#asiansdoingeverything

Name Dan Chen
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I’m a filmmaker in Los Angeles. My life has been a process of opening up my perspective. Growing up in the Midwest, I consumed movies as my window into American culture, and made friends in my small town through pop culture and filmmaking. Coming to LA, I became aware of a larger world, befriending other Asian Americans for the first time, as well as the larger community of Americans made up of every shade of skin color, each with different backgrounds and perspectives. I would have conversations with friends who offered that any movie with an Asian American protagonist would be an “Asian” movie, rather than an “American” movie. My life has been a rainbow of people of all colors, orientations, and world views, and it was hard to swallow the fact that many people would view my attempts at universal storytelling as niche or special interest. However, after meeting other artists who make work that speaks to their identity, I’ve been inspired to embrace the things that are unique about me. Through specificity, we can communicate intimately. My goal is to continue to learn about the world, tell untold stories, and support other artists who are doing the same.
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Name Charlotte Nam Nam
Location Hong Kong, PRC
What do you do? Charlotte has been a part-time model since she was four. With more than seven years of modeling experience, she has been in 18 different shoots. Besides, she is talented in learning language and voice competitions since an early age. From Primary 2 to 6, Charlotte participated in various competitions and was very successful. She always takes on challenges in speech and storytelling sections, in three different languages (Cantonese, English and Mandarin) and specific speaking skills. Moreover, she has developed skills in singing and acting with the guidance from an experienced mentor and actor. She has the ability to sing in all three of those languages as well. In school, Charlotte is excellent in character and learning. Starting from kindergarten, she has received the “Outstanding Student Award” every year up till now, and has received a scholarship thrice in 2012-2016. Charlotte also enjoys and performs well in physical and extracurricular activities. She has received numerous trophies from different open competitions. Unforgetably, Charlotte has received the Achievement in Acting Award for SOPHIE film (by Alexandra Hsu) from NYU Tisch Asia’s First Run Film Festival 2015. Most recently, Charlotte became the performer of the 2016 Christmas Concert “Joy to the World” with the Hong Kong Symphony Orchestra (by Ambrose Law, the Music Director & Conductor), on Christmas day at Hong Kong City Hall. She participated in soloist, M.C. and took a trial as a little conductor to play with Mentor Law. 
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Name Edward Hong
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I’m an actor who constantly obsesses over Cinnabons and is the only actor crazy enough to market myself with the fat pastry product for the past 5 years. My significant accomplishment throughout this acting pastry love affair madness? I met the (former) Cinnabon CEO Kat Cole, had a tour in their Atlanta HQ, and was vouched by the company itself to play the Cinnabon Guy in the upcoming Dakota Fanning dramedy PLEASE STAND BY. Next step: become the Cinnabon spokesperson.
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Name Tommy Li
Location Seattle, WA, USA
What do you do? I am a semi-professional ultimate frisbee player who is applying for physical therapy school in late 2017. I have overcome expectation for what I should be doing with my career. I majored in Mathematics at Pomona College, which was just a slog. Immediately got a job out of college doing digital marketing, and I spent 4-5 years in a field that was a bad fit. But I had always pursued and trained for sports with a passion–playing ultimate frisbee, now at the semi-professional level on nights and weekends. Coming from a strong academic background, I had always expected that I would thrive in the business world. But in late 2016, my career-passion misalignment had come to a head. I got let go from the small marketing team at a startup I was working at in Seattle. I spent the next few weeks thinking hard about what work I wanted to do. I had always been passionate about sports and the way the body works, so I made the decision to apply for physical therapy school in late 2017. Although I have not applied yet, I am loving my path so far. I never thought I could love school after slogging through my mathematics degree, but here I am loving biology. I am just fascinated by the molecular and and cellular mechanisms for life. Physical therapy school has changed over the last few years–it is now a doctorate program, and competitiveness has risen dramatically. On average, acceptance rates hover around 10%. Despite the odds, I’m confident that I will make a great candidate. This is the work I want to do, and I’m not messing around. This year I hope to play the best ultimate I’ve ever played! If you live in Seattle, I invite you to catch me at a game sometime.
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Name Melly Lee
Location Los Angeles, CA USA
What do you do? On paper I’m a conceptual photographer with a BA from the University of California, Irvine and I’ve worked with a few awesome clients including Google, Warner Bros., LEGO, and Harper Collins. Once you go down the rabbit hole with me you’ll also realize that I’m an imaginative adventurer who doesn’t believe in “can’t,” “no,” and “don’t.”
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Name Yihong Ding
Location Los Angeles, CA USA
What do you do? Yihong Ding came to the United States to pursue an MFA at American Film Institute Conservatory where she graduated top of her class. The films that she has production designed have been selected by several major festivals including Cannes, AFI Festival, Scream Festival, and Telluride Horror Show. Yihong’s global experiences have enriched her sense of design and have contributed greatly to her success as a Production Designer. Originally from Shanghai, Yihong is fluent in English, Mandarin Chinese, and Shanghainese. She has also lived in various places around the world including London and New York. Since 2012, Yihong has been based in Los Angeles, where she has been leading production design departments in many film productions, TV series, music videos, web series, and commercials. And she enthusiastically looks forward to future collaborations where she can continue to share her talent, experience, creativity and passion.
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NameRudeboi
Location Daly City, CA, USA
What do you do? I am a Filipino-born, Bay Area-raised musician creating Hip-Hop music. A lot of my content deals with depression, cultural conflict, and metaphysical/philosophical pondering of the mind and how our minds interact and engage with our environment/space.
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In the Field with Jovian Radheshwar
Interviewed by Lara Santos, Field Reporter

