism.
And it's one of my goals to put out content that makes it safer for young Asian-American artists to give their creative ideas a try! And at the same time, I want audiences to see us more, because, well, we exist!
So this month, let's all turn our gaze to these amazing AAPI creatives, many of them I know personally, so consider this a super biased list :)
READ:
Andrea Long Chu is a "writer, critic, and sad trans girl living in Brooklyn, New York," according to her website. Check out one of her recent articles that includes an analysis of the pussyhat: "The Pink: Happy New Vagina." Andrea has written in her newsletter that she is a "white girl renting an Asian name" and on twitter that she is a "white asian-american person (kinda like being a white jewish person)" which only goes to show how nuanced identity can be, but I'm including her here mainly because I think her work is important, whether it is Asian American month or not! This goes for the rest of the writers, artists, and makers on this list!
MariNaomi is an author and illustrator based in Los Angeles. She founded the Cartoonists of Color database and the Queer Cartoonists database. Check out her comic "Ye Olden Days" which I refer people to often because it cheekily shows a future where a spectrum of gender is normal and our current ways of viewing gender are quite antiquated! For a dose of funny-touching MariNaomi goodness, check out her "comic about a chicken that will make you cry." For long-form works, read her graphic novel Turning Japanese "a comics memoir that chronicles MariNaomi's experiences working in illegal hostess bars in San Jose and Tokyo while attempting to connect with a culture that had eluded her since childhood."
Angie Wang is a talented illustrator and all-around thinker whose recent comic essay "In Search of Water-Boiled Fish" just won a James Beard award! Asians and non-Asians alike can relate to the search for a dish that matches your nostalgic memory of it - is it even possible?
Yumi Sakugawa is an artist with a lot of cool books on meditation all worth checking out, but if I had to choose just one for AAPI heritage Month, I have to point you toward her ode to Claudia Kishi, one of the few Asian-American characters we had when we were growing up! And if you can get your hands on it, try to find her limited run graphic novella (I just made up that term, not sure how it's categorized) Ikebana about a fourth-generation Japanese American art student going through a tough time - it's got both heart-shattering emotion and a sly send-off of the art community.
Speaking of Claudia Kishi, I have some Young Adult fiction recommendations for you! I love Jenny Han and Maureen Goo who write Asian American characters with a lot of spunk and no stereotype! And all their books have an Asian American girl on the cover - YES!
WATCH/LISTEN:
Jenny Han's book To All the Boys I Have Loved Before is now a MOVIE on Netflix you can watch in support of Asian American representation! Lana Condor plays the lead and admits that as an Asian-American actress she yearned to play the romantic lead and thought perhaps she'd always be stuck playing the best friend! In the meantime, Jenny Han had to hold firm when movie producers wanted to change the character to white. Jenny was also adamant from the start about having an Asian American girl on the cover of her books.
Below is a photo of moi with the two main characters on the show! Amazing chemistry! And yes, that's Noah Centineo of the recent Calvin Klein ad. It's so wonderful to see Lana becoming the star she was meant to be (case in point: her amazing pink dress at the Met Gala!)
Television! If you don't have Netflix, and want some Asian American action on Hulu, I've got you covered - check out this original series Pen15 which is clutch-at-your-stomach funny!!! Comedienne Maya Erskine is half Japanese and half white; she and her comedy partner Anna Konkle are both in their early 30s and they have created an amazingly laugh-out-loud show where they play middle schoolers - everyone else plays their own age, i.e. the middle schoolers around them are played by actual kids. That conceit in itself is fascinating to watch them pull off but they also KILL it when it comes to creating heart-wrenching stories that cover taboo topics like racism, masturbation, and more.
Check out Sandra Oh (of Grey's Anatomy fame) and her new show Killing Eve - to be honest, at first I didn't "get" it, but by the second episode I was HOOKED.
Kosha Patel is a super funny actor who shows up all over your tv set, and she will be playing the lead in some upcoming shows, so keep an eye out on her! She also loves my book DIY Rules for a WTF World so I'm supremely biased lol.
Performance artist Kristina Wong is extremely smart and funny - she takes on topics like depression, Asian fetishes, inequality, - and she's crafty often incorporating knitting and sewing into her biting performances (not literally biting but I wouldn't put it past her).
Listen to MILCK aka Connie Lim - best known for her song Quiet that became the unofficial anthem of the Women's March, her first album after the March has my personal anthem "I Don't Belong To You" that you HAVE to listen to.
"Krista's Great Idea" - a re-imagined Baby-Sitters Club cover featuring Asian American artists MILCK, Yumi Sakugawa, and Krista Suh. Available as a print for $19.99 and as a framed print for $49.99.
I was gonna keep this list all women, but Asian-American male representation is NOT good enough, so here are some amazing Asian American guys: Jeff Yang for his twitter send-offs. Phil Yu for his Angry Asian Man blog. (Jeff and Phil have teamed up for a podcast called They Call Us Bruce.) West Liang for his acting and playwriting and eye candy-ness (he's gonna so hate me for saying that lol).
So, in closing, a legit issue in the Asian-American community is that ASIA IS HUGE. Some thought leaders think that the Asian-American community would benefit from being more specific, some believe that there is strength in numbers. My list above is heavily East Asian, so just think of this as a little taste of what the Asian-American creative community has to offer!
Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month!
XOXO
P.S. My Patreon supporters got early access to these resources! Join us for as low as $3 a month to tap into your creativity. And know that you're supporting an Asian American artist with your contribution! Thank you!!!
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