The Career Arc: Jimmy O. Yang
“Till this day I still run into weird situations just for being Asian.” -Jimmy O. Yang (The Arsenio Show)
“It’s great to see all these ethnicities here in America just all hanging out, it’s great. Whatever ethnicity you are, yes, absolutely you have to be proud of who you are man. I am really really proud to be Asian I got to say…” -Jimmy O. Yang (The Arsenio Show)
If there is someone that is making their mark in America and letting their voice be heard, that person would be Jimmy O. Yang. Yang, who is a Chinese-American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer has been gaining much popularity as he progresses in his career. Born in Hong Kong and later emigrated to the United States with his parents, Jimmy moved to the U.S. for a better education. Through that change, Jimmy eventually attended the University of California San Diego. He later made his debut on screen of the series 2 Broke Girls on CBS, but what made him stand out from the crowd would be his stand-up comedy bit on The Arsenio Hall Show, where he broke out laughter all across the audience. Even from that Jimmy O. Yang knows how to keep playing in the acting industry because he has been one of the featured roles on the hit HBO series Silicon Valley playing the character Jian-Yang. As an Asian-American actor, he is known for his refreshingly comedic style and adds in his personal story of how he has lived his life in America and how he has transitioned from his life in China. As a standup comedian with so much potential, he has been making his statement, that even though he is Asian, he has made his platform in America which was a foreign country to him in the beginning. He jokes about his race and even comes to terms that he is even at a disadvantage and advantage at times. As an Asian-American myself (even though I am not Chinese), being a Korean-American I can relate as to what Jimmy O. Yang has to say. He presents himself to his audience by making jokes upon himself and letting everyone witness his own sense of style.
I recommend watching his segment which I will link here:
This segment really does bring out the best of Jimmy because he is doing what he does best and what he loves to do which is comedy and making people laugh. From the start, you can tell that Jimmy has this certain accent that in a way makes him sound like a gangster which adds on to his comedic style. He touches base on how his race as played a factor in his life and I too have been through similar experiences as Jimmy, being racial discrimination.
From moving to America at the age of 13, Jimmy did not know any English at all until he started to watch B.E.T. Rap City. By watching television, he adapted to the English language and began to break his language barrier. He mentions how he is a “mediocre Asian at best” because he could not get into Yale, UCLA, or USC where he wanted to go so he ended up going to U.C San Diego as an economics major because it was the easiest major that would “still please a foreign parent.” There is always a sense of “living the American Dream,” and that is what he yearned for, but on the other half of that spectrum was the fact that he had to please his parents. Usually, Asian parents have a high standard of their children and have set goals for what they should accomplish in their life, and it can put pressure onto the children why may want to take a different path. After five years of college majoring in economics, Jimmy hated what he was doing and wanted to figure out what his place in what career he wanted to firmly stand on. At the commencement speech of his graduation, the speaker was Mike Judge, the creator of the television series Beavis and Butt-Head and co-founder of the television series King of the Hill. Jimmy mentions how Mike gave him the inspiration to find his passion and to seek out the career that he is truly searching for. He talks how Mike graduated with a physics major and started working in Silicon Valley then ended up quitting because he hated his job and picked up comedy as his new career. Jimmy felt that he was in the same boat as Mike and mentions how after the commencement speech Jimmy didn’t know that it would lead him into acting then soon into his comedic lifestyle.
Recently as his first ever appearance on a talk show, he came on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Here he mentions his story coming from Hong Kong and trying to figure out what he wanted to do in his life that would please him and not follow what his parents wanted for him. He came dressed up in a navy suit, and right as he is walking across the stage he unbuttons his shirt to reveal to the audience on the right side of the interior of the suit is a bright shiny American flag and on the left side the face of a bald eagle. He opens up his jacket and reveals that he is “trying to be American here.”
While watching that segment I was quite baffled because I thought it just came out of nowhere and how random it was, but I realized that it was all because he has a new novel he released this year called How to American: An Immigrant’s guide to Disappointing Your Parents. Reading through reviews, I personally would like to read this someday when I gather more time because the majority of people that read the book honestly loved his story and how he is increasing his steps as an Asian-American in the American industry.
