Kenneth Pai on Taipei People, Chinese/Taiwanese identity, and Asian American literature

Ray, Alan, and Renee discuss Eddie Huang's coming-of-age, basketball drama and why it resonated differently among the team. They talk about the unique perspective of the Black/Asian cultural interactions, how the basketball scenes were shot, and where this fits in the ranking of popular basketball movies. Hint: Space Jam is still the best. Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

In episode 40, we sit down with Tik Tok creator Lily Lei as she shares her jourrney to obtaining Tik Tok fame over the last year. As we are all well aware, Tik Tok is an incredibly influential video platform. As a podcast interested in how Asian Americans portray ourselves across any creative medium, we were really fascinated by how Lily employed many elements of her Asian upbringing into her skits, and how those skits helped contribute to her rise. Lily also gives us insight into her versatile background as a design researcher and entrepreneur and how those experiences helped her gain over 700K followers on Tik Tok. Before we get to Lily, we also have a 20 minute segment discussing the 2021 Oscars with Katie Quan from This Asian American Life. This year's awards marked many firsts for Asian Americans in Hollywood and Katie broke down her feelings about the necessity of the Oscars in 2021 and how she felt about the three movies that most prominently featured Asian Americans: Minari, Nomadland, and Sound of Metal. Editors note: Sorry about the sound quality in some parts, some of these recordings were done while traveling! Katie Quan's This Asian American Life Lily's Tik Tok Notes: 1) Start of Oscars segment: (1:52) 2) General reactions on the 2021 shows (5:00) 3) Deeper dive into Minari, Nomadland, and Sound of Metal (10:23) 4) Do we (as Asian Americans) need the Oscars in 2021? (20:47) 5) Lily's background and how she decided to become a full-time Tik Tok creator (27:51) 6) How she identified what worked for her audience (35:27) 7) How she outgrew her initial Asian American Auntie/parent skits (38:15) 8) Accents or no accents? (43:06) Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

It's our ANNIVERSARY! THANK YOU to all of our listeners and fans for your continued support! THANK YOU to our guests for lending your time and sharing your stories, and THANK YOU to everyone else who has contributed to the show! We've added a BONUS episode for our anniversary: Raymond Luu and Alan Duong from [The Reel Asian Podcast] (https://www.reelasianpodcast.com/) join us to revisit Kinji Fukasaku's Battle Royale. Notes: 1) The Reel Asian guys explain the appeal of Battle Royale and Sean shares some background and the impact of the movie (3:50) 2) Which characters did our high school selves' identify the most with? (14:25) 3) What does BR say about Japanese society's generational divide? (16:02) 4) We work through our strategies for surviving Battle Royale (24:40) 5) How Battle Royale's ultra-violence heightened its deisrability. (Aka the Streisand Effect (28:44) 6) If it came down to it: would you kill your best friend in high school? (30:50) 7) We draft our ultimate BR team (1 weapon, 1 BR character, 1 Asian film character) (40:13) Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

It's our ANNIVERSARY! THANK YOU to all of our listeners and fans for your continued support! THANK YOU to our guests for lending your time and sharing your stories, and THANK YOU to everyone else who has contributed to the show! In this episode, Hon Hoang returns to talk about (what else) Wong Kar Wai's Days of Being Wild and some Haruki Murakami. COULD there be a more appropriate topic for a Sean Niu-hosted podcast? Watch Hon's films and appreciate his photography here: https://honhoang.com/ Notes: 1) An extended introduction discussing the Electric Image Express so far (0:00) 2) Background on Days of Being Wild (7:53) 3) We discuss why this movie could only be made by a young WKW and what it says about his past (13:25) 4) Leslie Cheung's character: a romantization of the fuck boy? (16:01) 5) More of Leslie's brilliance and how only he could play this role (18:13) 6) Andy Lau: the straight and narrow foil to Leslie (19:57) 7) Why Days of Being Wild hints at a Haruki Murakami influence on WKW (24:59) 8) Our one sentence description of the movie (29:45) Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

