 I was in Alabama. They took me to a shooting range and I was hitting all the targets and they're like, dude We always thought you were spy. You just you just proved it. I'm fully American I still feel like I get seen as like a point two five little immigrant. I'm lemigrant. I'm a limited immigrant Lemigrant in the past years. There has been a lot of anti-asian rhetoric, especially in the media concerning the politics However, there's also been an uptick and a rise of positive Asian representation in entertainment So I guess the question is are things getting better or worse for Asians in America? And I'm here with Chinese-born stand-up comedian Peng to talk about it Like for example, we are the people that invented gunpowder And the rest of the world is like, what are you gonna do next? You gonna invent guns? Like, no, it's firework. It's party time, baby You didn't invent guns. You just invented a different angle For the July rest of the year Thanks for having me. Yes. This is Peng Coming straight from the motherland just got off of a giant Chinese balloon and it's Peng actually not Peng It's it's the Mandarin accent. You're speaking from a Cantonese accent Thank you for assuming that I can speak Cantonese. I'm just in ABC But yeah, there's this a viral CNN article Going around right now called Asian Americans are anxious about hate crimes and the tiktok band rhetoric isn't helping guys We're gonna have a productive and hopefully funny conversation about this Because there is a mixture of feelings things are getting worse and things are getting better in a way Asians are at the Oscars, but then China's the enemy in the media So I guess we got to talk about it. If you're interested by this conversation Please hit that like button and check out other episodes of the hot pot boys So I guess Pung on the negative side This is a lot of the things that are making a lot of Asian Americans and particularly Chinese Americans or Chinese in America feel bad Trade Wars spy balloon accusing tiktok of being a communist spy app pandemic xenophobia anti Asian hate crimes Accusing Chinese students and professors of espionage Well-established Asian American politicians being questioned for their loyalty Tensions over Taiwan are heating up and some states are banning Chinese nationals from buying any property Over in Texas. You were doing comedy in Texas for many years Yes, so you're familiar with this and this article was even centered around a Korean woman from Pennsylvania Not even a Chinese Chinese so it is affecting everybody and those like like what are your Like understandably these things would make a Chinese person feel bad in America, right? You could easily feel bad, right? Yes I mean, I came here 12 years ago. I went to college in Alabama Which interestingly enough there's a lot of Korean people live in that town working for the Hyundai plan And I got pulled over by police once and he was like, you know, do you almost hit me? You drunk? I'm like, no, are you Korean? I'm like, no, I'm Chinese and Yeah, you're good to go. He just let me he just let me off because I'm not Korean Like it's not interesting like 12 years ago being Chinese helped me getting out of the situation So but you were just driving poorly. Yeah, you were a drunk Korean that was working at the Hyundai plant, right? Yeah, in that town Koreans had a bad reputation for drunk and I okay Yeah, I guess what you're saying is you feel for this girl this Korean woman in this article from Pennsylvania Where it's like she's Korean. She's getting kind of feeling the heat of being Chinese even though She's not being Chinese. Okay, right, right. I feel bad for her Yeah, I guess so so with the bad things there are bad things that we can all feel because we keep tapped in with the news And everything like that. However, I also keep I stay up with entertainment and obviously Chinese took over the Oscars everything everywhere all once there's more Mandarin and Chinese and Asian themed shows and Movies whether they're Korean or Chinese and even some more Vietnamese based movies coming up right now Obviously, there's like American born Chinese. It's everything everywhere I want shang chi beef is Korea's parasite one awards everything. So there's just like I guess from a media standpoint It's better It is better. So it's both good and bad. So I guess like who is it worse for and who is it better for? It's obviously bad for Asian Americans and by Asian American. I mean anybody that looks like Chinese Anybody that can pass this Chinese. Yeah, like I'm sorry like if you're Japanese Korean if you're even of the Chinese Southeast Asian diaspora Yeah, if you if you're part Chinese you look Chinese you're you're probably gonna feel some level of it I would say it's definitely worse for the average Asian in like a town or an environment Where the general population is not very educated, you know what I mean? And like, you know, like like rural parts of