When I was growing up, I only saw a few notable Asian people being cast in movies, and if I did, the character was usually playing a trope. Nonetheless, I continued to seek media representation of my inherent cultural identity, which ultimately resulted in my watching a bunch of comedic action-oriented films such as Kung Fu Hustle, Karate Kid, and Shaolin Soccer. The movies were always enjoyable, but I began to question the overarching lack of lead roles Asians held within the American Film industry.
But when talking about diversity marginalization within Hollywood, I feel as like our generation is taking a relatively revolutionary approach in terms of representation. I think the most notable recent event that shook the film industry was the production of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018, which featured an all inclusive cast across the full spectrum of Asian individuals from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.
For most of my youth, however, I spent a lot of time watching Asian content creators on YouTube. At first, they were also rare, but eventually I discovered a channel titled JustKiddingFilms, a skit-based channel run by Joe Jitsukawa and Bart Kwan. And their content was hilarious. And what started with following the antics of these two led to growing up alongside their own lives. They found partners, built a company over the course of five years, and invested in a variety of businesses. They are still crushing today through maintaining a multitude of secondary channels and uploading daily vlogs on their own personal ones. Additionally, through watching JustKiddingFilms that I was also introduced to David So, a content creator who I still consistently watch today.
I was particularly captivated by David’s videos, mainly because within it, he portrays a persona that is probably the direct antithesis of every Asian stereotype. He is extremely blunt and direct when talking about a topic, and he has pursued so many different career paths that a majority would never approach, such as music, standup, content creation, and cooking. In summation, he is just a passionate and vivacious individual.
Additionally, instead of sticking to a normal schedule, other than his weekly podcast series that is now a staple of his channel, he occasionally just uploads whatever interests him in the moment. One week it can be a comedic commentary video, the next week it can be a cooking one. And very rarely, he will release a single under his music pseudonym D.SO. The mutability of whatever he wants to share with us is as flexible as whatever he is comfortable uploading, which establishes a very unique relationship between the viewers and creator. I hope to emulate in his free-spirited attitude and entertaining demeanor, since as soon as he begins speaking, he exudes an aura of likeability and trust.
Check out his channel down below:
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