Lara Santos (LS): When did you start writing music, writing, or doing anything else you’re interested in sharing that you enjoy?

Jovian Radheshwar (JR): Started writing poems and songs around age 20, but really didn’t get fully into making music more prolifically until I was 31.

LS: What’s the process behind the selected activity?

JR: Usually, I get really stoned and listen to beats on loop over and over again, and start writing what comes out. If I’m clear on my feelings, I can write a song in an hour. I usually revisit whatever I write a day or two later to touch up. Then, I practice the flow over and over again until I have the delivery memorized. Eventually, I like to do variations on the style in live performances, as is the case with good, flexible hip-hop.

LS: What were the influences in making your work/hobby come to life? Are there any businesses, people, organizations, celebrities, etc. you admire or would love to work alongside?

JR: My main artistic influences are Outkast, Nas, DJ Shadow, Modest Mouse, and Pink Floyd. There are many others, too. My man Bobby Musgrave (bobbymusgravemusic.com) is also one of my best friends and he saw so much in me i didn’t realize was even there.

LS: What is your relationship to AAPI communities?

JR: I am pretty estranged but I’d like to be more involved. As a South Asian, I often have encountered a lot of political and social conservatism among my ‘own kind,’ so I gravitate to multicultural, anti-racist, anarchist spaces. I am always interested in connecting with AAPI folks who are radical, but I have no tolerance for mindless ritualism and identity politics that create social division. In Vancouver, I am starting to connect with South Asian Canadians who are politically involved.

LS: Where do you see yourself in the years to come? Furthermore, where do you see your role in the AAPI community in the years to come?

JR: I have no idea what the years to come offer. I hope me and my woman and our cat stay real tight, but beyond that, I like to just work hard day to day and not worry too much about the future. I never thought I’d be a rapper at all, so planning for the future to me seems like it’ll lead to closing down on life possibilities. This is why I’m really interested in connecting with South Asian Canadians, as this is something I have not done much yet in life (never been in an Indian, Asian, or otherwise ethnic/religious club in school at any level).

LS: What do you hope for with the impact of your chosen work/hobby?

JR: I plan on continuing to refine my craft and to include hip-hop education in my curricula in the future in university courses I teach in order to encourage young people of all backgrounds to embrace their own voice through the powerful and liberating technology of hip-hop and poetic expression.

LS: Is there anything else you’d like to add?

JR: I think it is very important for AAPI youth to build bridges with Black youth, Latino youth, Muslim youth, and others who will feel the wrath of white supremacist revanchism in Drumpf’s Amerikkka. Staying in your own community will be dangerous and will divide us all when we need allies and need to confront injustice. Very important!