Pennsylvania or maybe the south I mean you lived in the south for many years from Alabama to Texas. Yeah, so you got some insight on this But like I would also say Chinese grad students who are trying to like be chemical engineers Like maybe they're getting looked at with a more like suspicious eye because like, you know People might think they're they're spies and stuff. You know what I mean, like do I guess I could people Think people think I'm a spy all the time like I I'm not even like mechanical engineer. Well, I went to business school people think I was spy Like when you are getting your MBA, you're saying some people are kind of like hey, punk Why are you trying to learn a master's of business? What type of business you master try to bring our secret business tactics back to the motherland Yeah, I was in Alabama They took me to a shooting range and I was hitting all the targets and they're like, dude We always thought you were spy. You just you just proved it. He just proved it. Hey, you're a bad driver But a good shooter. Yeah kind of sus No, um, and I think that yeah, I mean dude, that's pretty funny. And I mean you're a grad student, but it's like It's like would really a Chinese spy go to get an MBA, right? I'm being a stand-up comedian. What would a What kind of intel what a Chinese stand-up comedian get like what do you do, sir? Are you guys together? What do you do for living? Yeah, uh, hello Reporting back to China. Yeah, I'm getting a lot of insight on American humor Data I'm collecting the data so Start a new app. I don't know but anyways, I guess like who is it better for I guess and what is the opportunity here? Because I'm trying to look at the bright side. Yes, and you know, we're both in media We're part of Asian representation in media being you're being a stand-up comedian. You've done some commercial gigs Yes, obviously I've been on YouTube and done some Small little acting gigs as well. So we're part of this Asian media representation, but Yeah, I guess how would you describe the opportunity here? I would compare it to like The the brown comedians Muslim comedians from like post 9-11 like Russell Peters Moscow, Brownie even Menage yes, yeah, because they were going through tough times brown people Muslims going through tough time in America and at the same time these comedians were able to Take on the the tough subject and make it funny and make it relatable to the rest of the country That's why they were successful because it kind of feels like that there's an influx of attention on this topic Yes, anybody who can talk about it from an expert point of view or an experienced point of view Right and make people feel better about it maybe and have a sense of humor about it's very interesting, right? Yeah, so like although, you know, unfortunately There was like even some Punjabi Sikhs that were getting attacked after 9-11 whom they're not obviously have nothing to do with even the same religion, but I guess like Um, there was a lot of humor that came out of the tragedy exactly and I guess Comedy is often coming from tragedy, right? Once you have time to cope with it you can accept it you digest it Then you're able to have a sense of humor and kind of humanize your people Yes, that that's a really good word and and there's a saying that comedy Equals tragedy plus time and willingness to to make it funny and Yeah, I guess you could say something similar for like black comedians where obviously always talking about black issues Yes, an ongoing thing for decades. Well, why because there's an ongoing race war in America. This hasn't all the time Yeah, never solved hasn't been so has not been so as long as there's a problem and there's ills and there's pain There's always comedy right now. You're saying that there's a more pain even for Asians and especially Chinese people. Yeah, that now there's an opportunity to talk about it and represent it even in their own light So I guess yeah, it's interesting. You brought up black comedians. I think it's funny like Even 10 10 15 years ago a lot of black comedians were making fun of the African accent and like they're talking about They don't want to go back to Africa But ever since like black panda head Everyone's like Wakanda forever, baby Yeah, no, I see there's more alignment From the black Americans and African immigrants, right? Yeah, especially African culture. I mean, I think Africa came up too You know when Afro beats, there's like burn a boy There's a lot more like African influence music. Yes, and I think there's more interdating Intermarriage with those groups and so yeah, obviously out of time Michael Blackson who's raised in Philly Is the only one doing African comedy, you know, but now there's more African music So I think that there's definitely an African wave, you know, just like I think that there is also an Asian wave and a Chinese wave In a different way But but the Chinese wave is coming with a whole bunch