 How come nobody's gatoring to us? We have money, but no power! The media gains, David, the media gains. They're just not part of the media. But if you don't count those, then you're just worrying about how Asian faces are represented in the West. We gotta be aggressive. We gotta build an internal indie system like Tyler Perry. We gotta climb the ladder in the Hollywood world. I give up. I don't wanna think about this stuff. I have no impact on it and I'm just gonna live my life. So, you know, I guess. Asian Americans have money, but no power. Now, is that changing soon and what can be done about it? Welcome everybody to the Hot Pop Boys. David and Andrew here. What are we talking about? Andrew, we're gonna talk about a study that just came out. Asian Americans are only 6.3 of the American population, but they have $1.3 trillion in consumer buying power. That is punching way above its weight class. That is the highest of any minority group. However, Andrew, a lot of people had theories on why the soft power just isn't there. Low power in media, low power in politics. We don't have BET. We don't have Univision. In fact, Andrew, we don't even have digital versions of those things. All we have is subtle Asian traits and meme pages. How come there's no Asian American networks? How come nobody's catering to us? We have money, but no power. All right, that's why we're gonna be talking about it. We're gonna give you 10 reasons why Asians have money, but no power in America. Now, although we can all agree that media representation for Asians has gotten better over the past few years, I think we can all agree it is still disproportionately small for what the Asian buying power is in America. So we're gonna give you 10 reasons why Asians have money, but no power. And then at the end of it, we're gonna give you five things that Asians can do to help this or improve our situation. So we got solutions here. Hit that like button if you're excited by this video and let's get into it. Number one, Andrew. Asians only make up 6.3% of the American population despite the heavy concentration in major coastal cities. Now, entertainment is largely this, Andrew. It's graduates from the Northeast moving to LA to make content for Arkansas. So theoretically, if they're making content in New York and LA, even though the Asian population's like 10 to 12%, they still have to cater it to somebody in Arkansas which sort of leaves us out of at least national media that isn't hyper-local. Ah, Arkansas. I'm just kidding. But yeah, in Canada I feel like it's a lot more normal to see an Asian doing anything because Asians make up 20% of the Canadian population. That's why you had Sandra O go out and represent Canada when the queen passed. Oh, they also have Punjabi Sikhs in the government. Wow, very diverse up there in Canada, brah. And reason number two is heavily debated on the internet. It's that Asian Americans, simply due to the situation they're in and immigration status, do not care about these macro storytelling narratives of how they are represented or not represented in media. They are more focused on their micro fishbowl lives, managing their careers, managing their bank accounts, their assets, their children. They just don't got the brain power to think about like, ah, do people think we're cool? Do people like us? And how is the movies and TV shows affecting it? I just don't care. Do you think that this is kind of saying that the more your group cares about entertainment and values entertainment in media, then your media representation would go up because you would say like maybe black and white people for example, they do value entertainment a lot. You know, they're very much involved. But Asians, we don't all grow up valuing it partially due to the situation socioeconomically that we're in, you know, we're just trying to think about like getting educated and getting a job, right? But I guess like, is that, is that what it says? Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think the newer groups to America, at least they came in like hyper large numbers like post 1970, which is Asians and Latinos. I'm not saying Latinos weren't already here in Texas and stuff like that, but like they tend to be less tapped in to these like narrative battles. The media games, David, the media games. They're just not part of the media. Point number three, Andrew, this one also heavily, heavily debated on the internet, but for the most part, everybody agrees with this. Asians are very diverse and just not a monolith at all. They speak different languages. They come from different countries, different socioeconomic class, different immigration waves, even within a country of national origin. We're talking about farmer versus merchant versus civil servant versus intellectual types, refugees, non-refugees, rich, poor, middle class, just super diverse. And a lot of people don't know, and this stat kind of surprised me, that 30% of Asian Americans buying power is actually just attributed to Indian Americans. Yeah, I mean, would you say that most people would say this is the main reason? So for example, with Univision, obviously that is a Mexican station. However, almost everybody, now I know Brazil does not, but almost everybody in South America speaks Spanish. However, Asians literally just have like a different language for every single country. Yeah, it does make it more complicated. So we're all trying to unify under English, which is not necessarily our mother tongue, but obviously now we speak it because we're in America now. So, you know, but then by speaking English, you're already kind of being Westernized already at a bit, so it is kind of confusing. Yes, yes, listen, Asians are diverse, we know this. Point number four, this is a little bit of a deeper cut like marketing point, but Asians at a middle class and above have shown by consumer pattern after consumer pattern that they simply will buy the same things that white people buy, but they do not really need their face to be represented in the marketing or packaging of that product. So we're talking about Apple products, Teslas, Lululemon, Sweet Greens, all these yuppie-yappy things that, you know, they don't need to say it's super Asian for Asians to buy it. