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2000s
The 2000s: An Essay by Phil Yu
Suburbasia by Jeff Yang
“Dis-Spelled” by Hibah Ansari, Illustrated by Krishna Sadasivam
Spaces: The Boba Shop by Philip Wang
The Asian American Syllabus: 2000s
9/11: Remembering a Tragedy and the Dark Days That Followed Featuring Janice Chua, Simran Jeet Singh, and Aisha Sultan
Spin Doctors: How Filipino American DJs Turned the Tables on Hip-Hop by Oliver Wang
Stepping into the Cypher: Asian American Rappers by Philip Wang
MC Jin’s Greatest Spits: an Interview with MC Jin
The Trials of Dr. Wen Ho Lee by Helen Zia, Illustrated by Glenn Urieta
Tomorrow Never Dies by Phil Yu, Featuring Parry Shen, Roger Fan, Jason Tobin, Sung Kang, Karin Anna Cheung, and John Cho
Animasians: The Cartoon Characters That Shaped Our Kidhood by Jes Vu, Illustrated by Linda Chung
Harold and Kumar by Anna John, Featuring Hayden Schlossberg, Jon Hurwitz, Sujata Day, Lee Shorten, and Gautham Nagesh
Spaces: The Asian American Film Festival by Jeff Yang
Elevated or Appropriated? by Frankie Huang
“Asian Night”: The Asian Party Scene by Philip Wang, Featuring Paul Kim, Jonathan Lee, Carl Choi, and Billy Chen
The Style List: 2000s by Fawnia Soo Hoo
Generasian Gap: 2000s by Tess Paras; Featuring Sonal Shah, Hudson Yang, Aj Rafael, and Tess Paras; Photographed by Molly Pan
The Asian American Reality TV Hall of Fame by Cynthia Wang, Illustrated by Tak Toyoshima
William Hung Does Not Need Your Sympathy by Cynthia Wang
The Asian American Playlist: The 2000s by Richie “Traktivist” Menchavez
Bhangra Is the Beat By Philip Wang, Featuring Ritesh Rajan, Saleena Khamamkar, Shivani Bhagwan, and Chaya Kumar
The Dance Crew Revolution by Cynthia Wang, Illustrated by Jef Castro
Tops of the Tube: Pioneers of Asian American YouTube by Philip Wang
The Musicians: A YouTube Playlist by Philip Wang
Founding Fathers and Mothers: 2000s by Jeff Yang, Illustrated by Sojung Kim-McCarthy
The Do-Over: Hollywood Remakes Asian Films by Phil Yu, Illustrated by Chi-Yun Lau
Spaces: Finding Our Religion By Jeff Yang
What’s Funny?: 2000s
The Wonderful World of White Saviors by Phil Yu, Illustrated by Jef Castro
Yellowface in the 2000s by Nancy Wang Yuen
The Asian American Yearbook: The 2000s, By Jeff Yang, Illustrated by Linda Chung
DISGRASIAN: 2000s by Jen Wang and Diana Nguyen
Undercover Asians: 2000s by Phil Yu, Illustrated by EC Yi
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The 2000s
by Phil Yu
I USED TO TRAVEL a lot. I’d find myself on planes and other situations where strangers would attempt to make small talk, and the conversation would inevitably lead to jobs and how you make your living. I dreaded these interactions: They usually involved a mental negotiation, after sizing up the other person, of whether I wanted to disclose the fact that I run a website called “Angry Asian Man,” because that always led to more questions, and I didn’t feel like spending the duration of a cross-country flight elbow-to-elbow with someone who didn’t like the answers to those questions. So I usually just flat-out lied and told people I’m in “web development.” I’m not even sure what that actually means. It didn’t matter—there were usually no follow-up questions.
Angry Asian Man is a blog. And I’ve been at it since before I knew we were calling them blogs. When I do tell people about it, I explain that it’s the longest-running, most widely read independent blog devoted to Asian American news, culture, and commentary. I have no idea if this claim is actually true, but no one has called me on it yet, so it seems like a safe enough assertion. As for how long I’ve been doing it: I keep thinking I’ve done the math wrong, but I’ve been running Angry Asian Man for over 20 years, which means I’ve basically been “known” as Angry Asian Man for longer than I’ve lived in any one place, longer than I’ve attended any school, longer than I’ve held any job. I am a professional Angry Asian Man. Do you remember what you were doing on the Internet 20 years ago? Do you remember what you were doing on the Internet last week? Twenty years in Internet time is downright ancient. And I have seen some shit.
“Why are you so angry?” I get asked this a lot. People want to know why I started Angry Asian Man. They want an origin story, an inciting incident—a racial slur, an act of violence—that made me so angry that I just had to run to the computer and furiously start rage typing. There is no such story. The simple truth is that I had something to say and I needed a place to say it. (The irony is that I am not even a particularly angry person, neither in the way that people usually fear, nor in the sexy, fiery Korean drama kind of way.) So I started writing and I never stopped. My first posts were short observations or just sharing links, usually accompanied by pithy commentary—much like what we do now on social media. But we were still a few years away from Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and the like. Those platforms didn’t exist yet, so I had to create my own.
I grew up in the heart of Silicon Valley, which means, demographically, I grew up around hella Asians. The city of Cupertino, perhaps best known as the birthplace and headquarters of Apple Inc.—my high school’s most famous alumnus is Steve Jobs—was hurtling toward an Asian-majority population as I came of age, then surging from 44 percent to 63 percent between the 2000 and 2010 Census. My childhood home was a literal stone’s throw from a boba shop and a 99 Ranch Market. The Methodist church down the street holds worship services in English, Mandarin, and Korean. Growing up in a hella Asian community, I rarely felt pegged or pigeonholed with the baggage of being “the Asian guy” because lots of other guys were also the Asian guy. Or just, you know . . . guys. In the spread of high school social circles, it seemed like an Asian kid could be, yes, an overachiever or a nerd, but also a jock, a student body president, a delinquent, and/or a theater geek (like me). It was fairly easy to allow my Korean American identity to slink into the background, unacknowledged and taken for granted. It felt, at least, like something that didn’t have to matter. But by the time I got to college, I was in for a culture shock.
2000
Kollaboration founded as a community-driven event to foster and showcase Asian American talent
Angela Baraquio becomes first Asian American Miss America
Representative Norman Mineta becomes secretary of commerce, the first Asian American appointed to a cabinet seat. Six months later, George Bush would appoint him to his cabinet as secretary of transportation.
Linkin Park releases their debut album
Hybrid Theory, establishing them as one of the most successful music acts of the decade
Take this West Coast kid out of California and plunk him down in the Midwest, he’s going to quickly realize two things: 1) It gets cold. Like, you-don’t-own-the-right-clothes-for-this cold. 2) There are waaaay more white people here. That was me, getting dropped off my freshman year at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. For perhaps the first time in my life, I experienced a subzero windchill factor, and the heightened awareness of what it felt like to be the only Asian guy in this lecture hall, in this restaur...
