Interviewing Alpha Asians

By J -


Q: "Great book James! I found your blog earlier this year :) and I shared it with my friend at city college.  I let him know I picked up your Strength and Physique book online.  

"Just curious: How'd you get in contact with all the Asian role models you blog about?"

-Kevin


My Answer: How'd I get in contact with all the Asian role models I blog about?  Same way you're contacting me: email.  I just identified some interesting people I wanted to interview and sent them emails.

Sometimes people email me for an interview.  I get a lot of artist, film makers, writers, activists and content creators wanting to showcase or promote their movie, video, blog, YouTube channel, book, charity, etc.  They usually say something to the effect of:


"Dear Alpha Asian,

 You're Asian. I'm Asian.  Don't you hate the lack of Asian representation in the media? I just made a [movie/video/book] about Blah-blah-blah, yakity-smashkity with Asians.  

 I'm free for interviews.  Please write a blog post about my [movie/video/book].  Thanks! "



Sometimes I promote this stuff, sometimes I don't.  Most people want me to promote their content but don't give me any promotion on their part.  The worst are what BigWoWo calls the Robin Hood in Reverse:

"An Asian American will approach an activist and ask him/her to 'support my movie!' either through Kickstarter or some other fundraising tool. They’ll appeal to the activist through kinship, saying that we ought to support our own, that the Asian American community needs to support its artists. They’ll talk about how racist Hollywood is.  

"Then when we give them money, they take that money and make yet another Asian Female-White Male movie. Of course, we need another AF/WM movie like we need a hole in the head."


Anyway, on this blog I promote or showcase that which interests me or speaks to me as an Asian American male.  So I'll reach out to some Alpha Asians, or they'll contact me.  I haven't done podcast interviews in awhile, as they're very time consuming and labor intensive.  It would be easier if I had a co-host.  Besides, recently there's been an explosion of Asian American podcasts you can check out.






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