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say these products are particularly white necessarily, right? Like Apple and Tesla, what is so like, I guess white about these things, but they are just kind of generally accepted like the good products and I do think Asians, I don't know, maybe it comes from the background of being so achievement oriented, they just want the best product possible and they're not always demanding that it has to be Asian-ness or have an Asian face or have an Asian person in the commercial. Like basically if we've shown marketers that will buy it regardless, then people are less incentivized to put our faces in the commercials. Man, what if Asians were more likely to buy it the more beautiful white faces they had advertising it? Well, maybe that goes along with one of our later points. I will say this though, to be fair, Andrew, yuppie products such as Starbucks, they have also reciprocated by adapting more Asian flavors. For example, matcha, which is East Asian, the pink drink, dragon fruit from Southeast Asian. Yeah, and also Sweet Greens does, for example, have a miso mushroom, one which is kind of good and thank you, Sweet Greens. Thank you, Sweet Greens for catering to the Asian yappy taste. Oh, also there is more like Asian Seltzer brands that are trying to do like Yuzu white claw because white claw is not going to do it. They're just sticking with like Mountain Cherry. So I guess there's also some like convergence of yuppiness and Asian-ness. Point number five, Andrew, it's not just Asian America that can follow white consumption patterns. Even in Asia sometimes people use like white people or European people to denote that something is very refined or high class or expensive or bougie. I mean, yeah, I think it comes from, you know, the background of colonization or just the, of the fact that obviously, you know, French or Italian brands, they are still the top when it comes to like luxury brands. So even in China, they might grab a random white English teacher that looks like a fancy Italian guy and use his face all over the world for their mattress company. Andrew, are you talking about the greatest Chinese mattress company, Darucci? Ah, yeah. So, you know, we needed a guy, we just pay him a $1,500 a one-time fee. He signed the contract and now we use his face everywhere. And yeah, the mattress is a very, very popular because people don't know Darucci is actually a Chinese brand. You know, it's nice to be appreciated that people recognize little French and Italian brands is still the top craftsmanship. Man, that guy kind of looked like Steve Jobs a little bit. Man, apparently that is the face of a very smart and esteemed man. Yo, he looks like he couldn't invent something. Point number six, Andrew, 57% of Asian Americans are still immigrants that are foreign born, meaning that they cannot impact Western entertainment because theoretically they are splitting their consumption between Eastern entertainment and Western entertainment. And obviously Western entertainment worlds, they don't care about consumers that are like, maybe consuming 70% in language motherland content. Yeah, I mean, I think what I'm referring to at this point is that obviously not every person who is born in a different country and moved to America is consuming only material from that country. But if part of your consumption bucket in your brain is dedicated to content from Asia, that's not exactly going to track on the American metrics, right? Because you're just consuming overseas content at that point. So what I'm saying is obviously a lot of people don't realize that actually most Asians still living in America are foreign born. That doesn't mean they're all fobs and speak with accents and they can't speak English. I'm not saying that, I'm just saying that they're foreign born. So they're also more likely to consume material from Asia. Andrew, you had an interesting point because you were noticing that the people who care the most about Asian American representation in the West tend to only consume Western entertainment. Yeah, I'm not saying that you have to be whitewashed to only care about American entertainment, but if you only consume Western entertainment, of course you will be only concerned with your representation. Now, if you wanna see a 3D, 4D character with a lot of different sides to it, if you wanna hear deep Asian stories, obviously they have a ton of those in Asia, in Asian languages, but if you don't count those, then you're just worrying about how Asian faces are represented in the West. And I often see arguments online, Andrew, on the forums about how valid is it to have multifaceted characters in Asian languages that Western people are not aware of? Cause some people are like, well, it makes me feel individually whole as a person. However, obviously it's not gonna affect other people's perception of me because other people will not watch Eastern content. Well, I would say the number of non-Asian people watching Asian-made content is now increasing a little bit now with like squid games and everything. After that, obviously a lot of the Korean shows are still popular on Netflix globally. So I don't know, I guess we'll see what happens