Jimmy mentions how he got into standup, and it all started when he first came to America. Before when he was in China, he states that stand-up there is not really a thing, but it changed when he wanted various things one of which being BET Comic View. After watching this, he says that BET “is amazing” and how he has “never seen anything like this.” Jimmy also states in an interview “And, well, first off, I couldn’t really understand what was going on, you know? So, I learned that. And I thought, “If I can understand that, I can understand English.”
Unlike Jimmy, who was born in another country and moving to America, I was born in America. As an Asian-American myself, English was my first language, and at a young age I did not figure out what ethnicities were until a certain age where I grasped who I was and also my culture. Going to a predominantly white school for the majority of my life I didn’t have anyone who I could connect to, and I wasn’t as fluent in the native language that I wanted to be, being Korean. I can relate to Jimmy’s sense of being in America and trying to adjust to how everything works, and how people are can still be racist towards you. Stereotypes these days in the world have made their mark and by trying to spread the awareness of this Jimmy addresses it through his comedic style. Through the few stand-up sketches that Jimmy O. Yang is in, he distinctly brings his ethnicity into the light and lets everyone have a good laugh.
I would say that Jimmy’s life has been through a monomyth, or a hero’s journey because his life has turned around in a circle but he has just begun his journey. Through the cycle, as shown below, I interpret Jimmy being called to his adventure when coming to America and learning English by watching television. As he is beginning his transformation, he is starting to learn more about what he wants to do in his life and learn more about comedy. His mentor became Mike Judge who spoke at Jimmy’s college graduation, and by then Jimmy didn’t know that he would go into acting and later comedy. Through his life, Jimmy has had to deal with setbacks which included his parents not supporting his comedic/acting career, being left out because of his race, and being confused as to what he truly wanted to pursue. He became confused and stuck, but after realizing his calling for comedy, he transforms into a confident person and starts to make his platform in America being proud as an Asian immigrant.
“We all go through the same experience to some degree. When I became an American citizen, nothing’s changed because I’m still Asian. Nobody’s going to look at me as an American before an Asian person ― at least for now.” — Jimmy O. Yang (Huff Post interview)
If you go up to someone and ask “Do you know who Jimmy O. Yang is?” they would probably reply back saying they do not know him, and some may even reply that he is that Asian guy on the series Silicon Valley. But, these days there are not much spotlight of Asian American actors in general, but there are some that are known in the film or comedic industry. Jimmy on the other hand I think is a special case because he has this certain aura that makes him noticeable. Apart from the fact where he has long hair and says that people mistake him for a “pretty Asian women” his awareness about immigration and the fact of the matter which is that he wants to make a statement about Asian Americans in general shows how much he cares. In an interview with Texas Travesty, Jimmy was asked: “ How does coming from a different country affect your comedy?” He mentions,
“I think you have to experience life and then pull certain experiences into your act and your character’s life, whoever you play, so you’re full. So you can understand and relate to what’s going on…I feel like you have to live your life, and lucky for me, I had that experience when I was young. And now, y’know, I try to still do different things and experience different things so that there’s stuff that I can pull from.”
I liked his answer and it goes to show that he is just being true to himself and wants others to know that life is unexpected at times but all you need to do is try and let things work by itself. He goes on to mention how Asian parents have that set mind where they want us to become doctors, but he didn’t follow their plans he followed his.
Learning about Jimmy’s story and getting to know where he came from and how he got to where he is today, goes to show that anything is possible. It’s just that it takes time to figure out your plan. I respect Jimmy on how he is building his life, and I am glad that he is starting to get the recognition he deserves.
“As far as stand-up, a lot of Asians and Chinese are not as apt to stand-up, especially the older generation since they don’t even know what stand-up is. To this day, my parents call it a ‘talk sho’… But I think the younger generation, they get it. And we always have a natural tendency to gravitate to people who are similar to us. Whether it’s race or point of view or anything. I hope I can get to more and more of the Chinese audience and kind of lead the way to maybe, y’know, inspire seems like a big word, but y’know…inspire to get people into entertainment because I think we can be just as good as anybody else.” -Jimmy O. Yang (Texas Travesty)