of other baggage with it I think for like speaking on ABCs and fobs like That whole relationship as we know 10 15 years ago when you first got here and I was growing up We're not friends separation. We're not friends Not really there wasn't really like even with the time when these fobs like we were just like no these fobs are weird They're like I'm like I'm trying to be cool. I'm trying to be accepted by America And now it's like I think a lot more ABCs and fobs. They're more intermingling And there's a lot more understanding between the two and I think there's a lot more common ground And I think that for me, for example, I look at a lot of Asian immigrants And uh Chinese immigrants on how they're handling it and that's why we're talking about it right now because yeah, I still Even though as I'm fully American as an American I am I still Feel like I get seen as like a 0.25 immigrant. Gotcha. Like not a full immigrant, but I'm like a little immigrant I'm a limo grin. I'm a limited immigrant Limo grin. I like that term. Yeah You know, China the economy is doing well There's a people see the there's a big benefit Of being fluent in both languages and and cultural like culturally Right flu. I mean you make a lot of jokes on stage about Chinese stuff Like you are I and I guess this leads into kind of like our advice or or what advice would you have for a lot of like Chinese people who are dealing with these mixed feelings like they see more Chinese people on screen and that's cool But then they're like see reading all the news and then like China's the enemy and they're It's going to go heads up and they're trying to Get rid of the usd as the reserve currency and all this stuff like all this evil stuff And competitive stuff that China is doing Like how do people how can people deal with it? I guess how do people cope with it? Um, I guess having a sense humor sense of humor is a great way to cope with the situation Um, you know, you can't really make people understand like you can't really solve the geopolitical issues But if you can make a joke about it have a good conversation with Americans um A lot of times you'd be surprised how people will come around and you know, like you said the word, you know Humanize it humanizes us right like I mean, I guess like Yeah, I guess having a sense of humor. I mean, I guess having these hard conversations to like Yeah, it makes sense. I mean, you know, if I look at what you do and you're Born in Xinjiang of all places in China a very controversial place right? Yeah, you heard it in the news a while went to college in Wuhan Oh my god Raised in Xinjiang went to college in Wuhan Uh Pung, I think there's a lot of material there right now, but all the controversial places You're like, uh a stew of the most like negative stuff from China Oh my god, you have a lot of work to do. Yeah What I'm saying is that when you make a joke and you're you're used to doing crowds in texas and alabama and in very american places um You are actually impacting their Feelings about china personally because you can't impact the geopolitics But you can impact personally people who watch your show who are listening to your jokes and giving you their attention, right? Yes, that's a really powerful thing. Yes, I think a person of my face as soon as you go up on stage People judge you a little bit. It's like they don't really trust you. It's this guy really funny Like I had to go out of my way to like prove myself But as soon as you prove yourself, they have more trust for you and at the end of the show They they understand. Oh, this is just a Regular human being we you know, we have a lot in common I talk about chinese issue, but I always like try to make it relatable to american people Yeah, I mean stand-up comedy is such an american thing. Yeah, you came here. You got an mba and you're doing stand-up comedy Not using your mba whatsoever. What no Side note before we end off this video. I actually heard that around new york city. There are fully chinese student Comedy shows now that are fully in chinese in mandarin. Yeah, I've been there. I was there. Yeah I was there last time you're doing comedy in mandarin now Can you do like full jokes? I mean, I'm sure you can I I suck at it. They're really good I went up there and just bomb. I just like try to translate my english jokes into chinese It doesn't it doesn't it doesn't work. Um, but yeah, I guess uh Yeah, hopefully everybody that was helpful to you guys and and honestly It's always good to talk to like immigrants who are trying to make it in america at one of the most american things Yes, by the way one of the most american art forms So everybody check out punk stuff and the link down below. He is doing comedy out in new york city now He's oftentimes at the comedy cellar. Uh, thank you for joining us Uh, please hit that like button. Let us know what you think in the comments down below about this topic And until next time we out