with that. I mean- Right, like does it become a global bucket or is it like still very parsed out? Who knows? I think it's still America-based if I had to say, but there's a little bit of a bigger portion dedicated to the globe. Point number seven, Andrew. The wave 1.0 of the few Asians who do have power, I guess in Western or American media do not necessarily make community development their number one priority of their career or their life. Oh my gosh, David, it sounds like you're talking about some specific people that failed to show that they were, you know, pro-Asian community enough when they got big. No, that is not true. Or actually maybe it is kind of true. I'll just say this, listen guys, it's always a process, right? Because if the gatekeepers, they control the flood gates to the 1.0, they're gonna let in people who are probably less militant, the less militant people generally have the community concerns lower on their priority list. I just wish that Asian Americans were a little bit more like the African American community where it seems like they have these mega stars that still care a lot, whereas it seems like in the Asian American community we're always like picking. We're like, all right, this person's a smaller star, but they care a lot about the community and this person's a really big star, but they kind of care like three out of 10 or four out of 10. This person cares 10 out of 10. They're Daniel Day Kim, but Daniel Day Kim's not as big as Henry Golding. But how can you expect Henry Golding to care as much? He's white himself, so blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I mean it's complicated. I'm not blaming anybody, I'm just saying facts. Number eight, Andrew, a lot of people are saying, man, why are Asian Americans always complaining about the weak soft power or weak media power in America when we just gotta do it ourselves? Nobody's gonna hand us the projects. We gotta be aggressive. We gotta build an internal indie system like Tyler Perry. We gotta climb the ladder in the Hollywood world like John Singleton. We gotta do this and we gotta do that and Ryan Coogler and then also be in indie at the same time, but none of these things are happening or maybe they're happening a little bit, but just too slow when some people are mad. Yes, it's true, to get actual big budget movies made, there's so many steps, right? Someone's gotta write the script, pitch the script, someone's gotta pick it up, buy the rights, and then there's gotta be money behind it, someone's gotta produce it, then you gotta make it, then you gotta market it, then it's gotta come out. All these different things have to happen and there's a lot of powerful people involved, so yes, I do think as much as a content creator myself, I'm gonna tell people like, yo Asians, you gotta do it yourself. We also have to write stories and be in the system and be in those positions where we can help make decisions or influence decisions and that is a process in itself. Obviously we've seen it get better over the past few years. However, do not stop writing good Asian books because a lot of the biggest Asian movies to come out in the past 10 years or ever actually are based off of books from Asian authors. As you can see, the Asian experience it still comes back to books. Hey, Reed, back in, we have to become bookworms again, guys. I will say this. It never stops, it never stops. One of my only complaints that I'll have about the Asian American world that I actually think is realistic to change because I could totally see why we're not that high up in the Western ladder because we weren't playing that game that hard or that long, but the indie structure, Andrew, a lot of Asians, they got one or two indies in them and they always give up because there's not a self-sustainable, perpetuating structure to do like 30 indies in your life because usually what people will do is they'll just do one or two. They'll realize it's underappreciated because there's no like internal consumption pattern for it and then they'll just do commercial work to get more money. Yeah, as a side note, I do think it is too bad and it's unfortunate that there's not a larger market for indie Asian films. You know, like there's just not like, I think other groups might have maybe just the numbers or the desire to watch indie films. Dude, you are better off being an Asian director doing an indie film about like disenfranchised white people like No Mad Land. Yeah, but I think it's because Asians say we just want such high quality stuff all the time. And they want it about rich Asians, man! Asians only want to support rich stuff. Anyway, point number nine, Andrew, even though the, I guess, average median income numbers minus tax are quite high in the Asian American world, a lot of people have their net worth tied up in industries that are extremely, extremely far in the galaxy from the media world. Yeah, I mean, think about it. Like we, you know, we know Asian guys or Asian people who are very successful. They're worth a lot. Maybe their families are very successful, but they're in like import textiles. Maybe they make like the straws for Boba. And you know, and they got really, they made a lot of money from that, but you know, it doesn't really put them any closer to media impact at all. Oh dude, I know a bunch of Asians who got rich off like seafood. Crypto, banking, what else is there? Man, there's so many things you could be importing, exporting things from Asia, all types of things anywhere from raw goods to gadgets. And I think some of these people, they do have like dreams or that desire, but they're so far from it and they don't have a strong connection. So even us, David, we've done some brand deals for videos or