7 Resources For The New Asian American
A big part of instilling pride is finding your idols. Here are seven contemporary examples that you can draw inspiration from.

A few posts ago, I wrote to the Asian and Asian American students at my high school and encouraged them to “find their idols.. and celebrate them.” As an Asian American, it is hard to generate pride and understand our own place in this society when there are so few contemporary examples of Asian Americans who provide thoughtful commentary to our experiences.
Growing up, I remember being taught two Asian American work: David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly (1988) and Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior (1976). As important as these works are, they are decades removed from this current generation of Asian American students. In that time, a new generation has risen that wants and expects more from their peers, society, and country.
I hope this list can be used as a jumping off point for the New Asian American. This title encompasses Asian Americans who are questioning, pushing, and breaking the stereotypes and limits that traditional American society has placed on them. The beneficiaries of the immigrant generation, the New Asian American is born with — in Hasan Minaj’s words — the audacity of equality, the expectations of a culture rooted in filial piety, and the desire to carve our niche in mainstream pop culture. Whether you are a 4th generation high schooler or a 1st gen CEO, the New Asian American is here to upend the status quo.
1. Hasan Minaj’s Homecoming King, on Netflix
Hasan Minaj, a senior correspondent for The Daily Show, brought his off-broadway one man show to Netflix and immediately received praise for his ability to elegantly navigate the dramatic lows and comedic highs of his family’s immigrant story and his own Californian upbringing. The ridiculousness of the ’90s, the tensions of his failed romances, and the ironies of living his so-called #blessed life are all narratives that explore what it means to be an American in a country where most people don’t look like you.
“As an immigrant, you are always auditioning to prove how much you love this country.”
— Hasan Minaj, Homecoming King
While shows like Master of None and The Big Sick explore the South Asian American identity with similar nuance, I was blown away by Minaj’s ability to deftly flip between memories that would have you in tears in one moment and in guttural laughs in the next. I also really appreciated his deconstruction of bigotry. As Junkee’s Rhea Bhagat puts it, “Minaj explores how racism exists on a spectrum. On one extreme, the collateral damage of racism is death, but Minhaj explores how bigotry can exist in many different shades.” With a light yet nuanced touch, Minaj will have you wishing his performance never ends.
Watch Homecoming King here.
See also: Hasan Minhaj’s Full Speech at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner
2. Ali Wong’s Baby Cobra, on Netflix
Ali Wong don’t give a fuck. The stand-up comedian/writer on ABC’s “Fresh Off The Boat/actress on ABC’s upcoming sitcom American Housewives performs a side-splitting set that dissects her attitudes to interracial dating, motherhood, and feminism. Wong’s unapologetic jokes make listeners think twice about what they just heard, but it’s her self-aware demeanor that hammers home relatable assertions like her life goal where “I don’t want to lean in: I want to lie down.” #Facts
Watch Baby Cobra here.
3. Susan Cheng’s Why Hollywood Bet On “The Joy Luck Club”, on Buzzfeed

As the release date for Crazy Rich Asians comes closer and closer, the story of how The Joy Luck Club came to be becomes ever more relevant. As Buzzfeed’s Susan reports, the all Asian American film endured a number of obstacles on its way to the silver screen: a resistance to finance a film with no bankable leads, a complex adaptation from a book with 16 chapters about three generations of Chiense women into a two hour story, and an industry landscape filled with executives and professionals that doubted an Asian American story could bring audiences to theaters.
“As you get older you start to realize, well, there’s just certain things that don’t really change,” she admitted, allowing that she becomes “fatigued” whenever backlash against a miscast role builds and persists.
— Ming-Na Wen
What strikes me most about this story is how this cycle of discounting Asian American stories persists today. Many of the barriers that The Joy Luck Club faced could be applied to many films today that attempt to tell stories from a similar perspective. With every instance of whitewashing, the spike and ebb of anger comes again and again. Outrage fatigue is real. While we await to see the outcome of Crazy Rich Asian, Cheng’s report on this iconic film instills a purpose and drive for those who would seek to shed a light on Asian American stories.
Read Why Hollywood Bet On “The Joy Luck Club” here.
4. Sam Bailey and Fatimah Asghar’s Brown Girls, coming to HBO
If you ever watched HBO’s Girls and wondered, “Where are all of the people of color?” Brown Girls addresses that question immediately. While not a really fair comparison, this web series, from director Sam Bailey and writer Fatima Asghar, captures the stories of the Leila and Patricia as they navigate the ups and downs of pursuing love, getting out of poverty, and following their dreams. Fittingly, HBO has now put Brown Girls into development, so the show (hopefully) will be gracing our screens soon.
This profile from The Atlantic captures so much of what sets Brown Girls apart from the current plethora of shows that center on the “people trying to make it in an urban city” trope. In a world where noted male directors are arguing that female leads can only be “hard, tough and troubled to be strong,” Brown Girls demonstrates a show’s ability to feature leads that are like you and me: They’re just trying to figure it all out.
Watch Brown Girls — Episode 1 here.