Director, writer, and professor Valerie Soe joins Sean to share her creative journey and the making of her newest documentary: Love Boat: Taiwan You can watch Love Boat here: https://vimeo.com/ondemand/loveboattaiwan and you can watch more of Valerie's activist-oriented films here: Picturing Oriental Girls The Chinese Gardens Notes: 1) Valerie gives her thoughts and action items in reaction to the recent violence on Asian Americans (3:27) 2) Valerie shares her career path as a multi-disciplinary artist and professor. (17:40) 3) As well as her activist history, and how she sees the new generation of activists (20:58) 4) Valerie's thoughts on the recent growth of Asian Americans on screen and how we should think about what we want to see next. (Hint: more creators behind the camera) (28:00) 5) Valerie's experience making Love Boat (32:17) 6) Sean asks Valerie about how making Love Boat helped inform her about Chinese diaspora identity (40:58) 7) Valerie shares what she learned about Love Boat as a strategy for the Taiwan gov to spread policy (52:52) 8) And finally, what surprised her the most while making the documentary. (57:03) Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

Director Patrick Chen and Actor Perry Yung join Sean and Hon Hoang to talk about their upcoming film A Father’s Son: A 90’s Chinatown Noir Thriller based on the character’s from Henry Change’s Jack Yu crime novels. Kickstarter Patrick and Perry are long time filmmaking veterans. You can find some of Patrick’s shorts here: (I personally like Love Express the most bc surprise surprise, it reminds me of Wong Kat Was) Love Express https://vimeo.com/181145058 Underneath The Grey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6eAKmUDHSI Sonnet 48 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUEXWUTZrg And you probably know Perry Yung as Father Jun in Warrior. He Also plays the protagonist’s dad in Eddie Huang’s new movie Boogie. Notes: 1) Patrick’s history, how he got into filmmaking, and how that ties into A Father’s Son (7:24) 2) His opinion on East Coast/West Coast life as an Asian filmmaker. (14:54) 3) Western and Eastern movies that most inspired Patrick before we deep dive into a cult classic: Shanghai Kiss, (24:13) which is a surprisingly deep and thoughtful movie, and definitely underrated. 4) Thoughts on the recent growth in Asian American opportunities on screen and behind the camera, and how social media has helped Asian American creatives (33:37) 5) Perry joins at (41:48) and shares how he met Patrick and joined A Father’s Son 6) Perry gives insight into his new string of roles playing the “bad”/strict Asian Father in Warrior, Boogie, and A Father’s Son (46:43) 7) Perry answers Hon’s question on compartmentalizing similar roles with different experiences/lives and create new ones (52:46) 8) Patrick shares how he pitched A Father’s Son with a special shout out to the late Corky Lee (59:42) 9) Perry and Patrick share advice they’d give to their younger selves, or any young Asian American creatives out there. (1:02:52) Links to donate/educate/organize to stop AAPI hate provided by Patrick: https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate https://www.welcometochinatown.com/ DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

In Episode 35, I’m joined by legendary Taiwanese writer Kenneth Pai (白先勇). Professor Pai’s works pioneered the modern Chinese experience: including as waishengren (外省人) living in Taiwan (Taipei People, Crystal Boys) and as immigrants to America. (Pleasantville, Death in Chicago) In our conversation, we talk about: Professor Pai’s colorful background: born in China to a general father, migrant to Taiwan, and later America. (4:28) How he would represent Taiwanese today and the generational divide (10:53) Where a young Professor Pai and his peers found inspiration (Translating Western works and Chinese poetry and merging traditions) (17:44) Why Professor Pai left Taiwan to America (26:25) Pai’s observations on the evolution of Chinese and Taiwanese identity (28:14) His opinions on Asian American literature and his part in shaping it (40:00) And why his works adapt so well to the stage and screen, as well as his favorite filmmakers (49:00) My further thoughts on Taipei People and Chinese Identity [https://sameseanniulook.medium.com/taipei-people-and-chinese-identity-540741f093b7] Where you can watch his work: [https://www.netflix.com/title/80233859](A Touch of Green) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goi6t_HCzwg&ab_channel=%E6%9D%8E%E6%98%8E%E6%BA%90](Last Night of Taipan Chin) [https://www.library.ucsb.edu/news/ucsb-library-digitizes-works-renowned-chinese-author-kenneth-pai](Digitized works in the UCSB Library) Notes DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] Resources to report AsAm violence and learn more about how to help: [https://anti-asianviolenceresources.carrd.co/} E-mail us at [email protected] Follow us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

