hey guise,
Many of you may know me as just the final tablist at the 2006 WSOP (fish on a heater), but i'm now an actor living in LA! Thought you guys would enjoy a personal project I'm working on.
I released a music video parody titled, "I'm Asian American" that I have created the concept for and performed in. As someone who went to Duke who has gone through the gauntlet of a typical "model minority" by becoming a management consultant, but is now involved in media and entertainment, I feel that I am uniquely positioned to give a balanced perspective on Asian Americans today.
Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9KsAw97oZY
More info (tl;dr section)
In short, the video is a parody of the song "Rockin the Suburbs" by Ben Folds, which is also a parody, in that it pokes fun at bands that write overly angsty lyrics about their so-called terrible lives (i.e. #firstworldproblems).
The video is social commentary on how I as an Asian American view myself in light of American media and portrayals. Much of what has been written about us recently has been from the perspective of a white male, which not to say that much of what has been written is inaccurate, but it's a bit biased. That's part of the reason I used this song, written by a normal everyday kind of dude (Folds) who also has a predominantly white male audience. My main goal was to give us a voice that is our own; I wanted to give a relatable character to people, to show a human quality to this object known as "Asian American".
I believe that much of the entertainment that has been conceived and produced by Asian Americans is either too explicitly overbearing on Asian American issues and therefore nauseating to a general audience, or is devoid of any lasting impact. Eventually, I want to bring stories of Asian Americans as just regular people who have real stories, who happen to be Asian American. But before that can happen, I believed there needs to be more groundwork in having people see Asian Americans as Americans. That's what I set out to do with this video.
Let me know what you guys think!
Thanks,
Doug