5. Sarah Kuhn’s Heroine Complex, available on Amazon
Heroine Complex, writer Sarah Kuhn’s first book of its series, chronicles the adventures of Evie Tanaka, a put-upon personal assistant who is forced to pose as her diva superhero boss and must embrace her own hidden talents in order to protect our world from a demonic invasion.
To be 100% honest, I haven’t read Heroine Complex yet. But after meeting Sarah Kuhn at the Vancouver Asian Film Festival last November, I was instantly caught up by her passion for geekdom, comics, and female badassery. And after reading an excerpt on Gizmodo, it’s clear that Kuhn’s passion shines through with sharp, heartfelt writing.
Purchase Heroine Complex here
6. Justin Chon’s Gook, in theaters now
A far cry from his days in Twilight and 21 and Over, Justin Chon becomes the latest multi-hyphenate to tell underrepresented stories with Gook, a story of two Korean American brothers who own and must defend a shoe store during the 1992 Los Angeles riots following the Rodney King verdict.
I was lucky enough to make it out to the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival back in May to screen Gook. This film is unique in its ability to intertwine universal themes of family and community with characters and relationships that you never see on screen. A young black girl who finds a meaningful friendship with two Korean American shop owners. A Korean American with ambitions to be a R&B singer. Korean American and black communities whose assumptions and anger towards one another tear each other apart. And with precious few Asian American filmmakers, I can’t stress enough how important it is to buy a ticket and go support this movie.
Search Gook showtimes and locations here.
7. Jeff Yang’s Twitter Feed
I don’t know where Jeff finds the time to tweet. Besides the sheer volume of this Twitter feed, this CNN contributor and Sparks & Honey VP of Cultural Strategy shares timely opinions across a wide range of verticals. From media and entertainment to sports and politics, Yang succinctly captures pointed opinions that are rooted in his Asian American perspective. Whether you agree or not with that he’s tweeting is besides the point. What matters is that his assertions often leave you contemplating different sides of the discussion. And in this contemplation, you can realize what side of history you want to be on.
Follow @originalspin here.
Honorable Mention: Pew Research Center

While each book, film, or article provides an additional data point that cements Asian American’s presence in mainstream media, I believe that it’s important to have an awareness of the macro trends that are driving these cultural moments. To that end, the Asian American section of the Pew Research Center often provides insightful reports and studies that record attitudes and behaviors of Asian Americans in relation to technology, politics, and media, among many other verticals. Many unobservant executives or decision makers will allow their bias to sway them, it is the information in these studies that can shatter assumptions.
Bookmark Pew Research Center — Asian Americans here.
Thank you for reading! If you’ve enjoyed this piece, please send some 👏🏻claps👏🏻 my way.
What are some great AsAm resources that I missed? Are there contemporary films, literature, or thought leaders that you think better capture the ideals of the New Asian American?
Let me know at the accounts below!
About the writer
William Yu is currently a freelance writer and former advertising senior strategist. During his experiences at TBWA\Chiat\Day and SapientRazorfish, Yu worked on brand strategy and digital projects for brands like BNY Mellon, Accenture, Verizon, and Mastercard.
Yu created #StarringJohnCho, an award winning (2016 Shorty Award for Best Use of Hashtag and the 2016 American Advertising Federation Mosaic Award for Multicultural Digital Campaign) social movement that literally shows you what it would look like if today’s Hollywood blockbusters cast an Asian-American actor as their leading man. The project has garnered over 1 billion impressions worldwide and continues the conversation regarding the lack of Asian-American representation in film.
His work has been featured domestically and internationally from major media outlets such as The New York Times, BBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, The Huffington Post, Buzzfeed, and The Hollywood Reporter, and more.
He is based in New York City.