Welcome to Season 2! Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快樂! 새해 복 많이 받으세요 ! Chúc Mừng Năm Mới”! After reflecting for a few weeks I decided to dedicate more time on the show talking to AsAm/minority creators and focusing the conversation around their journeys and experiences. I hope this helps you understand about how to pursue your own creative passions and furthers the conversation beyond variations of “what did you think of seeing someone that looked like you on screen?” In Episode 34, I’m joined by Actors Charles Ryu and Yeena Sung as well as Writer Kat Kim from the Korean American movie Happy Cleaners. We start at (8:54) by talking about their memories of Seollal, or Korean New Year. Next (14:47) my guests share their varied journeys to become the creators they are today. Charles and Kat figuring out how to integrate acting/writing into their lives as preacher and lawyer, while Yeena pursuing a full-time acting career from a younger age. Happy Cleaners is a movie that proudly displays its tight-knit Flushing community roots, and at (28:51) Kat elaborates on how their community was the driving force to enable the film. At (34:01) Charles and Yeena give us insight into how their family experiences influenced the characters they portray (father, daughter) in the film. Finally, Charles and Kat highlight the subtle thread of religion that ties the family dynamic together (44:24) and at (52:26) Yeena and Kat explain how their idea of the Asian American Dream influenced the ending of the film. Notes Happy Cleaners is out now! It can be streamed on Apple TV, iTunes, Amazon, Youtube, and Vimeo and was produced by [https://koreanamericanstory.org/] DONATE so we can improve the show at [https://ko-fi.com/electricimageexpress] Learn more about what is being done to prevent further Asian Elder violence: [https://rb.gy/uno8of} E-mail us at [email protected] DM us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

Merry Xmas and happy holidays to everyone! Akshay Singh returns to make good on the Xmas episode he promised us way back in episode 4. Akshay and I first determine where we will record our next Xmas special when the pandemic (hopefully) finally ends (7:04) before we get into how we celebrate Christmas as non-Christian minorities in America (13:17) including Akshay's memories of Christmas growing up in Brazil and India. At (23:52) we get into the very bad/good movie that completes the Harold & Kumar trilogy--what's changed since the first movie, (29:14) how the movie reflects on the ugly truth of Christmas (30:36) and how it represents the end of the stoner movie genre. (32:43) (also, how it breaks ground by showing asian american penis on the big screen) We end the episode by debating waffles vs. pancakes (36:58) and I share my first encounter with Black Ice. (43:01) Info Subscribe to our newsletter: Electric Dreams E-mail us at [email protected] DM us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express

In Episode #29, Shannon Fong and Blake Lew-Merwin come back to revisit To All the Boys I've Loved Before: the 2018 high school Netflix romcom written by Jenny Han that notably features Lara Jean, a half-asian protagonist. After sharing our first reactions, Shannon, our resident asian drama expert (and the only one of the shares the movie's plot similarities to Asian dramas (17:04) before we have a roundtable discussion on Jenny Han's "pragmatic" approach to racial representation (21:11), and where the non-asian creators dropped the ball in adapting from the book. (32:41) At (36:27) we react to the male romantic leads and some missed opportunities before Blake, our gen Z intern, gives her take on the accuracy of To All the Boys in representing modern high school culture. (45:17) Finally, I give my hot take on Netflix content (1:00:15) before we end (1:07:36) with Shannon giving her two favorite recommendations of where to go eat and drink in Taipei, a recurring feature that listeners can always find in our Google Maps bookmark on our website. NOTES Blake's interview with her young adult author sister in law Info Find our hidden geo bookmarks here: [Website] (https://theelectricimageexpress.carrd.co/) Subscribe to our newsletter: Electric Dreams E-mail us at [email protected] DM us on IG/Twitter @electricimageexpress/@the_electric_image_express