for companies that like, they were like, hey, I have a lot of money, but I want a video about my product. And then they have like the weirdest idea for a product that's kind of goes, they're just kind of far from the media game, but it's not their fault, but it just is what it is. There's no bridge. I will say the closest thing I've seen is like the rich kids I've seen off crypto. They usually have dreams, but they still need to deploy it correctly because if you don't find the right team to deploy something, you could end up just like wasting the whole bucket of money. David, I have seen in my lifetime, a lot of Asians with money, spend their money on failed media projects. They just, and maybe that's what we have to go through. Maybe that's the process. Maybe that's gonna get us to progress, but man, I've seen some horrible ideas Andrew, last but not least, this is quite perhaps the most, I don't know, depressing or dismal reason why Asians do not have liquidity, but they don't have soft power or media power. Andrew, Asians simply have gotten used to living without media representation in the mainstream for better or worse. And at this point, they just don't care anymore. They're like, yeah, I mean, it's going pretty good. You know, how are we doing it? So why change it? I mean, I'm just hanging with my friends. They're all Asian. I don't really care the way the other people perceive me. I mean, I care a little bit, but not that much to like, you know, really care. I mean, I think we got used to the crumbs that were fed. You know, they throw us some crumbs. They put us in this, this and that movie. You get this role. Oh, look at this person in this commercial. Oh my gosh. Oh, let's give this person a lifetime achievement award for playing only 40% stereotypical characters. And they were in 10 things and four of them were bad, but six of them were good and give them an award. Yeah, I think for a lot of Asians, they feel like that they've seen the patterns repeat in years before, and they think the patterns are going to repeat in years to come. So they just say, I give up. I don't want to think about this stuff. I have no impact on it, and I'm just going to live my life. So, you know, I guess. What the hell, man? Gotta break the pattern, man. All right, everybody. So that's our list for 10 reasons why Asians have money and no power in America. Obviously we're not saying all Asians have money in America, but it is true that the purchase, the overall purchasing power when added up is pretty strong. So the question is, David, what can Asians do together as a group to help improve the situation? To gain more media representation power, to gain more political power to make a dent in this, David, is it a million drop challenge? Do we need, like, everything's a drop in the bucket, but do we need a million drops? And if we get a million drops, is that a wave? So this section is all about how to realistically create unity within Asians when we're at, like, let's just say a 3.5 out of 10. I'm just going to give it a three, just to make it easy. How do we unify Asians? Like I said, I'm completely acknowledging that 10 out of 10 may be, like, completely, you know, difficult to achieve, but how about let's get to a six. And number one, we got to eat each other's foods, man, and enjoy the different flavor profiles, at least know what we like and don't like. Literally, I've tried so many cuisines, probably more than, I don't know, 99% of the world for sure. And I'll tell you this. I like and possibly even love something from every cuisine that I've tried, and it has built me into a more, like, global person, sort of like Anthony Bourdain. Like, dude, I'm sure Bourdain had things that he liked better than others, even cuisines that he liked better than others, but there was just a baseline of respect to try it. I mean, what does it mean if you don't even want to try another Asian's food? Does that mean that you're just calling them up? They're not worthy of your attention or your money? Because you don't want to give them money, you don't want to be in their space, you don't want to experience what they're eating. I mean, eating different types of foods can lead your thoughts to go down so many different rabbit holes of like, oh, where does this come from? Oh, this is similar to something I ate. There's stories behind it. And there's stories within the restaurant. There's stories behind the chefs that are at the restaurant, guys. We gotta have that curiosity. I just feel like we gotta have that curiosity about each other. Asians must be curious about each other for this to move forward. Point number two, Andrew. We gotta talk with each other, specifically the more comedic, real, un-PC members of each community. And we gotta talk it out because, you know, sometimes our parents, our grandparents, our uncles, our aunties, they say like tribalistic, divisive, broad, you know, brushstroke based stereotypes about each other. And I'm not saying that we could ever like go against the stereotypes because they probably, you know, I'm not saying they're true, but they came from somewhere. But we gotta talk it out. You know what, man? If you've ever been in a group setting with different types of people from different backgrounds, one of the best feelings is making fun of each other. Everybody's still feeling respected and still being friends afterwards. That's one of the best feelings. I agree. And you know what it is, Andrew? A lot of Asians, I'm not saying, you know, all of them, but more traditionally, Andrew, they're like okay with making fun of other groups, but they get tight when people make fun of their group. That's not having a good sense of humor. That's not being fair. That's not being, you