Name Peter Su
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? Hi ADE readers! I am a songwriter and performer in LA. The last 2 years I’ve been performing regularly as a street performer at the Santa Monica Pier and recording my 60s-west coast pop album Lions on the Beach. Crazy things happen when you follow your dreams. Before jumping all-in into writing music, I was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. I had graduated from UC Berkeley and found out the hard way that chasing blind ambition only left me feeling empty. I had to decide whether to stay on the safe path or venture out into the unknown to really find my calling. It’s been a wild journey so far, with all the ups and downs. I’m really proud that I’ve contributed something pure to the pop music canon, in the form of Lions on the Beach. Some highlights were recording at Sunset Sound (the same studio where The Beach Boys and Prince recorded), releasing my album to a sold-out crowd at The Hotel Café in LA and Hotel Utah in SF, touring the country, and releasing my first music video for “Santa Barbara.“ I hope my music can be a comforting soundtrack for you on your own journey!
More Website|“Santa Barbara” Music Video|Huffington Post Article
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Name Alice Ko
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I am an actor and singer. The most exciting moment in my acting career so far was working with director Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman) and Oscar-winning screenwriter Charles Randolph (The Big Short) in 2014. I was still living in San Francisco at that time and it was my first principal role on a SAG pilot. I had no idea who I was working with but I do remember the moment I walked on set. I was greeted by Patty’s friendly face and extended hand. At that moment I knew I was in for a treat. She exuded such a powerful presence and positive energy. The way she worked allowed me the freedom to bring out very nuanced performances in the scene. Sadly, the pilot was not picked up by the network but it remained one of the most memorable moments in my career and it was what inspired me to move to Los Angeles to pursue acting further. 
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Name Alice Kim
Location Prague, Czech Republic
What do you do? I am an aspiring makeup artist, but I’m currently studying molecular biology at the Charles University. Honestly I’m at the beginning of my journey, so I haven’t had any struggles or any significant accomplishments yet.
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Name Rebecca Cordes Chan
Location Baltimore, MD, USA
What do you do? I am a Program Officer for the Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC) National Creative Placemaking Program. Creative Placemaking can be a loaded term, but I think of it as resident-driven process that builds on existing cultural assets. I spend the majority of my time managing LISC’s Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance program. Through a partnership between The Kresge Foundation and The National Endowment for the Arts, the program is a pilot intended to provide the creative placemaking field a deeper understanding of how to do arts-based community development well. I am working on specialized technical assistance plans for 16 organizations with the goal of advancing each organization’s ability to lead successful projects that result in positive short- and long-term outcomes for their community. Prior to LISC, I was an arts-based community development practitioner as Station North’s Program Director, then later for a philanthropic organization as their Program Officer. I was named 10 people to watch under 30 by Baltimore Sun in 2014, and was selected to be part of the Baltimore Social Innovation Journal’s cohort the same year. I have an M.S. in Historic Preservation from University of Pennsylvania, and B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
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Name Jeffrey Liang
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I am a queer, Asian American choreographer, instructor, artist, and activist based in Los Angeles. My stylistic repertoire includes heels, jazz funk, hip hop, and contemporary. My favorite and most common motifs in my work surround sexuality, intimacy, and sensuality. However, it’s not just because I enjoy dancing in this style, but because of my commitment that my work reflects authentic expression, free of oppression. As a cis male, I’m expected to present masculinity without fail. As a gay male, to a great extent, my attractiveness is tied to my masculinity, body type, and racial exoticism. As an Asian American queer male, I’m constantly caught between the stereotypes of being feminine and submissive and the cultural expectations of straightness, masculinity, and saving face. As I come to affirm my identities and intersectionalities, it is ever more important for me to have a clear and queer voice for others who experience similar struggles. Dance has been a huge vehicle for me to explore my gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. That’s why it’s more than just my body doing some sexy moves. My voice and my body will always be political, and there’s no way we are shutting up again.
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Name Alex Ðuong 
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I’m a comedian/writer/actor. Through the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to book speaking roles with major networks, national commercials, and recently hosted Comedy Juice at The Hollywood Improv w/Louie CK. My main struggle remains with sobriety, especially being a comedian. It’s been the best decision since I decided to leave it all behind to tell dick jokes. 
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Introducing In the Field with Asians Doing Everything! We are happy to announce that our former blog intern Lara Santos is taking on the role of Field Reporter, bringing you news from the ground on Asians doing everything and anything. Our first feature of our In the Field series is an interview with Ryan Bautista and Rachel Agbayani, President and Info Chair of the California State University Northridge Filipino American Student Association (FASA). Enjoy!

Lara Santos, Asians Doing Everything Field Reporter: How did you start this organization?

Ryan Bautista: It was already started way before I was born, in the 1980s. It’s the longest active running cultural organization at CSUN.

LS: Do you know how the organization began?

RB: I’m not too familiar with it, unfortunately. However, there are some members who are kids of those who did start it–so a couple of the past presidents have been the kids of the founding members of FASA. I personally don’t know how it started.

LS: What were the influential reasons FASA was founded?

RB: There weren’t a lot of cultural organizations on campus at the time, so a group of people wanted to start something where they felt they belonged. They created events like PCN, Filipino Culture Night, in which they showed the rest of the CSUN campus what Filipino culture is about.

LS: What is your organization’s relationship to other API communities?

RB: We have a lot of members in multiple organizations. Some are also part of the VSA, the Vietnamese Student’s Association, as well as the Japanese Student Association. We have not coordinated any events together this semester, but I know we’re trying to; it’s still in the works.

LS: Where do you see this organization going in the coming years?

RB: It’s always our goal to try and open up more of our cultural stuff to the rest of campus. Recently, we’ve been having our cultural dance practices, as well as our PCN practices, out in Matador Square and in public open spaces. We always get like a ton of people coming up to us and asking, “What kind of practice is this?” or “What ethnicity are you guys?” We’ll tell them, and some actually come to PCN to see the finished product–the actual show.

