Kat Lieu, founder of the Subtle Asian Baking Facebook group, never claims to be the expert on authentic Asian baking and cooking. However, what she does claim as her expertise is her own lived experience — the staple ingredient that she brings to her sophomore cookbook, “Modern Asian Kitchen,” which launches on April 9, 2024. But the book isn’t just about food; it honors cultural connection, community, and Asian representation — three things that Lieu always brings to the table. Following “Modern Asian Baking at Home,” Lieu switched from baking to writing a book about cooking. While her new bo ..read more

When Moon Gyet and his mother Low are approached by Gee, a Chinese man who has secured their American citizenship papers, Gyet makes a decision that alters his identity — literally. Lloyd Suh’s play “The Far Country,” running at Berkeley Repertory Theater, captures the nuances of Chinese American immigration in the early 20th century. Gyet becomes Gee’s “paper son” and, over the course of the play, is forced to reckon with the meaning of taking on the last name of another man, as well as the process of immigration through the intense interrogation on Angel Island.  Directed by Jennifer Ch ..read more

Even after over 30 years in front of the camera, actor Lucy Liu shared that she was scared no one would attend her fireside chat with Daniel Dae Kim, hosted at the Sunrise House during the 40th Sundance Film Festival. But she showed up to a packed house hosted by the Sunrise Collective, the line of people barred entry wrapping down the block. Starring in a psychological thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh, Liu graced the Sundance Film Festival crowd with her wisdom and honesty while chatting about the film, her approach to acting, and more. Not that she needs an introduction, but Liu is kno ..read more

In the middle of a cloudy Friday afternoon, hours before her midnight set, Audrey Nuna and I are both sitting in an outdoor backstage-slash-alleyway of the Empire Garage in downtown Austin, Texas, on the penultimate day of SXSW. The music festival portion of the event is in full swing all around us. It’s both our first times at the event, so understandably, it’s a little overwhelming. Audrey, whose last name is actually Chu, explains that she was supposed to perform at the festival in 2020. But the day after she was booked, the event was canceled because of COVID. Tonight, she tells me, is her ..read more

Award-winning Korean American actor Steven Yeun has made a career of pushing the boundaries of what people think is an “Asian American” character. Having made an awards sweep for his starring role in the Netflix series “Beef,” Yeun broke into the entertainment scene over a decade ago battling the undead as the lovable and surprisingly tough Glenn Rhee on AMC’s “The Walking Dead” in 2010. He followed up that successful seven-season run with roles in independent films “Sorry to Bother You” and “Minari,” and Korean movies like “Burning” and Netflix’s “Okja.”  In an intimate conversation with ..read more

If you’ve ever been to any type of conference or festival before, you know that it’s physically impossible to see or do everything. At this year’s SXSW film and TV festival, even seeing all Asian-led films was a challenge, with South Asian representation dominating this year. But I’m the type of person to try anyway. From a South Korean thriller about a pair of best friends running smuggling jobs in the ’70s to a Canadian comedy about teaching high school sex ed as a virgin, and everything in between, here are a few of the Asian-led movies I had a blast watching during my (first!) SXSW. Karan ..read more

When you watch a movie in a theater, you’re left to interpret the film for yourself. You may sit and digest the movie and come to your own conclusions (or look up what others say on the internet). But at SXSW, audiences have the privilege of hearing from the creatives themselves. After a screening, you’ll never know who may show up to answer audience questions — and you never know what you may glean about what you just watched. Before and during the TV and film festival, I spoke with three filmmakers about their projects. Each of their films shared very different stories, but at the heart of e ..read more

If you had told me twelve years ago that one day, I’d write a book about my high school friends, I would have laughed you out of the room before immediately going back to studying for my math quiz.  The author and her friends attending senior prom. Back then, I was 15 in a suburban town filled with kids who looked nothing like me. At the time, 2% of my high school was Asian American, and most were first- and second-generation immigrants — teenagers who were born in Asia or whose parents came to the United States for college or work opportunities. I was none of those things. My parents wer ..read more

Does the name “Larry Itliong” ring a bell? Although I grew up in California and am the proud child of Filipino immigrants, I did not come across Itliong’s legacy until after college. Writer Gayle Romasanta, composer Bryan Pangilinan, and director Billy Bustamante want to change that with “Larry The Musical: An American Journey,” which runs at the Brava Theater in San Francisco from March 16-April 14, 2024. Itliong is most famous for gaining the solidarity of labor organizers Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta during the 1965-70 Delano Grape Strikes. More than that, from the moment he immigrated t ..read more

Language, usage, and culture are always changing. Personally, I have evolved from identifying as Chinese-American in my childhood (because it was too hard to explain that Taiwan and Thailand were not the same to a bunch of white Midwesterners in the 90s) to now identifying as Taiwanese American. With the changes in language over the years, you may be wondering, “Is Asian American hyphenated?” As of 2021, The New York Times, Associated Press, Chicago Manual of Style, and other style guides no longer hyphenate Asian American or any of its derivatives, such as Chinese American, Japanese American ..read more