know, equaling around Robin to sign up for this thing. Yeah, also this is predicated on the fact that like you guys are kind of friends and know each other. Obviously, if you start yelling jokes and stereotypes out of stranger who's Asian, yeah, that's probably not gonna really work out. But yes, if they're your friend and you actually care about each other and you're actually friends, you should be able to joke about each other. I don't like saying that we're gonna beat the tribalism by trying to like sweep it underneath the rug. We actually have to work through it. We are too different to sweep it under the rug. We must talk about it, have fun with it and joke about it. That's it. So in a standard, in a related point, number three, we gotta understand that no matter where somebody is on the perception or the reputation ladder, that everybody brings something different to the potluck. Some people bring the dish that everybody's feasting over, feasting over. Some people bring the dessert. Some people bring the table. Some people bring the Tupperware. Some people bring the silverware, the chopsticks. You know what I mean? Like everybody's bringing a different thing to the table, to the cultural mellow, to the muesli mix, you know? But it's like we can't just put the raisins over everybody else. I don't know, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think a really good way of respecting each other is also getting to know people's background, man. I know there's friends who just happen to be friends, but they don't actually know anything about each other's background or family. But if you understand their family, you're gonna understand them a lot better. And I think that's very important. Like knowing where your Southeast Asian friends come from or knowing where your South Asian friends come from or your East Asian friends like background, everything like that, man. It's just really important. I remember growing up in Kent, man, everybody had a lot of jokes for each other on not, you know, on a friend level, but also a historical level. Like nothing was off limits and we would all go hard on each other and nobody's feelings got hurt because we all were just like, man, it's all good. Cause at the end of the day, we all have a mutual respect and respect for each other. At the end of the day, we were all sharing in the same like mission and the project here in America. And point number four, this is something that I know a lot of people don't wanna do, but you gotta study Asian culture deeper, but you also have to study Western culture deeper. No guys, it's not that hard. You grow up in the West, of course, right? But you can't just grow up in the West. You also still have to research the West. And then also you gotta research to East just because you grow up in an Eastern household in the West. It doesn't mean you understand either one at a very high level. So by doing this, you're gonna be able to pick and choose aspects of each culture that you value and actually mix them together. And that is a lot more empowering. Yeah, you gotta understand Western culture, man. Whether that's Socrates or Plato's or Anglos and Franco's and all types of different things. Point number five, Andrew. Identify at least three things about Asian culture that you plan on carrying over to the next generation. This is, I know something you're big on. Yeah, I love this because it puts a set number on it. Okay, three is not that hard and it gets you thinking about it right now. So in the comments down below, please think of three aspects of Asian culture that you actually really wanna pass down to the younger generation or your kids, right? And it's not that hard because food can easily be one of them or customs or some of your holidays or the language or the pride or fighting for each other, whatever it is, guys. Because pop music or traditional music. Yeah, I mean, yeah, it could be the traditional instruments or something. Just start to think about it now. And I like three because it's really not asking a lot. I mean, it should be five, but hey, three's the minimum, guys. All right, you guys, that was our list of things that we think would build more unity and collective thought and collective respect which would ultimately address the baseline issue or systemic issue at the core of why we cannot transfer Asian liquidity or purchasing power or consumer buying power into media power or soft power. So, because, you know, we got the liquidity but we wanna transfer it. So what we're trying to do is just speed it up. Now, Andrew, some people are probably like, hey, why do I wanna think about all that? Why don't I just live my life and let it organically happen at the drip pace? Why am I spending so much time trying to speed up the process? Just let it happen. Because the truth is you just living your life at the status quo is not necessarily a drop in the bucket. It doesn't mean it ain't nothing. Obviously it's your own life that's great but as far as the bigger mission goes, hey, we need a million drops. I'm looking for a million drops. There are more than a million Asians in America but I'm looking for a million drops in this bucket. In a way, Andrew, why would you just let the frozen chicken thaw out on the kitchen counter? Why wouldn't you use the de-thaw or the microwave? Speed it up. Anyway, let us know in the comments section below what you thought about our identification of the issues as well as potential things that could solve the unity issue in America. Do we need an Asian American network? We were thinking about starting one for a while. Anyway, you guys know it's the Hop Hop Boys. Not scared to talk about anything micro to macro, silly to serious and until next time, we out. Peace.