LS: Do you have any hopes for the impact this organization will make on not only the CSUN community but beyond it?

Rachel Agbayani: For me, I think we’re growing as a bigger group, and we’re seeing people who are not just Filipino–we’ve become very diverse. So we just try to keep our culture out there and keep our ties with everyone. We just want to be more involved in our community and we’ve been reaching out to JFAV, Justice for Filipino American Veterans, an off-campus organization. I see us growing there, not just as a club, but more as an organization that reaches beyond CSUN.

LS: Is there anything else you want to add or anything you’d want to tell anyone reading this?

RB: You don’t really have to be Filipino to mesh with us. It’s an open group of people, so it’s always fun to do a lot of cultural stuff, but at the same time, we are a social club as well.

Name Toby Rider
Location Dallas, TX, USA
What do you do? I run and cycle very quickly, for very long distances. I have completed 12 marathons, several dozen half-marathons, qualified to run at The Boston Marathon. I also placed at US National Finals for cyclocross (a type of bicycle race) twice. My biggest future goal is to do well enough competing in triathlons to qualify to compete at the World Championship Ironman competition in Kailua-Kona. I have genetically inherited issues with clinical depression, and some days it’s struggle for me to get out of bed, let alone muster the determination and courage to train hard and do my very best in my career. I also earned a B.S. degree from Texas Tech University and an M.B.A. from The University of Dallas and work as a Senior Information Security Engineer for Novartis, the Swiss multinational pharmaceutical company. I was born in Taiwan, and grew up in Torrance, CA.
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Name Roxy Shih
Location Los Angeles, CA, USA
What do you do? I’m a for-hire producer and director living and working in Los Angeles. I’ve been working in the industry since 2011, but my path to where I am today was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle. I started off in post-production as an editor for two years - despite the more consistent income I never felt like it was my thing. It took the universe to give me a little push by getting me laid off from my job for me to realize what my strengths truly were and how to nurture them. Since then, I have produced over 300 shows ranging from series to music videos to feature films. I have my directorial feature, The Tribe, getting released domestically in the US next year by Terror Films and I just wrapped directing a sci-fi/horror anthology series called Dark/Web that will be coming out next year as well. I am currently writing and developing my next feature film. 
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Name Elijah Chiang
Location Tempe, AZ, USA
What do you do? I’m a Physical Therapist with Foothills Sports Medicine and received a degree from Washington University in St Louis. Physical Therapy is often an occupation neglected by Asians. As such, it is very rare for me to see Asians in my clinical practice as many of them would rather take prescription drugs or seek oriental medicine. It’s not easy to convince my immediate Asian circle of what we do and the potential benefits of exercise and strengthening. I usually get the you’re a doctor? Oh…. That kind of doctor. However, there seems to be a growing awareness of the importance of physical health in the Asian community which is promising. I hope to one day go back to Taiwan and change the entire practice of physical therapy in Taiwan.
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Name Lin Chen
Location New York, NY, USA
What do you do? I made a career out of one of my passions: wellness. I’m working at a small organic beauty brand, where I manage everything under the business umbrella (biz dev, social media, PR, sales, marketing, etc.). I love my job, and I feel incredibly grateful to be able to say that. I hope to inspire others to make positive, healthy changes for their life. It’s not always easy because living organically and healthily is often perceived as unaffordable, but actually it is easy to avoid toxic chemicals (i.e. parabens, petrochemicals, formaldehyde, etc.) in every aspect from beauty and household products to produce and food. It’s all about informing yourself and carefully reading labels. 
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Name heather c lou (she/her/hers) 
Location minneapolis, mn, USA
What do you do? heather is an angry gemini earth dragon, multiracial, asian, queer, trauma survivor, cisgender womxn of color multimedia artist and postsecondary education administrator based in minneapolis, mn. her art is a form of healing, transformation, and liberation, rooted in womxnism and gender equity through a racialized borderlands lens. paper cranes, gold, glitter, vegetables, boobs, butts, and vulvas are some of her favorite subjects to capture in her art. heather also writes poetry about challenging and dismantling white supremacy that often accompanies her art. heather works at the university of minnesota twin cities as the assistant director of the multicultural center for academic excellence, where she focuses on campus climate, inclusion, and intersectionality in her daily practice. some of her research areas include critical mixed race studies, asian american hxstory and identity, womxn of color, feminism, and intersectionality. she currently has a book chapter forthcoming about utilizing visual art as a radical self-care and healing technique for students of color on college campuses. in 2017, she will be the recipient of the ACPA College Student Educators International Annuit Coeptis New Professional Award, Outstanding Mentor to New Professionals Award, and Outstanding Mid-Level Practitioner Award for her dedication to challenging the model minority myth, pipeline capital building programs, and advocacy for professionals and students of color in higher education. 
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